By Jonathan Rubin

After playing a good deal of Splinter Cell, you might find yourself inexplicably thirsty for some Sobe.

The character in the popular espionage video game doesn’t chug just anything to replenish his health points, he chooses a popular, mass-marketed sports beverage called Sobe … available at a convenience store near you.

Ads in video games are nothing new – you could find Adidas ads in FIFA’s International Soccer game in 1994, or in Budweiser’s infamous “Tapper” game, circa 1983, in which players dispensed Bud to thirsty patrons.

But Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent raised the bar when it included “help wanted” ads for computer programmers for the British version of the CIA.

Double Agent will be part of a new generation of games in which the ads themselves are not even written into the game, but are uploaded and updated regularly from advertising companies online.

So if you play for a bit, and then take a break, when you come back you might have a whole new set of ads waiting when you return.

Video gaming continues to rise like a Tetris tower; Massive Inc., a video game advertising company, estimates that 20 million males in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 34 play video games.

Businesses, non-profits and even politicians have realized the amazing power of video game consoles in the transmission of messages, and our minds seem primed to drink it up.

“Video games can raise awareness and change beliefs in a very powerful way,” said Dr. Kenneth R. Koedinger, a psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University.

Koedinger, who has a doctorate in cognitive psychology and a master’s in computer science, said that while we may think that learning is listening to a lecture, our brains more easily absorb skills and messages through “implicit learning” – learning by doing, often subliminally.

The immersive nature of video games makes them perfect tools for transmitting ideas, said Dr. Richard Gerrig, professor of psycholinguistics at New York’s Stony Brook University.

“When you are drawn into someone’s story,” Gerrig said, “the more likely [you are] to absorb the message of the story, whatever that happens to be.”

Gerrig studies non-conventional language and cognitive experiences of narrative worlds. He said that normally we exert a kind of mental effort to analyze stories that are being told to us. When we are immersed in something, our defenses are essentially down and the message gets through easier.

That’s the essence of how persuasion works, he said.

 “The content is getting into your database without you doing anything to hamper the process,” Gerrig said.

“It could be a very powerful way to train people.”

Gear up, solider

This training extends far beyond flight simulators or Oregon Trail. The United States Army teamed up with video developers to create the popular The America’s Army video game (www.americasarmy.com/) a game designed as sophisticated entertainment and a recruiting tool. The game is free.

From its Web site: “The America’s Army: True Soldiers game accurately portrays the values that guide soldiers in the U.S. Army by specifically incorporating gameplay based on mission accomplishment, teamwork, leadership, rules of engagement and respect for life and property.”

The theme of using video games to prepare people for greater things even made its way into Hollywood. The Last Starfighter (1984) stars Alex Rogan as a trailer-park teen who finds that the Starfighter video game that he’s mastered turns out to be a test from an alien race looking for the greatest space pilot on earth.

WarGames starred Matthrew Broderick in a 1983 suspense movie that earned $74 million in five months. It features a hacker who is hired for his computer skills and who later saves the world from destruction by a renegade supercomputer.

Games and ethics

As the market for video games has increased dramatically over the years, other groups have realized that games can do more than sell products – they can transmit values as well.

Take Darfur. A complex geopolitical and racial struggle in a country far away may seem like a difficult situation to impart to children.

So students at the University of Southern California created “Darfur Is Dying,” a video game in which you help a Sudanese family, even young children, look for water and resources in a vast, dangerous, arid wasteland.

Playing a young child dodging heavily armed Janjaweed jeeps is a surprisingly moving and terrifying experience. The game interested both Reebok and MTVu, the college-oriented TV network, and they helped put the video game online in 2006 at www.darfurisdying.com.

Not all games have such altruistic messages. Racist groups such as the white supremacist National Alliance released “Ethnic Cleansing,” in which you eliminate non-whites. Other games like Border Patrol reward you for shooting immigrants; the older “Shoot the Blacks” is sickeningly self-explanatory.

Environmentally friendly?

Nintendo has promoted itself as an environmentally conscious video-game designer – its Web site says it recycles 70 percent of its waste and uses 80 percent recycled paper in its products.

Building on the success with Super Mario Sunshine, its 2002 hit in which Mario cleans up graffiti and washes away pollution, it went a step further and released Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol in 2007.

The game involves a cutesy robot who essentially tries to create “green space.” You blast away Smoglings and spruce up the lawn by planting flowers and crafting attractive landscapes.

And the kicker: Nintendo gives away 500 free seedlings with every video game.

The company says it is “on a mission to make some locations – both virtual and real – a little greener.”

The game garnered praise from some; others criticized the company for “greenwashing,” or using environmental themes to sell products.

Whether green and video games are morally good or just good PR is anyone’s guess, but they are certainly picking up some heavy admirers.

British Petroleum announced a partnership with Electronic Arts on Oct. 10 in the creation of the upcoming SimCity Societies game. The newest version of the popular series – in which you build a community’s infrastructure from scratch – now gives you the option of creating alternative energy sources for power.

The issue of global warming elements work seamlessly into the game – using fossil fuels is a cheap and quick way to generate power, but over time they spawn enough carbon dioxide to increase the likelihood of natural disasters such as heat waves or droughts.

Players can instead opt for more expensive but more environmentally sound choices that are better over the long term, such as BP natural gas, wind farms and solar power plants.

Politicians have noticed and are joining the bandwidth bandwagon.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, had a “virtual press conference" in the popular video game Second Life. So did former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

But trying to get your message to a tech savvy audience isn’t always a pleasant affair.

In February 2007, it was widely reported that Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards’ unofficial virtual campaign headquarters had been “vandalized” by mischievous geeks online.

It was defaced with Marxist slogans, pictures of the candidate in blackface, and even piles of “virtual poo.”

Rogue players generated their own content that was superimposed over the legitimate headquarters. It was later cleaned up by Second Life administrators.

Become famous enough and critics will follow you anywhere.