Don't gamers care about the coming in-game ad invasion?

[quote name='the3rdkey']Out of all the concerns about games I think we have bigger worries. This reminds of how people bitched about ads before movies. Now no one really cares. If the game is good I do not care.

Plus, look at MGS2. Hideo slapped FHM babes all over that game. Talk about some good ads my CAGgys.[/quote]

I can't stand commercials before movies, previews are more than enough. In fact, I've figured out the approximate amount of time ads are shown before the movie starts at my local theatre and make sure not to show up until that time has passed.

I don't play many racing or sports games, where ads might best fit in with the atmosphere, so I'm not too worried about it. However, it would be a problem if ads consistently started showing up in other types of games. It would definitely influence my purchases.
 
[quote name='basketkase543']I do sometimes. Like in Spider-Man 1, there was an entire mini commercial within the freaking film as Peter tries to test out his new webbing powers on a fresh can of Dr. Pepper. Eesh![/QUOTE]

I really don't mind as long as the game isn't an ad itself. Until this ^ comment, I would have said as long as the "product placement" is background or unrelated to the plot, etc. However, this comment took me back to E.T. and the famous Reese's Pieces. One of the most successful in-movie "ads", and an active participant in the story. If I could go back in time and force Spielburg to change to a generic candy or remove the scene altogether would I? No. I love it how it is. That movie introduced me to Reese's Pieces, and I like the way they did it. For me, the movie is BEST with the scene and the product placement just as it is.

As long as the product is "participating" in the proper and realistic telling of the story (or playing of the game), I welcome it with open arms. If it forces its way into a game and is a distraction/detriment/annoyance then I prefer they stay the heck away from my games:

Potential ad infractions:
- Load-screen commercials: Because I will always assume the load is longer because of the commercial.
- Pointless plot devices: My character is dying of thirst while standing by an outdoor water fountain in the pouring rain outside a convenience store and I have to WALK across town to get the Pepsi to save his life because that's all he drinks.
- Product butts its way into story: I have to escort (yeah, we all hate escorts but that's another topic) some chick to Main Street. She's going to die if she doesn't get there in the next 10 minutes, but she pointlessly refuses to come along without her Hershey's bar because she loves Hershey's so much. When you get to Main Street, something terrible happens and only Hershey's can save her - good thing she wouldn't leave her Hershey's behind!
 
[quote name='chosen1s']I really don't mind as long as the game isn't an ad itself. Until this ^ comment, I would have said as long as the "product placement" is background or unrelated to the plot, etc. However, this comment took me back to E.T. and the famous Reese's Pieces. One of the most successful in-movie "ads", and an active participant in the story. If I could go back in time and force Spielburg to change to a generic candy or remove the scene altogether would I? No. I love it how it is. That movie introduced me to Reese's Pieces, and I like the way they did it. For me, the movie is BEST with the scene and the product placement just as it is.[/QUOTE]

Good point, but it takes someone like Spielburg to pull something off like that and make it completely natural to the story. Unfortunatley the ad agencies that are going to be plastering ads in out future games don't have Spielburgs on their payroll. Not to mention they are surely going to want their ad to be more in your face since the action in a game is constantly moving and usually being controller by the gamer.

I don't mind ads (too much), in sports games and in city enviornments AS LONG as there aren't too many of them and they are silently sitting on some wall or billboard that I'm not forced to look at. The minute the camera automatically moves to some ad or I have to see ads before a game starts or during load screens (which are in the works for upcoming games), they've crossed the line of intrusion.
 
I think what's really funny about this topic is how many people say, 'as long as there aren't too many, it's ok'. The simple fact is, no one cares. Video games are a good way to get to the younger male (the ones that, outside of football, are almost unreachable in big numbers).

Everyone hates commercials in front of DVD's, but guess what, you still buy them. It's only a matter of time before someone puts a 1 minute ad in front of a huge game that your forced to watch (maybe before every time you play). You can say you won't buy it, but what if it's that big game you've been waiting for? I bet 99.9% of you will suffer through it. You might complain, but you'll do it. It's only a matter of time.

