( This is older news, but don't think this has been posted here before. )

Ads are everywhere these days, and so far Video games are one of the few places we can go to get away from them... but for how much longer?


Apparently, marketers seem to resent the fact that we spend so much time playing ad-free games instead of watching ad-filled TV.


http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112224468814094387-c_lyn_JklKkAgR_5JCbWBwSi_7c_20060725.html?mod=blogs

Personally, I hate the idea of this. Games are supposed to be imersive and suddenly seeing an ad for some s*** that someone wants you to buy just kills the gameplay. (ads that are fake/satirical aren't part of the problem , b/c they're meant to be part of the game)

discuss.

Yes, it pisses me off deeply. And sadly, I can see game devs caving in for the money.

This is why open source games > all.

Why do you hate the free market, PageWizard?

:p

It's not so much about the free market as it is about nothing being sacred anymore. In the beginning, ads on radio and network tv were tolerable. An explosion in the quantity of ads and a decrease in quality eventually ruined network TV during the 1990s. People flocked to cable. Ads then ruined cable TV (to add insult to injury, people actually had to pay to watch ads). Then along came the internet, and for a time it was good. Then ads started showing up--intitially static in-page ads that could be ignored, then pop up ads, and then the ads gradually mutated into the flash-powered/ dynamic HTML abombinations that we have today. (free webpage providers like geocities are among the worst offenders- I remember back when they had no ads of any kind in the 1996 era)

Video games are currently pristine and ad-free for the most part and I want them to stay that way. In fact, a game that you buy (and in some cases also buy a subscription to, as with MMORPGS) has no right to show you ads b/c you paid for the game yourself. If you have to watch ads in games, then they should pay YOU to play. Under the arrangement in the article, the advertisers and the game companies win, but the consumer gets it up the a** since the consumer isn't getting anything extra in exchange for the ads.

In contrast, ads on TV and the internet, repulsive as they are, are a necessary evil b/c some sites (even this one) rely on the revenue they create when they are served or clicked on, and ads keep network TV free for viewers.

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I don't see the big deal. You take a game and you ad real ads where the fake ads are and it doesn't hurt anyhting. Billboards, coke machines, on bus stops. It's not a huge thing. Also, the money the game makers get will help them stay in business and put out more games.

That Matrix game that was released at the time of the two movies, that had water advertisements as I recall.

I actually hated splinter cell 3 based on the ads for airwaves, they literally popped up in 3 cutscenes, it pulled you right out of the game.

Those are the sort of ads I would rather not see in games, I don't want to see a lead character shamelessly advertising wares that have nothing to do with the game inself.

Time for our heroine to get her next mission on her Cingular-provided razor telephone and drive her BMW to drive over to McDonalds and fight some Armani-wearing mobsters and then go and use the money she makes to accessorize with a Louis Vuitton handbag and De Biers jewelry and then MapQuest her way to attend the Price Waterhouse Cooper banquet and the following Dave Matthews Band concert in the Dunkin Donuts arena while chugging Coca Cola as health powerups. Bonus lives for each Texaco gas station stopped at en route. Alternatively, she could book tickets on Travelocity through her Dell computer running off NetZero and fly United Airways, making sure to stop at Starbucks in the airport, where she's bombarded by adertisements and duty-free items in the Attache inflight magazine. She can watch Sideways and Sin City as the in-flight movies, but these, too, begin and end with ads for Oreck vacuum cleaners and Tootsie Rolls.

If they touch my WoW... well.. I don't know what I'll do, but I'm sure that it will be bad. Imagine seeing an ad for some cell phone or something when flying into Ironforge. Yeah. That's enough to ruin your gameplay experience. Putting these ads in games just doesn't sit well with me.

Don't mind the mystical unworldly coca-cola advertisements next to the innkeeper.

Tired of looking at the vast sea? watch our promotional captain crunch cereal promos posted on the walls of your ship!

