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Full-Motion Ads Come to Videogames
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "'Advertising in videogames, dominated in the past by static ads such as billboards and signposts, is beginning to look more like TV commercials,' according to the Wall Street Journal. Massive, the company that brought still ads to videogames last year, is now introducing full-motion ads to PC-based games (not yet console titles). Massive CEO Mitchell Davis 'says Hollywood movie studios have shown particular interest in running 15-second movie trailers in online games.' Also of note: 'One problem with the full-motion ads is that gamers can easily avoid watching them. The full-motion ads start playing when a player moves near the ad spot on the screen -- and stop playing when the player moves away. As a result, gamers may see only a few seconds of the 15-second ads. Massive says it won't charge advertisers unless the full ad has been viewed.'"
Player: "Oops, time out while I take 15 seconds to watch this ad..."
Game Narrator: "As you stand in the same spot for 1.3 seconds, the demon from hell rips your head off and tosses your mangled body over the nearby cliff. Alas, you find yourself dead at the bottom of the ravine. Better luck next time."
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
..of "Ad locations" maps will flourish alongside this intiative. That, or mods to remove them altogether. Although that might chnge the game rating....
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
Yey, more lag!
Can't get enough!
and especially on a console, assuming the user has no network connection...
>>Massive says it won't charge advertisers unless the full ad has been viewed.'"
And how do they intend to track this? This is pretty scary. I kind of thought that the purpose of gaming servers was to facilitate gaming and interaction between players...not to monitor their activity.
Where does one draw the line as to what is and isn't monitored?
wbs.
Huh?
Whatever happened to suspension of disbelief? Games are generally supposed to happen in their own world - especiall online games... how can viewing a movie trailer for a real-life movie possibly fit in with the game world?
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
Here's hoping those in the gaming community more skilled than myself will be releasing patches for these games to remove the ads.
And they know this how? Sounds like adware/spyware on my PC -- again.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
So, basically what you're saying is that the 40 gb hard drive I have now will be filled up with advertisements? And furthermore, shouldn't I be able to have a game that's free of advertisements, seeing as I allready paid $49.95 for the game?
-gjr
It's true. :-(
Could these ads be altered by spyware? Maybe a spyware could make a ad longer and maybe change an ad altogether.
Or maybe even a patch like the infamous "hot coffee" that turns all G rated ads to MA ads.
What does your Credit Report look like?
I can't wait to see how they can start incorporating telemarketing calls in video games.
Why would anyone stop and watch these unless they're promoting GTA "hot coffee".
Unless the game is free, there should be no adds. If there are adds in the game and there was no warning on the box I would look into a law suit. I'm 90% sure there are disclosure laws that cover this kind of thing. And of course if there is a warning on the box that the game has adds in it, I wont be buying it.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Because when I buy a game at full price, and then pay the full price monthly fee. I can tell that am I getting the best discount for being used as marketing research. Oh and I love ads too, just wanted to add.
Just a boy doing unproffesional IT work that's way above his head.
Anyone besides advertising execs would want this in a game? It sucks to think that consumers and developers will actually put up with this, although there's no doubt they will for the following reasons:
Producers like money.
Developers want to keep their jobs.
Consumers just don't know any better.
Those pretty much describe the driving forces behind the game industry today, and it's sad that it's so obvious and so unchangeable.
Don't stand still!
Can advertisers please f*ck off!
Leela: "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"
Fry: "Well sure, but not in our games! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in games! No sirree."
Chalk one up for marketing progress!!!
So this means all our games now will be free...right? Like our commercial TV is free cause we watch all the ads.
And just like going to the movies is now free cause of all the ads in the beginning...right?
/Sarcasm mode terminated.
This is bullshit. If the consumer isn't getting any benefits out of it I guess I'll avoid the privilege of paying for something that throws advertisements at me.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
Instead of placing ads IN the game's content, why not play them while levels are loading? It seems modern games like Doom3 and Half-life 2 take well over 15 seconds to load a level anyway. Instead of just a bland progress-bar you could be watching an AD.
In-game ads would be easier to avoid (don't go near the creek unless you want to watch an ad for the dawson's creek DVD), but would IMHO be much more disruptive to the imersion of the game. Loading screens already hurt (KILL) imersion, so you might as well throw an ad up to take my attention away from watching the progress bar slowly move.
man is machine
And I wont pay for games which have advertisements. *period*. I play games to *GET AWAY* from the bullshit that i the modern world.
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
Fine. Whatever. Put ads in if you want, because you were going to anyway, nothing stopped you in the movies, but if my character needs a god damn Pizza-Hut ray gun to quash the evil Ceasar overlords Im going to personally shit in your Director of Marketing's coffee.
There is truth in humor.
GODLIKE..... this fragfest is sponsered by Bawls. bawls, when you just gotta have a caffinated twitch to kill your friends.
Nothing like an Advert to kill your killing streak.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
If I'm paying $50 for a new game, I don't want to have to look at ads because EA or whoever found a new way to squeeze a few extra bucks out of their product. This just angers me.
Peace out, homies.
Screw that! If such things are going to be monitored/tracked, charge the advertisers every single time the ad starts playing!
Depending on the advertiser, I'd spend a couple hours/week purposely racking up charges for them.
Putting ads in the very medium that people use to escape ads is extremely distasteful.
Are they going to pass on any of the ads revenue to the consumers?
With the sponsorship of the US Labor dept and utilizing the latest in VOIP, IM, OLTP technology, gamers will now be required to work 8-hours of technical support, software QA, and data entry to receive 16 hours of gameplay.
Fry: "Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree."
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
How about someone writes a bot that just keeps viewing the ad. That will stop this real quickly!!
Putting more ads before movies has been working great for that industry.
Damn them, I pay $50 for a videogame and have to put up with ads?
FSCK that. I will NEVER buy a game that I know to have this kind of advertisement in it. The logos at the beginning of the game test my patience already.
I think they've got it all wrong... No one is going to stop and watch an ad whilest someone is shooting at them or chasing them with a chainsaw or something like that...
No, I think the characters need to be dressed in outfits like those worn by nascar drivers, full of ads. You can pick your character as the marlboro man, Mrs. exxon mobile, and the Amazon queen.
Next, to do the movie ads correctly, they need to be displayed on the torso of your opponent, especially if it's a game where you have to work on a big opponent for a while. Then, everyone is stuck watching them.
See, that wasn't hard.
Jerry
http://www.cyvin.org/
The new spelling of Text Adventure Game is Text Ad Venture.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
I know it's been said before... but people pay to play these online games. Why would I want to pay to hear an advertisement? This is about the same level as commercials before, during, or after a movie preview; actively exploiting a captive audience without providing them any tangible compensation seems short-sighted and risky.
Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
I know I've always wanted to unload a surface to surface missile at some of the animated billboards on the side of the freeway
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
"One problem with the full-motion ads is that gamers can easily avoid watching them."
How sad is it that this is considered a problem?
This will no doubt mean lower video game prices now that publishers will be drawing ad revenue, right?
The only way I can see this being somewhat not hated by the gamers is if it is used in a MMO game to eliminate the monthly fees. I would be willing to play a game where the ads were hosted on the server and I wasn't charged for playing on that server.
-- Any comments seen here are not mine, but a mixture of alchohol and lack of sleep.
The time has come to take a stand against having our cost of living subsidized.
I'd rather pay the full cost for a product than pay a lesser price so I can watch advertising. If you can't produce the thing for a low enough cost such that people value it enough for you to recoup your costs, dont make it.
