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The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

Online Gaming Ad Network Launches 272

Posted by michael from the there-goes-the-neighborhood dept.
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.
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Online Gaming Ad Network Launches More

Online Gaming Ad Network Launches

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  • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • IIRC, they advertised Red Bull in the Wipeout games (set in the future)... before it was even for sale (in the US, anyway).

    • Re:I like it (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:56PM (#10569865)
      I like it.....
      as long as you can blow them up with missiles.

    • Re:I like it (Score:4, Insightful)

      by operagost ( 62405 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:56PM (#10569866) Homepage Journal
      Can't wait to sit through the lag while a 10 MB 3D Flash ad downloads while I'm playing.

      AD FRAG!

      Just like cable TV - you pay to get commercials.

    • Providing it lowers game cost, I'll agree to it... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Seng ( 697556 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:02PM (#10569922)
      Bring the games down to a reasonable price, and help ensure it's going to be "good" and I'll buy more games. I pretty much stopped buying the new stuff once they hit $50-$60 per title only to buy it and find it to be hyped-up junk.
      • That's why I ALWAYS try the demo first. Any game worth buying provides a demo. I get a lot of mileage out of playing demos. 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.

        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)

          by Technician ( 215283 ) on Wednesday October 20, 2004 @08:46AM (#10574289)
          Any game worth buying provides a demo.

          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)

      by Evangelion ( 2145 )

      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.
      • While playing Doom3, I would have found Coke machines much more immersive and realistic than RoboCola machines.

        "Drink Slurm, it's Highly Addictive!"

    • Re:I like it (Score:2, Insightful)

      by moorcito ( 529567 )
      (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) But, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that Mega-Corporations will still be around in the future? A few Coke ads wouldn't be a big deal, but "Unreal Tournament 2006 brought to you by Coke" is a different story.
    • 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)

      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)

    by erick99 ( 743982 ) <homerun@gmail.com> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:43PM (#10569705)
    This is just short of driving to your house and holding you down while you read an ad. I wonder if this will effect usage of the games? I'm 46 so out of the demographic they are looking for, but, I am very ad-aversive so I know it would effect my usage. I'm not saying it's good or bad to have the ads, just saying it would effect how I use a web site.

  • Discount. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:43PM (#10569707)
    So this means that instead of paying $50 to Valve so I can play play Counter Strike over Steam or $50 to Ubi (+15/mo) to play one of their MMORPGs, I'm going to get it for free - or at the worst, a significant discount, right?

    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)

      by strictfoo ( 805322 ) <strictfoo-signup&yahoo,com> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:45PM (#10569730) Journal
      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?

      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)

      by frovingslosh ( 582462 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:47PM (#10569751)
      Or does this just mean that in addition to spending....... you're also going to have the added bullshit....

      Yea, that's what it means.

      • Does anyone recall ever actually being influenced to purchase something by an advertisement? Companies throw masses and masses of money down these holes... are people actually so deluded as to buy their product, especially considering the stupid gimmicks that are used? Yeah, because I see someone wearing a Coca-Cola shirt, I am going to go out and buy some Cola. Mmmhmm. Right.
        • Someone more qualified will probably pipe in, but I've always believed that advertisements are not designed to sell things right away. They're there to create brand recognition and awareness. So you might not want to buy a Coke right then and there, they hope that when the time comes to buy a Cola drink, you'll think of Coke first.

          And it must work, because you did mention Coca-Cola in your post.
          • they hope that when the time comes to buy a Cola drink, you'll think of Coke first

            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.
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • The only one I can think of is Bounty kitchen roll. I decided to get it just so I could get all stroppy about how the adverts lied about its prowess.

          They didn't. It really was that good.

          Stuart
        • No one does. Ads are a double edged sword. On one hand they help pay for content. On the other, they are like an annoying child, begging for attention. Go ahead and click on them if you want, but you'll only embolden them to think their particular brand of obnoxious, jittering, flashing, morphing, bouncing, and usually misleading advertising is effective.

          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
        • Absolutely. When Pharma Plus launched a massive launch campaign in Canada along the lines of "if you care about life, shop Pharma Plus" it caught my attention. I found them so abhorent I refused to enter their stores and haven't since. Very effective advertising in my case.

