Quakewars has ingame advertising?!

(cheesecake) #21

it would be good if we could get an offical word from SD about this
there might be a good reason why they used this middle where that isnt ads.

(Tahnit) #22

I’ve never heard of anything about Id or SD putting ad’s in games, so i hope this is just bs.

(Nail) #23

it’s in the EULA, ads from “Massive”

(EvilBaga) #24

Marketing is the lowest, sleaziest, slimiest, most invasive profession in the world. If they could beam commercials directly into your skull while you sleep, they would do it.

I remember reading about a Japanese company that made a vending machine that detects any passerby and makes a jingling sound of Ice in a glass that people perceive as coming from INSIDE their head. Some kind of sonic effect. I wonder if its true? Anyone from Japan here?

(Nail) #25

reminds me of the first arcade video game I was into, used to say “Sensors detect another quarter in your pocket, deposit it to be the captain of Starship 1”, always made me laugh

(SCi-Fi) #26

I care yes as I dont want adverts shoved in my face, christ we see enough
on the tv and when drivin the car and on the radio and browsing i dont
want to see them while playin games, I can just see a billboard now “hey
buy dove shampoo now its new and improved, see how it makes your
hair shine!!!”

I really could do without… Ok so i wont be shampoo’s but you get the
picture and if american advertising gets a hold of it there be dancing
hippo’s too…

(amazinglarry) #27

Ugh…

I for one am severely disappointed about this crap. I’m not saying it will break immersion, especially if done right but if I’m paying 50-60 dollars for a game, then I do not want to be subjected to advertising in any form. That’s the entire reason that I buy the game.

I can understand free games and other services having advertisements because they naturally need some money to provide whatever service they’re offering, but when people buy CD’s they are not subjected to the radio ads for 15 minutes before they get to hear their music. They purchased the damn item to be without that. When people listen to the radio, they’re listening for free (assuming it’s not satellite radio) and people have to listen to ads then because well, that’s how radio makes their money since we’re not paying for it. I think we all give up the right to complain about advertising when we’re using a service or product for free.

I think the same applies to games… and I find it just a touch ironic that a FREE game like Enemy Territory has no ads whatsoever, whereas a game like Quake Wars (which will presumably be in the 50-60 dollar range) will support in game ads. Are we trying to make up for lost time here?

I can fully understand, however, trying to make an extra buck in this business by having real products advertised in areas that were aleady going to be billboard displays, signs and the like. What I mean by that is, if say, there’s a major city under siege by the Strogg, and like major cities are home to many billboards, that rather than making up fake products why not just put in a real product and make a few extra bones.

If ads are just being slapped all over the place, however, then I completely disapprove and will reconsider my purchase. I know Activision won’t miss my business (what’s one customer anyway?) but I just feel I have the right to express my disappointment in the matter. Certainly, Splash Damage/Activision/id Software doesn’t owe me anything, but I’m nonetheless annoyed and just needed to vent.

Here’s hoping to smart ad placements that aren’t trying to rape us! :beer:

(Nail) #28

Hi, I’m Neil Postlethwaite, Splash Damage’s Managing Director and one of the Producers on Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. I’d like to talk to you today about the in-game advertising we have in ETQW.

For the last four years, we’ve put all of our effort into making Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. So, we’re not planning to ship this game and walk away. We want to keep supporting ETQW in as many ways as possible. We’ll be maintaining the persistent stats servers and the community site, and continuing to support ETQW with updates and improvements.

To help cover this level of on-going support without passing the costs on to the gamer, ETQW will feature appropriate advertisements in select locations of our levels. The ads aren’t intrusive and you won’t have to interact with them; they’ll just be part of the normal environment. In fact, there are some places it’s quite odd not to have an advertisement - the sides of container trucks, for example. Great care is being taken to ensure that all our ads are appropriate for the game world and we have absolute approval rights in this area. If it’s not appropriate or it’s distracting, it won’t go in.

The company providing the ad system does not and will not store any personal information or data that otherwise can be used to identify you. All they track is if and how long you look at the advertisements.

For those of you participating in the upcoming beta, you will get a chance to see them for yourself very soon. And of course we will be releasing a demo prior to the retail launch of the game so everyone can check them out first.

Choosing to place ads in Enemy Territory was not a decision we made lightly. However, in doing so we hope to be able to provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars community than would have been possible otherwise.

(amazinglarry) #29

Hmmm fair enough. I was just thinking, and I wouldn’t even really mind a system kind of like battle.net with the banners at the top.

