Or maybe the whole industry will just learn to sell EXTRAS, which are actually “touchable”, and use the games to just “create awareness”. Much like Nine Inch Nails are giving their newest album for free, but if you want a Collector’s Edition with T-Shirt, you have to pay for it…
People will always need more T-Shirts than they need music CDs. Accept it.
That’s true, but if you take into account that the advertisements that fund such “free” endeavors (like hulu) are easily stripped away, you are still left with a system that is bound to collapse.
“Pirated” media is so appealing to many people because it is stripped of all the the extra junk like ads.
Not to mention that if everyone on the internet used Adblock boy would we see some changes. The popularity of such programs will only increase.
On the subject of NIN doing thier thing… I really, really liked what they did thar.
It is totally irrelevant if people view or don’t view the ads, or use adblock, or whatever. The only thing that matters is the size of the audience, and how much an advertiser is willing to pay for access to that audience.
People can and do mute their TV / radio or change the channel during ads, and yet advertisers still pay billions of dollars to reach these markets.
So your saying that if no one saw the ads, the advertisers would still pay money to put an advertisement somewhere? That’s like building a city without intending for people to live there and pay taxes.
It’s rather illogical.
Now you could argue that there is always an audience somewhere willing to watch ads, and that is true. However, I am referring to trends here, and trends as a sort of rule generally do not involve everyone, just a large minority or a small majority. The trend in youth culture (which tells us what the mainstream is going to be in 10-20 years) is that they want content now, they want it free, and they want it pure and uncluttered with advertisement. Ad has almost become a bad word, and if you say you work in
advertising people look at you as if you are covered head to toe in sh*t.
That moral zeitgeist will only intensify as people become more and more disgruntled with signs and logos being shoved in thier faces, and eventually the trend will move toward intolerance. Those that use Adblock are intolerant of Ads. I would bet someone a few bucks that those that use said program are also regular pirates of t.v shows, or at the least avid users of Tivo or Hulu (which has a very minor commercial break compared to cable).
You are correct in mentioning that a few people muting the tv or using adblock wont affect much. Its when said practices become a trend that it becomes a force for societal change, and I can see the trend building steam with every passing day. It might peter out, as some trends do, but I don’t think this one will. It is so intimately tied to the open source/freeware, Independent film, Indie game, and P2P movements that I believe it will continue to grow.
Now if you’ve been reading carefully you will notice that I never mention ‘good’ or ‘bad’. That is on purpose, because no one knows the real implications of such a thing, just as those dudes who invented the internet had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Anyone who claims to call themselves a futurist (I do) knows that change is neither good or bad, it simply is (with a few very minor exceptions such as the concept of utopia vs dystopia).
If I had to put a good or bad spin on it I would spin it in the utopian direction, simply because at the most basic level of human interaction, Sharing and Cooperation are, well, good.
You don’t put commercials before the FEATURE, you put it inside and show it being used in a positive way. It’s called Product placement.
Trackmania (the free edition) has automatically downloaded commercials that display on banners in tracks. Nobody objects.
But not necessarily because of the ad itself, but because of what it implies; e.g: slower loading times if you have a slow connection.
And because of those fucking ads that stretch out as far as they can and cover up half your screen and make a ton of noise and follow the screen when you scroll down.
Wow you guys are still at it? I guess some sponsored ads could be in the maps of video games to lower the price.
Sure why not, just as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the game experience.
You know like in racing games there’s some fake posters? why not make it actual photos of company logos? like Coca-Cola, BMW, Porsche, Mercedes Benz… The publisher would charge the companies for advertisement spots in the game and the price would go lower probably down to about 20$ if there’s enough sponsors.
IIRC, in Gran Turismo actual car companies pay actual money to have their actual cars put in that game. Actually.
DEMONOID IS BACK UP YAYYY
You’re a bit behind on that one old chap.
:tired::hmph::mean:
Yarr.
Just when I thought this horror of a topic was finally dead. You just had to go and necro that shit, didn’t you?
Yeah, as long as it doesn’t break the game’s immersion (ie I don’t want to play Mass Effect 3 and see a Dr.Pepper ad), or if at the very least you can turn off the ads, then I’ll be fine.
I agree, that would completely ruin the immersion, but it might be interesting to see if they were able to make a Dr. Pepper that fit into the time frame. Would be interesting to say the least.
What about some of those references in Fallout 3? If they’d changed Nuka-Cola to Coke, then it would’ve fit the time period perfectly.
But yes, poorly used in-game ads could destroy a good game. Imagine a Microsoft ad in the middle of Oblivion.
Ads in games are a horrible idea. I hate them in real life and would never want to see them in games too. Damnit, will they be EVERYWHERE in the future?
Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.