    • Re:Discount. (Score:5, Informative)

      by FictionPimp ( 712802 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:51PM (#10569796) Homepage
      Sony already does this with EQ.

      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.

      • Their most recent one was a "survey" between the login screen and server select asking you to choose which item from a list of a few options of free stuff (each valued at around $20) could they offer you in exchange for you applying for a Sony Visa credit card.

    • So this means that instead of paying $50 to Valve so I can play play Counter Strike over Steam or $50 to Ubi (+15/mo) to play one of their MMORPGs, I'm going to get it for free - or at the worst, a significant discount, right?

      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)

      by solios ( 53048 )
      Riiiiiight.

      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!
  • Does this mean that I could buy an add for my game that ran in my competitors game?
    • not sure if you are trying to be funny but the answer would depend on the publisher of the game but in other media often some like to let their comeptitors advertise in their publication because of two reasons

      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"

  • I rather LIKED not having commercials crammed into my face... first it was movies.. now it'll be all my online games as well :( and i'm sure prices will only go up even with the extra income.

    boooo!!!
    • * and i'm sure prices will only go up even with the extra income.*

      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.

  • Oh great, now GAMES will need ad-blockers? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vengeance ( 46019 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:44PM (#10569718)
    Isn't it bad enough that I have to put up with ads on my television, radio, public transportation, and web browser? Christ, give us five minutes of peace, you ad-serving bastards.
    • Isn't it bad enough that I have to put up with ads on my television, radio, public transportation, and web browser? Christ, give us five minutes of peace, you ad-serving bastards.

      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)

    by DrMyke ( 150908 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:45PM (#10569728)
    Great, the one place i go to get away from advertising and commercials is video games, now it seems it's going to be just as bad as sitting at home watching TV. I think ill just watch all the visions in my head. (thanks to the 70's i get 15 psychadellic stations in 34 blazing colors)

  • I foresee a whole new type of camping... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Zocalo ( 252965 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:46PM (#10569736) Homepage
    Just stand in front of one of the advertising panels and no one is going to risk taking a potshot at you in case they miss and get whisked off to buy some dumb widget... Worst of all, if the ads are proxied through the game server instead of being downloaded directly from the advertising company, it's going to be a little bit more tricky to block them. Particularly if doing so involves reverse engineering the game protocol as that potentially puts you on the wrong side of the DMCA and its equivalents...
  • You really want to see a thousand Microsoft ads in your games? Yeuch. Worse... you're going to get games that target ads directly to you, knowing loads about your tastes and intelligence thanks to your game profiles.

    "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. /obvious

  • Any company that puts this in its games... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NSash ( 711724 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:47PM (#10569746) Journal
    ...has lost a sale.

    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.

  • ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)

    by happyfrogcow ( 708359 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:47PM (#10569762)
    Great, now our video card drivers will have to have ad blocking code in them to filter out the lame ads.

    • Re:ad blockers (Score:5, Funny)

      by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:04PM (#10569949)
      Great, now our video card drivers will have to have ad blocking code in them to filter out the lame ads.

      Buy a Mac. No games = no ads.

      *ducks*

      I KEED! I own a powerbook! Forgive me.

    • or (Score:2)

      by pavon ( 30274 )
      Reverse engineer the protocol and create a your own game server, which can serve whatever images you choose. All sorts of fun to be had with that.
    • put a proxy between you and ad server and replace the images with things you like. Put in your favvourite porn and have "Sims 3: Red Light District", "GTA:1920" with oldtimers, etc

  • Advertising for Online Games... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Eberlin ( 570874 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:48PM (#10569773) Homepage
    Alrighty, I'm not a big fan of online games as it is, and am heavily against the subscription-based ones. I can't say I'm fond of stuff like Evercrack where you shell out quite a bit of money for the game, the expansion pack, and then are expected to subscribe for online play.

    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)

    by Discotechnica ( 699121 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:49PM (#10569779)
    What these game companies should do is sell ad-subsidized games. Full price: No ads. Super discount price: Ads galore. Much like Eudora or Opera.
    • Unfortunately, then the ads are being shown to a self-selected bunch of cheapskates who don't buy stuff.

      Not very useful for markting.
    • That's a really good idea. I don't have enough time to play in a month to justify a $20 fee, but if I could pop in every once in a while when I have a few free hours and see ads then I'd be far more likely to play. Then if I get addicted I'd be more willing to pay the money since I already know I like the game.

