About
37
Publications
29,388
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Introduction
Assoc. prof. Mgr. Zdenko Mago, PhD. is a member of the
Department of Digital Games at the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovak Republic. Within his professional focus, he deals with
game studies and their connections to marketing communication
and popular culture. Since 2018, he has been the editor-in-chief
of Acta Ludologica, a scientific journal focusing on the complex
discourse of games and digital games.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava - Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda
Position
- Professor (Associate)
Publications
Publications (37)
Mago, Z. (2024). Značka ako reklamné posolstvo v digitálnych hrách. Marketing a komunikace, 29(2), 14-15. http://www.cms-cma.eu/mak/mak_2024-2/#p=14
The utilisation of artificial reality in advertising is not a newly emerging concept. However, while previously such a format was employed at a presentation level to portray companies and brands in a manner that reflected modernity and innovation, the current tools of digital game design and generative AI have initiated a shift in this approach. Th...
The peak of the superhero media adaptation supertrend was accompanied by a reinforcing effect called ‘superhero fatigue’, which is currently having a negative impact on the development of superhero movie multiverses, even in the case of previously highly successful franchises. Concurrently, superhero digital game adaptations are encountering challe...
Fan culture has changed the whole entertainment industry, becoming “mainstream.” Thus, its expressions necessarily shape franchise cinema, including Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The study reacts to this shift, aiming to explore how MCU movies incorporate images of fan culture and turn some of their support characters into “fans.” The offered cr...
Aim. The study aims to explore the current state of digital game-based learning to reflect the extent, possibilities, opportunities, and limitations of its implementation in the specific field of education as visual art, especially photography.
Method. The explorative study employed the method of theoretical analysis of available literature and oth...
The uniqueness of the approach that characterized in-game advertising at the time of its first implementation within marketing communication initially classified this tool under guerrilla marketing. However, due to its relatively quick establishment, it separated itself and, subsequently, was included in the rapidly developing game-based marketing....
The current direction of the media industry, considering the development of the social-media-communication sphere, frequently leads to the concepts of a metaverse, and not only implicitly, as shown by M. Zuckerberg’s initiative with Meta. The social network Second Life and the virtual worlds of some recent digital games indicate how a metaverse cou...
BALÁŽIKOVÁ, M., MAGO, Z.: Resurrection of evolutionary psychology in gaming: How can old principles contribute a new domain. In: AD ALTA : Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, vol. 11, no. 2 (2021). ISSN 1804-7890, pp. 171-176.
The multidisciplinary character of game studies enables the implementation of knowledge from various study fields, and...
Spider-Man, as one of the most famous and popular comic superheroes, has been adapted into digital games since the early 1980s. Recent movies about (or including) Spider-Man paid even more attention to this superhero, making him an eventual centre in the further development of pop-cultural artefacts. The study analyses digital-game adaptations of S...
The gaming sector is currently, with about 3 billion gamers worldwide, one of the best developing segments in society, not negatively affected even by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the interest in working in this sector increases, so does the interest in higher education in this field. Although the first steps in establishing game studies on the academ...
The mobile games segment currently represents the biggest share of the global game market with the highest year-on-year growth rate. Logically, the importance of mobile game marketing is increasing as well. However, some practices operate 'on the edge'. Utilising ads presenting fake gameplay footage, which can mislead potential new gamers and lure...
Easter eggs are a well-known and popular phenomenon throughout the whole of pop culture, and the interactive nature of digital games unleashes the full potential of their implementation , as well as integrating them into the gamers' experience. The study focuses on Easter eggs in digital games from a structural point of view to understand them on t...
Teoretická štúdia sa zaoberá fenoménom easter eggs v oblasti digitálnych hier, pričom sa zameriava predovšetkým na dôsledky zmeny ich povahy z "tajomstiev" ukrytých vo virtuálnom prostredí hier na multireferenčné metaodmeňovacie elementy, ktoré možno využiť na udržanie hrajúcich hráčov či priamo na propagač-no-komunikačné účely. Cieľom štúdie je re...
