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Businesses The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

Massive Inc. Advertising Takes Off 135

Posted by Zonk from the they're-everywhere! dept.
Bluecobra writes "PlanetSide, a FPS-based MMO game published by Sony Entertainment of America (SOE) is now using advertising in-game. PlanetSide already charges a fee of $12.99 a month to play and now users are also treated to Fanta, Coca-Cola, and Deuce Bigalow advertisements." Additionally, Martey writes "A recent patch to SWAT 4 introduces dynamic in-game advertising in the form of randomly generated posters on walls in the game. Provided by Massive, Inc., the game downloads new ads each time the game is loaded. Even more onerously, the game contacts Massive's servers to provide data about the length of time and viewing angles that the player looked at the posters."
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Massive Inc. Advertising Takes Off More

Massive Inc. Advertising Takes Off

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  • Great, ads... (Score:4, Informative)

    by silvertear72 ( 899704 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2005 @11:35PM (#13291936)
    If game companies are now allowing ads into their games and claiming that it's a new revenue for them to help improve the quality of games, would it be possible for the game companies to actually LOWER the prices of the games because of the new source of revenue? ...Just a thought...
    • Or at least use the money to improve the game.
    • If game companies are now allowing ads into their games and claiming that it's a new revenue for them to help improve the quality of games, would it be possible for the game companies to actually LOWER the prices of the games because of the new source of revenue? ...Just a thought...

      Possible? Sure. Likely? hehe
    • That, and what about the countless of volunteers that put up servers for, for example, FPS-games : Are they gonna see any revenue from this ? It's a bit unlogical you're serving as an ad-platform, and not getting payed for it.
    • Pfft, good luck with those ads. I was asked about this at work recently and it's clear that in-game ads are coming since we've got a game landscape of movie and sports sequels.

      What I didn't mention, though, was that it'll only be a matter of time before there's a work-around. For every 'Insert Disc 1' to play incident, there's a NOCD patch to fix it. For every in-game ad there will be a NOAD patch to stop the requests.
  • However, it sounds like EVIL, EVIL, EVIL.

    You know what I mean -- stuff that google wouldn't touch.

    • What like ads?
      • Google is a free service paid for by well defined ads. Something that you already buy should not contain ads.

        Magazine ads pissed me off so much that I now buy no magazine that contains ads. I don't buy many magazines.

        If you remember, cable tv (around 1978) was originally completely ad-free. The reasoning was that the content was paid for by your subscription.

        Sure, the remote controls had wires and an unfriendly slide switch, but hey -- we got cheesey pron.

        And... then came along the concept of cable netwo
        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • not sure about the UK specifically but i believe that in most (some?) of europe you have to pay a tv levy per tv in your household as well...
          • FYI:

            In the UK, you are required to pay for a TV License (currently £126.50 {$228.14} or just £42.00 {£75.75} for black and white) every year.

            From the TV Licensing [tvlicensing.co.uk] website:
            "If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one."
            • This license fee pays for BBC 1 & 2 for terrestial "over-the air" viewers and a selection of other BBC channels on digital TV (still over the air, and free to receive however you must have a digital capable TV, or buy a settop box for about £40). It also pays for all the BBC radio stations, the website, and a selection on non-broadcast stuff; they help schools to put on a series of shakespeare plays recently or instance.

              Personnally I think it is a very good system which lets the beeb to do a lot

          • No, not quite.

            In England we have a license fee, a kind of tax on televisions, if you own one, you are required to pay, and the money from that goes to fund the BBC, which has no commercial advertising. However, we also have independant TV stations, both on terrestrial broardcasting, and via cable and satalite, which do have advertising on them (even when you pay for the cable/satalite service).
        • Magazines, and to a lesser extant newspapers, is a bit of a different medium. In that its really the ads that pay for the publishing, content, and such. The subscription alone does not and indeed, cannot, pay for the work that gets put into a printed work.