I'm not too worried about it, because I'm not convinced that 'shove it down your throat' advertising really works. It might if you have a great product, and you just need to get the word out. But, I think consumers are too savy now. We've seen ads since we were babies, we just don't buy it anymore. So, I think having something in the background that doesn't stick out too much is actually more effective. Though, I'm not a marketing major, and I know there are studies that say I'm dead wrong.

So, get use to it, the ads are coming. Complaining won't stop them. All you could do is to not buy it. I think a stand might be made on some bad games, but the big AAA games can dump as many ads as they want, you'll buy (and I will too).
 
Product placement in Munch's Oddessy irked me a bit. Sobe vending machines just didn't really fit. But, since I know this money was helping the developer, then I'm ok with it. As of yet, it hasn't bugged me, and I know the money is helping them out, and the last thing I want to see is a promising developer go under. (Ironic, I know)

If Psychonauts 2 had Raz gulping down Mountain Dew and giving a shiny smile at the camera, I'd laugh my ass off. Don't ever see Doublefine doing that, but just an example. PP doesn't bother me, the ends justify it.
 
[quote name='chosen1s']Product butts its way into story: I have to escort (yeah, we all hate escorts but that's another topic) some chick to Main Street. She's going to die if she doesn't get there in the next 10 minutes, but she pointlessly refuses to come along without her Hershey's bar because she loves Hershey's so much. When you get to Main Street, something terrible happens and only Hershey's can save her - good thing she wouldn't leave her Hershey's behind![/QUOTE]I wouldn't mind "run back to her apartment in 30 seconds to get a Hershey bar because her blood sugar is low." Or even "your boss has a headache, get him some Tylenol"
 
As long as product placement fits, I'm all for it.

It's when the Mario Bros start hyping up pads and viagra i'll have a problem with it.
 
[quote name='Scrubking']Just about every day now the videogame media talk about how another advertising company has jumped into the videogame business. Game companies like M$ and Sony want to turn their next-gen consoles into next-gen advertising machines. Advertisers even have the nerve to say that their ads will "make games better".

My question is why don't gamers care? Are gamers going to let there games be overrun with commercials? It's bad now when you're supposed to be in a fantasy world and you see a billboard for pepsi, but things will get much worse.[/QUOTE]

Would you:

1. Rather pay $70 on a Madden Clone
2. Get original titles.

Remember folks- in 10 years, its all going to be digital distribution- there isn't going to be a 8.98 sale at CC. They will be able to leave their games at $50 and say- if you want to play- we get to rape you up the ass. Oh- and all copy protection schemes will be like Steam. Don't know what Steam is? You will....

And oh- yes, I'm pissed about this, but you know what- there isn't a god damed thing I can do about it. I do only buy Boxed games, and I don't buy over steam- but guess what- a billion other ass hats do.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']I think what's really funny about this topic is how many people say, 'as long as there aren't too many, it's ok'. The simple fact is, no one cares. Video games are a good way to get to the younger male (the ones that, outside of football, are almost unreachable in big numbers).

Everyone hates commercials in front of DVD's, but guess what, you still buy them. It's only a matter of time before someone puts a 1 minute ad in front of a huge game that your forced to watch (maybe before every time you play). You can say you won't buy it, but what if it's that big game you've been waiting for? I bet 99.9% of you will suffer through it. You might complain, but you'll do it. It's only a matter of time.

I'm not too worried about it, because I'm not convinced that 'shove it down your throat' advertising really works. It might if you have a great product, and you just need to get the word out. But, I think consumers are too savy now. We've seen ads since we were babies, we just don't buy it anymore. So, I think having something in the background that doesn't stick out too much is actually more effective. Though, I'm not a marketing major, and I know there are studies that say I'm dead wrong.

So, get use to it, the ads are coming. Complaining won't stop them. All you could do is to not buy it. I think a stand might be made on some bad games, but the big AAA games can dump as many ads as they want, you'll buy (and I will too).[/QUOTE]

True- but only for console games- those of us in the PC savy world will insert / install the "No gay ad" patch and be good to go. And I love my consoles- don't get me wrong- but it anything would stop my buying console games in favor of the PC port- this would be it.
 
