Alan Wake is a psychological horror game that was structured to be played like an episodic TV series. The ambitious narrative, combined with cutting edge visuals, meant that the game took five years to develop. With such a long development, it's understandable that the developers would try to supplement their budget with advertising deals. This wouldn't have been so bad if the developers had been a bit more subtle about the product placement. One of the prominent real-life brands in the game is the phone service provider, Verizon. The first instance players see of Verizon are massive billboards littering the game world. That's a justifiable inclusion, but what the developers did next was inexcusable. During a tense sequence in episode four in which Wake is escaping from an insane asylum, there is a TV in the background that is blatantly playing a Verizon commercial. This was incredibly jarring and out-of-place as not only did the commercial loudly drown out any atmosphere built up, but it comes at a narrative point where players are questioning Wake's sanity. This was made even worse during the game's first DLC in which Wake is trying to escape from a nightmare. The only thing in reach that could help him? A Verizon phone. Surely there are better ways of depicting mental instability than through promoting the range of Verizon phones?.
My life story is nothing special. I haven't cured ebola, I'm nowhere near stopping terrorism, and I'm still working on that climate change problem.
Instead, all I've done so far is put a few hundred words together in an attempt to make people laugh.
You can follow me at @Fry_ying_pan but don't be offended if I don't tweet back. It's usually because I've spent too long trying to think up a witty response that the reply window has closed.