I guess my main hope now (that my fears have mostly been laid to rest) is that if the entire level has a grim uban feel, that the logo on the side of a container truck isn’t a insanely bright advertisement for Tide that blinds me. After reading Nail’s post though I’m sure that won’t be the case at all.

Fair enough.

(corvey) #30

I guess you really need to look at it this way. IF your playing on a FREE game server, they need to make their money somehow to pay for all that FREE bandwidth they are giving you for enjoyment. For me, that could be acceptable.

The only problem I would have is if the advertising can’t be customized to what you want your personal advertisement to be on your own server, or especially if you can’t disable the advertising entirely on your OWN server, then THAT will be a BIG issue for me.

I agree, forced advertisement of other companies material placed on your own server is BULLSH:T.

If I drink Coke, and see a big Pepsi ad on MY server, I’m going to be pissed off. :lol:

(M8DNanite) #31

Neils blog makes all sense.
The in-game ads are quite subtle atm:
http://aycu35.webshots.com/image/19074/2001621319080400117_rs.jpg

Closeup :slight_smile:
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/16842/2001818433449952370_rs.jpg

Taken from:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=93458&page=4

(cheesecake) #32

looks more like that one is just a placeholder for when the ads are going to be put in there

(callihn) #33

Perhaps, but it is our choice and ours alone as to whether the game is purchased and installed, it’s not going to happen here now, that’s for sure.

(Nail) #34

that of course is your option. I find it odd that console players don’t seem to care about ingame ads and there’s WAAAY more on console and the games are usually more expensive with very little if any free content, all buy our latest patch/level/weapon

(figvam) #35

The problem is, 99% of the servers will be provided by the GSPs and 3rd parties not related to SD/id/Activision, and all those server admins won’t see a dime from the in-game ad views. So your second paragraph and everything below really applies to virtually all servers.

The only problem I would have is if the advertising can’t be customized to what you want your personal advertisement to be on your own server, or especially if you can’t disable the advertising entirely on your OWN server, then THAT will be a BIG issue for me.

I agree, forced advertisement of other companies material placed on your own server is BULLSH:T.

If I drink Coke, and see a big Pepsi ad on MY server, I’m going to be pissed off. :lol:
Another take on this: imagine you’ve bought some software for your web site (forum or guestbook or CMS), after installing it you find that it shows the ads to your site visitors and you can’t really control it. And the ad revenue goes to the software maker, not you, though the visitors generating the ad views are viewing your site.

Shouldn’t such software be called “adware”?

(Carwash) #36

Cant say im particulary bothered about this. I’ve noticed one ad in 2142 once and i was just running around waiting for the game to start.

When you’re playing you’re too busy looking for other players and objectives, not looking at the billboards.

(EvilBaga) #37

Frankly,
Im torn on this. On one hand SD will give it way better support. On the other theres NO WAY id set up a server where I didnt get a cut from ads, especially if I paid for the game.

(dracflamloc) #38

How will this affect the release of a linux version? I’ve purchased every id game ever made with the expansion packs because I support how they create open-standards software and port it to other OSes. If this new ad-streaming component they throw in affects this then theres no way I’m buying the game. I’m already considering not getting it just because of the ads to begin with.

If someone is going to sell me something with ads it better be at a severely discounted rate from normal. If this game isn’t $40 at release it’ll be too expensive.

I’m extremely annoyed with whoever pulled the trigger on this one. They had better not gimp the mouse-aim on PC like Shadowrun.

(Zarkow) #39

You people are looking at this from the wrong way.

What was the main excuse by DICE-fanboys as to why they stopped patching BF42 before it was done, or BF2 before it was fixed? That it cost them money and wouldn’t sell any more games!

So, here we have a setup where they proclaim that the ad-revenue will be used to offer a continued support [as long as people are playing it at resonable numbers to generate revenue]. This gives YOU leverage. This gives YOU the right to DEMAND support past the 12month-mark.

(Jimbo99) #40

I have chosen at this time to NOT purchase the game. I will not pay for a game with advertisements. I believe it is an evil thing to put advertisements into a game.

I consider it sick and tasteless to put advertisments into the game and there’s no justification for it.

When BF2142 came out I refused to purchase it even tho I was a BF2 fan. NO ADS. PERIOD. I have never purchased nor played the game. None of my customers were offered the game and none of my friends have ever played it and they are big gamers.

All of my friends and lots of my customers have played BF2. In fact, I have purchased 5 copies of BF2 just for customers and friends to play.

