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Online Gaming Ad Network Launches
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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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.
http://www.busyweather.com/
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?
...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.
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.
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.
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.
home of the original cupholder
And they(18-34 year olds) are too hard to reach via T.V. because we stopped watching T.V. If advertisers stopped and asked themselves "Why have they stopped watching T.V.?" they might realize that it is due to the lack of content and 15 minutes of advertisements.
Are the advertising companies just trying to drive us out of our apartments and homes and force us to go outside for a while? Is this all part of a master plan to advertise on the moon's surface or in space using giant lasers beams attached to mutant space sharks?
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.
-- Jinsaku
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.
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.
AD FRAG!
Just like cable TV - you pay to get commercials.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Unfortunately, then the ads are being shown to a self-selected bunch of cheapskates who don't buy stuff.
Not very useful for markting.
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.
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?
kin242.net
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.
"Like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master."~RAH
saw this in a different article about Massive, Inc. and how this works. I hope the following is true:
Targeting features must be agreed upon with game developers, and usually require players to provide opt-in registration.
Oh that much is true, hidden in the EULA somewhere...
The secret to getting modded up is to allways say i've got karma to burn in your sig..
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 machines.
(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.
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.
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..
--- We need more Ron Paul!
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.
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 revenues for my playing the game, how can they claim that software piracy is causing them to lose money?"
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?
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
I didn't read the article but i dont think its actually commercials, its just ads, like a billboard in the background, or a character wearing a certain brand, etc
<tin foil hat mode>
That's where it starts, soon they won't be satisfied with just static adds, they will want more, "in your face" type adds. Games will start to have adds on a quarter of the screen, then half. Next, they will pop up every time you frag someone, to try and play off the euphoric feeling you get from fragging. After that they will start to try to find ways to broadcast them into your dreams, and the the terrorists will have truly won.
</tin foil hat mode>
Ok, so that's a bit over the top, but I still don't think that advertisers will be satisfied in sitting passively in a world. They will want animations, sounds, and screen space. My only hope is that this whole thing falls falt, but it won't. Advertisers will go to nearly any length to build brand recognition, and being in games will do that. Moreover, people are stupid enough to help companies out in that area. Ever notice how people willingly become walking billboards for companies (i.e. wearing a t-shirt with a logo), and they usually pay for that priviledge. We might as well get used to the idea that games will be chock full of ads, its going to happen, and no amount of bitching is going to stop it.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
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 opinion, not cause a direct sale. However online, if they weren't getting a completely unreasonable click through and sale rate, they whined. Since the ad COULD now lead to a direct sale they expected it SHOULD with a large frequency.
Also note how online ads continue to try and be more and more annoying. People aren't buying enough? Must be that ads aren't in their face enough! Make it more annoying.
I'd have no problem with them used to enhance ambiance (though fake ads, ala GTA 3, can be really great), but I bet they are far more likely to be used in a really annoying way.
Seriously. Load up Homeworld 2:
:| 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! >:|
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.
Conversely, if the pirated version has the ads removed, that's value-added from the consumer's perspective. Much like with the new, more invasive copy protection schemes, the cracked game is in a lot of ways superior to the one you can buy in a store.
Bite the hand.
I've got two words for you, advertiser: hosts file.
Roses are #FF0000, violets are #0000FF, all my base are belong to you
But perhaps a choicily blocked port or some smart host files entries will be all thats requried (at least in the beginning) to thwart their ad plans. And perhaps, as with other forms of advertising, it will need some regulation to keep it under control. There seems to be a propensity on the internet that since its a new medium that the old rules need not apply.
They aren't the only ones doing it. Some 200+ PHXX.NET servers are running ads through the http://www.adsingame.com and http://ingameads.com networks.
They are giving servers out for free to clans in return for populating them.