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Massive Inc. Advertising Takes Off
Bluecobra writes "PlanetSide, a FPS-based MMO game published by Sony Entertainment of
America (SOE) is now using advertising in-game. PlanetSide already charges a fee of $12.99 a month to play and now users are also treated to Fanta, Coca-Cola, and Deuce Bigalow advertisements." Additionally, Martey writes "A recent patch to SWAT 4 introduces dynamic in-game advertising in the form of randomly generated posters on walls in the game. Provided by Massive, Inc., the game downloads new ads each time the game is loaded. Even more onerously, the game contacts Massive's servers to provide data about the length of time and viewing angles that the player looked at the posters."
How can you fit Deuce Bigalow ads into a game about dominating a planet?
So they show posters of real products, whoop-de-fuck. Either the game's worth paying the monthly fee or it's not, Coca Cola posters aren't going to make or break the game. I just hope they're not stupid enough to actually cause inconviences in the game with the ads.
"Derp de derp."
That's a pretty disturbing thought. If the ads are germane to the setting of the game--I support that idea, at least, since I don't want my lv. 97 Superlative Love Ninja to heal up by drinking Sprite--then that'll prompt game creators (or maybe I should say publishers and developers) to set more games in modern/semi-future times in order to make more money.
We'll see more Madden NFL games and fewer Fallouts. More GTA knockoffs (and not Vice City, either) and fewer Final Fantasy knockoffs. More Counterstrikes and fewer HL2s.
The players should act now and massively cancel their accounts. The signal would be very clear.
Interesting that some argue, that ads in games are acceptable, when that reflects reality, like billboards in GTA. While I understand this argument on a "suspension of disbelieve" basis - it also means, that where we're annoyed in the real world, it's also okay to annoy us in it's virtual counterpart. More energy should go to fighting ads in the real world like billboards (where the audience doesn't profit), than those in computer games.
Unlogical? It's unlogical that you can't do what you want with the hardware you buy (modchips anyone) or make backups from your own movies (DVD encryption anyone?). It's all unlogical, but it's profitable. Companies want only one thing: more revenue. Volunteers are just another source of income. The beauty of it all (from the companies POV) is that volunteers can do all the work, but never can make any (legal) claim on any of the extra income they generate for the company. After all the company never hired them or anything. And if the volunteer gets tired of it and quits, there plenty more to replace him.
Speak for yourself.
I don't have cable tv because of ads.
I don't listen to the radio because of ads.
I go to movies, if I go at all, 20 minutes late to skip the ads.
I will not buy games with ads.
I aggressively filter my internet.
I hate ads and do not want them to be a part of my life, at all.
"how long till intrepid game hackers start putting ad-blocker mods out for these games?"
About 5 seconds less than it will take Sony to ban anyone caught using the mods.
student of animation and the fine arts