          Think of magazines as ad-subsidized, maybe that's a bit easier to swallow.

  • Context (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hermit7323 ( 782172 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2005 @11:48PM (#13291978)
    How can you fit Deuce Bigalow ads into a game about dominating a planet?
    • Apparently you've never tried to grind out levels fighting Rubi-Ka's terrible Mangina hordes.
    • How can you fit Deuce Bigalow ads into a game about dominating a planet? I'm not sure, but Sony is making a pretty good bid at dominating Earth, while you're trying to dominate a fake planet.
    • May be possible if Deuce Bigalow is somehow involved in trying to take over the planet...but that in itself may have me thinking twice about getting the game...
    • Media executives could care less what Planetside is about.
    • Maybe they equate a shitty game with shitty movie?
    • It doesn't. that's the problem here.

      There should be a screening process to validate which ads work well with the world and which ones don't. Mr Bigalow doesn't really work in this case.

      If they were making ads to match the era and scope of the game, for example, a coke ad that looks like it was made by advertisers of that world and time, it would work much better than having the equivalent of a 500 year old (don't know what year planetside is set in) ad on the wall.

      In the example from the MMO I play (city of

      • First of all, I'm a Paragon City hero as well. I've pre-ordered CoV and can't wait for the official release of Issue 5. :-)

        Second, you're 100% right. I don't mind ads in games if it fits with real-world experience. If I see a Coke machine in a game set in modern times, I don't think twice about it. In fact, it adds an immersive element to the game since in real life I see Coke machines all over. In City of Heroes, there are snack machines in building break rooms. I wouldn't mind seeing Resee's or M

  • you shell out $45-60 for the game, plus $10-15/mo to play and then they shove advertising down your throat?

    how long until ms adds this as a "feature" to office? apparently the new aim client already includes monstrously obtrusive advertising in im windows, so i can't imagine that it will be too long before the less scrupulous software vendors out there insist on interrupting your work every ten minutes with a full screen ad....
  • Well, they're welcome to do what they like. Lots of pay for clothing with logos on them, advertising the company that made it. Personally, I never pay for advertising. If someone gives me a shirt for free with their company name on it, I'll consider wearing it, but that's about it. This philosophy also applies to video games, if they want to go that route. Give it to me for free, and i'll consider playing it. But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay good money to be barraged with advertising.
    • "But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay good money to be barraged with advertising."

      Do you pay for TV service?
      Not a flame, just a question. I pay for TV because the family wants it, but sometimes even fast forwarding through commercials with Tivo is irritating.
      I stopped Tivo'ing BattleStar Galactica because it was less hassle to just download it off alt.binaries.multimedia.battlestargalactica than it was to deal with the commercials.
      I would be really pissed if Blizzard started to do this with World of Warcr

  • Organic versus Inorganic Advertising (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Babbster ( 107076 ) <aaronbabb@NOspaM.gmail.com> on Wednesday August 10, 2005 @11:58PM (#13292001) Homepage
    First off, I'll say that sticking advertising into a game with a monthly fee is just dead wrong and I'd cancel my subscription if a game I was playing did it. So, the Planetside example is right out.

    As for advertising in other games, I have mixed feelings. For example, I would have no problem at all with a big Coke billboard showing up while I'm tooling around town in a GTA game. It's supposed to be based in a reality similar to our own, so if a company doing this kind of game can make a few bucks by selling ad space, more power to them. Using GTA as the example again, though, real commercials (that couldn't be turned off) on the in-game radio stations would stop me from buying the game. That kind of ad would be overly distracting for me.

    As long as ads are unobtrusive (background) and organic to the game setting (no "The monks of Qeynos drinks Coke, why don't you?"), I think they're fine. It certainly doesn't bother me when I play a golf game and I choose the Ping golf clubs, nor does it put me out of sorts to drive a Chevy in a racing game. But if I'm exploring space, there'd better be a damn good continuity reason to be flying between stars and see a giant, flashing Nike logo...

