In-game Ads in CS

[NRG]

It doesn't personally bother me much, as long as it a) seems to realistically fit into the environment, and b) it isn't too in-your-face.

One thing to note on the topic, there is the business side of ad placement in games. From a developer's standpoint, these other companies that want thier logos in games have to pay good amounts of money to do so. What does this translate to the developer? It reduces the entire cost of the project development.So imagine four to six companies shelling out a good amount of cash to see their logo in a game? That adds up to mucho-dollars-o.

But yeah, if the ad sticks out like a sore *insert any profanity laden word here*, then it sucks. It has to fit the environment. An example is when I was working on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, there is a rooftop area on the penthouse (the fourth map if I remember), and there you will see in all its glory, a large, actual 3d sign of AXE. But I found it rather fitting. Had the AXE logo been plastered on say, every trash can on a street, every train window in a subway, or the entire wall of a building in a dark alley, it might look alittle cheap and silly.

But there are definately people / gamers out there who hate seeing ads in games. After all, we are inundated with ads everyday. So, some willl question, 'I play to get away from reality, but I see real world ads even in this fantasy place'. It's an interesting topic for sure.

In either case, love'em or hate'em, I think they are here to stay. Only when it gets to the point where new born-babies have ads tatooted on the inside of their eyelids so they can see brand marketing while they sleep will the marketing agencies be happy.

Cheers,

NRG

[Algor]

lol @ gin

personally i hate ads and try to avoid them wherever possible. this is a main reason why i don't watch tv, and why i have every ad known to man blocked on websites. while gin's pic is funny here, it may become the sad future, but let's hope not.

[Defrag]

I wouldn't say it could become a nightmare, but definitely an irritant. You tend to find that companies always find a way to take it one step further than they should, especially if a fair old wad of cash is involved.

What's next? Popups / trailers before the game starts or something equally annoying? You might scoff at such a thing, but I have a bunch of DVDs that have unskippable trailers on them. Yes, DVDs that I paid for have fucking forced-unskippable-bastard advertising on them. It just shows you that some companies will do it if they think they can. Gaming is the emerging industry, so it's only natural that the money men / marketing people will scrutinise every single aspect of gaming. I just hope it doesn't happen to the kind of scale we see elsewhere I swear at my TV when the adverts arrive. I actually mute the TV now because they annoy me so much; it's just as well I don't watch a lot of TV or I'd probably have hunted down and killed certain people over it.

[kleinluka]

"this game is brought to you by.......MENTOS!!!!! THE FRESHMAKER!!!!"~~~

[Section_Ei8ht]

or worse. MENTOS: The Videogame.

[MrH2o]

If they are so money horny (who isnt today? ) then they have to atleast lower the price for the game beacuse you cant really save the cookie and still eat it. Im not a big fan of thoose expensive (9 bucks) papers who is filled with ads, imean as a costumer i dont pay for that. And if there is ads in game, whos gonna have them? everyone? imagine how soon it would become porn infested, or maybe its just for the "good" companies like Coca-Cola, shooting a terrorist and the jingle "I'm loving it" would play ? Na i prefer no ads (since the eat some bandwith too) However i like thoose custom made ones by the game companys itself, they use to be funny. Maybe if we can have physics ads, like when you shoot them they fall down and crush your opponent

[Defrag]

You'd think people wouldn't pay, but you'd be surprised. Take the likes of Sky TV in the UK. You have to pay a subscription for the basic package and extra for additional channels and they still show amazingly large amount of adverts all the time.

[MrH2o]

I know people pays anyway, but as a nice gesture of the developers/publisher they could lower the price beacuse the only one who earns on the ads are them (and the one that are advertising)

[cdxx]

with the right ad in the right game no problem. tbh i wouldn't mind seeing coke machines instead of some made up brand. I mean hell we have ads everywhere in the "real world" shouldn't they be in the games we play too? keeping within the boundrys of realistic enviroments i think ads can be appropriate in certain genres of games.

it's just a matter of time before ads are dynamic in multiplayer games, one week this soda machine is coke the next week it might be pepsi...

[wilco]

I want a 'wilco3d.com' sign in next hitman now mazy!!!

[Kosmo]

I'm fine with advertising, as long as it doesn't go over the top and tries to appeal the target market and not try to sell viagra in CS maps or toothpaste in NS maps.

Advertising when done right, actually adds to the reality, the world is full of ads, you are surrounded by them, so how come the game world that tries to imitate the world doesn't?

And second, newspapers, tv and magazines wouldn't sell adspace if they didn't need to, in the world of increasing development costs, this will be true to the game development world also. They have to sell adspace to stay afloat. And a well placed ad in GTA advertising Rockstars latest game would be fun to see.

[st0lve]

Ripped from Interlopers.net:

Recently an advertising company has been making money from selling ad-space within CS:Source servers, to big names like Subway. This has come to the eye of Valve and almost certainly a legal dispute will follow. The following quote from Shacknews:

"A few days ago, Engage Advertising sent out a press release announcing that the company had officially launched. Its first public project was working with sandwich chain Subway on a three week in-game advertising campaign in "the most popular online action game played among men 18 to 34." Most online gamers would recognize this as Counter-Strike, but there was no mention of the game or of developer Valve anywhere else in the release. However, Engage's web site does have a few images that clearly come from the game (hosted locally here). I called Engage to ask if it was in fact Counter-Strike, and received what was essentially a confirmation of the game in question. Though this was Engage's first venture, the company does have plans to expand into other spaces, including the console market.

Interestingly, Engage's VP of business development David Smith informed me that he was not permitted to say the name of the game's publisher. This struck me as a bit odd, so I contacted Valve to see what their involvement with the product was. I was met with the following response from marketing director Doug Lombardi:

"At no time did Valve grant permission nor discuss these advertisements with Engage. As such, this is now a legal matter. Advertising or any other commercial use of our games requires our written permission."

In my discussions with Mr. Smith, I learned that Engage did not handle the technical aspects of the project; this is done by another firm called IGA International. IGA has apparently developed a propriety technology called Radial Network to handle this kind of advertising. It seems that the advertising might be achieved through some kind of agreement with server administrators. IGA's exact approach is unclear, because as of this writing, my calls to the company had not yet been returned. I have also contacted Engage for a followup inquiry, but have not yet received a response. Updates will be provided as new information is received."

Interesting stuff and you can follow up the story by keeping an eye on this Shacknews post.

[Kosmo]

I think there has been uncommercial advertising in CS before, long time ago there was a banner in dust2 near the CT start (it was some game site but don't remember which one.)

[cdxx]

the future of online sporting... sponsered gamers. Here's my new spray ;-)

[curman]

you kid, right? :