  • An alternate article (Score:2, Informative)

    by erick99 ( 743982 )
    Ad Age requires an address and more to access their articles, so, here is an alternate article that does a good job explaining what this is: Here [mediapost.com]
  • ... bullet holes, I'm all for it.

    AA, open up with the saw ... yeah those ads won't bother most people after that. KILL'EM!

    Hrmmm. Just what I honestly needed- more intrusions hawking products I don't need. Sigh.
  • Granted, I didn't register and read the full article text (i did read the press release though) but this rubs me the wrong way. It sounds to me like the exact same thing that pisses me off when I see commercials in a movie theater, or hear ads on my XM radio. I pay for this "premium" service, so don't shove this crap down my throat. If you want to put ads in something, do it in a freely (as in beer) available game.

  • sounds not-so-fresh (Score:3, Funny)

    by brainspank ( 515274 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:51PM (#10569803)
    I had better not see space blimps with tampon advertisements in Halo 2. It's bad enough on TV. The tampon ads, not space blimps. Space blimps are cool.
    • Could be a good advertising campaign for female players, though -- "don't have your concentration interrupted by a sudden mess, use the tampons that last!" ;)

      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.
    • Don't you watch TV? It could hardly cause offense, most young males would confuse the tampons for candy.

  • Advertisements in Media (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jinsaku ( 729938 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:53PM (#10569829)
    The thing that occured to me most in relation to the topic is when movie theaters started putting commercials before movies.. I griped, I complained, I lamented.. but I still go to movies.

    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.

    • 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.

    • I don't know about you, but I always show up to movies 10 minutes late, with obvious opening-night exceptions. This never causes me to miss a single minute of the show.

  • Greetings from Lothar Dragonsbane! (Score:5, Funny)

    by muertos ( 570792 ) <jbeasley75.gmail@com> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:55PM (#10569856) Journal
    Are you ashamed of your sword? Does it embarass you when an opponent laughs at the size of it? There is a solution! In no time at all, you can be wielding a massive zweihander, slaying tons of opponents. You'll be the toast of the party.

    Because sometimes you need a bigger hunk of....steel.

  • Market might react favorably (Score:5, Insightful)

    by vhold ( 175219 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:56PM (#10569857)
    It sounds like annoying crap on paper, but ads have been in many games for a long long time, they've just been static and moronicly fake. A race track with 15,000 Sobe beverage ads?

    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.
    • They have invaded EVERYWHERE in the real world with their ads that people now think that adding the same crap to games "for realism" is a good idea?!

    • The problem is (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 )
      Advertisers tend to be morons, at least when it comes to new mediums. We had this problem when I was the webmaster of our university newspaper. We advertised in print, and online. The ads completely support the paper, no school funds. Well in print, they seemed to have a grasp of how things work. Online, their brains went right out their ears.

      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
    • /agreed. And if Murphy's law has anything to do with it, they are going to use the latter of what you described.

      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)

    by complexmath ( 449417 ) * on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:56PM (#10569858)
    Since most computer games take place in fantasy settings where real-world advertisements would be inappropriate, I have to wonder just how popular this is going to be. It also assumes certain display models--a FPS could display billboards while there's no good place in RTS games but the load screen. It's an interesting idea that's a bit ahead of its time, but I don't see it being used in any of the games that are on my christmas list.

  • i can see it now (Score:5, Funny)

    by yulek ( 202118 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @05:59PM (#10569896) Homepage Journal
    COUNTER-TERRORISTS WIN!

    and now a word from our sponsor...

  • Like... (Score:2, Funny)

    by frkiii ( 691845 )

    ...I don't get enough of this directly from Sony Online Entertainment, almost every time I log into EverQuest? Pfft!

  • I always thought that coke machine in west freeport used to be a pepsi machine.
  • Is this a problem that needed a solution or a solution that is now looking for a problem? This looks to me like some suits think they have found a way to make more money with an "untapped and unreachable market" Who benefits here other than the dorks providing the ads? I think gamers lose for sure. I don't see myself buying anything where I have to look at ads. Did the gaming indistry realize that games cost too much and they are going to sell advertising to greatly reduce or eliminate the cost to the

    • 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.

  • Now, not only does your MMO, "Shadowbane", suck, you will start to advertize to the 0 people that play it! Where do I buy stock?

