Poll: In-Game Ads, your thoughts

[Alfador_VII]

If it's an F2P game, I don't mind non-intrusive adverts, even a banner on a loading screen, assuming it doesn't delay loading the game. Any sort of gameplay interruption is out though.

In a full price game, I'm much less tolerant. Some restrained product placement is acceptable, like if you're in a city, and the billboards are ads for real products, then if anything it adds to the realism, rather than detracting.

I don't want popups, at all, or lading screen banners if I already paid for the game, and some product placement is really jarring like Sam Fisher and his Airwaves gum.

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

Subtle product placement is fine - real world cars, for example. Clever product placement, however, is better than blatant. If there was a period Coca-Cola ad on a billboard in LA Noire, I would think that was a nice touch that enhanced the game. Real adverts on GTA V's radio...not so much.

 

[Qvar]

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.

I'm finding delightful how well the word 'jarring' describes what I felt the first time I picked one of those batteries.

 

[Evil Smurf]

You can see I have a pubclub account, that should explain that that I don't like adverts so much, I'm willing to pay to get rid of them. This goes for everything, games, I watch tv on the Internet and the like.

 

[Whispering Cynic]

Ads in games I paid for are absolutely unacceptable (with the only exception of other games by the same developer/publisher, if done unobtrusively). In a free-to-play game I can understand them, but then again, I tend to avoid such games for that very reason.

Product placement... sure, knock yourselves out. Know however, that I will immediately stop buying any product advertised this way (like Airwaves in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory).

 

[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.

Read an interesting article about how this isnt always very easy. Companies are VERY picky about what they'll put their name to. Remember Homefront? The one about Korea invading the US, they wanted as many real ads and product placements in that as possible to make it feel more like it was set in a real US city. Trouble was very few big names would touch something with that 'controversial' subject matter with a barge pole or have their products associated with it.

I'm normally very disaproving of ads and people trying to sell me things, but this was one instance where I thought "YEah, that would really add something to the game" and they couldn't do it!

Jus found that interesting.

Well, Homefront's general premise was potentially highly controversial from the start. It might be a little bit easier to get product placement in a game that is a little less politically controversial.

Then again, most games going for authenticity generally have some high degree of violence, and given that games have been coming under attack a lot lately for being too violent, companies may not even want to be placed in games for fear of being perceived as supportive of school shootings, no matter how ridiculous that notion is.

Edit: Removed redundancy. Probably not a good idea to write these up while watching interviews. Tends to cause me to repeat myself.