Man, am I getting sick of this. Bigger and bigger budgets, subsidized by advertising; why not better and better products, succeeding on they're own terms.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Then there should be some interesting adds.... Your playing Diablo III, and all of a sudden you see ads for occult supplies. Or your playing an online game, and some little brat is cussing "cuz hez cool", and you begin to see all sorts of disturbing ads....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Seiously, I know this has already been said, but if my 50 bucks isn't enough, then they can go to hell.
I for one would not want to try to sell something to a potential customer by annoying them.
I imagine that, subconsiously, the user would start equating your product with something they hate.
It seems to me that the product placement, as it exists in games today, is alot more effective so long and your not seeing a ad for Mountain Due right before your fall into a lava pit. The opposite, in my mind, would be more effective - imagine crawling out of a lava lake and the first thing you see is a cool, refreshing, thirst quenching, Sprite with a fresh can of ammo sitting beside it...
But what do I know, I'm just a stupid IT guy...
Their server, their rules. I personally always assume that when I'm playing on someone's game server they know everything I do in that game universe. For MMORPGs, that's pretty literally true. They have a rather massive database of what happens so they can track down bugs and exploits.
You have no right to privacy on other people's property. If you come to my house and find microphones and cameras setup everywhere you are welcome to leave, but you cannot pretend like you have some right to stop me from monitoring you.
If it bothers you, don't play games that use this service, there are plenty that don't. For that matter, there are plenty of games that are offline, they never even try to contact anything on the Internet.
They have it working in Anarchy Online for the free players. http://www.anarchyonline.com/
Seems to me, if you're not paying for the game, this isn't such a bad idea. I'd love to see AO extend their free accounts past January 16, 2006 and have them be funded by this. I don't know if it's possible, but it's not intrusive, really. The ads only exist on billboards inside the cities, and generally, they fit into the world. For example, an ad for AlienWare PC's.. It all looks kind of future anyways, something you could expect to see on a futuristic billboard. Now, if they decide to start subjecting me to ads on my paid EQ or WoW account.. Well, then that account is going out the window.
Each processor would proceed sequentially as if it had been better for them not to rise against Saul.
This will be an interesting puzzle for level designers - advertisements are best placed in high-traffic areas to maximize exposure, but the players will then tend to avoid those areas to minimize exposure (read: annoyance and distraction). And the advertisements will be competing with game elements that are also trying to draw the player's attention- powerups, other players, stationary objects like teleporters. Advertisements will also have interesting effects on perception and types of engagement- sniping right now is just a matter of looking for moving targets, but what if they're running around in front of a giant flashing movie trailer?
A good bit of the wrongheadedness of this idea comes from the fact that in professional sports, the ads are not aimed at the players; they're supposed to be seen by the audience who is watching them. Video games have no equivalent to this, except in the "pro gaming" world, which is still too small to be an influential market
"The most highly anticipated movie of the summer!"*
*According to Massive ads Inc.
Sure that web-site has content.. But so does a garbage can!
Perhaps we will soon be downloading patches laden with new advertising content. "If we bundle it with an auto-patching frontend, the users will be delighted to see new content each and every time they fire up the game!" At least, that's what the PR guy will say. The kind of PR guy who sharpened his teeth working for gator.
Instead of just adding movies, how bout integrating products with game play. In Oddworld Munch's Oddysee there you drink Sobee to restore your health. Or maybe have an army recruiting office in the game where you actually have to join the real world Army to get to the next level....
Seriously though, I remember seeing (static)ads pop up in games and thought to myself "hmmm, funny, I didn't pay less for this game, why the ads?"
Where does it end? I have to endure "ad noise" everywhere, buses, urinal stalls, while on hold, in movies, what's next? Reminds me of that "ads in your dreams" episode of Futurama.
insert inflammatory anti-microsoft comment here
As you drive your combat skimmer across the sand dunes on Alberon VI, you notice a full motion billboard next to the bombed out ruins of the enemy's headquarters..."Get a free Experian credit report with a free 30-day credit monitoring trial."
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
Alas, you find yourself dead at the bottom of the ravine. Better luck next time."
(As the screen shows the floor and your blood's dripping, you manage to see an announcement in a nearby wall:
"Headache? Take advil."
If they tried to make the ad fit in the game universe. It is not impossible and could even be funny if not too invading. But, oh, they won't. I wonder if MMOG adopted ads on the walls what would happen. Would you be able to rip the poster off ? To tag it ?
\u262D = \u5350
Great! So now I'll have to buy the latest hardware so I can play the latest games with the greatest graphics which display full motion ads that take up an additional chunk out of my CPU.
_Vishal www.squad9.com
if they were desperate to squeeze ads somewhere in the game, the best place would be on the loading screens.
The DVDs are more creative -- especially when it is a porn DVD. There is some code (or something) on the DVD that prevents you from doing a chapter skip.
Allow me to explain. I usually watch porn on my laptop, and it is equipped with a DVD player. Once I slam that DVD into the slot, Windows XP recognizes the right software and invokes the DVD player. It has both a fast-forward button and a forward chapter-skip button. Once I see the ad, I try to click on the chapter-skip button so that I can quickly move onto the Vaseline-consuming scenes. However, the chapter-skip button is disabled. The best that I can do is to click on the fast-forward button.
Unfortunately, many porn DVDs are packed with frontend ads, and fast-forwarding through them takes about 1 minute. 1 minute is an eternity when you want to get a porn fix. Guys, you just know what I'm talking about.
I may misremember, but didn't Syndicate Wars have adverts with motion in the game?
ads everywere and on everything needs to stops. consumers need to not buy a game that is going to serve as a "advertising" outlet. let a couple games try this and flop and hopefully they will give up.
between crap like this, lousy buggy game play, copy protection that makes it nearly impossible to install games i have actually bought... I may just stop playing games altogether.
I statrted playing computer games cause i found it fun and relaxing... lately i have found it stressfull and annoying.
BF2 is possibley one of the buggiest POS games ever unleashed on the hapless game consumer.. but i digress
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
Hey if it gives them the opportunity to reduce the price of the games with the revenue they could earn from the advertising, more power to them.
However if a game designer or developer has to choose between using that last few megs of space for game content or advertisement...
What a good way to alienate your gamers.
I mean, what if you were playing World of Warcraft, and there was a big sign for Coca Cola in the middle of Orgrimmar, that captured your screen and furthur reduced FPS as you approached it. You'd probably avoid Orgrimmar. Also, since that's a vital city to play as the Horde, you'd probably end up quitting. gg.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Current monthly spend on video games & related products/services: $100-200
Predicted monthly spend on video games which use this "service": $0
Do the math.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
This is not news! Syndicate Wars features floating billboards with full-motion ads for Ghost in the Shell, including video footage of the movie.
You must find the COLA-COLA© artifact to defeat the great TWINSIE© monster. -- Seriously : when did this change from 'we buy a product if you make that product entertaining enough' to 'thank you for selling our free time to companies who waste billions on crap everybody's annoyed with' happen?
"Massive CEO Mitchell Davis says ...."
Massive CEO?
Yay capitalism. It used to be that there were places we could be free of marketing but that time is quickly coming to a close. If these goddamned fucking marketers could stream ads into your daydreams, they'd fucking do it. I have a few things I'd like to stream into the offices of the boneheads who thought this nightmare up.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Ok, everyone knows one of the major arguments against spam is that somebody, somewhere has to pay for all that lost bandwidth.
So...is Massive going to compensate me for my lost bandwidth while I download their trailer? Following the same logic they're appropriating MY bandwidth for their advertising. They've taken something from me, something that I paid for and I should be compensated.
