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Online Gaming Ad Network Launches 272
Wynken de Word writes "'In a move that could open a new vista of possibilities for advertisers, New York-based Massive Inc. today announces the launch of the first ad-serving network for video games. The company said it has so far signed game publishers UbiSoft, Atari, Universal and Konami as partners in its system, which enables marketing messages to be projected into the digital fabric of their online games.' AdAge.com has the article (reg req.)." If you don't feel like registering for AdAge, just read the press release or see the company website.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I like it (Score:2)
Re:I like it (Score:5, Funny)
as long as you can blow them up with missiles.
Re:I like it (Score:4, Insightful)
AD FRAG!
Just like cable TV - you pay to get commercials.
Re:I like it (Score:3, Insightful)
<tin foil hat mode>
That's where it starts, soon they won't be satisfied with just static adds, they will want more, "in your face" type adds. Games will start to have adds on a quarter of the screen, then half. Next, they will pop up every time you frag someone, to try and play off the euphoric feeling you get from fragging. After tha
Re:I like it (Score:4, Insightful)
But perhaps a choicily blocked port or some smart host files entries will be all thats requried (at least in the beginning) to thwart their ad plans. And perhaps, as with other forms of advertising, it will need some regulation to keep it under control. There seems to be a propensity on the internet that since its a new medium that the old rules need not apply.
Providing it lowers game cost, I'll agree to it... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Providing it lowers game cost, I'll agree to it (Score:2, Interesting)
I haven't wasted money on "hyped-up junk" for some time.
Re:Providing it lowers game cost, I'll agree to it (Score:4, Informative)
Be cautious of some demo's. I bought Nerf Arena because I liked the demo. It ran wihout a CD in the drive, and could be loaded on several computers for LAN play. The full version lacks both of these features. (unless you look up no CD in Google.) For a long time the LAN parties simply stuck to using the demo. It was better than the full version and kept us from openly breaking the software license. It even worked with many of the free downloadable maps and textures.
Some LAN games permit spawning so you can LAN play with just one copy. (One of the truck racing games comes to mind that can spawn up to 8 clients) Others do not and require a copy for each player. Most either won't tell you on the box or it's buried in the fine print. Too bad more games don't spawn LAN players.
I have a LAN. The cost of a LAN game varies a lot depending if spawning players is permitted or not. I'm not spending over $100 on a game so the kids can race each other. Getting a game touted for LAN play and find it "broken" because nobody can join the game is not fun. (Spawning is making a client from the CD. The client will play over the LAN to the server. The client will not run as a stand alone game. The server then can support many players over a LAN without needing to buy extra copies of the game)
If I am not bored by the time I make it to the end of the demo (if I even make it to the end), then I consider buying it.
To buy it, the price has to be right. This is more important if several copies are needed for legal LAN play. Setting up a race on a LAN souldn't break the bank.
With Nerf, it's chaep enough to pick up the extra copies and stay within budget or the demo works fine for LAN parties. This is not the case with Need for Speed. Great LAN features, but nobody to race due to a single copy.
Needless to say, Need for Speed (got the boxed set) doesn't get dusted off much. Nerf gets a workout. Someday, I'll find more copies of Need for Speed in Goodwill so we can actualy race each other without violating copyright.
Re:I like it (Score:2, Insightful)
Plus it makes the game feel more real. (lets just hope theres no Coke ads in games based on other planets/times.. that would do the opposite, it would make the game less realistic)
Really? While playing Doom3, I would have found Coke machines much more immersive and realistic than RoboCola [robocola.com] machines.
Re:I like it (Score:2)
"Drink Slurm, it's Highly Addictive!"
Re:I like it (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I like it (Score:2, Funny)
I dunno... if the game was set on some frozen world with talking bears it would fit right in :-)
Gotta get those 18 to 34 males (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Gotta get those 18 to 34 males (Score:5, Insightful)
When's the last time you were at a movie?!? Didn't you notice all the product placement in them?