  • Doesnt work in my case (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kin242 ( 789922 )
    Any ads which annoy me result in my boycotting the product. Vote with your wallets on these kind of issues... if you don't like the way a company does things, don't buy their products. Why should I pay to watch advertisements?

  • Buy, BUY! BUY NOW!! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DLR ( 18892 ) <dlrosenthal@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:09PM (#10569992) Journal
    Most corporations no longer see us a customers, they see us as consumers. The difference being that a customer is a partner, someone you listen to. A consumer is no more than a blob to cough up cash, in carny terms it would be called a mark.

    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)

    by nate nice ( 672391 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:16PM (#10570044) Journal
    I want to do my part to keep America Strong and I think by playing games with ad's in it, I will be helping. I fully expect Coke AND Pepsi will debate the better cola in front of me as I am entertaining myself in front of some FPS. Lets face it, you play too many games as do I. We don't have time to really be informed about whats important to us, our things. We have been making bad consumer choices for awhile since we've been into Everquest and not paying attention to the ad's that shape our lives really. Without these ad's, everywhere and all the time, we are simply lost consumers pretending to enjoy things of which we know so little about and perhaps nothing of the competition.

    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)

    by NerveGas ( 168686 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:21PM (#10570091)

    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
    • That's more insightful than you think. They might think they're maximizing revenue by adding an advertising stream to the game, but it also makes the argument against piracy a lot less buoyant. If they're making money just from the game being played, there's no real legal precedent that allows them to shut down P2P networks for carrying software.

      • ridiculous. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Brightest Light ( 552357 )
        If they're making money just from the game being played, there's no real legal precedent that allows them to shut down P2P networks for carrying software.

        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)

    by brxndxn ( 461473 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:22PM (#10570103)
    Having a Replay TV for a few years, using a proxy filter to filter ads, and disabling Shockwave except when needed, I hardly see advertisements.. Yet, I still don't have a problem spending my money!! Yup, I still have things I would like to buy that I can't even afford yet. It's crazy, but even without seeing those all-important ads, I still seem to know about new products!

    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..

  • I hope they don't even consider trying to Patent this.

    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.

  • "Massive Incorporated is the creator of the world's first video game advertising network. Massive delivers dynamic advertising to M18-34 gamers and allows publishers and advertisers to finally capitalize on the largest cultural and economic entertainment force in the world. With its patent-pending technology, Massive dynamically serves advertising across the largest aggregated network of premier video game titles and delivers measured results on consumer interaction with this brand messaging."

    Should be int

  • Not the first... (Score:2, Informative)

    by ninji ( 703783 )
    I dont know if anyone's been paying attention but ive been seeing big screen TV's in games playing ad's for along time, Half the counter-strike games ive played the last 3 months have had verizon cell phone ads in them...

    http://www.adsingame.com/ has been doing this for along time...

  • 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)

    by BenjyD ( 316700 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @06:57PM (#10570358)
    Oh great, another area of entertainment slathered with advertising. Intrude on my games and destroy any immersion - what a great way to attract me as a customer.
  • Next step in advertisement will be the combination of ads in games and this [slashdot.org]!

    <small>upgrades to the latest version of NetHack</small>
  • 1. Dig an old PC outta the closet

    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.
  • The possible good, as mentioned would be if games started going down in price due to ad placement. The bad would be if the games get bogged down with ads, or they are so obvious/disruptive as to ruin the gaming experience.

    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)

    by NeoSkandranon ( 515696 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @07:13PM (#10570468)
    First: Is ANYone surprised that Real is mentioned as being first in line?

    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)

    by solios ( 53048 ) on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @07:46PM (#10570733) Homepage
    Seriously. Load up Homeworld 2:

    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. :| It's on the bus, it's on the web, it's on billboards in town, it's on the radio, it IS the television, it's on shirts, it's on hats, I CAN'T FUCKING GET AWAY FROM IT! >:|

  • Its been done, a bit... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AndyChrist ( 161262 ) <andy_christ@yah[ ]com ['oo.' in gap]> on Tuesday October 19, 2004 @08:22PM (#10571012) Homepage
    Besides things like Mountain Dew and Jet Moto 2 on the playstation, or Red Bull and Wipeout XL, there have been ads in Half-life before.

    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.

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