So when can we expect to be compensated for our bandwith losses? I'd guess never, but it's something to think about anyways. They're using your bandwidth to push their advertising. That's very spam-like, IMHO.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Spot where game ads play are automatically safe zones for the first 15 seconds of the first viewing...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
I couldn't agree more.
From TFA:
Fuck you Gerry Rich. It's not incumbent on you to reach me. I want you to leave me the fuck alone and keep your god damn ads out of my face. I will never pay for any video game that I know beforehand has full motion ads in it.
Question everything
If you pay for current games now, you very likely pay for games with ads, you just don't realize it. Product placement...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The adds before a movie bother me a little, but if they tried to insert an add in the middle it would really upset me. It seems like this is what they are trying to do with video games. What they could do though is use more product placement. There are plenty of fake branded soda machines in Doom 3 and Halflife that could certainly have been Coke or Pepsi machines. I wouldn't have minded, really. If done correctly I think we can find a happy medium.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Look, the $$ from ads (selling your eyeballs) gives us a lot of "free" stuff - TV, radio, local newpapers, etc.
(yes, complain all you want about Clearchannel, crap mainstream TV, but it is FREE)
These guys are LOSING their revenue stream. People are turning to the web for more and more of their leisure, entertainment activities AS WELL AS DVDs killing movies and TV programs (I don't even WATCH decent shows on TV anymore, I just wait until they come out on DVD and watch all the episodes in a couple of commercial-free days.)
So what can they do?
I personally don't MIND product placement if:
a) I get something for it - cheaper prices, free products, whatever. The company is selling MY time, I should at least get a cut of that.
b) it's in-context. A giant Pepsi ad in ogrimaar- stupid, and atmosphere killing. But a shield that is the pepsi logo without words? Or a Bladerunner-MMOG with futuristic ads on the blimps intersperced with the ads for the off-world colonies? That would actually HELP the atmosphere.
So no, advertising isn't inherently evil. It simply ISN'T.
-Styopa
I'm being a tad sarcastic, but fuck. I was pissed when I saw ads in bathroom stalls, then I was ultra-pissed when I saw some in front of the friggin' urinals, but then the other day, I saw a LCD screen on a hand-drying machine... !!!
Someday I'll go in front of one of those bra ads and jerk off in front of one, and if I get caught, I'll say "hey, I've jerked off on porn that was way less suggestive a few years ago, I thought this was a masturbation-venue."
Don't mind me, I'm bitter. But I'm tired of omnipresent sex everywhere (no I'm not religious or stuck-up or anything, I got porn on my comp like every one of you (doh), but does EVERYTHING need to be about tits and asses ?)
This isn't intended as flame or anything, it's intended as being someone who vents off cuz he's pissed at publicity. ;-)
That's why I use DVD Shrink and copy every single movie I buy. The first thing I do after taking the shrink wrap is putting it in the ol' 'puter and let DVDShrink rip me a new copy of the movie that is JUST the movie (no ads, no stupid menus, etc.). But then again, it's gotten so ridiculous, that I'm now skipping buying movies altogether.
PC games have obnoxiously forced the players to watch a bunch of movies advertising the game publisher and developer for some time. (Yeah, most of the time you can Esc from the movie - buy why should I have to? I paid my money.) This year, Valve patched Half-Life 2 so that if the user removes or replaces the Valve logo/movie, Steam automatically re-downloads, installs, then plays a fresh copy.
And the idea of advertising in or with games is a lot older than that anyway. Does anyone remember the Othello-like "Cool Spot" 7up game from the early 90s? Or the Sega Genesis game that was basically a giant McDonald's ad? How about the bacteria-fighting toothpaste ad/game for the Atari 8-bit computers from 1982 or so? Not to mention the newer phenomenon of music promotion through video games.
What baffles me about this is why a game developer would be so willing to invite ad-removing hackery. I get the impression from the article that this sort of ad will mostly be used in MMO type games; don't those folks have enough trouble with hacking as it is?
>open mailbox
"Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 08:58:18 -0700 (PDT)
From: Moses Odiaka [mosesadiaha@go.com]
To: mosesadiaha@go.com
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL PROPOSAL
My name is Mr.Moses Odiaka.I work in the credit and accounts department of Union Bank of Nigeria, Plc.,Lagos, Nigeria. I write you in respect of a foreign customer with a Domicilliary account..."
You have been eaten by a grue.
I don't know which online games this pertains to, but if it involved World of Warcraft, who just celebrated 1.5 million subscribers in China, and earlier 2 million subscribers worldwide, (as far as I know, the 2 million figure came before the release in China, so I'd assume there were no overlaps) thats just 3.5 million. If everyone paid month-by-month for $15/month, then 3.5M * 15 = 52.5 million dollars of income every month, from WoW alone (not counting game sales, just their monthly fee). If they start putting advertisements in the game, they better damn well give the option of playing for free, or turning the ads off for paying customers. I'll go back to playing America's Army, where (hopefully) its still free.
At least with the trade channel in WoW, you can turn it off.
I wouldn't be surprised if players riding on Gryphons and bats got barraged with adverisements while they flew. Thats when I usually go get a drink anyway.
And they said zombies weren't real!
If I go to Mars to kick ass and drink beer, I don't think it matters what brand of beer it would be. In fact if I was a smart advertiser, I'd make sure it was the competition's ads.
This bullshit of placing ads is likely to backfire and people will stay away in droves.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
I think for the movie industry, the dropping business has more to do with high prices for crappy movies on tiny screens. Than again, though I don't play video / PC games at all, I understand from reading Slashdot that there are quality / price issues here as well.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
They *are* spyware. Apparently they will need to phone home for billing purposes. Personally, I don't really care though. I doubt that any of the effected games will be ported to Linux anytime soon, so they won't find their way onto any computer in my house.
I hate saying it, but I could see this working.
What about popping up an ad during a required "dead" period, after your character gets killed, waiting for the next round or whatever. It's not really a loading screen, so it'd get around Namco's patent... I really hope the ad execs aren't reading this.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
When is it good game design to encourage a player to sit passively for 15 seconds?
Can you imagine something like Unreal Tournament with ads? You stop to watch an ad and you're dead.
How about ads, say, for Coke, on World of Warcraft?
How about ads in real time strategy games? While you're madly clicking away to position your troops, ads randomly pop up to obscure your map...
There are really few situations where advertisements in a game work. GTA style games are probably the best for full motion ads... Except then people would complain it's too much like real life.
Would the revenue from advertisements make up for loss of consumers because of crappy game design???
Massive CEO Mitchell Davis Look. I know Americans are overweight. But I don't care what this guys weight is, ok?
These aren't the sigs you're looking for.
http://www.massiveincorporated.com/site_pubdev/rea ctions.htm:
Massive has served over 6 million game sessions, and the gamer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
so, you're all wrong, people don't mind the ads.
Okay, that does sound worse than anything I've seen so far unless I've simply learned to *just not notice* it anymore (I'm not ruling it out). Say, is there sponsored housing already? Like, with a huge telescreen on the living room wall but cheaper rent?
Just wondering, Can you blow those ads up with your BFG? If so, it might be worthwhile...
:p
In response to the ad in the demon-infected ravine, if that's a high traffic area, I'm sure the ad agencies will try to put one there. I want EXP for every ad I blow up.
I can see it now:
Super Mario Revolution:
Bowser has, yet again, captured Princess Peach.
Bowser: Mario, I will only give you back Princess Peach if you.............. BUY CHEERIOS.
Mario: MAMA MIA!
