Free Gaming with Ads?

lionzion

Playing as a froob on AO is awesome I love it.  Sure the in-game advertisements are annoying.  But its definitely worth playing for free.  I hate p2p.  I think its immoral to charge for a game and then charge a monthly fee.  Choose one or the other.  And if you choose to only charge for the game and need funding to support the game, get sponsors.  When I buy a game, I'd like to believe I'm actually buying the game.  And if I'm gonna be paying monthly (aka renting) I don't want to actually have to purchase the game.  I just saw a poll on this site asking if there should be in-game advertisements.  But there wasn't this option. So I wanted to make a poll on it.  And if you think ads aren't enough to keep a game running, you obviously don't understand the industry.  How do you think professional sports players make so much money?  Sponsorships and advertising.  Big game corps like Blizzard and NCsoft should definately look into this if you ask me.

nakuma

i dont know, its kinda  gray area at this point. it could work if the game is has enough depth, quality and staying power who knows. But tv and gaming is  completely diffrent. with TV ur passive in your interaction. you just sit and watch and enjoy. where as games tend to need direect input and interaction to make it enjoyable there fore its harder and riskier to pull off successfully. once again if it has quality, good depth, good gameplay freatures. it may work. GW is the closest thing to free. and i dont find it all that engaging and wotrth my time despite not having a free subscription.

Axlin

I would immediately quite any game that chose to throw ads into it. I see enough ads on the Internet and TV, so why on earth would I want to deal with ads inside a video game? Ads are obnoxious and they would distract from the gameplay and overall "feel" of the game. I understand your point on P2P games, but I would much rather pay $15/month for a game than to deal with ads. Somehow I just can't imagine running through a mystical fantasy land and seeing a giant "Enjoy Coca-Cola" banner sitting in the meadow. No thank you.

Spellforged

Since most P2P games get free expansions, constant updates, and lots of new stuff the monthly fee isn't a bad thing to me. Just think of it like you're paying for all that new content. Anyways, most F2P games don't get content updates very often. P2P games usually get new areas, items, enemies, etc added every few months or so while most F2P games hardly ever get them. I would rather pay 10-15 dollars a month  instead of having a pop-up AD interrupt my game play every 30 minutes or so. I wouldn't mind the ADs like 9Dragons though since it only shows up when you're entering an area.

Godliest

It depends on how the advertisement would be made. It could totally ruin the game or it could be good. I've never tried to play with in game ads so I don't really know. However I've got no problems with paying to play as long as the game is worth the money I spend on it.

Crose

I think ads are a good idea if they're in the context of the game.  If it's a Sci-Fi MMO and you're in a futuristic city, then I can definitely see having some bill boards around with advertisements on them.  Or something like soda machines where you can actually buy a certain brand of soda and drink it, maybe for a small buff.  Things like that I find can actually add to immersion.



As far as advertising in a fantasy MMO, I can't see that working.  Neocron, Anarchy Online, and maybe Face of Mankind (haven't played since beta) are the only ones I can think of that could pull it off in a way that I would be happy with.

Grunty

No ifs, ands, or buts.  Advertisements do not belong in games.  Period.

Midnitte

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My tv shows get interrupted so i can watch for free, why not my games?

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I agree with this, but you are paying to watch Tv =p

Ads in games aren't really noticeable to me so if the game is free, thats awesome =D

FreddyNoNose

Originally posted by grunty

No ifs, ands, or buts.  Advertisements do not belong in games.  Period.

What if the game was an Advertisment game?

Unknown

I'd like to see super high quality MMOGs come to the market...ones that are so good that the makers could easily charge $100. - $300 a month for the privilege of playing them!



One of the biggest side benefits of this would be that the game would be totally free of trailer-trash...and little kiddies!! WOOT!!

elvenangel

Originally posted by lionzion

Playing as a froob on AO is awesome I love it.  Sure the in-game advertisements are annoying.  But its definitely worth playing for free.  I hate p2p.  I think its immoral to charge for a game and then charge a monthly fee.  Choose one or the other.  And if you choose to only charge for the game and need funding to support the game, get sponsors.  When I buy a game, I'd like to believe I'm actually buying the game.  And if I'm gonna be paying monthly (aka renting) I don't want to actually have to purchase the game.  I just saw a poll on this site asking if there should be in-game advertisements.  But there wasn't this option. So I wanted to make a poll on it.  And if you think ads aren't enough to keep a game running, you obviously don't understand the industry.  How do you think professional sports players make so much money?  Sponsorships and advertising.  Big game corps like Blizzard and NCsoft should definately look into this if you ask me.

 

*looks at the listings on the poll* TV's not free ... cable still costs to watch and you still get commercials. I hate ads in games more though they're annoying and sometimes even cause lag when they change!

Grunty

Originally posted by FreddyNoNose

Originally posted by grunty

No ifs, ands, or buts.  Advertisements do not belong in games.  Period.

What if the game was an Advertisment game? Go 'play' 9 Dragons and find out.

Chainmail

I do not mind in game advertising as long as its non intrusive and built into the atmosphere of the game. (AO used to be this way with billboards in the city, etc. I don't know what its like now) However games that have big banners that smack you in the face turn me off. The worst I have seen of this is the 9 Dragons model. I was actually enjoying that game until they put in ads on big ugly square banners that pop up almost in your line of view every time you change areas. Very annoying. After 2 days of those ads I quit and uninstalled. Its a shame really, 9 Dragons isn't that bad of a game.