    • That's a pretty disturbing thought. If the ads are germane to the setting of the game--I support that idea, at least, since I don't want my lv. 97 Superlative Love Ninja to heal up by drinking Sprite--then that'll prompt game creators (or maybe I should say publishers and developers) to set more games in modern/semi-future times in order to make more money.

      We'll see more Madden NFL games and fewer Fallouts. More GTA knockoffs (and not Vice City, either) and fewer Final Fantasy knockoffs. More Counterstri
      • While I'm at it: we've been seeing product placement in movies for years. Does that mean we don't see as many movies set in 3000 AD or 3000 BC because of lucre?

        No. Greed makes us have to sit through a quarter hour of ads (more if you arrive early) before the previews if we'd like to see a movie in a theater. Why can't they plaster game boxes with ads and package sixty little fliers in with the games? Although I guess what I'm suggesting is more along the lines of adding fifteen minutes of ads before the
      • You have somewhat of a point, but I don't think it's that bad. It would be one thing if Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, etc. were money-losers and NEEDED advertising, but they're not. Using movies as an example (as you did above), Lord of the Rings still got made despite not having product placement, as have many other historical/scifi/fantasy films.

        Of course, it's easy enough to point out that we already DO have more Madden than Fallout, and more GTA than Final Fantasy. I don't see that changing any

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Well, we also had MC Kids for the NES (which wasn't half bad), and some game about Cheetos for the SNES... Chester Cheetah?

          Those aside, I can't remember any other glaring examples offhand. I like to think that sort of thing died with the early 90's. Maybe you can count some sports games and that sort of thing in there since they're basically _made_ so that you're simulating playing football with actual players, driving real cars, etc. The people who buy those games, though, don't need to see NFL or McLar
        • It should be noted, however, that Cool Spot was actually pretty fun.
          • I agree, I rather enjoyed the SNES version that I bought. I'm usually not a fan of movie tie-in games or games that are basically an ad like that as the majority of the time they are garbage. Cool Spot however had gotten good reviews and they turned out to be true. I'll still got it packed away in a box here somewhere.
        • In addition to that and the other games mentioned, Dominos had some advertising games. There was Avoid the Noid on the C64 and Yo Noid! on the NES so 7-Up may have gotten the idea from Dominos. As I said in another post, Cool Spot was actually quite fun, especially considering it was a giant advertisement.
        • It didn't start with Cool Spot. Have you ever heard of Chase the Chuck Wagon [davemmr.com]? This was a game created for the Atari 2600? This game was based on the Purina dog food commercials featuring a weird little chuck wagon being chased around the kitchen by a dog.
          This game was never sold in stores, it was a giveaway promo item you got when you sent in proofs of purchase from Purina products.
    • One thing I don't want are advertisements added into a game that I've already bought. If i pay $50 for a copy of SWAT4 and then you later introduce advertising in them as part of a patch (in other words, suffer all of these bugs and glitches or get them fixed and deal with advertising in-game), I've been deceived. Perhaps I would not have bought the game in the first place, if I'd known about all the ingame ads. This is underhanded and sleazy.

      Advertising in most games is done very poorly. Consider all of th
      • one thing I wouldn't mind so much is subtle ads. For example, while playing a modern day combat sim, like Americas Army, or Counter strike, you break into a room, and the room is mostly empty except for some ammo and a coke dispenser. Is it an ad? yes. Is it in your face telling you "ALL YOUR SOFT DRINK ARE BELONG TO COKE!!"? nope. In fact subtle ads like that make the game more "real". Now if you load a level and it starts spawning ads for anal lube while I'm just trying to get into a CTF server, then we h
        • You're saying, "...more subtle ads in games to make them more real..."