I am paying money for the games I play. I am not paying money to be advertised at during my escapist time.
I will not need patches to remove advertisements from my games, because I will not buy games with embedded advertising. I always arrive ten minutes late to the movie theater for the same reason: I am already paying for the experience, not paying to waste my time being yelled at because I haven't bought enough crap.
And might I suggest that gamers everywhere do likewise? Don't support this shit with your dollars. Make this fail. You watch TV and get advertised at, you drive down the street and get advertised at, you read magazines and get advertised at, you go to the movies and get advertised at, you open your email and get advertised at... Enough, already!
I'm not much of an online gamer, but I've seen one instance of the Massive ad stuff already.
The 1.1 patch for SWAT 4 has "Added Massive Streaming Ad Support" according to the changelog.
More discussion of it on the Swat 4 forums, here and here.
--darren
Ok, standard adverts are fine because the provider themselfs should be able to advertise their own services considering that a lot of them run free public game servers (for example UK2.net runs about a hundered public counter-strike servers).
A concept similar to google adwords (which I presume is what they've already been running) and allowing other people to advertise on a network of game servers is acceptable because of the low amount of bandwidth involved in downloading the adverts.
The problem comes when you introduce video advertising.. I'm sick and tired of people taking my bandwidth for granted just so they can shovel shit onto my computer that I know I will never take notice of. The second problem is lag... ARE THESE PEOPLE CRAZY!
With two people using my 512k ADSL line (both play a lot of games) and music almost constantly streamed there really isn't much spare bandwidth to go around before a stupid idea like this would make playing the games it supports completely unusable (or just very very laggy).
My third worry is about the advertising of pornography.. how long until the porn industry decides to take advantage of this to try and sell more 'granny midget hardcore lesbian sex'.
Considering the number of under 16s that play games (even those that are rated 18+/R18) I think it is unacceptable (and even illegal when you think about players in other countries).
Advertising in games is inevitable (just as it was on the internet), but as far as I'm concerned I will boycot any games that embrace the advertising technology until it becomes impossible for me not to. Up until that point I will continue to play QuakeWorld.. Best.. Game.. Ever (damn I'm sad).
Like I said, there are LOTS of offline games. I'd venture to say most games are offline, or at the very least have an offline mode as well as an online mode.
By the way, if you think your skills with a video game gun at all translate to a real one, you are kidding yourself. I am (or at least used to be, don't do FPses much any more) an expert shot in FPS games. I could easily slide out sideways, look down a scope and pop somebody in less than 2 seconds. This does not, however, translate to the real world. In reality I'm an ok shot, good enough to pass CCW qualifications or that sort of thing, but I'm pretty hopeless when moving, and can't shoot a scoped rifle unless prone. Nobody with a brain is going to take video game shooting skills to mean real shooting skills.
But at any rate, don't want it to exist? Vote with your dollars and refuse to buy games with it.
The article the parent linked to hit the nail on the head. I personally don't mind watching trailers but why not show them before the movie start time? Most times i'm sitting in the theatre 30 minutes before the movie starts with nothing to do. It would be a great time to show them then. Now people are showing up late because they don't want to sit through the trailers. then they end up arriving late to find seats, etc, etc. The biggest disatisfiers for me are: 1. Food prices (5 bucks for a drink?) 2. rude/inconsiderate people 3. 20 minutes of advertisements before the movie starts.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Massive's stock price is now 0.00$
Experts say it's attributed to nobody wanting to play a 3 year old mmorpg with ads in it. Go figure.
I don't believe this. Although I don't play video / PC games at all, I have observed that most "gamers" will put up with quite a bit of bullshit in their games (from what I hear, there was quite a too-doo about Steam's various policies, but gamers kept playing...). And advertisers do a lot of research, if they are not concerned about having gamers drop out, it's probably not an issue.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
There are several titles I was looking forward to purchasing this year that I won't be buying now that I know they have Massive's ad technology in them. I was about to buy SWAT 4 when the first patch was released, and among the features in the patch changelist was this little gem:
My knee-jerk reaction was that once I've paid the $50 for a game, that's it. I've already made my contribution to the publisher's revenue stream. I am not a recurring revenue resource, and I resent being treated as one. I decided based solely on the inclusion of Massive streaming ad support not to purchase SWAT 4, even though SWAT 3 is one of my all-time favorite games.
On the other hand, Massive's front page has screenshots from the latest Splinter Cell, which I've played without really noticing the ads at all. In fact, things like the faces of soda machines make great places to put advertising in such a way that the game feels more immersive, not less. If Massive puts their ads in places that make sense contextually, like on television sets in-game, then I guess I won't have any real problem with it as long as I can destroy the TV.
The idea that they can track impressions is certainly something else entirely. I wonder if anyone has started a Massive Blacklist yet for the hosts file? It seems like it wouldn't be that hard to do. Just fire up a network sniffer, start up your Massive-infected game in singleplayer, and walk by a couple of in-game billboards. Exit the game, and see what outbound connections you made during the play session.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
I've seen a lot of posts about how there will likely be mods out there to map out where the ads are located in order to avoid them. Given what the advertisers will want to pay for, they will make the locations of these obvious, like on-map kiosks or full-motion billboards.
The point:
Advertisers only pay when the full length of ad was viewed. How long until games start giving people "asylum" on these ad-viewing spots? What happens when you're playing Battlefield 2 and you can't shoot a guy because he's watching an ad?
One place I've actually wished for ads was in game TVs and the like. Rather than have some little image loop with garbled audio as a placeholder, why not show ads on it? It's what the real TV would be doing, for the most part.
Now I'm sure, like all other forms of advertising, thi'll be used in stupid and anoying ways, however there is actually potential for good use. There are plenty of places in games where there normally would be an ad. Usually it's just a place holder, or fake kind of ad. No reason it couldn't be a real ad, if it was done well. It could enhance, rather than detract form the realism.
I'll accept this if they fit in the ads nicely. I want a random coke can I knock over in D3, or a "poster" in a corridor. As long as you don't interrupt my game play, or ruin my experience, fine. It's all about subtlety. We'll see who controls the amount of ads and how annoying they are. I'm guessing whoever has the largest pockets.
If I'm playing Doom 4 and I have to watch an ad before I proceed, or an ad ruins the environment (brightens the area); expect me to return your game.
The Need For Speed Underground 2 had an awesome advertising scheme. They used real advertisements in the game like you'd see in real life. Star bucks on the corners, Best Buys with huge parking lots, bill boards for major companies, you couldn't help but see it while driving arround. If that's the kind of embedded advertising that we are moving towards, I'm all for it. It's not excessivly intrusive, it's easy to read, and if anything it could use an easy way to link back to the real world. Wouldn't it be cool to pull into the Best Buy parking lot in the game and have a browser window open up (at your command) to Best Buy's home page? All from within the game. Or like the Pizza ordering system in EQ2. I think other companies will start to realize the impact of online games and systems more an more.
10 years ago you NEEDED to have a yellow pages listing
5 years ago you NEEDED to have a website
Now you need to have a direct purchase point on your web site
Next you'll need not just embedded advertising, but imbedded sales.
-Rick -Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
And I'm sure that it won't be long before someone figures out how to block the ads in the games...
http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players
Have the advertisers pay for some UT2k4 servers, then set the respawn to 15 seconds, and play adverts after you're gibbed!
This is how I would like to see advertizers get involved in the gaming industry. If they bring value to the table, consumers will appreciate their involvement. Sadly, these greedheads aren't looking to support gamers by hosting servers and providing bandwidth. They want to exploit gamers as a captive audience for their solicitations. No different from commercials in movie theaters. Advertizers are instead creating a hostile relationship with consumers.
