Curse

Inde · Nov 27, 2005, 06:52 PM // 18:52

I can see how a publisher would make this happen in any game actually. You can't deny that they are missing out on a big revenue possibility. The 18-35 male demographic that makes up the majority of game players is a huge market. One of the largest in fact, and the most desirable considering the amount of money they spend.

It's one of the last frontiers for marketing. We are bombarded everyday with ads. Websites, television, movies, radio... every medium has marketing. And yet, in a lot of games there's not any. It's only a matter of time I forsee. Cut-screens that end with ... brought to you by ATI (which would be completely realistic considering they are a partner with NCSoft). Or a log out screen advertising Teamspeak or GameDaemons, again another partner with NCSoft. And everyone seems to be concentrating on extreme examples such as Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds. So while we might not see those advertisers, there is certainly advertising ways and revenue to gain in marketing their partners in game.

And I too thought Everquests partnership with PizzaHut, being able to order a Pizza in game, was brilliant!

Guardian of the Light · Nov 27, 2005, 07:29 PM // 19:29

I would mind some ideas being named after brands or having some building showing Pizza Hut Logos or something just as long as I don't have to log in and then get bombard from 500 ads telling me to BUY BUY BUY.

I think the order pizza from game would be super cool.

However in-game advertising could have some problems because some would be limited to a certain country like the United Stated. I'm from Canada and I wouldn't want to see a "Vote for Gore" ad telling me to do something that I can't

Mimi Miyagi · Nov 27, 2005, 08:28 PM // 20:28

Lessee, GW has generated somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million dollars in gross revenue for ANet.

I don't see where they are going to be whining about a lack of money anytime soon.

Planetside? AO? Those games are on shaky ground. GW....no so much.

Also, as Gaile said, Billboards would be a huge jar against suspension of disbelief. I can see it now...

"Welcome to Lion's Arch...brought to you buy McDonalds, Coke Zero, and Chrevrolet, part of the American Revolution".

Inde · Nov 27, 2005, 08:49 PM // 20:49

A publisher is going to pass up a potential 20-30% increase in revenue? It doesn't matter how well a game is doing, NCSoft and ArenaNet are still business'. If someone were to approach you and state that you could have a 20-30% increase in your salary you are going to turn them down? An extreme example, I realize that. And it's always just a 'potential' revenue increase as well. So no, a developer might not want this in their game, but publishers have walked over development companies before and told them what will be or will not be in the game.

And I was stating how some other games have implemented billboards in their game as a means of advertising. This wouldn't necessarily be the case for other genre's. As I stated above, cut-scenes, log in and log out, are other ways that advertising could be brought into a fantasy genre where a billboard, vending machine, and more just does not fit.

Besides just a publisher though, a partner could now begin insisting on more exposure rather then just a press release announcing it, or recommended hardware on a retail box. This is just to get everyone thinking really, there are a lot of instances where a developer might just be held powerless against their publishers, software partners and more in the search for more exposure and more revenue. So just a discussion topic, but as the push continues it will be interesting to see it all play out.

wolfy3455 · Nov 27, 2005, 08:55 PM // 20:55

I can see it now. Brand specific missions.

Coke - Can you bring the coke back to the consumer in time?

Toyota - Ride you're Toyota Charr and pick up Rurik in time to save the world from GM?

Or other things for the latenight crowd :P

Kool Pajamas · Nov 27, 2005, 09:02 PM // 21:02

I could see it working in the Competition arenas. Have logos carved into the walls or ground. Or when you enter a battle, the walls in the beginning area have some small logos posted up.

Not that I want it.

Fyre Brand · Nov 27, 2005, 09:21 PM // 21:21

I think it might eventually happen, but NCSoft is pretty sensitive to it's player base. I just don't think North America and Europe are ready for that type of advertising yet.

NCSoft already promos with companies in Asia (eg: Coca Cola) for it's games and players. Wasn't there a recent thread interest about unique weapon skins that had to do with buying Coke and using a key to unlock the items, or some similar mechanism?

