Advertising in Lieu of Game Fees in MMORPGs?

Mat/.Cloud asks: " Am I the only one that thinks it's incredibly unfair to have to pay $20 a month to play a game that I've already paid $50-$60 for? I realize that companies have to charge this fee or they would loose money from the cost of operating the servers. I guess I'm just so spoiled from having everything else on the net being free that I expect this to be also. Then I realized how everything else on the net is paid for... advertising. Would it be possible for companies to put ads in their mmorpg without drastically detracting from the game play? The only reasonably feasible solution I came up with is to have a banner ad at the top of the screen. Do y'all think it would be worth a small sacrifice in game play to keep the games free? Any other ideas on how to insert ads or ways for the companies to pay for their servers?"

Comments

Disrupt the flow of the game?

[GNU Zealot]

This might disrupt the flow of a game in a fantasy setting... This magic vorpal sword +8 drop has been brought to you by Smashdot.

However something like this might work better in a futuristic setting such as the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. Also, Blizzard currently does some banner advertising at the top of the battle.net chat rooms.

I suspect...

[cmowire]

I suspect that you couldn't get enough advertising revenues to recoup a $20/month fee unless the game was equipped with an electric shock device that physically forced you into purchasing advertiser's products.

Especially given that rates for advertising are falling.

There is a limit..

[Forkenhoppen]

You can't just convert everything over to advertising. The companies have to make a sale somewhere to recoup their advertising costs.. Do you think online companies are really going to enjoy a business model that requires that they rely on other businesses for their income? The buck has to stop somewhere. Someone has to fork over the money to power the corporate machine.

Advertising costs the same

[Matthew Weigel]

You're either letting your privacy be violated to get something free (and let's face it, advertisers won't pay nearly enough to cover a $20/person-month subscription without mucho private info), or you're protecting your privacy by giving them just money.

No, subscriptions are the Right Way to Do It. It costs you money, but we're concerned about free-as-in-speech, not free-as-in-beer. Complain about the closed nature of the games first, then we'll talk about the cost (at which point I'll bring up the costs of paying all those developers, admins, and maintaining those servers - and subscriptions will still be the Right Way to Do It).

How to advertise on a MMORPG

[pyro_peter_911]

The key to successfully advertising on an online RPG would be to make the ads desireable in the context of the game.

In DiabloII, for example, collecting the runes 'C', 'O','K', and 'E' and putting them in an item could make a bad-ass and much desired rune word. Players would scramble about in an attempt to locate these "sponsored" items.

Your Paladin would soon be wearing Nike Mesh Boots, GAP armor, Dillard's rings, etc. Everyone would be walking billboards, just like in real life!

Hrmmm. Maybe this isn't such a good idea.

Already there

[jbert]

You can take a look at http://www.runescape.com for a free-to-play MMORPG which is funded by banner ads in the client.

So you were right :-)

Re:A very rough estimate...

[IronChef]

The math is pretty simple, but I keep seeing EQ/Sony/Verant apologists on the message boards claiming that the company is making almost no money on the game, that the servers cost soooo much to run, that there's soooo much staff, and poor Sony and we should all be happy they don't raise prices.

What are they smoking? $44M off subscriptions. Yeah, poor Verant all right! Sheesh.

Glad I kicked, anyway. More time for... uh... oher games, I guess...

I can see it now.

[SuiteSisterMary]

Your character stalwartly advances towards the Bridge of Doom. It's a rotten, rickity rope and wood bridge. Looking down, you cannot see the bottom of the Gorge of Peril; only fetid smoke, smelling of the grave. You hear the gibbering of mad things, things just beyond the ken of mortals. north As you approach the end of the bridge. You see an old man, white of eye, stooped, gnarled, wearing tattered robes. At your approach, he lifts his head, and intones in a strangely singsong voice:
You must answer me these questions three, ere the other side ye see! /say I'm not afraid, bridgekeeper! Ask me your questions! The bridgekeeper nods, and asks the first question.
WHAT...is the worlds most refreshing drink? /say Coke. The bridgekeeper cackles in delight. What....is the athletic shoe most likely to improve your game? /say Nike. The bridgekeeper claps his hands sarcastically.
WHAT....was the effect Napster had on the sales of compact disks sold by the RIAA, as is generally accepted by journalists, the ignorant, and people afraid of 'that Internet thing?' /say What? But CD sales went up! The bridgekeeper grasps a lever and pulls it, and you are catapulted into the Gorge of Peril.

• You are dead! Press space bar to respawn.

10Six, an MMORTS does this.

[Drakino]

10Six has ads on billboards in certain areas of the game. The nice thing is that all you have to do to play is download the client and register. Then if you like the trial, you subscribe. The ads themselves were only in areas that players meet to swap items, so it wasn't a huge hassle compaired to paying $50 to even see the game.

Re:how about good ol' product placement?

[cmowire]

No, what you will see is more like the movies...

There's product placement, AND a fee. ;)

SYSADMIN: OT

[swordgeek]

Hey, it's that guy from Alberta again. (Colin, by the way)

Please send me a copy of your resume, and if it looks at all like what we're doing here (Unix, esp. Sun stuff) then I'll pass it onto my manager. We're definitely hoping to get two people in Ontario very soon.

Oops!

[swordgeek]

Son of a...

Sorry, forgot the email address. Send it to:
colin@west.gecems.com

Like 900 numbers

[Graymalkin]

I wouldn't mind paying a fee for using an MMORPG if it was something along the lines of paying for time spent online or how much throughput I used. I never got into playing games like EQ because I didn't want to pay a flat rate for service I might not use for a month or only use a little bit if school or work got intensive. Maybe even the game itself ought to be a subscription service. Instead of shelling out 60$ all at once for the game you could either download it or order a cheap cd (15$ including S&H) with the game. The publisher would sell an account on the network for playing of the game. They could save tons on physical distribution and use the subscription money to cover development cost and the maintainance of the network. I think one of the best examples of a MMO game is Subspace. It was a game of pretty simple concepts, it was a glorified Asteroids for the most part, yet had a ton of gameplay due to the multiplayer aspect. Even after VIE died and dropped all support the game lives on with a fair sized audience even after three years of no official support. The problem with Subspace as an example is VIE went out of business so we didn't get to see if their revenue model was going to work or not.