Support gaming through sponsorship = goodwill generated
Exploit captive audience = irritating
Stop invasive commercials in movie theaters.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
I always loved the games where you can shoot and leave damage to just about anything in the environment. If I can blow up the ad, I might not mind it too much.
Or even better...
In UT2004:
Sales man in a suit walks up: "Are you tired of paying too much for car insurance on your Scorpion?"
Player whips out sniper rifle...
Announcer: "HEAD SHOT!"
"Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." --Barry Goldwater
If there was ever a task for a bot in a game, this is it.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
This means the games are going to be free now, right? Because there's no way in hell I'm going to pay to have ads shoved in my face.
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
Massive says it won't charge advertisers unless the full ad has been viewed.
Ok so I'm in some 3d environment in the presence of an ad. Does 100% of the ad have to be on the screen? What if I'm shooting/jumping/switching weapons? Does that still count?
And regardless of the criteria, how exactly will Massive know I've viewed an ad? Unless it's an online game it's not getting past my firewall.
Maybe the plan to force it after you die. Picture an online player killer game where you take out your opponent to force him to watch that stupid gecko again and again...I'd play it just to piss off others ;)
Enter the new age of vengeful advertising?
If its a FPS or any game where I have a weapon, I sure hope the game engine lets me shoot the stupid things into oblivion.
1. As long as they make people CLEARLY aware that this is happening. Which they wouldn't, since most people would then avoid it. There's a reason we had to resort to a do-not-call list in the country, and a reason that advertisers are trying to get rid of it.
2. My concern is not that people will realize how this is an invasion and avoid these games. It is that people won't care and support it anyway, proving it is a valid form of advertisement. I don't worry about people who hate this kind of crap, I worry about the ones who don't hate it. The ones who respond to spam, the ones who click on popups, the ones who give away personal info for a shiny new pen. Those are the people who are aiding in the proliferation of this crap.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
This game rated A: Contains advertising content.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
At first sight this sounds like just a silly idea to generate revenue, and yet again flood users with damn ads making them all little consumer whores.
But if they do it subtle, I might be able to live with it; imagine a GTA where you walk in a store and actually have real-live brands instead of makebelieve boxes and packages, a real ad playing on a monitor (which you can shoot ofcourse ;). Or Billboards without the producers' logo or ads which make sense in the game-environment but real ads. (I wouldn't mind a hot girl on a billboard telling me to .. what now?)
It'd both would make the world feel more "real", give the player the ability to manipule and get a notion of it without it constantly being forced down your troath (killing the fun of the game, specially after repeated playing), and at the same bring more revenue to the developers without affecting gameplay too much.
The moment you will get *forced* to watch ads (time-outs in the game, and likes, where you do not have any choice but sit out the ad) it might work very annoying, and negative for the games I'm afraid. You already have that on webpages, which I don't give a second visit if there isn't any normal way to skip the ad and I'm being forced a behaviour (watching an ad). Not to mention that what is actually advertized isn't always available on this side of the world.
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
In some games, such as sci-fi games, this can make sense tossing in ads. In their example, they are showing Anarchy Online.
/too/ bad, as it fits in with the game world and setting. However, trying to pull something like this off in WOW, EQ1, EQ2, DAoC and other fantasy-based MMORPGs - this would be horrible, and greatly distracting from the immersion factor of the gameworld.
To me, that isnt
Things like this could also make sense in games like GTA even.
On the other hand, it doesnt supprise me that AO is the game doing this, the game seems to be struggling as-is, and is luring in customers by offering free game-time/etc/etc (I have a free account, it was supposed to be for a month or something, but it seems to be indefinatly extended unless I want the expansions)
They need to put the ads in popular camping areas in maps. It will do to things: Cut down camping via annoyance and punish lame players for camping.
How long until we see something along the lines of GTA: Drive-in Theater? It would be a mix of GTA and WoW. You drive your stolen car to the theater to watch a movie with hundreds of virtual "friends" As you level up, you get to watch better movies.
* Your civilization has built a Mountain Dew factory, your villagers speed has increased by 2 points. * Your civilization has built a Winston Tobacco Plant, your tax income has tripled!
thank dOG
i'd just do a hosts file block and add
127.0.0.1 ads22.massiveincorporated.com
to the hosts file (/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts for me)
Barring some sort of crazy DRM enabling deal, it should prevent any of the content from loading.
I'd be much happier just having a red X on the wall then Who will be the next American Idol?
This would be alright for games that you have to grind crafting skills. Set up in front of the ad and watch away as you make 190589585 bags to sell on the market!
I have not seen or heard a single reason this would be bad. There is no way to force someone to watch an entire advertisement without making a game completely distasteful, so we can assume their statement will be tossed to the wind after the first massive failure. We have been playing racing and sports sims with fake advertisements (to add to the realism). What a waste of time and effort to put in FAKE advertisements. Let them pay their money for a spot in my game. If it gets annoying TO ANY DEGREE the game will go straight to the bargain bin or landfill. Gamers are fickle and marketers will do what they can. It's all good for gaming to make more ppl dependent on the quality of the final product.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Right up your alley.
im sure no one will read this seeing that there are already 200+ replies, but this has been happening since the playstation 1 days. grant it they were static, but they were ads. i think the first game to do it was that quasi-futuristic jet ski/moto racer game (forget the exact name, but it was moto-something) where they had butter finger and mountain due signs all over the place.
Ads are already in games, it's just that most often they are fake and made up (examples: Doom3, HL2, FarCry, etc).
So if the vending machines for "Dr. Breans Water Reserve" get changed to Coca-Cola machines, does it really matter? You usually just ignore them anyway. Before, they were kinda neat, and sometimes funny. Now, it'll just be random junk we ignore as we play.
Of course, this is indicative of an industry that is suffering from a shortage of income (and no, I'm not talking about the big corps). Allowing ads into games to help pay for the costs and increase the quality of the game, may be something to consider after all.
...we have good news and bad news."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"If you'll look at the screen here you'll see that your ad for the new season of 'The Simple Life' is the most viewed in the game."
"Excellent! And the bad news?"
"Mainly it's being viewed through sniper scopes, targeting reticles, and the inky blackness of portals to the Netherworld."
The eyelid thing in my post is far-fetched, but damn.
As for sponsored housing, soon, it'll be a concern, and not for the reasons you think. In many cities, there's more demand than supply for apparments. Here in Montreal, price have doubled on some trendy streets in the last 10 years... So, owners have FULL POWER over you. Don't like the conditions of your apartment ? The owner most likely has a WAITING LIST full of people who want your apartment. I was talking of that with a friend this weekend, his owner almost had the next-door apartment rented to a movie company that made porn flicks (they found somewhere cheaper)... They would've used the apartment to make movies. Talk about noisy neighbors. But hey, you're not happy, move out, there are 20 people who want your apartment, one of them is not gonna care about it...
So, someday, the owner of a 35 apartment building WILL put ads in his apartments, WITHOUT lowering your rent, and if you're not happy, go away, he'll rent it to someone else who won't mind.
That sucks. But that's how it is.
I mean, that's one of the few logical extensions left, right?
SYS 64738
Successful ad campaigns beg to differ. The 17 to 34 age group continues to be the most self absorbed hedonistic me-me-me material object driven consumer group. Advertisement companies don't spend billions of dollars on things that don't work. I'll bet you yourself own many consumer goods (got an iPod or "just" a vanilla MP3 player?)