          I'm saying, "...less ads in real life to make games more real..."

          sure it wont happen but I can dream
        • This is pretty much the same thing as product placement in a movie. It can be done subtly and doesn't hurt the movie, but sometimes it is so obvious it can jar you out of enjoying the film. Like an unecessary close up shot of the logo on a can of soda - or cell phones with big provider logos on them (what everyone in this movie uses AT&T?).
    • There actually might be a little more to this. Planetside was never really a big hit, and years latter I imagine its population is not growing. My guess is that they are either close break even in terms of profits. If that is the case, then advertisement is a way to stretch out the life of the game a little. Granted, it might simply kill the game faster, but give the choice of killing it now, or throwing in a few ads and extending its life, which would you pick?

      Granted, this is all speculation. I have
    • I have no problem with placing advertising where it helps the game (like in your example of GTA) and I have no problem with the game maker making money off that. However placing intrusive ads like in Swat and Planetside is just crap. Look at the I Robot shoe ad for such stupidity. That one scene lost a star for the movie in my books.
      • I agree about the Planetside ads, both for being inappropriate to setting and, as I mentioned, being placed in a pay-for-play game. I have a hard time believing that SOE is strapped for cash running Planetside, especially with the multi-game deal that should help quite a bit in subsidizing it.

        As for the SWAT ads, I haven't played the game but the linked images were indeed badly placed in terms of integration into their surroundings. If you're going to place ads in realistic interiors, it wouldn't be har

  • So? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @12:00AM (#13292008) Homepage Journal
    So they show posters of real products, whoop-de-fuck. Either the game's worth paying the monthly fee or it's not, Coca Cola posters aren't going to make or break the game. I just hope they're not stupid enough to actually cause inconviences in the game with the ads.
    • I'd have to disagree and cite the "slippery slope" argument. If vendors see dollar signs in any quantity doing this, you can expect it to almost certainly be ubiquitous in the years to come. I can just see it now in games like World of Warcraft - "Cool, the Is It In You - Sword of Gatorade just dropped!!11" :\

  • How long? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Daxster ( 854610 )
    How long will it take before users will react with ad-free game patches and tricks to stop the ads from being downloaded/displayed or statistics recorded? A simple trick might be to block a certain port from the game, if they use a seperate server for the ad system..

    • Re:How long? (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      from the screenshots it looks like you can shoot the adverts up. Prehaps make an adjammers clan. :)

    • Re:How long? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by KillShill ( 877105 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @01:47AM (#13292301)
      it's very simple.

      they will ignite an arms race, whereby patchers disable the intrusive ads and companies try to bring out more rapid "updates".

      eventually though, Insidious Computing will put an end to patchers, whether they be anti-ad patches or no-cd patches or any patches at all. they'll sign the game files and if any alteration takes place that they don't allow, you're not going to make it happen.

      they'll try to turn the pc into a very expensive console. i'm not sure they aren't succeeding already. many crippled cds/dvds come with extremely invasive copy prevention systems. they install several low level drivers (starforce) that more often than not interfere with the regular use of the computer. the fact that all these crippleware programs are spy/malware and are installed without your explicit permission, should be enough to anger many.

      lots of people have complained about data loss due to these extreme measures. but more importantly, they restrict your ability to back up your own bought software. because copyright infringers have no such barriers, they can crank out copy after copy, even better than the originals in that they don't f*ck up your system.

      i have refused to ever buy any starforce games or any games that don't have a no-cd patch. that we consumer sheep (i use the word consumer because if we were customers, we would have a say and we would be allowed to ask for lubrication) take this lying down is a low down dirty shame. i even see some ignorant people who claim that not being able to copy our own software which we bought legally is a feature. if you buy it, you have a legal and moral right to a back up and furthermore you have a "legal" and moral right not to have the disc inside your drive to play.

      everyday, more and more i see that our ownership rights, what's left of them are going down the toilet. many rugrats (term i use for the mentally immature) even see this as a non-issue or even a positive thing... meaning they bought the propoganda hook line and sinker. it's depressing enough that i might as well give up gaming altogether. not like every application today isn't also calling home and what not.

      i don't see this trend going away... but it could given the right conditions. that's all i have to look forward to...for now.

