How do you propose to get enough revenue from advertisements to actually support the game?  Unobtrusive isn't going to do it.

Originally posted by GTwander

I like AO's Old Spice commericals on screens and billboards... when they worked right. A couple of times the trademark whistle would follow me everywhere I went.

This only works in contemporary or sci-fi settings, though.

It was okay, but since it was one of the very few ads they had running, it got really obnoxious.  It was everywhere, over and over and over and over.  In fact, that ad was the only reason I started paying for an expansion, just so I could stop hearing it in my sleep.

I would if it was a good game.

I would only want the ads to be in-game, I wouldn't want ads that interupt gameplay and opens a browser or something like that.

Also, if the game had a modern or future setting it could also bring more immersion since ads are everywhere in real life. A medieval fantasy setting with in-game ads? I probably wouldn't play.

Depends on how the ads are integrated, but generally speaking if the game is GOOD and FUN then I will play it. But if every five minutes of game play I am interupted with a 30 second ad for Viagra, tampons, or pizza then I would not play it.

Originally posted by rankor2
It would be easy to implement into a game like the secret world. Just have some billboards in towns with Real company logos on it and there you go, ingame advertising. I could put up with that type of advertising. But if it halts my game i would not play it.

In a game like TSW or Auto Assault, I think it would really add to the game world. In a fantasy game I wouldn't care for it. 

as much as this is a play it safe chicken *bleep* type answer it depends on how many adds there are. Every game i have played to date i was barely aware of the adds so i was easily able to tune them out.....if everywhere i see was an add then ya i would probably quit over it, so ya it all comes down to how many adds.

Only if someone writes an AdBlocker for the game. muhahaha

I could cope with it if the ads were appropriate to the setting. Seeing a coke advert in a fantasy MMO would just be soooo immersion breaking. However, seeing a coke advert in a game like TSW would be fine. 

I dont think this could be implemented successfully in a fantasy setting MMO, not at all, but in one set in the current day, or in the future it would be perfectly acceptable, as long as the ads werent intrusive. Billboards, Branded things, like vendors selling a can of coke rather than some generic drink, a mcdonalds in game to buy food etc would be fine by me, especially if it meant not paying a sub.

When I was playing Anarchy Online I was in one of the towns and there was a video billboard that had a trailer for the film Babylon AD on it. I thought that was really cool, and ended up going to see the film because of it (I had never heard of it before I saw that ad) 

I definately WOULD NOT play it if the model they used was popups on your screen with a stupid ad for penis enlargement pills or something every 15mins. That would just piss me off. 

Originally posted by maskedweasel

Instead of F2P,  or B2P or Subscriptions,  would you be willing to play a game where it is 100% ad supported.  Ads are everywhere in game (by everywhere I mean tastefully,  like coke cans,  audio advertising when you walk past a certain NPC... etc.)    , and perhaps at specific intervals of gameplay they would pop up an ad that you had to click through.

 

I know some mobile games have things similar to this,  but they still utilize a cash shop,  and they are still widely popular....  but what about for PC MMOs.    Consoles?

Yes, and I would see this as more appropriate in a Sci-Fi MMO, where there are monitors scanning ads across the screen or posters and billboards, etc....  But not the pop-up's, that'd be annoying; just visual stuff you see as you venture through the world.

Depends on setting and style of adds.

I would definitively play an ad supported game provided it's F2P (because of the ads) and the ads make sense and don't get in the way of the game.

For example, I'd never play an ad supported WoW with Coca Cola ads in the entrance of Stormwind, because it would kill inmersion. However, I would have no problems with Coca Cola ads on the road to Kingsmouth or on the yellow pages in The Secret World, or maybe even a video ad showing on a TV somewhere. Same, if I'm shown an ad while loading the next zone (as long as it doesn't mean the loading will be much longer or more frequent because of it), I'd have no problem with it... but if the game is interrupted to show ads, then nope.

Thing is, ads like these will never work for MMOs, they don't provide enough revenue for it. Ads work in websites because if you're interested in one you can just click on it, and it can load on a different tab or in the background for you to see later, it doesn't interrupt what you're doing unless you want it to, and reading the content of a website and returning to where you were browsing before is very easily done. In an MMO loading an ad means getting out of the game, and since it is an MMO you can't really pause it, an ad would have to be VERY interesting for me to take the time to go to a safe area before going to its website. Furthermore, ads provide revenue based mostly on clicks, not on just impressions. If you make them unobstrusive enough for it to work in a game means people can just tune them out and not notice them, make them more noticeable and they would anger people which would work against the product. So, basically any ad where they want you to go to their website is out of the question, that would be about 90% of the ads on the internet.