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Anybody remember this? Ads in games (or even games as ads) aren't new, nor even uncommon! Just look at the rest of them.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Ok, the reason they'll have ads in the games will be to fund games. As computers and game systems get more powerful, programs/games will need to be more complicated. To make a more complicated game, it takes more money. So, they either need to raise the video game price (Nobody wants THAT) or put ads in games. If it's a choice between the two, I take the latter.
The ads in Max Payne were awesome!
"Bat Boy" for example. Fake ads are the way to go.
Some examples. Typically if you pay for something then it is ad free, otherwise the ads pay for it or greatly reduce the cost.
Magazines... are filled with ads yet we still pay for them. I al told magazines would be $40 without the ads so ads are welcome in that enviroment. Plus they are very passive.
TV shows have commercial.... You pay for delivery of the shows via the cable/sat comapny but not for the shows them selves so commercials are ok here.
A side note, years ago I hace a Cable company I went to digital comapny and when I pressed menu, 1/2 of the screen had ads for Pay per view. I thought this was crazy that I paid A LOT for this and half of my usable screen had ads. I dropped them for Satelite. My current cable company (no dish in this apartment) resets to the Pay per view preview channel every time you turn on the digital Cable box. So I went to basic cable and got a TiVo
Tivo... has light ads, in the main menu they have entries to "see this movie trailier" or "check out the new Chevy Truck" I think these are lame since I already pay for TiVo service but they are very passive so I am ok with it.
Games... I pay a lot of money if I buy a game $50 is way too much for a game in my mind but it is what the market will bare. I used to buy more gsames when they were $20 but oh well.
I have noticed static ads like Billboards of NFS Underground 2 in Burn Out 3. These seem fine for me, they add some realism as is very passive. Full blown ads I will not be too happy about. I already paid a shit load for this game and now you want to make more money off of me. Oh and while you screw your programmers too.
I don't mind the ads in this particular game. It makes it feel like Blade Runner. The premise of this game is that large corporations rule portions of the galaxy. So the ads don't really distract from the game universe. I thinks it's an extremely interesting business model. It allows me to play their game for free.
If the ads were mandatory for the paying customers, that would of course change my opinion of the whole thing.
iNTERcEPTOR|SdB I own a Camaro
It's just like ad supported TV, isn't it? I mean, who would pay for a game, and then subscribe to it for a monthly fee, if the game is supported by ad revenue?
Not me.
Edith Keeler Must Die
We can also stop this annoying practice by just boycotting the games that contain these.
Or by modding the games to not display the advertisments.
If the publishers that plan to do this don't make any money off of it, they won't continue the practice. They will likely find another intrusive way to force their ilk on us. But it all comes back to money. If they don't make money off of it, they don't do it.
Lets make sure that the metrics they use to track revune and advertising show poor gains. Vote with your wallet, not with slashdot posts!
Why don't they bridge the gap of annoyance vs profit by offering some incentive to the viewer? For example: in a FPS video ad wall, when the gamer approaches and watches the entire ad a "bonus" weapon is unlocked. Or armor. Or something that would motivate, viewership. In an online world like WoW there could be some trivial thing that doesn't change a character that much, but enhances the character in some minor way. Enough viewed advertisements and you could get some super bonus. Something along those lines...
I agree with you, but you present only edge cases that are, as you state, superceded by other laws. As someone else noted with the Little Richard anecdote (and there are other cases), you can't videotape someone in the bathroom, as it may contain images of them which they would need to authorize you to have taken, as dictated by more pertinent statutes. Also, the murder thing you mentioned isright-out, he stated that you have no right to privacy when entering someone's private property, last time I checked, your right to life was not a matter of privacy.
You _are_ right about not being able to sign away your rights in some circumstances, illegal contracts are illegal contracts, after all. Unfortunately, I would venture a guess that almost none of those clauses pertain to rights of privacy. You _can_, in fact, sign a contract by which someone videotapes you naked in their bathroom, vis-a-vis pornography. Similarly, someone can very legally sign away the right to not have a phone conversation taped while at your house (or anywhere, for that matter); in fact, I'm not even sure you have to enter an explicit agreement for that _not_ to be the case, using someone's private phone may imply that you agree to the terms of use (e.g. being tapped).
Back to the main point though, this is all a non-issue. What on EARTH do you expect to be going on on a game server that you would not want the company to know about? The only thing I can imagine that's private is your password, and hey, they need that to authenticate you. Furtheor, if you come into my convenience store I can monitor every blessed thing you do, save go to the bathroom (and in some states, I don't even have to provide you with a bathroom), as we've already established. Since not very many videogames offer the ability to use a toilet, what the heck do you expect privacy for?
--- What
What concerns me is when will they start to connect ingame advertising with the likes of GameSpy logins?
It's temping to assume it would be the idea of some seedy spyware company and only allowed by some cheap money grabbing whores like EA. But in the mind of marketers, it's an honest and well-intended system to make their advertising targeted and more effective - on the surface a positive thing.
And where's the revenue for the guys paying the running costs for the servers hosting these ads? No way I'd be SomeServerHost.com and paying for cpu and bandwidth of a machine serving someone else's ads for Coke - or worse, SomeOtherServerHost.com. Then there's going to be the paying customers asking why they pay full retail rate despite the thing being choked with ads.
It's not all negative, advertising will result in a stream of income that is tied to the number of players they have and the lengh of time they can keep them playing. This means better support, for longer. Advertising has the potential to be a real positive benefit to gamers, developers and the industry in general. If it's done properly. The problem is, I've little faith in marketers, and the only people to watch over them are the publishers, who I hardly value any higher these days.
The way I see it is, in World of Warcraft for example, you'll see a little short with a Human and an Orc fighting over the last can of Coke at a party while you're waiting for the game to load. Or in Half-Life 2, as you're walking in the city blasting at enemies you'll see an electronic billboard showing a Combine soldier washing his jumpsuit with new and improved Dawn laundary detergent. Ads are already in games, and they're hardly noticable. I know for a fact that game developers wouldn't make any intrusive ads, as it would probably make a lot of people deter from purchasing the games. Instead they'll make the ads run smoothly behind the scenes. Think of how much money is already being spent on subliminal advertising in movies today.
Still, it'd be a distraction from the game, and annoying. So they'd better make it sexy and funny.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I could be wrong, but in that case, I don't think you could set up your secret voyeur shop in my room that's on your property.
Not that I'm saying any such virtual rights exist yet, if ever.
can you shoot the screen to make the ad stop?
Who can you return opened software to? The store surely won't take it back.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Apparently very few /.ers in the comments realize how much it costs to make a video game nowadays. Developers are paying more and more programmers and artists to put out the caliber of games expected in this and future generations. Games will be worth substantially more than $50 in terms of time and labor in the coming years. Instead of taking the cost out of end users' wallets, in-game ads will take that money from other corporations. If Massive's advertising techniques allow me to buy a $80 game for $50, I'm all for it.
PCs, but not consoles yet. It's like people are _trying_ to kill PC gaming.
OOOOOhhh.... I CAN'T WAIT for their take on this to show up in Red vs Blue.
"Sarge?"
"Yeah!"
"Is that you up on that billboard?"
"Yeah!"
"What are you doing to that donkey?"
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
Every time I go to a movie I spend 25 minutes watching trailers and commericals. Depending on the movie, that's a quarter to a third of the length of feature film!
... It is incumbent upon us to find ways to reach them," says Gerry Rich, president of world-wide marketing for Paramount Pictures.
That is the reason that I go to the theaters less often to watch movies. Advertisers and theater owners know that movie-goers will arrive early so that they can get the seat that they want and know they'll have them trapped to watch their adverts.
