Midway + In-Game Advertising

[ilkman]

I turn off the TV and turn on my games to get away from all the annoying crap adverts. I dont pay to be bombarded with ads. An ad will NOT influence me to by something, all it will do is piss me off just that much more. If I buy something its because I wanted it already.

They had better make these ads context sensative at least. I dont want to see an ad for viagra, or a Dell pc when Im supposed to be killing aliens on planet X and the nearest humans are 100,000 lightyears away. Now they would make sense if I was playing Nascar or something, but thats about it.

 

[balls]

Why do companies waste so much money on advertising? Does it honestly do any good? In my opinion, no it doesn't, it's just a waste of their money, stupid from a company stand point.

If they put ads in a game, will it make me want to buy that product, nope. Like junk mail sent to your home, all I do like most people is put it in the trash as soon as i receive it.

Like the Superbowl ads, does it really make people want to purchase a product, my opinion is no. All it is, is nothing but a big waste of money for companies.

Like pop-ups on a computer advertising a product, all it does is make me despise that company, not want to buy their product.

I could go on and on, but I think most of you get the point. And if by some chance UT2007 does have ads I personally will not buy that game, sure one person not buying a game wont make a difference, but if others decide not to buy the game or games that have this crap, just maybe we can make a difference.

 

[Jackal]

I think everyone agrees that if it's in a more 'real life - current time' game, then it wouldn't be so bad. Depending on what ad thou of course. And it's also safe to say that pretty much everyone agrees that having a 'Mazda RX8' ad in a WW2 FPS game is cheap and shouldn't be done.

Then again, is it really that hard to just make a mutator that either blocks the images, or just subsitutes them with something else (wall texture, or just a picture of scenery)

 

[hal]

I really doubt that Epic would stand for in-game advertising. They aren't your average developer that can be pushed around by the publisher. They're quite independent from a monetary standpoint thanks to their strong engine business.

 

[Bullet10k]

Epic: There's no point with ingame advertising BECAUSE there will be a mutator within a week that everyone will download to get rid of it, and I'm sure UTComp would have it built-in as well, so you might as well forget about it.

 

[Manticore]

I really doubt that Epic would stand for in-game advertising. They aren't your average developer that can be pushed around by the publisher. They're quite independent from a monetary standpoint thanks to their strong engine business.

I sincerely hope your right. The way Epic has always has a highly developed regard for the gaming community that has followed their franchises makes me want to believe you're right.

If you're wrong about this:

I am definitely finished with the Unreal series if this happens.

This will be the result for me too, as well as many others if this thread is anything to go by.....

 

[Alhanalem]

I wouldnt have a problem if all this meant was instead of seeing fake sodas on vending machines (i.e. CS-office in CS;Source), seeing coke on there. But I would have a problem if this means active, internet delivered banner advertising.

 

[hal]

Yeah, but wouldn't it be weird seeing current day merchandise advertised in the future??

 

[EggBoy]

Yeah, but wouldn't it be weird seeing current day merchandise advertised in the future??

Actually... it would not be weird if they put a futuristic twist on it. Like in the movie "I, Robot", instead of putting a current model car in the movie to advertise Audi, they put a futuristic Audi concept car instead. They wouldnt put a "Mazda RX8" ad in UT2007 but they could use some futuristic car design which would still advertise the Mazda series of cars... e.g Mazda RX58?

 

[Kyllian]

Yeah, maybe they need to start advertising that 2k7 exists and not rely soley on third party sites like BuF to spread the word. :c

How well did UC2 sell anyway? They did TV ads for it prior to release

 

[MuLuNGuS]

more and more i think Midway is a bad decision...

 

[lol911]

UT2007 does not take place in our universe, therefore any kind of commercial would ruin the game, futuristic or not.

If they put in advertisement, that is it for me.

@Polycron: Advertisement ruins level design, whatever you put there will ruin it.

 

[Kyllian]

Even if ads do make it into 2k7, I'm sure someone will figure out a non-intrusive way to disable them

 

[lol911]

You would have to change the textures to do that, right? Which might flare off the anti-cheating measurements.

 

[Kyllian]

I have no clue.
Some of the games that have ads just dl a new texture when requested
Depending on the method, it could be as simple as keeping the system from accessing a specific IP

 

[Angel_Mapper]

127.0.0.1 stupidads.crappypublisher.com

 

[edhe]

Ads makes things free/cheap.

I'd take a free game for replacing the in-game fake-ads with real ads.

 

[Shrimp]

But the problem is, they will not make the games cheaper, and most certainly not free.

Take banner ads on websites as an example. You do to a website, you access it for free, and they show you banners. Most websites will now allow you to become a 'subscriber' or something, and, because they have got your subscription money, they take the ads away for you, as they no longer need the revenue earned from you clicking ads.

Along come games. You pay a damn overpriced fortune for the product in the first place, then they ram advertising down your throat on top of that. Is that even slightly fair on users? Does that happen in *any* other industry?

I mean, you can watch movies on TV your whole life for free, and be bothered by adverts and junk all the time, sure. But when you buy a DVD of the same movie, would you still expect those adverts to pop up every 15 minutes?

Crap like this really pisses me off. And apart from the RIAA, I can't think of another bunch of bastard business people aside from game publishers. Every year that goes by they manage to make the whole gaming experiance worse and worse.

 

[fuegerstef]

Once a wise person said:

"As soon as businessmen get involved, it is ruined."

 

[Hazel.H]

Let's just hope it doesn't go as far as ads for "crazy frog" ringtones, those stupid animating smilies, and annoying fake error messages bouncing around on billboards in the street...

I wouldn't buy a game that used ads in such a way. The news post says "upcoming midway titles", so personally I wouldn't have a problem with it if it was only in the game manual / documentation. Many games have done this already, especially older titles.