Auto Assault Admits Advertising

[bean19]

Advertising in games has been on the rise lately, and, according to Gamespot (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145883.html), has gained a deal with NetDevil's upcoming apocolyptic MMORPG, Auto Assault.

Today, Massive, Inc. and NCsoft North America will announce that the upcoming title, Auto Assault, will ship with the Massive SDK built in. That software application enables ads to stream into the game environment.

Calling the inclusion of ads in the Auto Assault game world "a great fit," NCsoft's VP of sales and marketing Dorothy Ferguson said, "Massive understands games and has the most seamless and sophisticated process for integrating ads that fit within the game environment." (Note the "billboards" in the two associated screenshots...likely positions where ads could be placed.)
I've played the beta of Auto Assault since wave 3 and I can totally see how these billboards could enhance gameplay if they remain both delapidated (to fit the world) and destructible. I'd have even liked having the King in Fight Night Round 3 if they let me blow him up. However, if the streaming ads slow down gameplay, I think NetDevil will have a serious problem.

[IagoTheHunted]

consider me officially not interested in this game now

[notcivx]

It's so awesome how they add ads to games now, yet they don't lower the price.

[DeadlyDonkey]

Hang on a second; isn't this a PAY PER MONTH game?

Shouldn't the monthly fees cover it? Either remove adds and keep it pay per month, or have ads and make it free to play, or significantly reduce the monthly fees.

Seems like it's just slipping more money into the pockets of the publishers to me...

[Ph00p]

It's so awesome how they add ads to games now, yet they don't lower the price.

Exactly! Greedy fucking bitches is what it amounts too, and this will be a PAY PER MONTH MMO? LOL! Great stuff guys!


edit:fuck you donkey, beat me to the punch :/.

[Wolfgang]

I have always been curious what City of Heroes doesn't sell ad space on their billboards. I don't think it would take away from the game at all. Keep the same "beat up" look on some billboards, but instead of "Zing, energy drink of hte future" it could say "Vault -- drink it now", etc...

That is fine to me because it works in the game. Now, if I was forced to watch a 30 Intel Commerical I would quit. If the game was WoW and they added the Epic drop of Coke, I would quit. I think ads are fine as long as they fit the game -- racing, urban FPS (GRAW could have had real ads in it), etc...

Yes they should lower the price of games with ads though. Like Fight Night should be free on the 360 :)

[Citizen Philip]

I think context sensitive ads are fine, IF I get something out of it. Like a lowered price. I'm not going to pay your goddam company to show me adverstising.

[bean19]

No one reads the editorial comments?

You can BLOW UP THESE ADS. :)

[JazGalaxy]

I would actually love to see ads in games if they were from the game world and not from the real world. For instance, in the aformentioned City of Heroes, if there was a huge billboard of Statesman telling me to drink Coke, I actually would think that would add to the game. if there was a big billboard of Brad Pitt telling me to drink coke.. well.. that's just crap.

[Steele Johnson]

If it doesn't cause technical problems, then who really cares? It's not like it's an annoying popup or anything, just don't look at it if it offends you. There are ads all around us everywhere we go in real life. Big freakin' deal. You pay for cable tv, and there are ads on every channel. When you watch a movie, there are billboards, props, etc. Ads are everywhere.

[Orosco]

Its kinda the same way when you go to the movies now, you see like 3-4 commercials before the previews, and the ticket prices never went down.

[Everlost_MI]

Its kinda the same way when you go to the movies now, you see like 3-4 commercials before the previews, and the ticket prices never went down.

But at least in my neck of the woods, the price of tickets haven't gone up either.

[Crabby]

It doesn't really matter because only twenty people will be paying to play Auto Assault.

[phantomhitman]

Its kinda the same way when you go to the movies now, you see like 3-4 commercials before the previews, and the ticket prices never went down.