Or, perhaps you believe all "super spies" use full GUI interfaces on PowerBooks to hack government networks is pure fantasy... err... hmmm... maybe you have a point.
Re:Gotta get those 18 to 34 males (Score:2)
Re:Gotta get those 18 to 34 males (Score:2)
The last movie I saw was the LaserDisc rip of "Return of the Jedi". No product placement there. Before that was the rips of the other two episodes, then "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Phantom Menace". Again, no product placement.
The last movie I recall seeing with any product placement was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", and that was a long time ago.
Re:Gotta get those 18 to 34 males (Score:4, Insightful)
In games, I don't see that happening. Sure, having soda cans with Pepsi or Coke logos is fine. If you've got a fast food restaurant in your cityscape, and it happens to be a Burger King, fine. But if I ever have to sit through a Survivor ad in a game I already payed for, that's it, I'm done, and I won't be buying from that company in the future.
The truth of the matter is that subtlety's going to be (hell, has been) well-received by gamers. Stick a Pizza Hut logo on the pizza box on the floor in the junked-up apartment. Ad a Budweiser logo to the refridgerated semi that just drove by. Fine. But I don't think adds for Gillette's new razor or some cell phone service popping up in the middle of EQ2 like some damned intersitial is going to go over well with anyone.
Discount. (Score:5, Insightful)
Or does this just mean that in addition to spending $50 for the game and $20/mo for the service and $50/yr for expansion packs, you're also going to have the added bullshit of being bombarded with advertising in one of the few places you can go to escape those very things?
Why not just have my boss appear in the video game that I'm playing at 2am on a Saturday morning (during MY time) telling me that I need to join some conference meeting?
Re:Discount. (Score:5, Funny)
Great idea! That'll make up for your time slacking at work looking at ebay and slashdot.
- Your Boss
Discount. Ha Ha! (Score:5, Funny)
Yea, that's what it means.
Who pays attention anyway? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:3, Insightful)
And it must work, because you did mention Coca-Cola in your post.
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:2)
Of course, the flip side of that is, when the time comes to buy a soft drink, remembering how annoying it is to have in-game advertising, and buying another brand (who doesn't advertise so intrusively) instead.
Name recognition works for infamy, too.
I may just have to disconnect my Coca-Cola IV.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:2)
They didn't. It really was that good.
Stuart
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:2, Insightful)
Annoying ads are my main problem, not all ads in general. In the early days of the internet, it was text ads only. Now, your screen looks like it is havi
Re:Who pays attention anyway? (Score:2)
Re:Discount. (Score:5, Informative)
They popup ad's when you login to buy their expansions, mags, books, action figures, and then they switch the buy and cancel buttons around. If you arn't paying attention, and click accept its yours. No conformation button or anything. Then you have to spend time on the with sony trying to get them to cancel the order where they play ads in the hold music.
Reason 1457 why I stopped playing Massive online games.
Re:Discount. (Score:2)
Re:Discount. (Score:2)
Actually, no.
Advertisement on the web is already significantly crippled by filtering proxies, AdBlock, etc. Since the same techniques can be applied to PC game ads (and console game ads, provided you put a box between your console and the internet), profits from those ads will proba
Re:Discount. (Score:3, Funny)
Why would they want to DISCOUNT it? It's Ad Revenue. They're getting MORE money. They have NO incentive to make LESS money. NO REASON to cut the price. NONE to SPEAK OF.
So You're going to pay 50 for the game, 20 for the service, 50 for the expansion packs, and advertisters are going to pay the company to inject their fecal matter into your eyeballs while you're doing it.
WELCOME TO CAPITALISM!
So wait... (Score:2)
Re:So wait... (Score:2)
1) it's revenue
2) it gives them a chance to say "hey look where our competditors advertise when they need to reach demographic X"
noooo!!! (Score:2)
boooo!!!
