Now I'm starting to think having ads in WoW might reach more people than CNN

Quote: Original post by Raghar
2. They could ask you government officials to create law that would disalow adds in the computer art called games, and in independent movies.

well, at least in U.S., ads count as freedom of expression. It's not absolute, but it cannot be outlawed.

also, cracks are hacks, and they're illegal in any games.

I can sort of understand how people are against the whole ads in games thing, but sometimes I don't quite get why not.

Just imagine TV without advertising. Who would pay for anything? Its advertising that's paying for the production of many shows along with the merchandising. Without advertising, we'd probably still be stuck with PBS or the few channels run by millionaires who have nothing better to do. Remember, you really don't pay anything for the shows you watch, especially the stuff that are nationally televised and you don't need cable or anything to watch. Ironically, in recent years, I've found the commercials to be more interesting to watch than many TV shows. Heck, I even like watching infomercials just to see what crazy new product someone is trying to sell.

But seriously, if ads in games were to eventually help increase the production value of games, then I would be all for it. If product placement in games would mean I don't have to pay monthly fees for my MMOG and still have good customer support and stable servers, then why not. Just as a previous poster said, there are right ways to do product placement and ads.

It depends a lot on how the advertisement is done within the game.

I don't have that much of a problem with discreet context dependent advertising. If a realistic city-based game has real billboards, real chains of stores (McDonalds, Starbucks etc.) and people with real products, then it would add to the atmosphere. The problem with this approach however is that "subtle" is counter-productive to advertising.

Even if it's more blatant, advertising can work if it's done in a way that doesn't harm the tone of the game. If in a racing game one of the competitors keeps talking about how he prefers certain types of tyres or motor oil, then that's still within the bounds of believable behaviour. Another way is to use humour; one of the best cases of in-game advertising I remember was the splash screen for Sprint that was used in Space Quest V whenever someone signed off on the viewscreen communicator, which worked for me because it was amusing.

However, if a game starts showing commercials in the form of non-context relevant unskippable splash screens, over-the-top or inappropriate product places (i.e. orcs wearing Adidas), or forcible integration with the gameplay mechanics (collect 100 Coke bottle caps to unlock the next secret!), then as a customer I'd expect to be paying less for your game. I'm still not 100% against the idea, and I wouldn't mind cheaper games going this route, but I would be a bit miffed to pay full price for a game that was spoiled by having logos plastered all over it.

I have played a few games that have had advertisements in them. Nokia comes to mind. I never minded skating past a nokia booth in a 3d mini mall. Why? No reason to object to that. This was in Tony Hawk. They also had real board and shoe companies, and others mixed in there. None of it was like an ad. It's the real brands that are targetted towards that culture. In order to construct a realistic mini mall, there are going to have to contruct storefronts and signs. No reason not to have a nokia booth there, instead of some fake name.

Also have real clothing brands in the last def jam game was a nice touch.

It wouldn't be a big deal if the fake food chains in the next GTA game were modelled after real chains. Pizza Hut. and KFC instead of Well Stacked Pizza Company, CLucking Bell, and whatever the burger place was. Also There are sprunk pop can vending machine everywhere. Having it be sprite wouldn't be a bother.

In THQ's WWE games, they replace the advertisements normally found in arenas on the upper decks with THQ and YUKES! logos. Replacing them with clothing lines and in turn giving me some nicer clothing designs/options in the create-a-wrestler would be appreciated actually.

Advertising in this way is the ideal way to advertise, as it's not jumping up in your face. The logos and slogans are just part of the background noise, and blend in to the experience.

Now,
1) If that halftime show wasn't sponsored by someone, there wouldn't be one.
2) TV and radio exist to sell advertising. So does the newspaper. The only reason the content is shown is to drive you to the advertisements. CBS isn't in business to produce the Letterman show, they are there to make profit by selling ad space.

[Edited by - Vampyre_Dark on February 21, 2006 9:13:07 PM]

This reminds me of Bungie's (Halo developer) April's Fool trick last year, where they were going to release a free multiplayer level with the "help from our kind friends at Mountian Dew (tm)", and the screenshots always had a huge Mountain Dew logo in them, in fact I think entire walls of the map were to be huge logo textures.
I'm glad it turned out to be a joke, but it kind of scared me that it really didn't seem unrealistic.

If you want to see an MMO thats done ads in game, take a look at anarchy online. Its interesting and it doesn't hurt the game experience at all as most of the time I just ignore them (although I will look at them once just to see what its an ad for). However ones with sound annoy me to no end. I couldn't stand hearing the Underworld Evolution ad in there for more than 3 seconds... But the tasteful billboards are fine, in fact I rather enjoy some of them. But their game is futuristic, so having billboards kind of fits.

Well, I guess a large variety of ads - both sound and billboards - can really help the atmosphere in modern/futuristic game themes.

If the ads are used in a fictional sense (e.g. advertising products which don't exist, by companies which only exist in-game -- think Nuka Cola in Fallout) then I have no problem with them. If I had to view Nike, Sony Playstation, Ford, and Swiss Chalet commercials ingame, I'd have a serious problem with it, simply because I already paid for the game, and shouldn't have to pay for advertisements on top of this. And if they were live ads being dynamically sent to the game via the internet, you can be sure I'd be adding routing rules to my firewall in order to block them. I'd rather pay a little more for the game and not have to view ads.

With the latest trends in gameing, video games will soon cost 70-80$ per game. All of the new xbox titles start at $60, even the ones that arn't worth buying. So, if Blizzard or any other company will sell their game for $50 (assuming its on-line enabled), continually write software that adds to the game and prevents cheating.... I think seeing the occasional game ad is a fair trade. Even gamedev .net puts ads up, but you don't see topic after topic written on how badly people hate them. So, again, as long as they arn't put in intrusive places in the game (like.. view this ad for 30 seconds while we 'prepare' to connect you to the server) or don't have annoying sound clips attached, I think they're fine.