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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.
Isn't it bad enough that I have to put up with ads on my television, radio, public transportation, and web browser? Christ, give us five minutes of peace, you ad-serving bastards.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Just stand in front of one of the advertising panels and no one is going to risk taking a potshot at you in case they miss and get whisked off to buy some dumb widget... Worst of all, if the ads are proxied through the game server instead of being downloaded directly from the advertising company, it's going to be a little bit more tricky to block them. Particularly if doing so involves reverse engineering the game protocol as that potentially puts you on the wrong side of the DMCA and its equivalents...
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
I don't see this being used for in your face (TM) advertising. Instead I imagine games like Vice City where the billboards are replaced with real ads, or sports and racing games where the signs around the playing area reflect real advertisements. This sort of thing has been in games for quite some time, it's just that now the game companies have the ability to change the ads.
That's why I ALWAYS try the demo first. Any game worth buying provides a demo. I get a lot of mileage out of playing demos. If I am not bored by the time I make it to the end of the demo (if I even make it to the end), then I consider buying it.
I haven't wasted money on "hyped-up junk" for some time.
The Fat Man Walks Alone
1. Dig an old PC outta the closet
2. Install two NICs
3. Install OpenBSD
4. Setup a bridge.
5. Create a pf rule to block all outgoing connections to the Ad servers IP block.
It's transparent to all ethernet devices and you can tweak the ruleset as needed.
Besides things like Mountain Dew and Jet Moto 2 on the playstation, or Red Bull and Wipeout XL, there have been ads in Half-life before.
There were servers on WON which had maps which were loaded with ads...presumably these ads were run by the companies being advertised. I don't recall what the companies were, but it just seemed like it would have been.
There was rarely anyone on these servers, and the maps sucked.
Also, as to their claims of "micro-segmentation," internet advertisers have been promising that for years and have been almost completely unable to deliver. I'm still getting ads for internet gambling (on sites that should know my interests a little better than that), and I won't even go to a REAL casino.
Why? My guess is they lack a large enough pool of advertisements to have ads available to match up to individual viewers. The closest I've seen is Google, who seemingly have ads from such a broad array of advertisers that they occasionally come up with something I like. (And since I'm usually not logged in, and often not on my own computer, they presumably don't even have a pattern of behavior to associate with me)
And lets talk about intrusiveness for a moment. Putting an ad into the middle of say, 2fort, isn't so bad. It pretty much lacks atmosphere as it is. Putting an ad into say, most Halo or UT 2004 maps, or Doom 3...that would, for the most part, be unavoidably cheesy. Like obvious product placement in movies ("I Robot" anyone?)
This is going to fail. Maybe not fail BIG, but it will fail. BEST CASE it will stick arond like banner ads. Most of the promises they're making to advertisers though, are bullshit. But what do you expect? These are salesmen offering their services as salesmen.