Splashdamage nor id software provide anything to the game after it is completed and there’s no reason to justify adding advertisements of all things to the game after that. If they were pumping out 20 quality playable maps a week and hosting hundreds of free servers with mega bandwidth every day then they may deserve to receive some recompense. BUT THIS IS NOT HAPPENING.

For the reasons of splashdamage and id putting advertisements into the game I will not purchase nor play the game, period. Everyone I know will be encouraged to NOT purchase nor play.

Are you getting the message id and splashdamage.? You just lost money on me and a lot of other people.

You guys talking about splashdamage and id providing more and better support are disillusioned. They will do nothing additional to support nor upgrade the game that they wouldn’t have done without ads. I’m telling you now, with all certainty, with all truth, splashdamage nor id will put any extra effort into supporting or modifying the game after it has come out just because you are willing to pay for a game that has advertisements that they sell.

Splashdamage/ids post touch on the topic that they didn’t consider ads lightly. That should tell you something id and splashdamage. WE DO NOT WANT ADS.

Listen, SD and id are not going to be beholden to their words. As they make more money there’ll be more ads. The ads will be more intrusive.

I’ve watched companies that produced one of the first and most popular mmorpgs come out with a promise of this or that. Their business managers, the accountants, and a slew of other executive level decisions ended up killing the game because these guys couldn’t keep their promises and they ended up alienating the customers. When a viable alternative came around they weren’t prepared for the near total abandonment of their mmorpg.

During this time there were warning by the players that many were trying, over and over, newer games to see if they could be happy with them. This mmorpg company should have seen that as a warning, but their bean counters, their execs, and their decision makers just saw dollar signs.

That game is still on the market and people still play it but it is also essentially dead. Nothing this company can do can revive it. No one cares about them any more.

What SD and id do now will reflect on everything they do in the future. Their decisions now reflect the decisions in the future of gaming. You put this crap in the game now and you refuse to fix anything unless customers pay more is wrong.

We all know that ETQW will be beta software, at best, when it is finally released. PERIOD. IT will be BETA. What SD and id are telling you is that you should pay them $50+ for the game and then expect them to receive more money to fix those bugs and to resolve issues that should not exist in the game to begin with.

Most people here know that consumers have complained repeatedly about how games are being released in Beta form to the public. So, you have to ask yourself why you would expect SD or id to receive more money to fix a game that was released as Beta.

Hardware on the PC is pretty standard. The graphics chipsets are pretty well established. They are also sufficiently well advanced. Players have grown accustomed to a gig or two of RAM and HDD space is pennies a MB. To top that off the great majority of gamers today use High Speed cable or DSL. This means that consumer’s workstations are generally up to par when it comes to game stats, thus generally making gaming support easy. To top that off technical support groups are now little more than pacifiers to the public. They generally only direct you to FAQs, go through scripts themselves when diagnosing, and are limited to the amount of time actually allowed on the phones with you. The reason I know this is because I worked for 5 years as the Lead Senior Technician in a technical support firm for the largest print/electronic publisher in the world.

SD nor id will do anything to support you more than they would if you never saw an advertisement in the game. They will no more support nor advance the game itself than they will support you.

I play BF2 and I can tell you that playing on a ranked server is one of choice and it really does nothing to the overall of the game. Playing on a ranked vs a non-ranked will change nothing for you except certain stats, awards, etc will be tracked. But that’s just a “who cares” bunch of stats. If you look at ET you’ll know that it doesn’t take stats, ranked servers, etc to know who is best and who is getting better and who is cheating and which server is best.

In BF2 there are servers that are maintained but most of the ranked servers are rented to consumers. That means that you won’t be able to set up your own server and consider it to be ranked because it would be too easy for you to manipulate things in your favor.

Due to the ranking mechanisms the mods that make ET so powerful are going to be non-existent because you can’t have anything other than the standard sets of mods and maps in order to gauge who’s best at what.

Essentially, ranked servers, stats, and advertising will kill the immersion you have felt over these past 4 years in ET.

Given that there are going to be some serious trade offs in game play from ET to ETQW that will be bad enough. If the game duels are not as fluid as they are under ET we’ll all be wasting our time playing another BF2142 clone.

Do you want to just be playing BF2142 with all the ads and the lack of anything real quality in the game like ET had? Everyone following this thread and this game are ET players. Everyone knows what it means to be in a duel and to set and complete objectives. Given that the game play will be so dramatically different in ETQW putting ads, ranking servers, collecting stats, etc is only going to demean us as players and destroy the immersion we all feel when playing ET.