That is the main reason i do not go to the movies anymore. I thought the prices would evetually drop but they didnt, and now I watch 15 fucking minutes of ads, another 15 minutes of previews, and by the time the movie starts I am sleeping already.

[EternalGamer]

This reminds me, did anyone else notice the abundance of covert Samsung advertising in Perfect Dark Zero? IT's on the background wallpaper, little icons in the corners of other screens etc. It doesn't bother me that much, but it's more than a little slimey. At least with movie product placement it, most of the time, has the general excuse that it builds authenticity or is related to setup.

Dan

[Wolfgang]

That is the main reason i do not go to the movies anymore. I thought the prices would evetually drop but they didnt, and now I watch 15 fucking minutes of ads, another 15 minutes of previews, and by the time the movie starts I am sleeping already.

Well I don't know the economics behind the movies (my understanding is a few of the chains are going bankrupt though), but maybe the adds keep the movies from being $15 a movie instead of $8 a movie. Then again, maybe they are just milking us.

[notcivx]

If it doesn't cause technical problems, then who really cares? It's not like it's an annoying popup or anything, just don't look at it if it offends you. There are ads all around us everywhere we go in real life. Big freakin' deal. You pay for cable tv, and there are ads on every channel. When you watch a movie, there are billboards, props, etc. Ads are everywhere.

When you plop down 50 bucks, then pay 15 bucks per month for a game you don't want to see ads. With cable TV you pay for for access, same as with the internet. They're completely different things.

[Deadend]

Well I don't know the economics behind the movies (my understanding is a few of the chains are going bankrupt though), but maybe the adds keep the movies from being $15 a movie instead of $8 a movie. Then again, maybe they are just milking us.

I am going with number 2 here.

we are being milked, as once they realized people didn't say "fuck off" with the first ads, they are going to keep adding them, until people make a stand.

Comapnies will keep pushing until we push back, that is the way it works, don't wait for them to stop or expect them to be reasonable, as reasonable is making the most money they can.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Count me out of ANY game that has ANY real ads in it. I don't care how much it "fits" into the game world - I don't want to see Burger King, Coke, Halliburton, or whatever ads in my games. Games are supposed to be an escape from reality. Those who sit back and take this are inviting more and more and more. This is why there are so many ads in ther real world now - most people accept it or are apathetic.

I find it somewhat amusing/sad that many games cost $10 more than the standard of the last gen, yet contain way more advertising than ever before. Fight Night Round 3 is a great example, and there are others. When does it end? Are people going to pay $70 for a game five years from now that contains five minutes of ads between levels? Those that don't think it will come to that need to wake up.

[Tia]

Count me out of ANY game that has ANY real ads in it. I don't care how much it "fits" into the game world - I don't want to see Burger King, Coke, Halliburton, or whatever ads in my games. Games are supposed to be an escape from reality. Those who sit back and take this are inviting more and more and more. This is why there are so many ads in ther real world now - most people accept it or are apathetic.

I find it somewhat amusing/sad that many games cost $10 more than the standard of the last gen, yet contain way more advertising than ever before. Fight Night Round 3 is a great example, and there are others. When does it end? Are people going to pay $70 for a game five years from now that contains five minutes of ads between levels? Those that don't think it will come to that need to wake up.

Do you have ANY idea how much development cost are today? Easy enough to bitch, and at the same time demand longer games, better AI, and realistic graphics. Yes, we want it all, and we want it for $10 right?

And by the way, a lot of games try to imitate reality, having ads DOES indeed improve on that. The escape part of games is not just the world you are in, but what you do. Is GRAW (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter) escapism? Yes it is, you escape reality by being able to kill computer people, and respawn when you are dead.

I do agree that ads in a fantasy or sci fi games can be out of place. But again, with the costs of next gen developlment... get used to it. Ads are here to stay.

[LilAbner]

If it doesn't cause technical problems, then who really cares?

...because it's not lowering the price of the game itself. Sure, the publisher would be lowering their profit margin if they did this, but would probably sell more quantities of a given game if ads helped lower the prices.