Waiting on your afk member? take a look at scholomance's sponsor, youth cream alvera! Just take a look at all the walls of scholomance for full details.

Isn't there a shooter, where some spyware records how long you look at the recently added ads and from which angle?
I'll try to find the article, when I'm home.

I don't watch TV. Too many popup ads.

The way I see it is that ads in stuff we get for free (TV, radio, websites) are perfectly legitamite. Ads in stuff that we already pay for (cable, movies at the theater, video games) are no good. Google has it right; they make you look at ads, but when's the last time you paid for anything that came out of Google? If video game developers are going to put ads in-game, then we should be getting the games for free.

This deeply angers me. We pay for games not ads. They should be paying US to watch there ads, not vice versa.

It’s almost like wearing a Nike shirt. You’re paying the company to advertise. It’s just unethical and economically unfair.

I think the ONLY game that should have advertising is sports games. Seeing an ad for Sony on the side of the wall when your playing MLB 2006, is totally different than having a big ad for Wal*Mart pop up when you finished playing Ravenholme in Half-Life 2.



-KnightRider2000

Walmart: for all your zombie-attack survival needs.

I'd be okay with it if they lowered the price of the games and (for MMO's) reduced the price of monthly fees....




....not that I play too many modern era games...

There are several games that contains ads (usually found in the style vending machines with various brands on the front, in-game billboards, or in subway or city type levels as posters).

I really don't give a crap, unless it screws up the game somehow.

SNAKE:This is Snake. Colonel, can you hear me?

COLONEL: No, because I am not using a Sony-Ericsson communication device.

SNAKE: Damn.

If they did it with product placement it'd only make it more realistic. But if they did it by adding huge ad frames every where like in the concept are I'd be very ticked off. We pay for a game. We don’t pay for advertisements. It would totally ruin the immersion.

As long as it has sweet graphics.

OH NOES! MY IMMERSIONS, THEY ARE RUINED! What, do you have the attention span of a five year old? Get over it. You see advertisements everywhere, every day. You've learned to deal with them in real life, just do the same with these.

Of course you see adverts everywhere. But you didn't pay to see them.

If they're appropriate to the setting, sure. But I don't want to rush Omaha beach and the ridge to overshadowed by a McDonald's billboard.

Yes.

Well, of course. But that's not really what the article is talking about.

The two most recent Splinter Cell games featured advertisements. Sam's OPSAT was made by Sony Ericsson, and the game featured several ads for Cingular and Axe body spray. It may have even featured certain beverages on the in-game vending machines, but I am not certain. I played those games for countless hours. The adverts didn't bother me at all. Splinter Cell still remains one of my favorite series, because I feel "immersed", to coin a phrase, into the game. I get all tense when I hear footsteps, I get nervous before I enter a room. The ads didn't bother me a bit.

If its in the same theme as the game, thats fine, or if they're unobtrusive, I guess thats fine. But adding full video and audio ads of real items into a futuristic MMO like AO is ****ing stupid. Something like the Alienware adverts in Neocron 2 is acceptable.

I can't wait for Blizzard to install a McDonalds at Ironforge and a BK over at Orgrimmar. Screw alliance/horde rivalry, this is serious.

What, you don't watch movies, subcribe to magazines, or have cable TV? And what about the internet? And regaurding the video/audio ads, this is Anarchy Online we're talking about. The same game who couldn't attract players by offering it free. I'm not really seeing the likes of Blizzard stooping to this level.

yeah ads that make sense... like say the billboards and the best buy in NFSU2... they fit and make the fake city seem more real

ads like those in AO... don't... i mean come on... the last time i played i couldn't go anywhere without seeing THE FANTA SLUTS

I go to the movies for $8 to sit in the theatre. For a price like that, instead of a $25 for the DVD, the ads support what I'm watching. If the ads were in the movie and it has no relation to what I see, then I would be pissed. That totally destroys my movie experience.

