Massive Ads In Matrix Online

Gamespot has the word that ads from Massive, Inc. will now be incorporated into The Matrix Online. The ads, like those in sister-MMOG Planetside, will be in the form of billboards and signage. From the article: "One big difference that players will notice is that the Massive ads will be refreshed and updated with greater frequency. Sony notes that current ads in the game for fictional products and services will continue to remain a part of the game. Sony has also said that the ads will not be animated, and will not affect the game's performance. Another effect of the inclusion of Massive ads into The Matrix Online is that player advertising in Mega City will be possible, and Sony might run contests in the future to select player-generated ads and incorporate them in the game. "

Comments

OK

[Deanasc]

Note to self. One more reason to avoid Sony.

Effectiveness?

[HaymarketRiot]

Does anyone actually have solid evidence that ingame ads like these work? I just really cant grasp the concept of someone running around ingame, seeing a billboard, and thinking, "Oh, I really want that product!"...To me, it seems like something that most players would just ignore. I would like to here the opinion of someone more knowledgeable on the subject.

Re:Effectiveness?

[Anonymous Coward]

The purpose of any advertisement is not to really make people buy your product, but is instead to increase the awareness of your product and improve its image. Think about it this way, if World Of Warcraft started advertizing on TV they could, theoritically, have everyone in the world know what WoW was and could (at least in theory) make it a cool game to play. Would that actually improve sales? Probably not; think of Grand theft auto, when the advertizements started playing 100 Million people who don't play videogames suddenly knew about Grand Theft Auto, the 6+ Million people who bought it probably knew about it well before the comercials arrived.

Then what is the benefit of advertizing?
As a general rule, people don't buy products that they don't know about and rarely buy products that have a 'lame' image.

As an example, consider Coca-Cola and Sprite; Coca-Cola has hit the point where eveyone in the world knows who they're and there image is pretty much solidified (thus they don't advertize all that much), on the other hand Sprite is working to gain marketshare so they're trying to develop a 'cool' image and they advertize a lot. (I do recognize that the Red-Giant owns Sprite).

Re:Effectiveness?

[TubeSteak]

Advertising works for two reasons:
1. Brand recognition. If you see enough ads for a product, then go shopping, you may recognize the advertised brand and consider purchasing it over similar products.

2. Repetition. When things get hyped over and over and over, people tend to try it out just because its something they've heard about so many times. Imagine being beaten over the head with adverts for some new drink, then when you go to a gas station or restaurant or wherever, you see another advertisement or the product itself. The odds are high that you will give it a try just to see what all the fuss is about.

Hopefully you don't find the product disgusting (vanilla pepsi) and will buy again.

Why should I be bothered by this?

[triptogn]

The "One more reason to avoid Sony" comments throw me off a bit. I don't see how the real advertising in game versus the fake advertising in game on billboards is any worse. It has about the same impact and print on your brain when you glance at it while killing gangmember05 and AgentSmith09. If anything it would help with the idea that the game takes place in a modern american city somewhere. If you are trying to take a moral stance on advertising in your entertainment, you would have to avoid every tv show and movie you have ever watched because they are riddled with product placements if you actually look for them. The subscription argument doesn't really hold that well either. "I pay a subscription, so I shouldn't have to see advertisements". Paying for cable television isn't any different. Holes in my argument? Yup, but I'm only really playing devil's advocate here, as I could care less one way or the other. I play games to have fun, and I don't think seeing a coke ad on the wall in the Matrix is going to ruin my good time.

Re:Now why would Sony do this?

[Kelbear]

The player population in this game isn't too large. They missed their population projections by enough that they chose to merge servers.

Advertisers just want to get the best return on their advertising dollar. If there's a small population being touched upon, the return is lower. However if that small population is also precisely the sort of people who'd buy the product then the return is higher. I'm guessing that if they want to bother sinking money into MxO for advertising, they'll be advertising something that these players would be likely to want.

Most likely, since this is a fairly limited advertising venue, MxO will only be charging a small amount for the advertising space. The amount they make will be far far too low to eliminate monthly fees. However, this does keep them from killing the MxO project by making it a little more profitable. that, or it provides more money to make more content with.

Newspapers are big, with huge ads. Those ads don't mean you get less news in your paper. Ads provide money that the newspaper can use to provide more. More ads are a good thing until they damage the primary utility of the venue(Like those flash pop-ups vs. the unobstrusive google ads).

Re:Answer: Most everybody

[mrchaotica]

Hell, when I buy my coffee from a local coffee house, the cup has a car ad on it.

And if you bought it most anywhere else it would still at least have the coffee shop's logo on it (i.e., an ad for the coffee shop).