[quote name='onetrackmind']If ads would actually lower the cost of the game for the consumer it wouldn't bother me as much but since thats not a reality... yes its really annoying[/QUOTE]

Agreed.
 
I want to see Master Chief go EXTREME! with a Mountain Dew CODE RED smashing the can on his helmet as he jumps menacingly into a field of covenant soldiers in a ending to end all endings called Halo 3.
 
The only noncontextual ad I would accept in a game woud be Mentos. They just lend themselves to a wierd life saving moment in pretty much any game you could think of.
In fact I might go so far as to say I would buy a Mentos adventure game. The wierder the better.
 
I myself am ticked. I play on my bro's 360 all the time and everytime I boot up and see an advertisement on the OS of that console, I die a little inside. Not even are they gaming ads all the time, which are just slighty annoying. Mountain Dew, Axe, and whatever crappy bands or movies happen to be coming out are among the annoying products being pushed on to me for having the thing plugged into the wall. I think if that sort of thing would have gone on in the old NES days, I would have thrown the thing out the window and become a meathead or something instead of a lifelong gamer.
 
I don't want commercials, but I don't expect that to happen. I really don't mind product placement or billboards (if they go with the enviroment).
 
[quote name='botticus']Personally I don't recall the last advertisement I've seen in a game, so as of yet, I'm not concerned. Racing and sports games tend to be the biggest culprit of that sort of thing, and I only have a couple of those, nothing recent.

If Pikmin 3 is released with a bunch of ads, that might bother me. :lol:[/quote]

:whistle2:s Did you play Pikmin one or two? The whole game was a bunch of advertisements. Energizer batteries, coke bottle caps, etc. They didn't use generic standins.



Ads are a mixed bag. Ingame billboards can build atmosphere. I wouldn't want to see a Dodge billboard in WoW, but it wasn't too bad in Anarchy Online. AO was actually made free by the bilboards populating the game. Most really didn't look that bad as the game world was a megolopolis dystopia to begin with.

As for commercials before my game starts or during loading screens... fuck that. Its bad enough when they make you sit through the developer's intro movie. I wouldn't buy a game where I had to sit through 5 minutes of shit everytime I loaded it up. Infact, such a marketing scheme would only serve to alienate me from that company because they're fucking with my hobby! And as for loading screens, they're bad e-fucking-nough as it is. They don't need to be stretched out so I can be told how much less shitty Coke tastes than Pepsi.

The one exception to this would be for smaller dev studios where orignal quality games could be made possible using advert dollars. However, thats exceptionally unlikely, because no one would want to advertise in a nobody game that may or may not sell 200,000 copies. Its the same caveat small firms face now with large publishers. No one wants to put money into a formula that isn't already proven to be milkable.


The future of gaming seems to get a little bleaker every few months. Microtransactions mean we'll wind up paying more for content cut out of our games.
Online distrobutions allow publishers to do away with cumbersome things like manuals and boxes all the while maintaining the same premium price! 19.99 for Sin: Ep1 online without physical media or $8.00 instore at CC for a boxed copy? Tough call!
Episodic content means devs can cut one game up into multiple chunks that you'll wind up paying more for than one whole game. You'll also wind up paying $20 for 4 4 hour games instead of 50 for one 16 hour game. Both HL2-Ep 1 and Sin-Ep 1 were excellent games well worth the $8 CC charged, however, neither was worth $20 for an electronically distrubuted copy.
Ingame ads will come under the pretense of lowering costs and increasing realism, but we all know the truth.

In the end, what do we have? Partial games we pay more for and get less of. We'll wind up paying full retail for the first half of the game, the best weapon in the game and the next level of the game all the while being beatten to death by enemies wearing Coke shirts.

Bright indeed.
 
How about an option for "Yes. If it adds to the realism of said game." I wouldn't mind ads in video games where it would make sense. But I think the ad should be interactive, I want to be able to shoot down that McDonalds sign if I want to, or explode that Depends vending machine (I don't know, I couldn't think of anything else.)
 
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