Poll: In-Game Ads, your thoughts

[Alorxico]

I have Sims FreePlay on my iPad and over the past few weeks I have noticed that I am getting ALOT of pop-up ads while I am playing my game. Ads for other EA games, ads for items made for my game but I have to pay real money to install, ads for cat videos on youtube (I'm not joking), and it's just a massive turn off. I find myself avoiding playing the game because I don't want to deal with the ads.

The reason I bring this up is because I heard a rumor that Triple A games are going to put advertisements in their games. Not "product placements", where a character is seen drinking a Coke or using Google Maps to plan a heist, but they will play actual commercials during loading screens and in-game items, billboards or tvs, that show commercials or ads based on your internet browsing history.

Now, I don't know about you, but that's going to far. I mean, it was kinda cute when Obama had his political ads added to Burnout, but this is too much. I don't want to watch a Chevy commercial while I wait for Fallout 4 to load. I don't want to see an ad for The Escapist (even though I love you guys) on a billboard in Gotham City while I'm on patrol.

I just hope it is truly a rumor and not true in any sense. Course, if it is true I just know it will be a problem "easily" fixed by throwing money at Microsoft. "Oh, you don't like the loading screen ads? Well, for a small monthly fee of $10, we'll stop them for you. What? You don't want ANY ads in your game? Oh, then you have to buy the Premium XBox Live account for that, and it's $50 per month."

 

[lRookiel]

You know what ads piss me off? ALL OF THEM, but especially ones in video games.

Trying to play on a TF2 server yesterday as a pyro, charging at the enemy when all of a sudden the adverts pop up and I die because "lol buy my things pls".

I hope this does not become a habit for all to follow in the next gen.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

What? No. I hate ads. Fuck ads.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I thought I could get behind the idea of product placement in games for the sake of securing funding, "I can ignore advertisements in the real world, why not in a vidyagaem?", especially if it prevented games from adopting advertising breaks.

Then I played Alan Wake.

Nothing was more jarring than collecting battery packs for my torch with a high-res 'ENERGIZER' logo shining out through the game. The branded cars I could manage. Then I turned on a television in a mental-care home that was being besieged by intangible 'darkness' and some guy started calmly informing me about the benefits of Verizon Mobile.

I'm gon' go with no.

 

[BearShark]

If they're just on in-game things that I can walk by without having to stop, or on loading screens where they don't make me wait an increased amount of time, I have no real problem with them. The only thing that could cause a problem is if they start to interfere with the game.

 

[shootthebandit]

i think need for speed do a good job (or atleast they used to, not played one since carbon) but i always remember the virtual city having posters/billboards for real-life products. That way its kinda unobtrusive yet it makes the city feel a bit more real

 

[Evonisia]

I wouldn't support pop-up ads. If adverts must be in a game, I'd rather it be on a billboard or maybe a pepsi can can be found in the brown linear industrial level to represent colour in a bleak world.

 

[Pink Gregory]

i think need for speed do a good job (or atleast they used to, not played one since carbon) but i always remember the virtual city having posters/billboards for real-life products. That way its kinda unobtrusive yet it makes the city feel a bit more real

I think the problem lies in that one has to go all or nothing with immersion-breaking in between. If it's a few sponsors with ads in the game, surrounded - for example, in an open-world GTA-like game - by parody or non-real advertising as art for the game, the actual ads really shine out.

Not sure that would apply in a racing game, admittedly, if real car brands and stuff are being used. Suppose the same goes for sports games and such.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Well, I have nothing against in-game product placement, provided the world is going for a sense of authenticity, not just because "Buy Pepsi!"

As far as pop-up ads and commercials, no, I absolutely hate those. Seeing them on TV is enough motivation for me to use the Internet for most of my TV viewing. I don't want to see some stupid ad while playing a game.

 

[Soxafloppin]

Its a thin line really. As long as they don't stall gameplay or intrude.

Things like a vending machine being Coca-Cola and not some made up brand, yea why not, or even ads on a loading screen (Provided loading times are not made longer than they need to be to make up time for the ad).

