You gotta remember that they will be supporting this game for YEARS. They will allocate an enormous amount of resources AFTER the game has been released to keep up patches and additional content.
It's like how you keep disbaraging World of Warcraft and other MMO's for being pay to play. You DO realize that its costing Blizzard millions of a dollars each month to keep and maintain those servers?
Of course I know this. I understand why they do it; I just don't particularly like it. I'd rather them charge more $$ for the game than go the monthly subscription route.
Many MMO's fail and go under, since they can't keep up w/ the cost of upkeeping the servers AND b/c of other MMO's they are competiting w/. Especially the cash cow MMO's, making all the bucks -- they are easilt killing the lesser MMO's out there.
Most MMO's also release additional content. WoW releases new dungeons all the time. This is akin to an entire EXPANSION. (Yes, I know WoW has an official expansion pack but that was for 2 new races and a higher level cap)
Yes, many MMO's release additional content in an episodic style, as things go along. I'm not really a big fan of this "episodic" style of gaming, either -- but, that's a thread for another issue.
See, I'd rather them go the Guild Wars route and just pump out new big expansion packs, in which I am charged only for each new piece of new big content that they want to sell to me. And if they like, b/c it is an MMO, they can charge me more for expansions than the usual expansion game would cost -- to try and keep up w/ the server costs, of course. This seems very fair to me.
To me it seems like lose-lose for the company. To keep up with rising costs they can raise the cost of the game. Then people like you would be on forums bitching about the rising price of games instead of ads. PEOPLE... THIS IS HOW THINGS GO. NOTHING STAYS THE SAME PRICE FOREVER. JUST LOOK AT GAS PRICES OR THE PRICE OF MILK.
Just try and wrap your head around it. These games are costing millions of dollars to make. The "good ole days" where companies can charge $50 per game and make huge profit are GONE. People want high production values and a cinema-like experience but DO NOT want to pay extra for it. So instead of charging more the company puts in ads.
Companies have stomped over the gamers
and their computers in many regards, such as nasty copyright protection (think StarForce) and resource hog programs for handling games (think STEAM). And now, games like SWAT 4 and BF 2142 are doing it w/ "ad generating malware" that are intrusive to the gamer
and their computer. Please, stop messing with my computer!!!
Another thing. Hollywood's not a great example for gaming to copy. Many of their films have over-priced, over-sized budgets -- and many of those movies don't turn out that good, even. Often, mediocre at best. Maybe, just maybe, game companies should stop emulating Hollywood -- namely, on the ridiculous over-sized budget part. Spending money better and wiser, now that would be a much better start.
It seems reasonable to me. If it doesn't to you then don't buy it. Just look at it from their point of view.
I do understand that these companies need more $$, to try and keep production values high. Especially since games seem to now have Hollywood movie sized budgets. So, yeah -- they are going to different avenues to get this money. But, w/ what has been done already w/ ads in games, it doesn't look good. I don't see a bright future here, for ads being done "correctly" in a game.
If this "ad" thing is going to work for PC games, we need a PC game to set an example, as to how ads can be done right when incorporated into a game. This means gamers really won't notice the ads are placed in the game too blatantly, first off -- it can't take away from the game itself, namely. For it to be done right, I think the ads should be static period -- none of this "ad generation software" malware crap like BF 2142 and SWAT 4 do. I don't think the ads can be beaten too death, either. And, ads can't be illogically placed -- for example, like you said, Coke bottles in a Old West game's a no-no already.
Call me a pessimist here if you like, but w/ the way PC gaming is going w/ all this minor bullshit turning itself into one bigger pile of crap more and more, over the years -- I just don't really see any of this to be happening correctly anytime soon.
I will respect it as long as the ads are non-intrusive and do not wreck the experience.
If done right, yes -- it's possible to be done right. But, what are the chances of that actually happening, do you think?
But, w/ all the mess going on here in the PC gaming world -- from Microsoft forcing Live and Vista to StarForce to STEAM to intrusive styles of advertising -- I think the future for "ads being represented right in a game" looks pretty damn bleak.
(A "Coke" ad on a billboard in an Old West game would be crossing the line, for example)
I definitely think that would be illogical.