[Heretic Machine]

If a game has ads in it, and I don't see a reduced price, I don't play it/buy it. It's just that simple. If ads started popping up in CoH tomarrow, I would immediatly cancel my account, I wouldn't even log in to check it out. Unless the fee was dropped to $5 per month or less.

[gzsfrk]

In general, I don't think that real-life ads in games are very bothersome. I mean, I'm sure at some point, when the NFL first started doing product branding on everything from the goal posts to the cheerleaders underwear that alot of people were upset that it was dilluting/commercializing/cheapening the game. And in fact, it was doing all that and more. But it's just the way the commercial world works. Have a resource sitting where hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people can see it? Is there someone who would pay to brand that resouce to get public exposure? If so, then you're throwing away potential profits by not utilizing the opportunity. Of course, there's a balance that needs to be struck between profit and good taste, and that is an area that (unfortunately) gaming companies haven't always been careful not to cross in the past (was it Midway that paid a family to advertise on their relatives tombstone??).

That's not to say I think it's right. But if a gaming company is being run strictly as a business (to make money), it only makes sense to realize and maximize every means of income available to you.

As for not dropping the costs of the game when advertising is present, a similiar analogy occurs to me: In recent years, a very large percentage of all construction work in the US has been performed by illegal immigrant laborers, which are by and large significantly cheaper for contractors to employ than domestic construction workers. Bearing this in mind, have we seen the costs of homes come down as the costs to contractors have lowered as the percentage of undocumented workers of their workforce has increased? Hardly. It's just more money in their pockets.

Of course, at least with NCSoft doing in-game ads presumably without lowering the monthly charge, they're not breaking any laws in the process. (Other than the law of "Don't piss off your customer base.")

Oh... and as far as I know, I still have a free account on Anarchy Online, which is subsidized by the in-game ads (which largely are, admittedly, out of place and obtrusive into the game world; imagine seeing an ad for a Dell XPS system on a billboard as you enter Iron Forge in WoW.)

[Pluvious]

I would never buy a game that puts real ads in it. PERIOD. I get enough spam in my email, why would a SPEND money on a game that streams ads from a server somewhere onto MY system? They're nuts if they think this is going to fly with the main stream gamer. All you people who say who cares are not to smart. Give them a inch and they take a mile.. look what happened to the movie theatres when the advertisers got in there.. same will happen to video games.. someone said in the future he expects commericals in between levels.. and I believe it, if people just say "no big deal" it will get that bad. Mark my words. This is bad just like rootkits and starforce bs.

On top off all that, this particular game has a monthly fee?!? ON TOP OF ADS!? Riiiight.

[gzsfrk]

Why do I now feel so weird for actually "enjoying" the commercials and previews before a movie? (as long as they're entertaining commercials, at least--not that "Bob's Garden Land: 5 local convenient locations!" slideshow crap. :) )

[Magnanimous Gnome]

I enjoy the previews, but I hate the ads. To me the previews are okay - I guess because I want to see what else is coming out, and they tend to be catered towards the particular movie that you are watching. I benefit from the previews on the big screen - as long as there are only a few of them and not 5+ as I too often see these days.

However, games are different. Just like movies at home. I don't mind a couple of previews in the theatre, but I turn red with rage when I'm forced to watch previews before a movie that I BOUGHT! Fuck that. Tia and others who think is okay can go ahead and swallow all of it, but I won't. Yes I want longer games - longer than 6 hours at least. Yes I want better AI - games like Lockdown make me shake my head. However I don't want games to get more "realistic" in the sense that advertising needs to be plastered everywhere. People can rationalize it all they want, but I won't pay for it.

*calms down, thinks about busted laptop, and HULK SMASHES corporate whores*

[IagoTheHunted]

Count me out of ANY game that has ANY real ads in it. I don't care how much it "fits" into the game world - I don't want to see Burger King, Coke, Halliburton, or whatever ads in my games. Games are supposed to be an escape from reality. Those who sit back and take this are inviting more and more and more. This is why there are so many ads in ther real world now - most people accept it or are apathetic.