Re:noooo!!! (Score:2)
surely they will, once they figure out that if you're willing to pay the same for an ad infested game that you used to pay for a normal no annoying adverts game.. then you SURELY would be filling to fork even more money directly too.
Re:noooo!!! (Score:2)
Oh great, now GAMES will need ad-blockers? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh great, now GAMES will need ad-blockers? (Score:3, Interesting)
What really did it for me was when they started putting ads on the divider sticks you put down on grocery store checkout line conveyor belts to separate your stff from that of the person in front of you. Can't we have a single blank space without an ad?
Arrgghhhh (Score:5, Funny)
I foresee a whole new type of camping... (Score:5, Interesting)
Shudder (Score:2)
"I see you're still struggling on level 1. How about a new car? You can get really great payment plans..."
And just wait until the other characters in the game start to sell you stuff. BLAM! BOOM! STAB!!!! Yeah... cool. It starts to feel a lot more realistic.
Any company that puts this in its games... (Score:5, Insightful)
If they think they are going to use my fucking bandwidth and processing power to display an advertisement, and that I will pay them for the privilege, they are deluded.
When someone insults me like this, I will gladly piss all over his intellectual property.
Re:Any company that puts this in its games... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Any company that puts this in its games... (Score:2, Funny)
You'd be shocked if you piss on your TV when the cable channel you paid for airs an advertisement.
ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)
Buy a Mac. No games = no ads.
*ducks*
I KEED! I own a powerbook! Forgive me.
or (Score:2)
just replace the ads (Score:2, Funny)
Advertising for Online Games... (Score:5, Insightful)
If in some way they can forego a subscription fee and simply subject its players to advertising, I'm all for it. In a sense, I do think it's pretty cool seeing ads for stuff -- hell, you see it when you're watching sports (so if it's in the game, why not put it in THE game
As long as it's tolerable and affects my bank account positively, go for it. If it doesn't affect pricing significantly, then screw 'em.
Ad-Subsidized Games (Score:5, Insightful)
Poor targetting.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Not very useful for markting.
Re:Ad-Subsidized Games (Score:2)
An alternate article (Score:2, Informative)
As long as they leave an option not to fade... (Score:2)
AA, open up with the saw
Hrmmm. Just what I honestly needed- more intrusions hawking products I don't need. Sigh.
If I pay, I don't want ads.... (Score:2, Insightful)
sounds not-so-fresh (Score:3, Funny)
Blood...blood...blood! (Score:2)
Though to be a bit more serious, I always did think it bizarre that guys spending countless hours playing games full of splattering gore will completely freak out at an indirect reference to a period. That's like chasing storms as a hobby, then running away in abject terror at the sight of windshield wipers.
Re:sounds not-so-fresh (Score:2)
Advertisements in Media (Score:4, Insightful)
Chances are, if/when online games get a stream of marketing, I'll gripe, I'll complain, I'll lament.. but I'll still play the games.
This is probably why a company that markets this could be very successful.
Re:Advertisements in Media (Score:2)
The difference is: I don't control the movie screen or the movie theatre. I do control my house and my computer. I block ads on the web, in my email, and anywhere else they pop up on my computer... I'll block the ads in games too. Not that I plan to *buy* any games with ads in them.
Re:Advertisements in Media (Score:2)
Greetings from Lothar Dragonsbane! (Score:5, Funny)
Because sometimes you need a bigger hunk of....steel.
Market might react favorably (Score:5, Insightful)
If this leads to basically a more dynamic and realistic version of that for games where it is appropriate (sports/racing games in particular) the market might actually respond to it as a cool feature.
Other ads could be much more borderline. Playing Splinter Cell 3 and you turn on a TV and it just happens to have an ad for the next episode of survivor.. You play a week later and it's an ad for the simpsons. A crumpled magazine on the floor changes from a picture of a coke can to gum. Such subtlety that crosses over into immersion without being abrasively intrusive is going to be an interesting gray area.