What does that leave us? The products that are big enough that they use the ads not as a way to convey information about their products or services, but to create and mantain brand awareness, the big guys like Coca Cola, Nike, and the like, and I doubt they'd invest on a system like this because MMOs (unless you're WoW) are still a niche market when compared to TV or offline games (for example), plus, they most likely won't want to share ad space (imagine a Coca Cola ad right next to a Pepsi one, for example). These companies are usually big enough that I bet they'd rather create their own MMO (even if it's Farmville quality) than actually advertising on an existing one where they have no control on the content (imagine Coca Cola investing on ads on Grand Theft Auto right before the Hot Coffee controversy, for example).

TL;DR: Doubt the system would work, not enough revenue from ads unless they're too obstrusive.

Depends, if ads popped up in combat and shit, no.

If there were billboards and crap, yeah.

If it was good at least.

They did it in Matrix Online (Chevy Camaro on a board on top of buildings) and it did actualy fit well in the game (sadly it wasn't enough to save it). The only place it wouldn't fit at al is in a medieval ot fantastic universe but anything else would be fine. If it's well done, it can even add something realistic to the game so yeah I would agree with that kind of financing.

No.  I had a similar thread about possible advertising in games not long ago and I stand by what I said there.  I am bombared with advertising when I open my browser (not so much after adblock, but I have to use IE at work...), when I turn on the T.V, when I walk outside my door, when I drive to work, when I listen to the radio, when I read the news/magazines...I could go on and on.  The advertising in our society is basically inescapable.  Hell, Verizon even sends me text advertisements every once in a while on my phone that i can't escape.  It's everywhere.  It's nice to have place where someone isn't trying to sell you something.  Unless it's a new shiny faction battleship or custom skin for my ak-47. 

No. There is a small chance I would download it to see what its about, but they would have to actually create a game that is fantastic and with heart. Considering all upcoming and recent MMO's contain no heart or care now a days chances are slim lol.

Take that and the fact that I won't even watch a youtube vid with an advertisement before (or ANY video online) the content, or even read a website that interupts me with one of those annoying popups (the kind that are flash or html5 and require you to click x) and chances grow even more slim.

Heck, I rarely if at all watch TV anymore.

So yeah, an MMO with in game ads wouldn't work for me at least.

If the game was good and the ads weren't out of place, I would do it.  I don't see why not.

no, I hate ads.

I put up with them before movies and put up with them if I'm watching something I really want to watch. But if everty time I ported I saw an ad I would quickly uninstall.

The only caveat would be if I was playing a contemporary game where advertisements made some sense. Still, being hit in the face with ads everywhere I went would be tiring. It already is in the things I've grown up with that had ads. It's one of the reasons I don't watch much TV anymore.

Depends. Would they be iphone app ads that just stick out and mess with you or would they be carefully implemented ads like for example:

a mcdonalds ad would be the actual fast food restaurant in the world

or coca cola drink being serve in the tavern

It could work in both fantasy and modern settings. I think its all about how well they are placed.

Absolutely, I would love to see running videos on walls, the worst vices supported, with tricky ads and offers over a

free-for-all, no holds bard, volunteer environment. I would like to see tie-ins from any government sponsors to the

advertisement. I would like to see medically and scientifically, )alterred( with skewed favorable results only published for

each product on the gaming experience.  That was in World War I, II, and Cold War 2.5 of course and the rich smooth safe health experience

was tobacco and not the safer illegal vilified vice, "Mary Jane" (altered name to keep it PC). As a result of Billions and Billions of Dollars (stars, ala Dr. C. Sagan)

in a casino (insurance system) we are still paying  for the "bank is broken" entitled  medical costs for such actions

and settled, Koto'd by the ones in at BLOGGI.

Since we decided to put War in  a "consumer safe, anti-virus/firewall, virtual Box called "the computer age" that mommy and daddy who are part in

making the kiddies, therefore reSpawnsable/responsible  to control what comes out of the box because they were coerced or greatly desired, console or  Multi-cored pride and Joy making rig. Hopefully, the Organization of Nannys and  game industry

can please/police themselves and keep the harmful effects of cancer of free thought abuse out.

If there are any breathing the "awful smoke" may find a room to do it in "safe privacy" without being Hacked up

a lung for taking the Plunge where they should have not before there is a need to make a World Wide

Universal Blog for all.

Livewen Hallvean.

It would depend on the mmo and the sci-fi cyber punk mmo's could get anyway with it.

As many stated, certain mmorpg's it could work with, some it couldn't (there is a immersion factor here). I can only imagine my Dwarf warrior strumming down the street and see a wooden sign that says 'Pepsi a choice of a new Generation'.

If the mmo is done correctly, it could work, for example. How about a Blade Runner mmorpg? Heh..

or the Fifth Element mmo