Interactive In-Game Billboards Coming

GameDaily is carrying the news that in-game advert company Massive, Inc. is planning to launch interactive in-game billboards. They cite free-but-for-ads MMOG Anarchy Online specifically, but one imagines this technology will be seen in other titles they're licensed for. From the article: "Last week, Funcom and Massive announced a new sort of billboard ad in Anarchy Online. Called 'interactive advertisement technology' this new feature will allow players to do more than just passively look at an ad. Instead, players can interact with the ad and see a more detailed model of the Toyota Yaris, for example."

Comments

Eh..

[Anonymous Coward]

1) As long as the ads don't destroy my immersion (Ads for a new Toyota would destroy any immersion in a fantasy genra game like WOW or Dark Age of Camelot, for example) However, I'm not sure what kind of ads would really fit certain genres. I doubt there are enough local RenFests or uber real life Runed Sword of Magma Destruction sword replicas to sustain an ad campaign for DAoC..

and

2) In a perfect world such ads should be used to supplement the cost of the game to the end user like a TRUE trade off. I stopped going to movie theaters when I was assaulted with TV ads *AND* the cost of movie tickets, popcorn, etc all went up.

I read that NCSoft (City of Heroes) was supposed to be releasing 4 'free' MMORPGs where you only had to pay for the higher end content. I wouldn't be against seeing ads in those games simply because they are used to offset the cost to the customer and not the game company trying to squeeze both ends.

let me wreck them.

[Turn-X Alphonse]

I hope they don't make them so you can't damage them, I think one of the highlights of ingame advertising is if they allowed you to defile it. Take the McDonald's logo and turn it into a giant pair of eyes of a guy peering over a wall for example. It'd be something intresting and would make me look at it to see what people did to trash it.

If companies make something untouchable we'll ignore it, if we can play around with it and have some fun then we'll do so and draw people's attenction to it. Yet I know they won't do this because companies will whine if the full advert isn't shown 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Maybe one day someone will release a Jet Set Radio MMORPG and they'll let us spray whatever we like and generally have fun just kicking around to cool music. That's the sort of game advertising would work for, but again as I said above companies don't care what works, they use the shotgun effect instead.