Online games to get more ads

[Mara]

On Monday, online game provider Shockwave.com will begin offering advertisers a way to insert ads within the games themselves. While it’s believed to be the first such invasion in Web-based games, it’s only one of a growing number of venues advertisers are using to reach its shifting and fleeting audiences.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9949462/

Happy gaming!
:p:

:read:

[Chylde Roland]

Yeah, I'd love to be running through Stranglethorn Vale in WoW, along the main road, and seeing billboards for Pepsi and new video games, etc.... lol. I just can't see that working in a fantasy environment.

:lol:

[Stiler]

It will only work if no one speaks against it.

Advertisers these days can't seem to grasp that people DON'T like advertisments and don't want to see them in things they do everyday.

[Rob]

Actually, I don't have an issue with them. I play Anarchy Online, a MMORPG that has been around for a few years. Recently they added a way for people to play for free instead of the $14.95 a month fee that everyone else pays. To offset the cost, people on the free account have to view adds placed within the cities on billboards. Paying subscribers like myself have the option to turn them on, which I have done just to check it out. You know, it did not pull me away from the game anymore then glancing off to the right of my screen and seeing a 20oz Coke staring back at me. These ads are not everywhere. You are not going to be in a mission and interuptered for a 30 second video spot. It can be done properly and if it offsets my cost, such as them offering free accounts, I am all for it.

[SupaTroopa]

Yeah I agree if it offers a free option - or as in AO they are placed on a few billboards around the world and that's it. The ads are motion/in-game movie ads in AO and add some life to the usually static world as well and make them more immersive honestly, in the case of AO.

But yeah can't see a game like Wow incorporating them.

The article does mention "web based games" - which is something I rarely play any ways unless it's the classic arcade Shockwave games.

[Stiler]

The thing is, AO is an exception.

You really think publishers would pass on the savings to the customer? EA and other big publishers have already did quite a bit of adwork in the games they have done (NFS:U , cingular ad always on the freakin screen annoyed me to no end).

Most companies will not pass on any savings to the customers, they will simply pocket the money as profits and people will start buying into it just like they did with movies/tv.

Look at next-gen games, they aren't comin down in price, but going up, $10 says you'll see more ad's in that generation of games then the previous ones and yet you'll be paying more to boot.

I know some ad's can add immersion, because you see ad's in the outside world. However why do you think you think that? IF you didn't have advertisments shoved down your throat everytime you looked at anything I think you'd have a different outlook.