The nice people at Electronic Arts (commonly know as EA) are rolling out a new service called “Legend”.  Sounds impressive right?  Well here’s the thing, it’s not.  At least not for gamers.  Or is it?

Confused?  Sorry.  I’ve got some mixed feelings about this one myself.  First, let me tell you what “Legend” is.  It’s an analytic tool which EA will use to provide advertisers with detailed usage habits of it’s products.  This would allow advertisers to be much more specific in their marketing efforts.

From the corporate side, this is a potential goldmine.  If it works as (you should pardon the joke) “advertised”, there isn’t a marketing department in the industry that won’t want a piece of it.  On the player side, my first instinct is, “Oh goody.  More ads shoved in my face while I’m gaming.”

But maybe I’m looking at this wrong.  Not that that ever happens, but maybe this one time.

Maybe this time, they’ll start to get it right.  What if they use this marketing data to develop a functional “less is more” approach?  How about using this new analytic to create ads which are more effective, and can therefore be less pervasive.  That could work out to being good news for gamers.

Only time will tell.  But if the vendors in Fallout New Vegas start trying to sell me a “Simpsons” t-shirt to go with my new “West 49” board shorts, then I’ll decide whether or not it’s a good thing.

Cheers, Winston