  • I suddenly wish I played planetside (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fo0eY ( 546716 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @12:05AM (#13292025)
    just so I could cancel my account of disgust
    • So that's another MMOG you can subscribe to only to cancel immediately. :-)

      The problem isn't actually the advertising, it's that Sony are submitting people to it without decreasing the subscription cost.

      In AO, only free accounts have to suffer enforced advertising by Massive through in-game billboards. Everyone else has the choice of turning it off.
      • Anarchy Online only forces Massive's advertising on you if you have a free account. Funcom's current offering is a free account that lets you play "AO Classic," but you can't play any of the expansions until you upgrade to a paid account.

        Paid accounts default to advertision off, but you can configure the ads on or off if you really want.
  • <RANT type="hysterical"> Advertising just seems to keep getting more and more out of hand, it's bad enough I have to sit through 10 commercials when I paid $10 to see Star Wars. Now I get to PAY for a game AND watch their god damn advertisements.

    I don't like having products crammed down my throat, if I'm interested in something, I'll look it up ON MY OWN. This is why I love my Tivo.

    If they're going to start forcing me to watch their advertisements in game, AND collect how many seconds I sat a
    • even if you watch shows exclusively on your TIVO you are watching advertising...

      An example is that Fox has a contract with Ford so that EVERY CAR on EVERY FOX show is a Ford. Pay attention next time you watch.

      if the characters are using a celphone in the show, you can guarantee that it's a sponsored 'ad' in the show - if they have a drink of something, you can guarantee that it's a sponsored item.

      do the stars of your favorite show wear shoes? likely sponsored. clothes? again...

      ------

      Fox does not make mo

      • do the stars of your favorite show wear shoes? likely sponsored. clothes? again...

        I think the best reverse example to this is that pretty much every time you see a cool portable computer, it has a big sticker on the back because Apple wouldn't pay them jack to show their logo. It's really interesting to see which shows are such big whores that they'll bother to cover up a brand when they're not getting a kickback. The only way it could get worse is if they got money to cover the Apple logo with a De

        • > every time you see a cool portable computer, it has a big sticker on the back because Apple wouldn't pay them jack to show their logo

          It's not that black & white, actually. Filmmakers / TV producers have to go through a fairly thorough process of getting legal clearance for any and every recognizable brand / logo / trademark / copyrighted song or photo that is seen and recognizable on the screen during a production. Want to have an Ansel Adams print on the wall of your character's apartment? You're
  • Mein Thirsten! [penny-arcade.com]

    Man, that's still funny. Thirsten.

    This was _three years ago._ Are we through fighting this spectre, or are we in for the second round? Why didn't EA keep up with this sort of thing? _EA_ of all people/companies.

  • Okey, now it made sense when FunCom [www.funcom] gave free access to there MMO Anarchy Online [anarchyonline.com], they put (real life) adverts on the already well used advertising boards throughout the game. People who paid monthly for their accounts would have the adverts removed.

    This just seems to be another way for the MMO people to get another few $ from your account. They're breaking the immersion of it, imagine having a "Diet Coke Lemon" advert while hacking up some Orcs in a far far place...

  • Coming soon to WoW (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    KY sex jelly ads featuring dwarfs. Watch yer beck!
  • Ok, this is really starting to piss me off. I took my gf to see Charlie and the chocolate factory a couple of weeks ago. This was a early evening show that was supposed to start at 7:10 (wich cost over $20 us with snacks) after 10 complete minutes of advertisements including a cell phone ad and a tide ad, not to mentiont the trailers and ads for the snack bar the movie finally started I was so pissed I wanted to leave. I really felt like they should have payed me to wathc all that crap.
    • next time you should get up and speak your mind out loud; interrupting the bullshit they're spewing (ads) and let other people know that it's ok to walk up to the manager in a horde and tell them you won't put up with this advertising bullshit.

      i mean, the customer is always right? right?

