What the market will bear

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/...ll_bear/1.html

[antiHero]

Very good article!
Its true that games like FIFA or GT wouldnt feel right without ads. And some billboards in GTA dont harm anyone. But i dont want to see flashing Neon ads in CS or Battlefield. Its like with everything else in life, it all depends on the right dosis(sp?)
Thanks brett for the read!

[DougEdey]

The problem with IGA is when it snoops on what you are using your machine for, which is why BF2142 caused such an uproar. Geographically based ads I don't mind. But when they start to target ads at me specifically then I get annoyed.

People can say that I should get annoyed with CCTV. But a CCTV camera doesn't know what I do on my computer, it just knows where I go. I may go into strange shops, like the Warhammer and Planet *** stores. But that's not because I like them, it's because I have friends that do and I buy presents for people.

I agree that IGA has a place in the world of gaming, but they can't say that rising development costs are forcing an increase in game prices. And then go and get paid a ****load for advertising.

But then again, the profits which a developer makes from one game mainly goes to make the next in a series. When the management does not take care of this properly problems happen. There is a games studio that I have been told spends lavishly on extras for it's management, then fires almost everyone when a game is published, because they don't have enough money to keep them employed.

I reckon that the industry needs to sort itself out, it's still running in the honeymoon gaming period where everything was a lot cheaper to develop for and easier.

[r4tch3t]

Nice article nicely written and informative. We need the ads in games to be like TV, targeted for region, but thats all, time can also be a factor for when they are shown. BF2142 went out of line with its advertising.
For the likes of GTA it would make the game feel more real. The biggest problem would be destructibility. Its not going to fit in if we can destroy anything in the whole level/world except the ads.

[Mother-Goose]

Advertising makes games more relastic and emersive, if you see adverts for products in the real world it makes it a bit more fun to play, I have no problems with it.

[yakyb]

advertisement will always be a hot topic. my personall opinion is that if makes a game cheaper then ok so long as
1.) i dont have to watch a 20 second ad every time i play a game like on some dvds (i beleive this has now been outlawed)
2.) the advert is not out of context i.e. an advert for Mcdonalds in GTA would be okay but an advert for coke in oblivion would be wrong
3.)they dont impact performance, speaks for itself
4.) i dont hear a jingle every level as i pass a tv or something 'no im not loving it'
5.) most importantly they do not look at my cookies to see wha i have been googling in order to assess the best adverts for me
6.) they dont require a download every week to get the latest ones
what im trying to say is if they add to the realism and are not too obtrusive ive no problems

[djDEATH]

to be honest, i still havent seen, or been affected by a single ad in BF2142 - nothing.

Whats all the fuss aboot? I mean, i think its actualy quite cool that the world you're fighting in is a bit more real - and dynamic - but like i said, i havent actually seen a single one, not that i've looked. So any money spent on it was a waste, i'm too busy scoping out the opposition, or trying to keep one of those damn gunships flying in a straight line.!!! lol

[Djizasse]

I play to get away from real life, to take a break. I want FPSs to be more realistic but i don't want them to be REAL. I want them to be FUN and challenging. In real life, if i took a bullet in the head i would not respawn, that's a kind of realism i don't need. I also don't want to stop to eat. There's a lot of realistic events that i don't want to see in a game.

I'm tired of spam in my mailbox, emailbox, cellular phone, car windshield, metro, stop lights, DVDs, TV and even in the movies.
I stoped watching movies in tv, can't stand 15-30 minutes of commercials in between. I started to arrive 10 minutes later to the cinema to avoid the ads. The first thing i do when i buy the newspaper is to flush all the "extras" to the bin. When i watch a DVD i insert it in the DVD player, go prepare the snacks and 5-10 minutes later i turn on the TV, avoiding all the disclaimers and traillers. The list could go on.

