A MMO that works smart not hard

gwbrew

Why is it Big business has nothing to do with MMOs yet? Sure we hate marketing.. but do we really care if for instance one of the items we craft is coke... or we pass signage that says Chicken wings half of at KFC... sure there are ways to add it to the style of the game..

For instance.. walking into IronForge one might pass a dwarven woman calling out to passer bys "Had lunch yet? talk to me I have instant saving cupons" Or APB have DR Pepper shirts fo wear..

 

It seems if Big Business had  some marketing room.. most of these games could be F2P or drop the monthly sub down to almost nothing..

I know I don't have the best example.. my brain is not working yet this morning.. but what are your thoughts on bringing in the people who have money to pay for our MMOs while we let them market to us?

Meowhead

No matter which way you market this, it would come across as annoying to many people...

... but at least in an MMO like APB, or something set in the modern world, a Nike commercial would not totally be out of place.

Thekandy

If i meet some dwarf in WoW who can't wait to tell me about the fantstic deals ar KFC i'll be pretty annoyed as it breaks immersion like nothing else.

However, if i see a large flying billboard in Eve saying drink coke it won't matter because i can actually envision something like that being there, nobody will bat an eyelid if they see holoscreen adverts in SW:ToR either.

The medium has to lend itself to advertising so it doesn't seem totally out of place.

twstdstrange

I can't begin to tell you how irritating that would be.

And can you say, "goodbye, immersion?"

 

I... am a Death Knight. Sworn allegiance to PAIN and AGONY, and you, my foe will - - COME AND GET YER FAT BUCKET, ONLY $12.99 AT KFC THIS WEEKEND, LIMITED TIME ONLY.

Gardavil2

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Originally posted by gwbrew
Why is it Big business has nothing to do with MMOs yet? Sure we hate marketing.. but do we really care if for instance one of the items we craft is coke... or we pass signage that says Chicken wings half of at KFC... sure there are ways to add it to the style of the game..
For instance.. walking into IronForge one might pass a dwarven woman calling out to passer bys "Had lunch yet? talk to me I have instant saving cupons" Or APB have DR Pepper shirts fo wear..
 
It seems if Big Business had  some marketing room.. most of these games could be F2P or drop the monthly sub down to almost nothing..
I know I don't have the best example.. my brain is not working yet this morning.. but what are your thoughts on bringing in the people who have money to pay for our MMOs while we let them market to us?

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I love Coke-a-Cola as much as anyone could, but the first time I see an advertisement for Coke in my MMO I will throw my Computer out the window.

I no longer watch TV and I shut off Satellite because of all the damn commercials, and you are suggesting big business should bring that crap into MMOs?

No thanks. The ads on mmorpg.com (this site) already piss me off enough.

TheLizardbones

MMO's would be cheaper to develop, but they wouldn't necessarily become cheaper to play. Basic greed and the lack of stability of the money coming from advertising would not translate (I don't think) into a better player experience. At least for the kind of company that would want advertising in their game (imo).

I think game companies are also pretty protective of their IP too...having advertising companies pulling their advertising $ (or threatening it) because of something offensive would weaken the creators' control of their product. So the companies that are protective of the player experience aren't likely to want advertising in their games.

Meowhead

Originally posted by Thekandy

If i meet some dwarf in WoW who can't wait to tell me about the fantstic deals ar KFC i'll be pretty annoyed as it breaks immersion like nothing else.

However, if i see a large flying billboard in Eve saying drink coke it won't matter because i can actually envision something like that being there, nobody will bat an eyelid if they see holoscreen adverts in SW:ToR either.

The medium has to lend itself to advertising so it doesn't seem totally out of place.

The problem with games set in the future (EVE) or a long time ago in a galaxy far far away (Do I even have to say which game this is?), is that them advertising modern products is weird.

Okay, I can see Coke in EVE.  Kind of.  I mean, sure, maybe they'll still be drinking the same Coke in the future, and they'll advertise it as 'Retro 21st century Coke' (Wait, is EVE in an Earth future?  I always thought it was, but I didn't play enough to remember any backstory...), but any Earth products in Star Wars are just as immersion breaking as in WoW.  Maybe even more.  WoW seems to have a dimensional Rift broken to the dimension of pop culture.  (News flash.  WoW beat Rifts to the rifts concept long ago, just it was a much more subtle invasion of pop culture references, and nobody ever defeated them!)

That's why I suggested something like APB... or maybe The Secret World.  That's NOW.  Any product at all totally belongs.   (So far as immersiveness goes.  So far as making a good game goes... well.. bleh.)

JaggaSpikes

i wouldn't mind discreet marketing, but anything that gets thrown in my face is a big no.

AlysenMinase

Didn't Anarchy Online have advertising on there bill boards if you were a F2P player?