      • Re:This is getting out of hand! (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        i mean, the customer is always right? right?

        No. The Company is always right. And the Company has decided that 90% of your audio and visual input will be advertising.

        NOW SHUT THE FUCK UP AND BUY SOMETHING.

    • Yep, I know what you are talking about.. I have moved to the UK (from Mexico) and I got really pissed off when I went to the movies here for the first time.

      You see, a single movie ticket here will be like £6 (USD$10) the popcorn something like £3 and soda another £2 (Odeon Cinemas) so going with my girlfriend meant £18 cinema night ~ USD$32.5 ... now might be expensive for you but for me who was used to pay $15 to go to THE BEST cinema (with THX sound, etc etc) in Mexico, I really
    • Coming from a person who happens to work at a movie theater, I can say, that without the advertising, the overpriced snacks and the trailers, you wouldn't have a theater to watch movies at.

      At my theater, the cost of two adult tickets would be $18, coupled with the #2 combo (2 medium drinks and a medium popcorn) for $11.75, just over $20 sounds like a bargain! Movie theaters are expensive to run, and unless they have snacks, at high prices, and advertising to get people to buy said snacks, they would go

  • Heh.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by SocialEngineer ( 673690 ) <invertedpanda@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Thursday August 11, 2005 @01:35AM (#13292258) Homepage
    Wait until online games with this advertising also allow user graffiti..

    You are walking downtown. The year is 2150, and you see a billboard with Jen. Lopez, advertising the release of Gili (I think that was Jen Lopez, who cares) on 1337-DVD format (she did suspended animation-freezing-monkey-hokey stuff to stay alive).. Except there is a giant phallic-shaped object crudely drawn on her forehead, now.

  • they shoul act now (Score:3, Insightful)

    by El_Muerte_TDS ( 592157 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @01:36AM (#13292259) Homepage
    The players should act now and massively cancel their accounts. The signal would be very clear.

  • Ad block (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Allison Geode ( 598914 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @03:23AM (#13292673)
    how long till intrepid game hackers start putting ad-blocker mods out for these games?
    • At what point do you just stop consuming? This push and pull between advertisers/marketers and human beings (yes, Virginia, there is a difference) is like a game of tic-tac-toe. The only way to win is not to play (consume).

    • Re:Ad block (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Forager ( 144256 )
      "how long till intrepid game hackers start putting ad-blocker mods out for these games?"

      About 5 seconds less than it will take Sony to ban anyone caught using the mods.

  • virtual vs. real ads (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Schandi ( 906786 )
    Interesting that some argue, that ads in games are acceptable, when that reflects reality, like billboards in GTA. While I understand this argument on a "suspension of disbelieve" basis - it also means, that where we're annoyed in the real world, it's also okay to annoy us in it's virtual counterpart. More energy should go to fighting ads in the real world like billboards (where the audience doesn't profit), than those in computer games.

  • I'll go along with it IF.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Ken Hall ( 40554 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @07:12AM (#13293441)
    They let me shoot any billboard I don't like with my grenade launcher, and blow it to tiny pieces.

    Track that!

  • Disable Ads via hosts file? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sentack ( 610177 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @08:03AM (#13293733)
    Apparently their's a way to filter the adds from your system but editing your systems hosts file to redirect all the ad provider servers URL to 127.0.0.1.

    Now, I've never done this before but it seems simple enough, the problem is, what are the server names? Their was a post on the SoE forums about this but SoE removed it (I knew I should have copied it as soon as I saw it!) But in general, I guess I could wait till it goes live and then snoop my own machine.. But I know someone has this info somewhere. Anyone? Sentack

    • Well, the ones for SWAT4 were (from the article):

      • 127.0.0.1 madserver.net
      • 127.0.0.1 ad.madserver.net
      • 127.0.0.1 imp.madserver.net
      • 127.0.0.1 media.madserver.net

      I assume they are using the same ones for Planetside if it is also done through Massive.

