Well, I don't think most of what you say here applies to the subject. I'm aware of advertising laws, but where in the screenshots of these most recent images of GT does it violate the law itself? Why bring up the point that in most marketing, the image must be an actual representation of the product? Is GT5 not going to have these cars in the game? It's logic, everyone knows this.
I brought it up because I was responding to it being brought up. At the moment it's not illegal however we are getting closer day by day... video game advertising like this is relatively new to the market and it takes iterations of people realizing what's happening before rules are put in place. It wasn't that long ago that it was ruled that showing a 360 screenshot or video clip of gameplay during a wii commercial was unacceptable. Why do you think that was? I mean I can tell a 360 shot from a wii shot... I am sure you can... why make a law about it? Because many people can't and thus it's missleading.
And no it's not simple logic and many people don't know this. I would even venture if you checked outside the realm of dedicated video game nerds (ie casuals ie the majority) you would find they do think this is what the game will look like while driving.
Just as you say, the whole thing should just be logic. Back in the PS2 days, or even Ps1 days with the N64, I'd see magazine covers showing characters out of their in-game footage. Back then we could obviously tell the difference. Like with GTPSP, you think PD is actually really trying to convince people that its in-game graphics really look like that? Any fool would think the PSP is on par with the PS3 capabilities.
Go back to the news pages when those bullshots came out... a lot of comments were from people who did believe these were real PSP shots. Sorry what you are saying applies to those who spend a lot of time with the subject at hand like you and me, but we are by far the minority.
Go to any gaming site that put these pictures up and look at the comments... you will often find people surprised how the PSP even has better graphics than the 360 as evidenced by these bullshots.
Go to PD's homepage where you see bullshots pasted right onto a body of a PSP as if it's what's actually showing on the screen.
Are they trying to fool people? You would have to decide for yourself, they certainly aren't going to say they are, and they have plausible deniability... but if you ask me, pasting the bullshot right onto a PSP body and showing it on the official site sure seems like it to me.
There is a reason all those cell phone adds have to have "actual image simulated" when they show the screens even though they depict what the real menu looks like... it still looks better than it really would in that situation.
Companies have been doing it for years, so I'm saying to the OP why specifically complain to PD and GT about this, now? With how long companies have been doing it, we would assume people would already get used to this fact.
Just because it's happend a lot doesn't make it not a bad thing. And why shouldn't you be able to complain about any certain occurance instead of the trend as a whole? In fact it makes more sense to bring it up case by case because each case is different. T10 and their claims of in game non bullshots was different than what we are up against here as are many situations.
This just depends on the people. I myself can tell difference between the advertisement, and the reality. All I know is that companies are not going to risk their business from showing something so much off their actual products, that most of its consumers would go against them.
You are not most people... if someone saying "I can tell without a disclaimer" was good enough we wouldn't need advetising laws at all. Again, go back and look at almost any time really good non ingame looking shots are posted... you will find a lot of people even here at GTP are fooled or don't believe... and I think around here you can expect a higher level of experience and understanding of the subject than the general public.
As for risking putting off their consumers? Look back at the fast food ads... the real product is horribly worse looking (and tasting) than the add woudl have you believe... does this put consumers off? Maybe some... but often not until after they have bought... and even so for every one consumer that is dissapointed and never buys again, 3 more were probably attracted by the add and despite being dissapointed just keep buying anyway since they are used to being mistreated like that.
Other than that, people is just making a big deal out of something that shouldn't be a big deal itself.
I would think it's the other way around... people are sweeping under the carpet something that should really be getting proper attention.