So far I've been more or less able to avoid ads, but when they start to appear when an online server loads a new level i will have to watch it because i don't want to miss the initial rush that happens at the start of a new level. This is an example of an ad placement that does not interfere with the actual gaming but can be very anoying.

I find it totally unfair to pay full price for a game and still get ads. I passed BF2142 also because of this (between other things). If they want me to watch their ads, they have to pay, and i have to agree with it.
And i don't trust them to snoop around in my computer to provide ads better suited to my profile.

[Zut]

Great article! After all the moaning I did about IGA, I can't believe I forgot about Zool!

[Ramble]

I actually remember playing Moonwalker.
I think I might still have it...

[HourBeforeDawn]

okay games that are not say of an online nature ya okay I can see how it would work and none of your private info is sent anyways as its all done before shipment, as far as ads in game when it comes to online games dont make since especially in FPS are you telling me that the action in a FPS is going to be so dull or slow that you will have times to look at the ads lol I think not so I find it to be pointless in those regards but like others have stated games like GT or Racing style games wouldnt make since if you didnt know what your running or so one. Well thats just my two cents.

[Spaceraver]

As long as they dont feel out of place, they can put ads in the game... but as said before, snooping to give me "personal ads" means a no buy. Not in a million years.. Cs would be funny if there were a coka ad that was shootable..

[Neogumbercules]

I would not be totally turned off by IGA as long as they are in games that make sense. I don't need to be running across some futuristic waste land 600 years into the future after humanity has been nearly wiped by nuclear war and see Pepsi ads where ever I go. On the other hand, even in games where it makes sense to see ads, it has to be done correctly to make it not stick out. Anyone who has played R6: Vegas knows what I mean. Every single car in the game was a dodge, every single billboard in the game was either a dodge billboard or an Axe bill board. At the end of the second or third level when you fly out of some place on a helicopter there are literally 4 gigantic Axe billboard right in a row. Later on in some arcade you're in every single arcade machine is a racing game with a dodge charger on the screen. Every big show room had dodges up on slow rotating platforms.

It was ridiculous and it completely erased any guilt I might have had for DOWNLOADING IT ILLEGALLY. And as long as games continue to have IGA like that without a price discount I will continue to DOWNLOAD THEM ILLEGALLY and not care.

[ChromeX]

Originally Posted by Ramble

I actually remember playing Moonwalker.
I think I might still have it...

Quite possibly the cheesiest game ever!

[DougEdey]

Originally Posted by ChromeX

Quite possibly the cheesiest game ever!

"Michael!"

[zoot2boot]

i can't see how IGA could be a good thing to be honest. it's only ever going to be an annoyance and i don't see why we should be paying for something with advertising in it. all very well for the industry but it's not in the players interest whatever the article says.

[Tim S]

Originally Posted by zoot2boot

i can't see how IGA could be a good thing to be honest. it's only ever going to be an annoyance and i don't see why we should be paying for something with advertising in it. all very well for the industry but it's not in the players interest whatever the article says.

I'm assuming that you'd rather have an "ultra realistic" game of FIFA without advertising in it then? That would make it really realistic.

[randosome]

i don't mind in game advertising, but i don't think we should pay £30 for a game and have adverts stuck in it as well
Its using up our CPU time, our bandwidth and were still getting charged full price, Its also right out scanning your cookies or stuff like that, its just wrong

and adding advertising to games that aren't being updated, ie CS1.6 is just completely out of the question, if your not going to update the game, don't shove your crappy adverts in it too, only new games should be allowed adverts and you should be warned beforehand that they have them in them
Finally i think that adverts only suit certain games, old fashioned games don't really fit, and possibly very futuristic games it wouldn't work either

[Woodstock]

subtle is the key to it, and id like them to read my damm cookies (there on linux, windows cant even read the partition and if they could i bet they would only search in the default window place

[sl1xx]

advertisement has no place in fps,unless your walking threw a city and it has advertisement there as it would in rl but in game like antihero said nar they would just be annoying.