I find it somewhat amusing/sad that many games cost $10 more than the standard of the last gen, yet contain way more advertising than ever before. Fight Night Round 3 is a great example, and there are others. When does it end? Are people going to pay $70 for a game five years from now that contains five minutes of ads between levels? Those that don't think it will come to that need to wake up.

My thoughts exactly.

[Busted_Astromech]

Why do people continue to believe that advertising can make a game more realistic? If it was realistic, a game would have branding all over it from thousands of companies on ever item in the game. Yet they don't, because each requires content to be made and agreements to be signed, so instead we see no more than a dozen companies represented. And every time I see this it rips me out of the game to think of how cash was exchanged to try to influence me. Disgusting.

I can't believe that so many people see nothing wrong with this. There are only two instances where I have not minded ads in games: sports games with logos on stadiums (though the Fight Night Round 3 stuff is atrocious and makes me angry), and Pikmin 2. In Pikmin 2 you collected objects that were from real companies, but they were all retro-styled (a 7-up lid from the '50s) and each was part of a treasure system whereby the alien attempted to interpret these strange items. It was not distracting mainly because I didn't get the impression that money changed hands--and that's the problem with every other instance of in-game advertising I've seen.

Especially Fight Night Round 3. I can't express in words how angry I was at that.

[Pluvious]

What would burn me even more about Fight Night 3 is its $60! You pay more for the ads?.. not the other way around.. WRONG WRONG WRONG..

[Steele Johnson]

You guys crack me up. All it's going to take is a killer game to come out and you guys will by it. Even if it has ads. Just like anything else.

Most of you just don't want to think that the people upstairs got you by the balls. But you know what? If it's a great game and you're having fun day after day, billboard ads in a game is nothing. In fact, I'm sure you've already played tons of games that had "fake" ads in them (plenty of FPS's). Did you complain about that? :rolleyes:

Remember, the only way ads work is if people see them. The more people that see them, the more they work. So instead of just thinking of them lowering prices, how about using some of that money to make higher quality games so that more people play them and see their ads?

[glippy]

Ok, so cable has ads. I pay a base fee for cable access. It's pretty easy to block out most of these ads, though (TIVO).

The internet has ads. I pay a base fee for internet access. It's pretty easy to block out most of these ads, though (pop up blocker).

On cable, I pay 14 dollars extra a month for HBO, the privelege being that there are no ads on it.

On the internet, I pay 14 dollars extra a month for Auto Assault, the privelege being that there are no ads in it.

Oh, wait! Not anymore! There are not only ads in the game, but they are impossible to block out! Fantastic! How much more do companies want me to pay extra for the privelege of looking at ads?

What the hell is the cost benefit to me, paying $40 for internet access, then $50 for a game, then *$15* a month to play the ad-infested game? None. No cost benefit whatsoever.

Hell, given the attitude some of you have on here, I should be *grateful* I'm given the opportunity to have ads shoved down my throat 24 hours a day. You people disgust me, and you're exactly the reason that Massive gets away with this bullshit.

[Arcane]

You guys crack me up. All it's going to take is a killer game to come out and you guys will by it. Even if it has ads. Just like anything else.

Most of you just don't want to think that the people upstairs got you by the balls. But you know what? If it's a great game and you're having fun day after day, billboard ads in a game is nothing. In fact, I'm sure you've already played tons of games that had "fake" ads in them (plenty of FPS's). Did you complain about that? :rolleyes:

Remember, the only way ads work is if people see them. The more people that see them, the more they work. So instead of just thinking of them lowering prices, how about using some of that money to make higher quality games so that more people play them and see their ads?

This is pretty much my thoughts on the matter.

