I loathe advertising on every level. I hate it. I don't want it anywhere near me, ever. I don't like being shown irrelevant products that I don't want and having my precious time wasting over and over again with shit that means nothing to me, and that's basically all advertising is. 98% of what is advertised to me I have less than no interest in, and it only further infuriates me now that my area has lots of Hispanic folks who don't speak English, so I get lots of Spanish ads. So now I'm forced to sit through ads that I can't even understand, so even if I wanted whatever it was talking about I wouldn't know what the fuck it was. I just hate advertising, and I know I'm somewhat in the minority, but that's probably because I'm just built very differently when it comes to tolerance for that kind of stuff. I'm well aware few people find it as annoying as I do, but it just happens to be a button for me.
Advertising can work, if done right. But, the problem I see is -- well, it really ain't been done right. Well, at least on the PC it ain't been done right, so far...
Many of you all have mentioned Crackdown did a good job w/ it. Now, I don't have Crackdown -- and as y'all know, I don't have a X360. So, I can't really speak on the matter on how "well" the ads were done and used. Though, a few of y'all said it was done right there. Well, if we can get a PC port of Crackdown, which is a game I would like to try anyways if it came to the PC (regardless of it having "ads"). Now, on another hand, I'd like to see what they did w/ the "ads," in which other companies and studios should try and emulate. I'm guessing that the ads in this X360 game are just textures and are static, so it ain't gonna have any impact on a gamer's X360 machine, period.
That said, if devs can make money which they can use to funnel back to players on stuff, and if it can be kept unintrusive... I'm not going to bitch. However, my guess is that eventually that money isn't going to go back to bringing the players a better experience, but will simply get pocketed by publishers who will continue to give us buggy as fuck games that were shipped too early and were poorly ported and don't work as advertised. No, seriously. I'm convinced that's what will eventually happen if we give them the power to keep doing this. The main reason I don't fight it more is because game development *period* is getting more expensive, and there needs to be ways to offset that somewhat.
Agreed. I just see the quality of buggy-ness going away enough to make me happy, either. As a matter of fact, w/ intrusive ad generating methods, I just see it getting worse.
Just like you Que, I really don't think by having ads, publishers will get these advertisers and the $$$ necessary that can allow for say a longer development times for a game, if necessary; especially if the game still happens to be in a very buggy and unpolished state. I see the publishers pocketing all of this money, instead of putting it into the game, if it needs it. I still see publishers also doing what they've always done -- kick games out the door way too early, if possible. Yes, even if the dev's need more time to perfect the game and polish the hell out of it. I can understand the publishers want to get the game out there on market, but w/ more money generated w/ advertisers being involved tossing their $$$ around -- I think it would make it easier for games to be able to get a longer development cycle, if necessary. I just see publishers -- especially Atari, EA, and Sierra -- being as cutthroat as they've always been.
The big problem is this solution can't work for every game. You can't advertise Mountain Dew in a fantasy world without ruining the experience completely.
I agree w/ this 100%.
It would seem out of place for a real Mountain Dew can to be seen in say the futuristic and fictitious Strogg world.
Plus, I do like the dev's being creative w/ making their own kind of advertisements, jokes, and objects. For example -- how funny and satirical would the GTA games be, if most of its billboards and signs were actually REAL objects???
Though, in a game putting the game in a real world, a real Pepsi machine might even add to the experience. But, it might seem odd if I don't see Pepsi machines in this world, as well.
I don't know where this will all lead, I'm just a bit worried about certain facets of it. But I'm willing to accept there's little that can be done, and as long as what's happening now isn't totally messing with the consumer's experience, I don't have anything to complain about. As long as things are kept within reason, I'll live. I haven't personally played anything that's been too bad, so as long as SWAT4 stuff doesn't become the norm, we should be all right for a while.
My worry is the way the advertising is being done, in different regards. Dice/EA with BF 2142 and Irrational with SWAT 4 came in w/ examples of how "Not to do advertising." Both SWAT 4 and BF 2142 came with the very intrusive way of generating ads (which also caused a decrease in the framerate b/c the ads weren't static). And, SWAT 4 is known for beating ads to death, in game.
Both games do have MP components -- and it seems the MP based games are the ones really aiming for the "intrusive ad generating" components. Us gamers don't need this junk, thanks. I fear that we'll see a combo of both mixed together -- very intrusive ad generation processes and ads being beat to death, which will only make the gamer suffer, in the long run.