When I pay for cable TV, I pay for my TVs to be hooked up with better channels. The money I pay is for the connection, not the shows. The shows need the money, and it is understandable. For the channels I pay for come with little or no ads.

Am I paying for every site on the internet? No. So ads make sense and understandable. As for magazines, there isn't much "experience" when reading text, especially for $6-10.

Video games are different because I'm paying $30-60 dollars on a game product. I better well get the treatment and experience I damn deserve.

Oh, not those, please not those. I hate that comerical. I might buy the game though, if I could could kill them with many a powerfull and painful weapon.

It's called product placement, and it's been in almost every big-budget studio flick made in the last twenty (probably longer) years. And that's what most advertising in games ammounts to today.

What, and game developers and publishers have a magical, unending well of money? Why would they put ads in otherwise?

****, man, that's what they're trying to do! But, unfortunately, they have to make money so they can pay their employees and produce a profit. And quite frankly, you don't "deserve" ****. If you don't want to buy a game because it has advertisements in it that take away from your ****ing immersion, it doesn't matter. There are plenty of other *sane* people out there who can look past them.

If they want to make a profit they should make a better game and advertise more to attract more buyers. Ads in the game takes away the quality of the product, and people are concerned with quality, especially if they payed alot of money for it.

And how would you know a game will have ads before buying it? I'm pretty sure alot of *sane* people would be upset if what they bought was riddled with ads that bring down the gaming experience.

Well yeah. Movies don't cost much to see. And big movies already popular and successful enough without the help of product placement.

Poor product placement ruins the enjoyment from the film and shows (like in I Robot and The Resturant.)



Oh come on. There are plenty of ways to make money without putting ads in the game. They can make business contracts that will put client ads in the game's ad. They can put ads in the game's website and in store game adverts. They can make agreements take say statements like "Quake 8 runs best with Ati cards" and "Nvidia is the card of choice for playing GBK's Manhunt!" And so on.

For example, does Valve use ads in their games? No. But they had that deal with Ati cards (free copy of HL2 when you buy Radeon 9800 or something). They use Steam to sell products and goods. They probably make contracts to let other game companies to use Steam. (like Ragdoll Kungfu)? Money, money money!

Picture this: You're playing Doom 4. It’s dark creepy, and you expect to see something big and scary around the corner. You turn the corner to find the room lit up with large wall sized consoles playing adds for hello kitty for free emotes. Some of them even have annoying tunes. That would really, really stink. I don't mind a few tactfully place bill boards in an urban setting (You would expect to see bill boards there. It blends in and adds to the immersion.) But if I'm playing JKIII I don't want to see an add for e-harmony on every other wall. Get what I'm saying?

If I pay for something, I don’t want adds with it. I pay for movie tickets. I don’t want to sit through 15min. of commercials and previews. (Unless they’re previews for a movie I really want to see.) The commercials and previews should be on before the movie is advertised to start. Cable TV doesn’t cont, because you’re only paying for a service that allows you to view other company’s content for free. You’re paying for a medium not a content. If you were paying for the content, I would be against commercials.

We pay fifty dollars for a game. If the devs. Can’t make money off it, they need to raise the price. Forcing me to watch adds for something I played for is stupid. I’d really rather not have my PC loose FPS because it’s trying to play some stupid add for a product I don’t want while I’m trying to play a game.

Really? I'd rather take the 5 or 6 point fps drop for a couple of seconds than spend $70-$80 on a game rather than $40-$50.

Ads in loadscreens would be excellent. After a while, who really pays attention to those? And it'd just make the game that much cheaper if it were popular, and make game making a more lucrative business. Seriously, it's all about how it's implemented.

Ads in video games would at least do one good thing: they'd solve the moral dilemma of whether or not to obtain them illegally. *opens bitcomet*

You're criticizing highly unlikely bizarre exaggerations that you've thought up yourself. I doubt this is going to happen. :p

"Ice Cold Coke $0.25" on a vending machine - Good
plasma TV object playing a FMV for starbucks - bad