Selling Ad space in-game for Star Citizen, what do you think?

feroshus

Let's be honest, selling ships and early access MIGHT be enough to get this behemoth off the ground, but what about when it's up and running, and free for everyone? It stands to reason that the amount of money rolling in will quickly taper off once everyone can just jump into the world for nothing. I might pay for one of the smallest packages once there's an actual game but that's it.

Would this be a good way to help fund the game once it's ready, as opposed to the game-breaking cash shops many games have tried to adopt?

Would you be ok with a big Pepsi billboard on the side of a station if it meant keeping the game truly free and fair? Or at least as "fair" as it is now? Seems to me it's one of the few games that could do something like this without breaking the immersion too much.

Heretique

As long as it's not intrusive like;

I'm flying my ship and a big ad pops up on my hud.

alakram

If the game is as good as they promise it should be sub based I voted no.

feroshus

Heretique said:

As long as it's not intrusive like;

I'm flying my ship and a big ad pops up on my hud.

 No it would be contained to large physical billboards in the game, like things you fly by and such. Maybe a big landing platform with a Nike logo on it? lol

wolfpack2012

Double advertisement. Paid by Pepsi to put their ads in the game and sell you skins from Pepsi. I'd buy a Pepsi skin for a gun or ship.

feroshus

alakram said:

If the game is as good as they promise it should be sub based I voted no.

Oh I thought it was already announced it would be free to play? I could be wrong though it's been awhile since I looked into the game.

Aelious

It all depends on what is being advertised. Does it fit into the game? The Pepsi example is great, especially if it was a futuristic representation. What about Enfamil? United Health? Budweiser? I guess in each case it could have a futuristic spin so hopefully the developers would do a good job making it mesh.

...

Heaven forbid SC is popular and doing in game advertising when the next Star Wars movie comes out... O.o

Insane666

SC wouldnt be the first to do that. One of my all time favorites, Anarchy Online had ( past tense becouse its such an old and low poppulation game no one would pay for adds ingame no more ) ingame billboards with real life adds on them. If you paid an optional sub you had the option to replace those with ones more in tune with game lore, and were oblitagory to free accounts.

While it would, obviously, never pass in a fantasy game I wouldnt mind it in a game with a sci-fi or modern setting.

Wizardry

OP i am not a fan of this game and  already know it's whole design is based on cash shop,so there will be PLENTY of money rolling in and the game will NEVER be free.

They are selling ship add ons ,new ships will always arrive.
I think even the most staunch fanbois still does not understand yo u are supporting an all out "cash shop" game.
This is how the game SHOULD have been designed....
1 Create a universe with planets,various race/technology
2 You have to discover those different races and planet/cultures to discover new technology
3 Use those discoveries to build and design your ships
4 Exploration and discovery and trade should wield you SOME of the ship building and add ons ideas.
5 There should be a crafting profession to learn the various trades to build and maintain and add on to your ship
6 Hangar...It should be used to carry out your crafting profession,designing and building ships,it should not just be some museum to display ships.
This is just a BEGINNER design,there is a LOT more that can go into it,even with a 20 million dollar budget.

Instead what CR has done is take an entire game design and tossed it into a cash shop,how lame is that?He has taken 99% of your entire game and just removed the GAMING for a cash shop.The only thing left is to fly around in your small cockpit looking at your hands on a throttle stick looking for someone to shoot at.To me that is not much gaming left all you have is the minigame Hangar 42 that will likely be VERY limited in it's scope and likely lasts maybe 2-3 weeks tops.SO if you play this game for months or a year or more,99% of your time will revolve around cash shop,sounds fun,,not to me.

mrputts

I remember seeing an Evanescence ad in Planet Side,  and not having an issue with it.

adamlotus75

Remember the Fanta adds in Planetside? Was a source of much amusement!

Erillion

Ads in game like the stargate billboards in EVE Online are ok - about companies and products in the Star Citizen Universe.

But ads for real world nowadays products and companies ... please no.

Go back 900 years ... how many companies and products from the year 1116 do you remember ? Would you consider a billboard campaign "Giovanni Caetani for Pope" appropriate ?   (1118, Giovanni Caetani elected Pope Gelasius II).