I think most people in North America expect that their fee covers their game experience (since most games are fee based). I want to play a game to escape reality and the mad push to generate revenue. I use Firefox as my browser and a fairly decent firewall to make sure marketing utilities aren't constantly bombarding me with plugs. Hell, I didn't even know this site had ads until someone complained about the flash files bogging down their system. I had to turn off Firefox filtering and my firewall filter to see them. I was fairly surprised.

Inde ~ I think that the pizza concept in the other game you mentioned was funny. I think that if the advertising came across in an event fashion and subdued in that manner then it probably wouldn't bother me so much. It would bother me to see banners, billboards, and log-in flash files. I think there is a good probability that they would add some measure to latency or graphic system load. They are just another resource that would be added to a game, and all resources need to be directed to game play.

I think the marketing expert in the article you posted was definitely trying to sell the gaming world on his concept of revenue generation. Game companies will find a way to reduce development and distribution costs.

Josh · Nov 27, 2005, 09:29 PM // 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fyre Brand

I think it might eventually happen, but NCSoft is pretty sensitive to it's player base. I just don't think North America and Europe are ready for that type of advertising yet.

NCSoft already promos with companies in Asia (eg: Coca Cola) for it's games and players. Wasn't there a recent thread interest about unique weapon skins that had to do with buying Coke and using a key to unlock the items, or some similar mechanism?

I think most people in North America expect that their fee covers their game experience (since most games are fee based). I want to play a game to escape reality and the mad push to generate revenue. I use Firefox as my browser and a fairly decent firewall to make sure marketing utilities aren't constantly bombarding me with plugs. Hell, I didn't even know this site had ads until someone complained about the flash files bogging down their system. I had to turn off Firefox filtering and my firewall filter to see them. I was fairly surprised.

Inde ~ I think that the pizza concept in the other game you mentioned was funny. I think that if the advertising came across in an event fashion and subdued in that manner then it probably wouldn't bother me so much. It would bother me to see banners, billboards, and log-in flash files. I think there is a good probability that they would add some measure to latency or graphic system load. They are just another resource that would be added to a game, and all resources need to be directed to game play.

I think the marketing expert in the article you posted was definitely trying to sell the gaming world on his concept of revenue generation. Game companies will find a way to reduce development and distribution costs.

If you read, Gaile's already posted it's not going to happen. (thank god for that)

Fyre Brand · Nov 27, 2005, 09:32 PM // 21:32

Yes I read that. Did you read the other thread about the Asian Coke promotion?

Inde · Nov 27, 2005, 09:36 PM // 21:36

Um yeah, not quite. From other posters and from Gaile Gray:

"The Korean Coke promotional items are not "overpowered" or "uber.""

"Yeah and let's not forget the in-game Guild Wars ads for the Strategy Guide either."

"...an ad that tells you to buy Direct Song battle packs at the annoucement screen during login."

I'm not saying these are bad, I'm saying it's just the future of things. There will be ads in game. Whether they be from a software partner, promotional or sponsors.

Chance Folly · Nov 27, 2005, 09:51 PM // 21:51

I played Anarchy Online, one of the MMO's that contained ads, and in my opinion, in-game ads really are not that bad, if done right. Rather than being annoyed and betrayed, I smiled everytime I passed a Beavis and Butthead ad on my way out of the city.

Granted, that wouldn't work in a game like GW, but I'm sure they could make ads work in some way...

Poised · Nov 27, 2005, 09:51 PM // 21:51

I would have no problems with adds before emerging into the game, splash screens before the login screen, ON the login screen, fine with me, as long as its tastefully done.
But any adds ingame after I have selected my character would kill it for me, I would delete GW and never look back, just like I did planetside.

seraphite86 · Nov 27, 2005, 10:14 PM // 22:14

The only acceptable ads I will ever want to witness in any game are only the funny ones. As long was they put out new, unique ones that do not clog up towns at least once a week I wouldn't mind at all.

