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

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.