      • Now here's the real trick, how can I flip around and create a web server that does nearly the same thing as Massive's server except include my own images? I'm thinking, if I can put in my own little images, say my Outfit (Guild) banner, or stats images, that would be pretty awsome. Better yet if I got other people in my outfit to do this for kicks. Sentack
  • They're in the form of billboards that you see occasionally as you're running along the freeway, or on the sides of buildings. At first I thought they were fake ads, and I was really impressed that they'd put something like that in, but in fact they're real ads. They are in fact unobtrusive, fit in nicely with the game, and don't bug me at all. What bugs me are the "this space for rent" ads.

    But frankly the whole thing is deeply amusing to me, and I'm not sure why people are so up in arms. As one of
  • Even more onerously, the game contacts Massive's servers to provide data about the length of time and viewing angles that the player looked at the posters.

    Sounds to me more like the actions of some spyware than a game.

    Putting that aside, we all knew it was coming and it was only a matter of time. There shouldn't be a problem with ingame advertising as long as it is relevant to the time frame / storyline of the game. To me it would make the game seem more realistic.

    Playing a game like EverQuest and

  • Ok, why not play their game? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Amyhr ( 216957 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @09:23AM (#13294310)
    Don't like the ads? There are two things you can do to protest. You could drop your subscription, never play anything with ads, and grumble about it on forums while the majority of people ignore them and play. You lose out on some fun, everyone else keeps doing their thing. Advertising finds it's home in games, people get used to it, and 10 years from now it looks like movie theaters today with all the advertising that happens there.

    The other is my preferred method. Use the advertising model to protest. Make it cost more than it's worth to the advertiser. Create a bot that constantly goes from one ad to another, racking up seconds of view. Get everyone in your clan to spend 10 minutes doing nothing but watching ads every session so the cost of the ads will go up greatly. A few people creating protester scripts and unleashing them to the masses so that you can set it to watch ads all day while at work/school means many, many hours of ads being charged back to the advertising company. The method of advertising becomes very expensive yet the marketing departement does not show that it provides increased revenue. Upper management cans the advertising method as it is now nothing more than a money-hole.

    The advertisements are showing up due to the "almighty dollar", why not use the dollar to send them away? I can't afford to buy the adspace and leave it blank, and I still want to play games. If I can do something to get rid of the ads I will - but I won't drop all video games and spend hours on a forum complaining that there's advertising in all the games I used to play.
  • As long as I can shoot, blow out, and destroy these ads in game they are fine with me. I hope that gets reported to their server. "User lupinster viewed ad for 2 seconds then shot at it for 12 seconds then destroyed it with a grenade."
  • Advertising is advertising. I don't care where it comes from, the only real metric is whether it annoys me.

    We live in a commercial (as in based on commerce, not as in based on ads) world. I expect people to try to sell me things. The only requirement I've had is that you don't annoy or bore me. If you can do that, I don't care if your ad is at the start of a movie, in the middle of a show, embeded in a game, or plastered across a t-shirt. Hell, if you do it well enough I will even take the effort of actuall
  • "A recent patch to SWAT 4 introduces dynamic in-game advertising in the form of randomly generated posters on walls in the game. Provided by Massive, Inc., the game downloads new ads each time the game is loaded. "

    Isn't this game single player? Has anyone played it? What happens if yo disable your internet connection before you start the game?
  • I remember back when subspace was dying and we were hoping to save it, none of us would have really minded the presence of in game advertising a whole lot. I mean advertising can be a good thing if it offsets your costs, but where do we draw the line? The main problem with advertising as a slippery slope in video games is that it's a very, very attractive slippery slope.

    People who play games where advertising is targeted (Anarchy Online, planetside, etc.) spend massive amounts of time playing these games

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