Jadedtortois

Ok I will admit P2P can be pricy, that said this is a direct effect of having enourmous production teams, expensive advertising campaigns, buying shelf space to sell the game in 50,000 stores nationwide, having boxes, manuals, cd's made and packaged (ok only up to cost of game itself so far. Maintaining servers for hundreds of thousands or millions of players, providing customer support, providing content updates, etc... this does cost money. Also alot of money is often syphoned into making sequals and such. Sodon't just bash companies for making you pay when you think about it you could pay $15 and play an MMORPG for a month giving you between 30 and 300 hours of entertainment. Or go watch 2 movies for $15 and get 4 hours of entertainment. So it really isn't that expensive.

Now I don't mind F2P it has its drawbacks too alot of them are either massive over advertising (ads everywhere literally), or item/skill shops costing you real money. The big disadvantage is ussually the game is balanced such that spending money gets you things playing cannot get you. So you end up with two player classes the rich and the gone, essentially people without enough money to go with P2P games end up not really being able to play F2P games. So often P2P is actually cheaper for players. Another model is like EVE which is P2P but allows in game selling of gametime. This allows players that want to buy game cash to essentially sell game time for it. This is still very controversial to many, but its likely more balanced than the F2P itemshop styles.

OK on to advertisements. I have no problem with well doen product placement advertising. If a game set in modern day or even future, has "Red Bull" energy drinks, or "Mountain Dew" available at stores instead of "Soft Drink". It if anything adds to the games immersiveness. Again having a billboard in a city where a billboard would likely actually exist in real life, and having an advertisement on it, doesn't detract from gameplay. If the game takes these things that already should exist in game, and lets a company put their logo on it to get some extra money, then I'm all for it.

The KEY there is if it already should exist in game. If you add a billboard in front of the dragon's lair saying "Buy Coke!" then well I am adamantly against it. Having something like This game was produced with the help of these sponsors is fine IN THE CREDITS or opening screens for that matter. Having it every time you load a screen, or in a banner ad at the top of your screen wouldn't be so pleasant.

So I'd say I'm for advertisement that manages to add to game immersiveness, and against advertisement in game solely for the sake of profits. Unfortunately due to the nature of buisiness I believe the second style would almost always happen.

shadowhack

I think this would be good but only for futuristic sci fi games because you could put the ads on bill boards or have a little TV playing in say a pub or something like that, the ads could be placed as they are in RL like at say a train station that you can catch or at your local general store. The only thing with ads is that it wont work for fantasy, seeing an ad for EBgames in something like WoW, GW or vanguard would just ruin it.

Jupsto

adverts on like log in screens would be fine but in game they do ruin the feel to the game.

Aison2

the bigger and more populated part of mmorpgs are fantasy

and i dont see how ads could fit in there

scifi on the other hand should go well with ads

Liliane

I would pay three times more from game, if it would be good game. BUT I would not play ANY game, if it has advertisements.

Xantax

it's like getting caught in a rat trap. on one side you either take the bait and pay for the game or you could totally be unresponsive and waddle off somewere else. i would choose the latter everytime. you will never know how hard the swing trap will hurt if you do take the route, and it could be soo hard in the end that you have all sorts of finanial problems, and with this game, that is not even important where money comes into it. one of these days someone will miscalculate their money and pay of the game, but only to find they are 12 quid short on the rent. your screwed then. but this is one side of the arguement.



the other side. "nah! Waste of money i could spend it on something else that would keep me alive and not to kill me quicker". other words, i could save my money and use it to feed myself then starving for a few days eatting dry bread or the dreaded liver and brussled spouts.



but i mean i am not a person who spends spends spends on something that not even important and has been brought up with everything too loose. but the problem is the person does not realise that until the envetiable happens.

tunabun

If you actually care about a subject and want relevant feedback you should attempt to put in the work to get that required feedback.  A two option poll is far from sufficient to get any understanding on where people stand.

Liddokun

Personally, I hate games that have "In your face" ads flashing on in the game. I find that it breaks immersiveness as well as it annoys the heck out of me to no end. I would rather pay $15 bucks to directly support a game rather than see those ads.

Xantax

Thanks tunabun. i would like to add that ads in a game, is ok as long as they are quite rightly said that they are not in your face.

if the ads are again righly said, shoved to one side it would be ok. if if your crazy enough to buy subscriptions then i am not stopping ya.

Squal'Zell

if the adds are relevant to the timeperiod i would not care less, it adds to the "realism" of the time period in question.



for example i would find it normal to see a PEPSI or CokaCola or Pizza store add on anarchy online and any other non themed sci-fi MMO. because i am almost 100% sure that in the future large companies like Pepsi and cokacola will still live and still put out a ridiculous amount of adds. (in a game like SWG, or WAR or LOTRO because they are in a themed universe where adds do not belong. but an imaginated world like anarchy or everquest go right ahead



make it relevant to the game and it would be ok in my books,



what i would not accept would be the PEPSI add in a game like everquest or Dark Age of camelot but it would be fine on AO and EVE...

for everquest i would imagine beer adds (changed to fit the game with budweiser ale" or "dwarven molson" something like that... still get the name out but also stays relevant to the game.



adds in loading screens i really could not care less since i usually go pipi if its long and if its a very short i just ignore it, i take a bite of my pizza or  a drink of red bull.

Liddokun

Nothing breaks immersion like "Welcome to Freeport! Have a can of Pepsi! The choice drink of Lucan Delere."

SBC3

 

Originally posted by grunty

No ifs, ands, or buts.  Advertisements do not belong in games.  Period.

 

really?  Well I have played games with ads taht made it feel more real.  Mostly raceing games, Simulation games.  Also like games C&C you can take over a McDonalds and put your men in it.  And I forget but there was a Sci-fi mmorpg with real builds ect. like that taht just made it feel so real.

RespyShunt

Originally posted by FreddyNoNose

Originally posted by grunty

No ifs, ands, or buts.  Advertisements do not belong in games.  Period.

What if the game was an Advertisment game?

hahahah what a smartass