Well, guess what? I'm not trapped. This isn't the 20th century and I have alternatives. I no longer have to wait months or even a year to get the movie on cable or DVD.
Time marches on and like so many other industries (RIAA) they simply refuse to understand this. Well, we'll miss you...or not.
From TFA:
"We know the 17 to 34 audience, the male audience, is elusive and quite difficult to reach through traditional broadcast.
That's like trying to cut down a forest so that you may better find the dear that you are hunting.
"One problem with the full-motion ads is that gamers can easily avoid watching them."
And how exactly is this a "problem"?
First come the ads, then comes a combination with online shopping. Your credit card is already stored, right? Picture this:
After dispatching another terrorist with your awesome aim and a Colt M4 Carbine, you take cover behind an aisle in de_walmart. It's the gun equipment aisle. A text message appears,
"Would you like to purchase a Remington High-Powered Rifle, on sale now for $1999.95!
1) Yes
2) No"
You notice your magazine is almost empty, so you think "sure" and hit "1". You expect a new gun to appear in your hand, but instead you see a message:
"Thank you for your purchase! Your credit card has been charged $1999.95!"
In your moment of confusion, a 12-yr-old girl named D/\rK_F^|rY kills you, and gloats "HAHAHAHahaha N000B!!!!111!1"
Your shame is complete.
If I were an advertiser I would insist that I only pay for an audience watching my moving-billboard from a designated area the proper distance away, and that each member keep the entire billboard in view for the entire 15 seconds to count as a "viewing." And I would pay a declining scale, so 3 cents for the first view, 2 cents for the second, 1 cent each for the next 5, for a max of 10 cents per unique viewer. I'm not paying for a bot to watch my ad 1000 times. If the game maker wants to reward the players for watching my ad, thats okay with me, I might reduce my pay per view though since a self-selecting audience is more receptive than a bribed one.
But I'm not an advertiser, I've only studied it a bit, so what do I know.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
I will get to drink Robo Cola anytime soon??
I can just picture how scary 'drink at Moe's' would be tattooed on a demon's back.
Now if that ain't scary I don't know what is.
Well, no, not really... But damn it, I don't want game execs to see that!
Look, the $$ from ads (selling your eyeballs) gives us a lot of "free" stuff - TV, radio, local newpapers, etc.
Take your eyeballs off the ads for a few minutes and you'll see that it's all a lie. In that "free" stuff, what percentage of it isn't ads? What was the percentage 20 years ago? What do you think it will be in 20 years? Look beyond the "free" stuff - how much has advertising expanded in the stuff we still have to pay for? Ever wonder where the money goes?
Think about it, the movie company that puts a 15 second trailer in a game is probably spending tens of millions of dollars to advertise a movie that will be lucky to break even after all of the costs are factored in (even before cooking the books to eliminate any real profit). So the film companies pass on the cost to the theaters, which then raise ticket prices and concession prices, and then run ads before the movies. Now the soft drink companies pay the theaters to bombard you with ads before you watch a movie that you paid the advertising agency of to bombard you with ads for in a game that you paid the developer to have an ad agency pay for ads on the side of soda cans that you paid more for so they could run ads before the movie you just watched...
Advertising is a tax, and the more places it gets into, the more tax you're paying for stuff that was easier and cheaper to get without the advertising. The big companies don't care because they have the cash to pay for it up front and they know you'll foot the bill for them later on. It also has a nice side effect of raising the barrier to entry that keeps smaller companies from being able to compete with them.
For the unfortunate "consumer," there is no way out. The advertising will go on whether we want it or not. If we don't watch it, they'll just make more and more until it finds us, and the bill will get tucked inside the price of the product. If we don't buy the product, they'll just buy up or force out the alternative until there is no choice but to buy from them or a similar competitor. The best anyone can hope for is to pass as much of the cost on to someone else. Skip the ads, buy on sale, do without. Sure, children are going to bed hungry because I don't want to pay for some ad exec's Porche, but some things in this universe aren't under my control.
Two good examples of in-game ads done correctly:
SONIC ADVENTURE 2 - it had real ads for Soap Shoes, as well as tons of obviously fake (and funny) ads. Makes sense, since they make grinding shoes, and Sonic wears grinding shoes in that game.
SHENMUE - it had ads for watches and soft drinks. This makes sense because such products actually existed in the world the game simulates - mid-80s Japan. It would not make sense if I found a Coke machine in a medieval RPG village, but an ad for a sports brand suits a sports game.
And most importantly: in these examples, all the ads are very discreet. They are just objects and textures. They don't force you to wait before playing the game. Video ads, on the other hand, would probably be just as annoying as those damned ads in movie theatres!
Circumcision is child abuse.
So, I'm not in the marketing business, but I always thought that you'd find a target audience, find products that appeal to that audience, and then find a way to connect the two. So now I'm a target audience, and someone thinks they have a product I care about. (not saying I do but in theory...) Do I want to see an ad during my fav tv show? No, but it does provide I convenient 5 min break. Do I want to hear someone call me on my cell and run up my phone bill? No, but it does provide me with a fun conversation at pissing off the telemarketer. Do I want to see an ad in my games? No, that makes me avoid that section of game. How about a little commercial ticker at the corner of my screen like some websites? No, that just earns a little post-it note stuck to my screen in said corner. How bout running ads during load time? Yet again, that just earns me a 5 min break to ignore whatever shameless advertising ploy is trying to consume my attention.
Postal2 has advertising. 3DMark2001SE has ads for Eagle. Ads have been in games for a long time. Nothing new here.
Candystand is free games for watching ads.
Maybe they can take older games, stick some fresh graphics on them, plaster them with ads, and release them for free at BestBuy
Paul Anka:
To stop those monsters 1-2-3,
Here's a fresh new way that's trouble-free,
It's got Paul Anka's guarantee...
Lisa:
Guarantee void in Tennessee.
Both:
Just don't look! Just don't look!
Just don't look! Just don't look!
Just don't look! Just don't look!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"...Go ahead, pirate that game! We'll make money in the ads 'foo!"
Mr. Davis continues,"Naturally we can't expect to rake in this additional ad revenue without giving something back to the gamer. We're looking into releasing completely ad-supported versions of several games, either through online distribution, or full retail costs with no subscription rates. I mean, really, gamers simply wouldn't tolerate our pocketing the difference at their expense, would they?" He trailed off.
That's a rather pre-WWII German remark...
One problem with the full-motion ads is that gamers can easily avoid watching them.
Sorry, but we don't owe you SHIT. If we paid for the game, movie, whatever... we aren't obligated to watch your fucking ads.
Instead, there will be patches made to circumvent your ads. How bout that?
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
One more reason to pirate games, i guess. keep it up!
has Athlon 64 screensavers on every computer in the game. If the adverts are part of the scenery and it isn't intrusive it might not be too bad.
I think long adverts are a bad idea in a situation you are doing real time interaction with the medium. Advertisements through association might be better, as amusing at is was having "Headache? Take advil" after getting killed by a headshot might be reasonably effective. Even if it isn't it is amusing and might generate more attention than a TV style advert where people have nothing better to do. Here in Scotland we have Irn-Bru adverts that are just plain comical. They are one of the few amusing adverts i would watch.
That said I'm suprised it isn't being shouted down by the "games promote violence" crowd as it creates a link between the game world and the real world. People associating a brand of beer with a ganster crowd you mow down GTA style might create some interesting news articles.
Warning, comments may not have been passed by the sanity department of my brain.
