Great

Advertising in videogames, dominated in the past by static ads such as billboards and signposts, is beginning to look more like TV commercials.

For the past few weeks, Massive Inc., a New York company that distributes ads in videogames, has been testing an ad with full motion and sound in a science-fiction game called Anarchy Online. Today, Massive will roll out the full-motion ad capability to advertisers generally.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112224468814094387-c_lyn_JklKkAgR_5JCbWBwSi_7c_20060725,00.html?mod=blogs

I am all for this if it means either (a) lower game costs for the consumer in either initial price tag or monthly costs, (b) increases game support by developers for improved game content and fixes.

If this is just something to pad their pockets without the consumer getting any more than they currently get I am not for it at all.

*And why does the author think "Videogame" is one word?

I know our company has been investigating a lot about serving dynamic ads into video games. There are some very intersting ideas and applications out there to do this. Next two years should be very telling.

Video game ads are bullshit. I really doubt that they are going to lower the cost of games because they have advertising in them, except perhaps in some rare cases where people want to release free games. But I bet that we'll start seeing ads in video games that are no cheaper than their ad-free counterparts. The ads they use at the start of the games for nVidia don't seem to affect the price of the games, that's for sure.

Advertisers won't be happy until we're exposed to an ad every single second of the day. If they could brand the moon they would. I'm sick of it.

I play fantasy games, thank god. It would be *extremely* difficult to layer one into the atmosphere without it being blatantly obvious, and thus ignored. Not to mention such blatant consumerism would probably turn my crowd away from that game instantly.

Yea I dont think it will trickle down and benefit us in any way. A recent example is Blizzard; They made waaaay more money than they initially thought they would and they didnt even bother to hire more GMs. When I stopped playing there was only 1 GM per server per 24hrs.

I'm going to go with "Lining the Pockets" for $500 please.

They're heeeeeeeeeeeeeerrree http://www.gryphonllc.com/ps/track_psdevs.php?post=4518

this was funny

Companys alwas want more money, i dont think they will just trade one source for another. Damn Planetside and me wanting to play it.

This is a great idea I don’t know why you guys think this is so bad. Just imagine you’re in your FPS of choice, you turn the corner and give a N00b a mouth full of plasma(or whatever)! Instead of the normal system spam of “Jadal totally pwn3d N00b1 with a plasma gun” you would get this! You turn the corner and give a N00b a mouth full of Plasma then the game pauses and everyone gets a little animation of your kill followed by an announcer saying “ WoW! N00b1 you just got fuked In the ass RAW!! Followed by 30minute commercial for ASStro-glide the worlds best Anal lube!

Brilliant!

lmfao :)

Yeah I see commercials showing up on the control console and the REC hacking time slowed from 10 seconds to 45 so you are forced to watch it.

If having these commercials lowers the monthly cost to below ten dollars a month, I would consider coming back for a couple of months a year during the summer and winter breaks.

That would be nice if they did lower the monthly price but that would be benefiting us and I don't see that happening.

If they did they would also get more players. More players means more revinue. Also there will be a higher rate of people paying but not playing because they can afford to waste the money as they try other games from time to time.

Too bad PS has been dying slowly for the last year though. Putting crap in the game wouldn't make people want to return if you have to look at it while you play. I mean I can see it int he santuaries but would suck outside of it. We need the old devs back!!!!

Ugh...just...ugh.

I've kept my PS sub up this time, and have played off and on for giggles, but I think this might be what pushes me out. I like immersion and, well, these things totally **** that up. I went on the Test Server just to SEE rather than going "OMGZ! ADZ?! NO WAYZ!!!" thinking if done tastefully, they'd bring revenue in.

Alas, this is what I found...the third picture showing the only GOOD thing about these things.

I'm sorry, in the midst of massing for a huge assault on the next enemy base, I really don't want to see that the new Deuce Bigalow movie is coming out soon. I'm not going to cancel just off the dry-run, because it might occur to them to at least ATTEMPT to theme the ads, but if they go in like they are, seems like my PS days have finally drawn to a close.

Here's a write up a couple of guys did after analyzing the packets while playing Swat 4 (another game showing ads)

http://nationalcheeseemporium.org/

Pretty interesting the amount of data they are sending back. :)

I can actually see it in a game like that because its game not set in the future so it blends in with the game. I don't see it blending very well in PS.

From my perspective, the idea of ads in game is annoying at best and disruptive at worst.
Ads in an MMO are insulting to the customer base, I already pay you a monthly fee to play your game and for you to support a live team to produce content and bugfixes, I don't see in game advertising resulting in a reduced price to the consumer. And at what point does the advertising become disruptive to gameplay? Does the manner in which it is applied to the game include streaming content? If so, **** that. I want reduced latency, not an additional level of it. If it's a one off ad included with the game install then it won't matter either as there is no renewable ad money there.

Now in a standalone game, such as SWAT 4, I can see a place for it, however ad revenue should be used to reduce the cost of a game: much like commercials and broadcast TV. The issue is, that model is flawed on a single purchase product like a video game, it ony works with repeat customers: like those who watch a particular series on TV.

Now an area where this might work would be the upcoming SIN sequelettes coming out on Steam.

Personally I'll not buy a game that does this. Especially not an MMO. (The only possible exception would be if that MMO was Shadowrun.)

I don't mind advertising as a concept. It's no secret that PS is somewhat underpowered on numbers and that revenue generated by it could be used to help fund projects to make the game better (like hiring a new artist so they can complete new base designs, etc.). They've also mentioned that the billboards can be used for in game promotion, inviting the major fan sites to create banners as well as posting relevant game information. So there's secondary uses for the system as well.

However, there is a limit on what I'm willing to tolerate in the name of improving the game...as you say I already pay a monthly fee. I can put up with an ad properly themed to its surroundings. For example playing a BF2 map in a city and I pass a poster with an image of a Coke can with arabic (or Chinese) all over it...that's fine. It's a Coke can, it's projecting the brand image, but it's doing it in a relatively unobtrusive way.

For PlanetSide, they'd have to do a LOT of work on most ads to make them blend in. Movies, for instance, would be right out the door almost because the dates they want to advertise just throws everything off immediately...and they're some of the biggest advertisers out there. The Navy game, likewise, ruins the effect...again, military is a major advertiser.

In that case they are caught between a rock and a hard place in that there are so few ads that can be put in without ruining the immersion factor (which is part of why PS is so great) that it almost begs the question of why bother. SOE almost needs have the players take products and make PS-themed ads for them...which they'd never do because of all the legal issues surrounding them doing work that gets SOE and the advertisers money.

Just an ugly, ugly can of worms to open.