Global ecological issues are a current topic even within the field of communication that is looking for new ways to promote eco-innovations as well as ecology in general. Digital games might provide options, which are unavailable for most of other media, and moreover, their natural ability is to generate spontaneous participation of gamers, which i...
Advergames have been appearing alongside digital games since the very beginning. Although they had been originally created as marketing tools, their gaming nature has made from them an important part of digital-gaming industry heritage. At the same time, advergames, which persisted over time, may represent significant advantages for the brands they...
Besides the fact that digital games represent currently the most popular entertaining media in the world, firstly they are products, which have to utilize marketing communication to be able to succeed on the market among the extensive competition. Digital games' commercials have been through considerable development since the very first games and,...
Digital games have always been characteristic as well as popular by the possibility to escape physical reality into virtual worlds for fun and relaxation. Although, current technological development (e.g. AR, VR) and various marketing strategies (e.g. SoLoMo) paradoxically push this reality closer to gamers' genuine reality, creating new perception...
The aim of this publication is to offer the readers with deeper interest in advertising, a view of the state of the art of advertising theory. As it turned out, however, this is rather disproportionate. The publication has almost 1,200 pages of the text, but it still covers only part of the theory of advertising as a whole.
Despite the fact that advergaming, avatar-based marketing or alternate reality games are verified by marketing practice, the current development of new technologies implemented into digital games development such as location-based service, augmented and virtual reality pushes forward forms and strategies of the product/brand promotion utilizing dig...
One of guerrilla marketing beneϐits, among others, is an active involvement of the advertising recipient. At the same time, the recipient participates on the dissemination and transfer of real-world experiences into the online sphere, helping to reach desired viral effect within marketing purposes. Additionally, the current interconnection with gam...
Currently, there is no doubt that advergaming within game-based marketing belongs to integrated marketing communication as a part of communication tools used to create a synergic effect and to achieve key objectives of modern marketing. This monography clarifies the confusing terminology within this domain by defining advergaming as an umbrella ter...
The exponential growth of online gaming in current digital-gaming sector is causing an increase in the importance of in-game advertising commercial dynamic to the detriment of in-game advertising static forms preferred in the past. Therefore, static in-game advertising found its usability in the field of self-promotion and cross-promotion. The stud...
The study focuses on the analysis of regional digital gaming environments, whose importance is determined by a rapid global development of digital games and the digital culture in general. Characteristics of the most important world’s gaming markets – the American, the Asian and the European – bring an essential theoretical background necessary to...
The impact of violence presented in media on the behaviour of media content recipients has been probably the most frequent subject of research studies since the very beginning of systematic research of media themselves. Intensity of this research used to increase with each new-coming medium and takes longer depending on the complexity of its charac...
In-game advertising as a mean of advertisement placement within digital games represents one of recent ways of how to reach potential consumers in current digital era. The aim of the study is to determine the difference in perception between digital in-game and nondigital print advertisements of the same product. The digital game Alan Wake represen...
In-game advertising as a mean of advertisement placement within digital games represents one of recent ways of how to reach potential consumers in current digital era. The aim of the study is to determine the difference in perception between digital in-game and nondigital print advertisements of the same product. The digital game Alan Wake represen...
Social networks are undoubtedly a phenomenon of current electronic and social communication. Their interactive nature in digital environment allows the use of both traditional and new marketing tools, such as online marketing, viral marketing and advergaming. Playing computer games via social networks has just become a very popular activity because...
Implicit in-game advertising is a way how game developers and publishers can promote not only themselves, but also their products, or products of partner companies. Implicit in-game advertising is also possible to use as a supporting tool of explicit in-game advertising to increase its effectiveness. The research part of the study is focused on the...
The paper deals with theoretical and practical aspects of Tetris in marketing communication within the realms of a current phenomenon called gamification. The historical review of Tetris is followed by a summary of definitions and criteria of gamification, as well as its implementations within the domain of advertising. Later, the process of gamifi...
This study is focused on computer game series Need for Speed (NFS) in terms of its use in promotion of products and brands. We believe that computer games are no longer the domain of a small group of enthusiasts. In recent years, this kind of entertainment has became a global phenomenon, which is reflected both on professional and scientific levels...
