Hi, don't sell out like EA did (in game advertising)

(mortis) #21

How long will it be until they tag our vsays and location names:

Mortis: I need ammo! (BEST BUY parking lot.)

Reyalp: Right away! (McDonalds Drive Through)

(Joe999) #22

imagine you press R for reloading and suddenly a message pops up:

[i]"you’ll be releoading right after this short commercial of The Ammo Bank: The Ammo Bank, we got all you need, be it Remington, Winchester, Corbon, S&B … Charlton Heston approves: The Ammo Bank!

your gun will be reloaded in 3 … 2 … 1 … Get 'em!"[/i]

(crumblycake) #23

…have you ever seen “Michael Moore Hates America”?

http://www.michaelmoorehatesamerica.com/

:beer:

(TheBladeRoden) #24

lol, Planetside


(Lanz) #25

I wonder how many customers they lost by going down this path, I know they defo lost me. I was at least going to try the game but even that seems pointless now knowing that I wont buy it. Okey, I’m not a BF fan but I at least give all games a fair trial before ruling them out.

(Dangerdog) #26

I’m pretty sure they expected a negative reaction; it’s their silence about what the ads will look like or if they’ll be over the top annoying with sound that is frustrating.

BF2142 still may have decent sales numbers but I wouldn’t let that go to their heads too much, there’s a huge drought of decent FPS games right now (hurry up Quake Wars) and most people will begrudgedly purchase the game because their friends are playing it, or it’s the only thing new for quite a while to mess with, if they had any competition at all and the alternative was to play the game without ads I bet a lot more people would stick to their guns and not buy BF2142.

(fattakin) #27

For the record, its got fook all to do with SD ‘selling out’ - Since when were they a not-for-profit organisation? - They are a small game development studio currently making a game for a large game development company. They BOTH need to make money, and the main difference between id & ea is that id do care for their community and actively support it (quakecon etc) The decision not to include in game advertising was probably the realisation that our support and sales are more important that advertising revenue pissing people off.

Sorry the phrase sell out is so overused it pains me. It’s used these days to attack people / bands / games? That have had a small initial following then break through to achieve more success, leaving their cliquey fans bemoaning their loss. We’ll the creators have to make a living and balance their own morals so vote with your feet - if you aren’t happy don’t buy.

(BrokenHeart) #28

Never understood why there are so many “ad-haters”. Placed the right game (means modern/future city environment) it CAN add a lot of atmosphere. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Coke (or something like that) advertisement there. Why not? Better then a would-be ad like “Drink Tapir Juice!”.

However, pop ups or ads with sound would be VERY annoying.

(Black_Forky) #29

Because when you pay for a 70 $ game, you don’t expect to have ads thrown in your face. Now, if the game was like 15$ ± some distribution costs with ads that would be more reasonable.

(Joe999) #30

i hate everything that’s not related to the game. i throw my currently biggest hate at the piracy warnings that they put on dvd. you are forced to watch them because you can’t skip them and on a recent series dvd i had it even in german first and then in english for 10 seconds each right before every 20 minutes episode. that totally sucks.

^pirates aren’t forced to watch that crap, why am i? the same will happen to ingame ads.

(kamikazee) #31

Who says Coke still exists in 2060? (Or what was the date again?)

So, nearly all ads should be custom, and they must be rather subtle to add to the atmosphere.

(BrokenHeart) #32

Interesting. I never thought that it would annoy people that much.

And I think that Coke will stand the test of time. :o)

And no, I’m in no way affiliated with that company, it’s just an example. ^^

(SCDS_reyalP) #33

I agree with brokenheart. If the ads actually fit the level, and weren’t intrusive, it could actually add to the immersion.

Many current games do obvious rip-offs of existing brands, e.g. a vending machine with red and white “Cola” on it, but don’t use real brands for fear of lawsuits. If they could use real brands, and get paid for it, that would be pretty much win-win for everyone. Movies and TV shows already do this… it’s called product placement.

Of course, once the advertisers have their foot in the door, there is certainly the danger that they will push for ads that are obnoxious, or don’t fit the game world. That is obviously bad.

(mortis) #34

I’m in favor of “Game Neutrality”…

How long do you think it will be before you will get certain weapon unlocks in games by purchasing products to get serial codes hidden in product packaging or the like? I don’t even want to think about Battlefield 21,420 (the successor to 2142), where you get 10 über weapons with the serial codes found in a case of Pepsi. No thanks!

I liked the “fake ads” that appeared in Unreal Tournament 99 that pimped the Tournament, the developers (numerous CliffyB posters), mapmakers or clans, but I’m very skeptical of actual advertisements, especially dynamic ones (downloaded real time over my bandwidth, which is already inadequate for today’s games). My experience with annoying “click away” semi-pop-up ads that position themselves in your field of view on a webpage makes me scared. Ads that you view-snap to in game when wounded would be really annoying, for instance. Instead of looking around for a medic, you can stare at a billboard until spawn. Or worse, ads that flare brighter whenever your crosshair passes over them, or PMs you with spam messages when you put your crosshair near them.

Advertisers will run wild once they get their foot in the door. I think that gaming has long been a means of escaping everyday pressures. I definitely don’t need blipverts in my gaming time, too. Maybe they’ll be fatal like in Max Headroom.

–Mortis

(Rhoades) #35

exactly my opinion

(ouroboro) #36

Mortis wins the thread. Although you probably just gave EA a bunch of ideas! :banghead:

(Nail) #37

Googlealready thought of it

(RosOne) #38

Too late

:wink:

(Sir. SpungE) #39

“Instead of reviving, you are injected with Coca Cola which gives you 200% health and you only take 4% damage.” - Jon Carmack

(BrokenHeart) #40

Well, that would be a bit too extreme… :disgust:

But look at the edited pic of RosOne. Would it be really THAT annoying to you people, if the Activision logo would be replaced with something else, like drinks, food or something? I don’t get it…