If the developers wanted to mess around with the player’s emotions, a big McDonalds "M" hovering around Lion's Arch would be perfect. But then again, that could mean about 10,000 players would quit playing on the same day =/

Lexar · Nov 27, 2005, 11:30 PM // 23:30

There is one big problem I'm afraid of, there is no real way to guarantee that games won't log how long specific players look at adds, or how often the word is mentioned, and having e-mail linked accounts, the possibilities for spyware are endless, or giving unwanted marketing info to companies without your consent. For respected game companies it wouldn't be much of a problem, since they wouldn't be foolish enough to do it, and not interested in getting involved in scandals like this, but a lot of free mmorpgs out there from lesser known to maybe borderline obscure companies could do something like that. And since it's a game on the internet, the jurisdiction falls under the country of where the server is based (not sure about this though), anyway, with a lot of international users, getting this sort of info from players is a breach of their privacy as well.

3rd party spyware and bots not even linked to the publishers or company could probably hack in as well, and we'd see a whole new generation of spyware.

Dead Panda · Nov 27, 2005, 11:31 PM // 23:31

Yeah, that battle pack ad isn't really interusive. just a waste of space considering that I think it would be alot more useful to put in server updates and patch summaries in the announcement box rather than Ads, and other random things I never bothered to look at.

Fyre Brand · Nov 28, 2005, 01:01 AM // 01:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inde

Um yeah, not quite. From other posters and from Gaile Gray:

"The Korean Coke promotional items are not "overpowered" or "uber.""

"Yeah and let's not forget the in-game Guild Wars ads for the Strategy Guide either."

"...an ad that tells you to buy Direct Song battle packs at the annoucement screen during login."

I'm not saying these are bad, I'm saying it's just the future of things. There will be ads in game. Whether they be from a software partner, promotional or sponsors.

I think how they put in the strategy guide and direct song promo was just fine. I thought the original article you linked to was pretty interesting.

Roza · Nov 28, 2005, 02:48 AM // 02:48

It is unlikely to happen. Anet said it is not going to happen. And if it did happen (in the game, I don't care about stupid banners on the startup screen), I would puke and bin the game. I think many would.

sybban · Nov 28, 2005, 03:25 AM // 03:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inde

All right, so hopefully that got your attention. New article out at GameDaily.com of interest to all MMOG players. It's an interview with Massive Inc., an in-game ad company. Currently real ads are featured in Matrix Online and Anarchy Online. They have a place there though as billboard ads in game, could this soon be coming to fantasy genre's such as Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Everquest?

A direct quote from the article:

"It varies game-to-game... but in-game ads can increase publisher revenue an additional 20-30% above the amount generated by the title's retail sales," Nicholas Longano, CMO of Massive Inc."

That's an extremely big chunk of change there. Quite a temptation for publishers. Also this quote:

"It is simply impossible to offset a 50% rise in development costs via retail sales. It just can't be done," Longano said. "Publishers are going to HAVE to have a secondary revenue source. It varies game-to-game depending on the specific ad implementation, but in-game ads can increase publisher revenue an additional 20-30% above the amount generated by the title's retail sales."

Are publishers and developers, specifically Guild Wars, going to 'have' to add this source of income to their bottom line in the future?

You can read the article here:
http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11169

This is an old issue. Have you ever played matrix online? The entire game is a joke, even their devs quit. The only one who was ever around was Walrus and he barely put in any updates. They HAD to add in ads. Ragnarok has had ads for a long time. Probably because it is also a lack-luster game. I don't think Guild Wars will have this problem.

Makkert · Nov 28, 2005, 08:36 AM // 08:36

Preferably not, but if things have to be like this, then so be it.
Will be hard to find non-intrusive (matching with surrounding) adds.
Some adds in big towns may be ok.

Yichi · Nov 28, 2005, 03:14 PM // 15:14

well there goes my idea for a guild cape being all red with the golden arches as the logo..........