Billboards in an open world game would be fine too, maybe advertising other games from the same company.

Actually Warner Bros advertised The Hangover 2 in Mortal Kombat of all places.

 

[Doom972]

That depends on the game's price. If it's free, then of course I wouldn't mind ads. If it's a full priced AAA game, then there shouldn't be any ads in it. I wouldn't mind indie developers funding their game by putting ads in it, as long as it doesn't take away from the game significantly.

 

[spartandude]

It depends on how its done, lets say Im playing Watch Dogs and as im walking down the street outside a shop there is a banner for Assassin's Creed IV, something like that would be fine because it doesnt interrupt anything nor take away from the actual game

 

[Muspelheim]

I can only think of one instant where I'd be alright with it. Namely real world brands in a game's item flora. Like Coca-Cola and Pall Mall and the likes. Or real world music or posters, as long as they fit the enviroment.

Of course, on condition the brand holders won't come meddling with the game. No "Why can't our product, like, make the player win the game?", the brand holders get the back seat and enjoy their brand exposure in peace and quiet.

That is the only in-game advertisment that wouldn't make me throw up in my mouth. If pop-up ads become a regularity in game, I'll consider picking up knitting instead.

 

[gyrobot_v1legacy]

I can only think of one instant where I'd be alright with it. Namely real world brands in a game's item flora. Like Coca-Cola and Pall Mall and the likes. Or real world music or posters, as long as they fit the enviroment.

Of course, on condition the brand holders won't come meddling with the game. No "Why can't our product, like, make the player win the game?", the brand holders get the back seat and enjoy their brand exposure in peace and quiet.

That is the only in-game advertisment that wouldn't make me throw up in my mouth. If pop-up ads become a regularity in game, I'll consider picking up knitting instead.

That's yakuza in a nutshell. I want to go to kabukicho and try out Pronto or Matsuya.

 

[an annoyed writer]

It depends on the context for me. I liked it when they had Chrysler vehicles in the Tom Clancy games a while back, for example, but if it's a loading screen ad or something that interrupts gameplay, fuck that shit, it should die in a fire quickly.

So to recap: if it helps immersion, like billboards and props, sure. If not, GTFO.

 

[GalanDun]

Product placement I can deal with. Bundled demos I can deal with. Even ads on the back of the manuals I can deal with. But loading screen ads and ads that interrupt gameplay can go fuck themselves.

 

[Maximum Bert]

It depends on how its dealt with but if it becomes accepted I just think they will keep pushing to see how far they can get away with stuff and for that reason I dont support ads in games on any level I would rather not have the game at all than one with ads in for the most part.

That said there is nothing stopping them from funding games to be released for free that is nothing but advertisement for their product like the Pepsi man game on the PSX (think it was PSX anyway).

 

[CleverCover]

I go out of my way to not buy things I see ads for, or skip them on tv using my dvr (because there is no point in watching anything live anymore), so no I don't want any ads from the real world in my game. If I do, the price had better drop from the normal 60 dollars.

 

[The_Echo]

In Max Payne, occasionally there would be televisions left on in the world, and you'd hear whatever program was on at the time.

If in another game, this was employed, but rather than a fictional soap opera it were a Coca-Cola commercial, it might be nice. But this sort of thing should only ever be in games based in the modern real world. Things such as fliers and billboards would be OK too, just so long as there aren't many of them. Ambient advertisements as opposed to a loading screen ad or something like that.

But... ideally, I'd like to keep advertisements out of my games entirely.

The Xbox 360's dashboard already shoves enough ads down gamers' throats. For the actual games to start this shit would be disgusting to say the least.

 

[takemeouttotheblack]

I think possibly the only positive that in game advertising in any form brings comes in the form of funding; if there's a game that's really good but wouldn't have made it into production without subsidy from advertisement money, then I could just about stomach it if it's part of the price one has to pay to keep one's creative vision relatively intact. But apart from the above, I'd prefer not to.