With the number of people spending their free time gaming on the rise, I cannot believe that ANYONE is surprised that there are companies who are moving to explore this venue for advertising.
Honestly, I'm surprised only by the fact that this hasn't already happened.
I mean, seriously, more people play online multiplayer games than watch prime-time television. You'd have to be nuts to not have expected the advertising industry to want to get their hands on that.
If the ads are in the intro screens of a game, those can just be escaped through or cut off with dev commands, same as we deal with game company splash screens now. If they're in the game on billboards and signs, big deal. We've already got fake ads and crap.
Now if the ads stop gameplay or interfere with gameplay, people will complain, and sales will go down (not to mention the number of people playing, killing the community for that game). I doubt the gaming companies and advertising industry are going to do anything like that.
Either way, we all need to chill out and handle this maturely. Aside from waiting to see what happens, one can always ping their favorite game companies and ask them what they plan to do in regards to this, and at the same time express your opinions (civily). There's no reason to fly off the handle and start advocating software piracy or anything that moronic.
someone mentioned books and their effects on people as opposed to mere advertising in video games. But here's one good reason why e-books will not end up being a good thing: advertisers can eventually "force" one to watch their mind-drooling capitalist banter before allowing someone to actually read the book. This is already annoying enough on children's DVD's that, unlike tapes, don't let you skip all the pre-show krap.
Yeah, you're supposed to call em "Neocons" now!
I can just see this happening.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
If I were the gamer, I'd move my character to the ad, then get up and go get a cup of coffee...when I get back, the ad's over, I continue playing.
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
You have a good point, and I feel it is ultimately up to the game programmers. For example, I have played the game in the article (Anarchy Online), and I feel that the in-game ads have been implemented properly. Concerning free gaming: You can sign up for "1 full year free", which indicates that the advertising is helping to reduce costs to gamers. In addition, paying customers can shut off the ads. As another point, the ads are somewhat widespread, but do not appear to hog bandwidth or be overly intrusive. If the in-game advertisement is done well, I think it has potential.
That all depends on the kind of product and the kind of ad.
Yes, there is a school that believes in picking a simple message and repeating it over and over and over again for years, i.e.: it does a body good, it's what's for dinner, it gets grease out of your way, Trix are for kids. And that works great for commodity things that you'll be selling for decades, like dish soap and cereal.
It doesn't work very well for a movie or a cd that has a very short shelf life, or hype life if you will. And I don't think video games are the place to sell dish soap. 15 second movies inside video games are the place to sell theatre movies, DVDs, CDs, maybe image pieces for cars, fast food, soda. But you're asking the audience to interrupt their game to watch your ad, so you're going to have to be entertaining. An ad whose focus is repeating "the ultimate driving machine" isn't going to work as well as something like those download-only mini-movies that BMW did a while back that were done by famous directors. Those are image pieces and most of their work is done on the first viewing. If you choose to watch it again, it is because it is a good ad that made an impression on you, not because the video game publisher presented it well. I'm paying my ad agency for the second and third viewing, not the video-game publisher. And after the 7 viewings, I think the ad has done all the work it is going to do. You either associate BMW with cool, James-Bondian things or you don't. 3 more viewings aren't going to help. Movie trailers and song clips and such are the same way.
Take a couple more classes and get back to me.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
I've been waiting for ads to be printed in the middle of books for quite some time. Soon you'll be in the middle of a good fantasy book, someone is about to die and you'll turn the page and BAM! A full two page full color advertisement for Pepsi. You won't be able to rip it out because the text will be printed on at least one side of each page.
But, alas, people will still buy this stuff. People will spend $15 (cdn) to go see a movie at a theatre to watch 30 minutes of commercials and previews before the actual movie starts; and people will still buy games that have real-life video advertisements in them. If people really did vote with their wallet then the big corps might listen.
I'm no longer pissed off at the companies that do this, I'm pissed off at the people that can't control themselves and don't fight back.
On the opening scene of Futurama, you see a bunch of animated-billboard-style ads.
These can be done in such a way that they are
1) unobtrusive
2) entertaining
3) relevant to the game play
Heck, they can even have commercialy-viable easter eggs, like if you touch the ad while possessing a certain item, you get a real-life coupon.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Hahaha, yeah, stupid question. But, I'd be hell bent on a refund if I had to watch a commercial for something I paid for.
Ah, the good ol' days when ads meant you hadn't yet purchased the software.
I8-D
Anyone else think of that horror scene where Our Hero gets on the public transportation thingie? Anyone else think it looked like something the Apple design office would do if in Hell?
This (incomplete viewing) is ieasy to fix.
Simply award some points/loot/powers in
the game to those that __DO__ view the whole
thing.
Still the best ad slogan ever:
Packed with PE(IS Snikkers really satisfies.
Ironically, despite your sig, you've used your apostrophes incorrectly.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
It won't be long until someone finds a modification to the code that will allow people to stop watching ads. Or replacement of the ads with some 15 second clip of something else.
My UID is prime is yours?
is it because not even Xbox does not run IE?
:
Sony won't play station?
Love that!
ad.yieldmanager.com
how to divert:
run your own dns with ad.yieldmanager.com as 127.0.0.1 (yes, you need Linux, because that domain is excempt from M$ firewalling and ad/promo/whatever 'preventing' (or is is 'selecting those who pay me'..... know what a 'pura' is?)
(you can play Microsoft system geared to games on Linux! psssssssssssssssssssst!)
This isn't too new. This company already does streamed (albeit static) ads and they already do query viewing stats. If you want to see it by yourself, feel free to pick your Massive-infected game and launch your favorite sniffer. And they do connect to the Internet even when playing solo games - I can think of at least two games that do it anyways. (Do some Googling here)
On the other hand, if you want to cease fetching ads (using your bandwidth!), you can add an
entry in your hosts file and be done with it.
Player: Ok, this area is clear. I gotta step away from the console for a moment. (Walks over to convenient advertisement. AFK 5 mins and back with fresh drink.)
Game company: Your 15 second ad was viewed 20 times, you owe us...
Advertiser: Wha..?
***
Seriously, Google has already had problems with advertiser's competitors spamming clicks to inflate advertising costs. The same thing will happen here. The only ones who will actually make money will be the game company.
seems like these advertisers will not rest until they are able to implant little screens over everyone's corneas to make sure they their adverts are seen. and don't even think about killing yourself, they've got the feeding tube ready. i understand the point that free content requires some way advertisements to stay free. but they don't know where to draw the line. i'm sick of paying $10 for a movie and then be a captive audience for them to show me huge ads for cars and soda. my solution? watch movies a few weeks after it is released so i can go in 20 min after it "starts" and still get a good seat. or just wait a little more and download a screener from usenet.
In the States you could probably patent it!
Personally i think that advertisers need to get repeatedly ass raped by horny gorillas and then shot to death with wooden bullets. Just for what they are.
I have always thought they should release sports games i.e.( EA)
With commercials built into the games at the same spots they'd be in if you were watching tv. For instnace, warming up a pitcher or a turnover or timeout.
Of course, you'd get the game for free with commercials, then you could buy the game to get rid of them. Add in the possibility of the gamers entering their info into their profiles, and boom, extremely directed mass marketting. 12 year olds get ads about whatever it is that 12 year olds want, and I get beer commercials, etc.
Wait a minute! King's Quest II had an ad for spacequest in it that was full motion video.
[This space for rent]
Have you ever played any recent Ubisoft games? 4 commercials in a row that you can NOT skip past: Ubisoft, the publisher or studio or whoever, Alienware, and Nvidia. They play each time you start the game.