Have fun

cheyane

I recall Anarchy Online had ads on their billboards and Hellgate London too.

Reizla

Okay with it, as long as it's there in the 'decorational' sphere. The moment I get pop-ups in my UI from the advertisers I'm out...

tenfootgoatman123

I tend to agree I with the OP I have my doubts that crowdfunding will be enough to see this game launched . I am not even sure even if in game ads would be enough either . The only way I see it happening is with heavy investment from an already established game developer . 

I think if it releases it will probably late 2018 at the earliest and I wouldn't be surprised if its even in the early 2020's but the longer it goes on the more likely that crowdfunding efforts will diminish . 

I love the ideas behind this game and if they pull it off it will really be the next generation mmo . But I also wonder if it all sounds too good to be true and even if it is possible to produce such a game with even 3 or 4 times the amount of money they have already raised . 

Lets hope the developers dream turns into a reality . I personally think it will but they wont be able to do it without investment from other sources and crowdfunding alone will not be enough . 

Derros

Id be fine with ads in a sci fi setting. Heck I still remember alienware ads in Anarchy Online way back when. Didnt really bother me then, and probably wouldnt now.

Elsabolts

Less Ads more game.

feroshus

Erillion said:

Ads in game like the stargate billboards in EVE Online are ok - about companies and products in the Star Citizen Universe.

But ads for real world nowadays products and companies ... please no.

Go back 900 years ... how many companies and products from the year 1116 do you remember ? Would you consider a billboard campaign "Giovanni Caetani for Pope" appropriate ?   (1118, Giovanni Caetani elected Pope Gelasius II).


Have fun

I don't think that's valid to be honest, corporations and advertising have changed a ton since the olden days, so I don't think that's a good representation of how things will change in the future. We already have companies that have stuck it out over 100 years (Nintendo comes to mind). I'd say that 900 years from now, assuming we haven't destroyed ourselves entirely, people will still be hitting up McDonalds fly thrus. But no one can predict the future I guess : P If you don't like it for this game that's fair.

Kiyoris

wolfpack2012 said:

Double advertisement. Paid by Pepsi to put their ads in the game and sell you skins from Pepsi. I'd buy a Pepsi skin for a gun or ship.

They should put ship codes inside the pepsi caps. The only way to get the ship, is to buy pepsi.

I can see it now, thousands of Start Citizen addicts buying thousands of pepsi bottles just to get the ship.

peteski123

its a space game, so as long as they can keep the ad relevant to the time period then I have no probs, don't want to fly past in my space ship and see an advert for a crappy hoover

feroshus

Kiyoris said:

wolfpack2012 said:

Double advertisement. Paid by Pepsi to put their ads in the game and sell you skins from Pepsi. I'd buy a Pepsi skin for a gun or ship.

They should put ship codes inside the pepsi caps. The only way to get the ship, is to buy pepsi.

I can see it now, thousands of Start Citizen addicts buying thousands of pepsi bottles just to get the ship.

Pure genius, they should be hiring us for their marketing team. But you would have to find all 5 sections of the ship under the caps, and one section would be crazy rare (of course), forcing people to buy cases of the stuff for the chance at the Pepsi cruiser.

mayito7777

Hell no, they have already enough money, they need to learn to manage it, plus they are already selling subscriptions.

feroshus

peteski123 said:

its a space game, so as long as they can keep the ad relevant to the time period then I have no probs, don't want to fly past in my space ship and see an advert for a crappy hoover

What about a Dyson? Those are vacuums of the future!

Pepeq

You're assuming that it actually stops using crowdfunding once the game finally gets launched...

Okay folks, to update the servers to support the possibility of an apocalypse, we need to generate another 10 million dollars... until then, we're going to keep the server capacity at the very minimum, with our largest contributors guaranteed first access.

I mean, this crowdfunding can go on forever...

Kiyoris

peteski123 said:

 don't want to fly past in my space ship and see an advert for a crappy hoover

JeffSpicoli

Star Citzen needs MOAR Funding!