If they are a moron about it though, and have a full screen pop up ad for the Star Wars trilogy DVD between rounds of counterstrike, they'll self destruct their new ad delivery vehicle.
Re:Market might react favorably (Score:2)
The problem is (Score:3, Insightful)
They had no problem with the idea that they'd put an ad in print that people might or might not see, might or might not look at, and then it would just influence opin
Re:Market might react favorably (Score:2)
What we need to do is refuse to buy the first game that implements this. It won't be too hard for me, the seemingly lackluster games that have come out from some of the big production houses have been rather lame both plot and gameplay wise.
Not to mention they have all been dumbing down the game for the XBox ports. I think Deus Ex: Invisible War is probably the best example of this. That very we
Fantasy Settings (Score:3, Insightful)
i can see it now (Score:5, Funny)
and now a word from our sponsor...
Like... (Score:2, Funny)
...I don't get enough of this directly from Sony Online Entertainment, almost every time I log into EverQuest? Pfft!
Obligatory Penny Arcade reference (Score:2, Funny)
That explains a lot of things (Score:2)
This is crazy (Score:2)
The ads are already there (Score:2)
Tony Hawk Underground 1 had McDonalds ads. SSX 3 has 7-up ads. People are buying them and don't seem to care. People who buy these games despite the ads need to be smacked around a bit, they're letting this happen, letting advertisers think we'll stand for it. I sure as hell hope we won't.
Way to go Ubi! (Score:2)
Doesnt work in my case (Score:2, Insightful)
Buy, BUY! BUY NOW!! (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just an extension of us being viewed as consumers. We're no more than sheep to be fleeced as often as possible. And this is done by bombarding us with advertising as often as possible in whatever environments possible. What ever happened to the vendor supplying "value added" and counting that (the inprovement in there reputation) as advertising? I guess some clown in a corporate boardroom can't pocket that or claim it on the quarterly statement to get the mutual funds to buy more of their stock.
I am all for this (Score:5, Funny)
I say to you Coke, why are you better? And to you Pepsi, differentiate yourself from your rival, mean Mr. Coke. I say duel! To the victor goes my spending dollar! Hurrah!
Terrific! (Score:5, Funny)
Now you don't have to feel bad about pirating games. You'll know that the designers are making money just by you playing it. You could almost imagine that you're doing them a favor by it.
steve
Re:Terrific! (Score:2)
ridiculous. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not quite sure where the hell you got that bright idea, but (at least here in the US of A) copyright infringement is still copyright infringement, whether the rights holder(s) make money off it or not.
Perhaps you mean that the software industry propaganda will be harder to swallow, because the average joe will think to himself "well, if they get paid ad
I don't mind ads IF THEY'RE FUNNY! (Score:5, Insightful)
In video games, I wouldn't mind seeing a 30-second advertisement say.. in between maps.. if the advertisement made me laugh. If the ads have any sort of entertainment value, then people don't hate them as much. Sometimes video games just seem too serious and I think a funny advertisement every once in a while could lighten the mood and make us realize that the other team isn't necessarily enemies - just fellow gamers.
Plus, ads work negatively if they piss off the viewer. Anything that wastes my time pisses me off. But, if I laugh, then I don't feel I've wasted that time. There could be a big market for creating something for groups of people on teamspeak/ventrillo to laugh and talk about..
Something tells me that these ads are all gonna be boring, can't close, gotta watch, piss-me-off-type ads..
Patent Pending? (Score:2)
I remember in custom Quake 1 maps, I would see bill board advertisements. Really strange actually, walking around a zombie infested underworld like Gloom Keep and there is a big yellow Nikon ad.
patent-pending? (Score:2)
Should be int
Not the first... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.adsingame.com/ has been doing this for along time...
What's in it for me?? (Score:2)
SO... now not only do I see ads in games, but I get to look forward to new and exciting ads from time-to-time.
Something tells me this will do nothing to lower the price of a game or even keep the price about the same.
It would be one thing if this would help me, but now I am paying to play a game, I am paying for ads and I am using up my bandwidth to get these ads.
And this isn't like the promise of ad-supported software we've already had the joy of dealing with HOW?
And I suppose these ads aren't gunn
What next? (Score:4, Insightful)
next step will be... (Score:2)
<small>upgrades to the latest version of NetHack</small>
Transparent firewall to the resuce! (Score:2, Interesting)
2. Install two NICs
3. Install OpenBSD [openbsd.org]
4. Setup a bridge [openbsd.org].
5. Create a pf rule to block all outgoing connections to the Ad servers IP block.
It's transparent to all ethernet devices and you can tweak the ruleset as needed.
Good/Bad, depends on how they're used/placed (Score:2)
I can think of a few places where ads would be fine by me though:
Lobbies: Much like on battle.net, you've got an ad-rotator banner that announces upcoming tournaments, products, or other ads for blizzard.
Loading screens: Taking a moment or two to load a Jpeg as my loading screen is p
Thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
Second: Did it occur to them that the 18-34 male demographic is so hard to reach with traditional adverts because they go out of their way to avoid it?
Like the splash screens aren't enough? (Score:3, Insightful)
Aspyr splash.
Vivendi/Universal splash.
Seirra splash.
Relic splash. Not even a splash- it's 3x longer than the others.
You can't click past any of them, either, and you see them all again on the way out.
And there's that nasty turd of an NVidia splash on the Unreal games.
AND THEY WANNA PUT MORE ADS IN THE GAMES?! Not just the load/dump screens?!
I'm sick of paying to see/hear advertising.
Its been done, a bit... (Score:5, Interesting)
There were servers on WON which had maps which were loaded with ads...presumably these ads were run by the companies being advertised. I don't recall what the companies were, but it just seemed like it would have been.
There was rarely anyone on these servers, and the maps sucked.
Also, as to their claims of "micro-segmentation," internet advertisers have been promising that for years and have been almost completely unable to deliver. I'm still getting ads for internet gambling (on sites that should know my interests a little better than that), and I won't even go to a REAL casino.
Why? My guess is they lack a large enough pool of advertisements to have ads available to match up to individual viewers. The closest I've seen is Google, who seemingly have ads from such a broad array of advertisers that they occasionally come up with something I like. (And since I'm usually not logged in, and often not on my own computer, they presumably don't even have a pattern of behavior to associate with me)
And lets talk about intrusiveness for a moment. Putting an ad into the middle of say, 2fort, isn't so bad. It pretty much lacks atmosphere as it is. Putting an ad into say, most Halo or UT 2004 maps, or Doom 3...that would, for the most part, be unavoidably cheesy. Like obvious product placement in movies ("I Robot" anyone?)
This is going to fail. Maybe not fail BIG, but it will fail. BEST CASE it will stick arond like banner ads. Most of the promises they're making to advertisers though, are bullshit. But what do you expect? These are salesmen offering their services as salesmen.
Re:What exactly is the point of this? (Score:2, Insightful)
Are the advertising companies just trying to drive us out of our apartments and homes and force us to go outside for a while? Is this all part of a master plan to advertise on the moon's surface or in space using giant lasers beams attached to muta
Re:this is profiling..... (Score:2, Funny)
God I can't wait till I'm 35 so they will leave me the #@$! alone.
Re:Yippie (Score:2, Funny)
There are if you have magazines in there.
Re:Higher Impact (Score:2)
I just wish Rockstar would put Pizza Huts into the GTA universe. It'd be like playing Micheal Douglas in Falling Down. With more blood. And rocket launchers.
Re:This is interesting (Score:3, Insightful)
Targeting features must be agreed upon with game developers, and usually require players to provide opt-in registration.
Oh that much is true, hidden in the EULA somewhere...
Re:This is interesting (Score:2)