Everyone cries wolf when a developer goes under, yet here we are with a developer doing something innovative to bring in some more revenue and out comes the boycott stick.

Seeing a Coke billboard in game, or some made up brand, is not going to impact your enjoyment of said game.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

Innovative my ass. As if shoving more ads at people is innovative at all. :rolleyes:

I don't care if the greatest game EVAR has ads in it - I won't be buying it then. Twilight Princess has ads? No thanks.

Nintendo wouldn't do that though.

[Pluvious]

I can't believe there are people who don't see that this is a BAD thing.. but then again.. we have people who think its okay for the US government to lie to us on HUGE matters too.

[Wolfgang]

If a game has ads in it, and I don't see a reduced price, I don't play it/buy it. It's just that simple. If ads started popping up in CoH tomarrow, I would immediatly cancel my account, I wouldn't even log in to check it out. Unless the fee was dropped to $5 per month or less.

Quit now. Ads for Intel and Nvidia are on every loading screen in CoV.

[Wolfgang]

I can't believe there are people who don't see that this is a BAD thing.. but then again.. we have people who think its okay for the US government to lie to us on HUGE matters too.

Zing! /golfclap

Ads are going to appear in games. They will need the revenue to continue to develop these huge games. Some games will do it right, some will do it wrong, but ads will appear. They will be in form of CoV where you see the company logo on loading screens, in Perfect Dark Zero where you see Samsung on the PDA, or Fight Night where it is covered with it. They will cover all the bases. The fact is that these games take years to make now and if you are a company that puts out 1 or 2 games a year, you will need money while developing games.

Movie Theaters need the money from ads -- cheap DVDs, annoying people in the movie, are making it so people quit going to the Movie theatre. These Theaters are going bankrupt.

Game development now is no cheap thing. If a game company can make more money by adding coke cans to the next GTA -- fine. It is up to the game company to do it "right" or "wrong", but there will be ads in games.

I see nothing wrong with the billboards in racing games, the sponsorship in Fight Night (BK guy is a little extreme), Samsung PDAs, etc...

[mister_slim]

You know what's fucking irritating? How many games have to show me the logo of every company that contributed anything to the game every time I play it. Fable has like four different logos that can't be skipped and then they force you to watch part of a cinematic before you can restart the game. I know who made the fucking game... and now I know who's making me watch logos over and over.

[Pluvious]

Off subject but..

I got a secret for you with logos at the begining of PC games.. You can safely delete or rename them if you can find them in the game folders. I do it ALL the time. NFS:MW has 3 that are tricky but it's doable.. /movies folder and rename these 3:

REMattract_movie_english_ntsc.vp6
REMealogo_english_ntsc.vp6
REMpsa_english_ntsc.vp6

:)

[Steele Johnson]

This is pretty much my thoughts on the matter.

Everyone cries wolf when a developer goes under, yet here we are with a developer doing something innovative to bring in some more revenue and out comes the boycott stick.

Seeing a Coke billboard in game, or some made up brand, is not going to impact your enjoyment of said game.

Exactly. Let the whiners complain. They'll miss out on the best games, or they'll just give in and never really notice the ads anyway.

[IagoTheHunted]

This is pretty much my thoughts on the matter.

Everyone cries wolf when a developer goes under, yet here we are with a developer doing something innovative to bring in some more revenue and out comes the boycott stick.

Seeing a Coke billboard in game, or some made up brand, is not going to impact your enjoyment of said game.

Of course it's going to impact your enjoyment of the game if it's blatent and you have the intellect to recognize when your being fucked in the ass by someone with alot more money and power than you. Fight Night 3 is a perfect example... GREAT GAME, but totally ruined by the inclusion of so many blatent ads that I found myself more and more desperate to stop playing and escape the barrage of crap the game throws at you.

Not that there's any real point arguing this in online forums. It's out in the open now that advertising agencies are paying hundreds of fulltime employees to post in forums like these for the sake of their advertising contracts (wish I was making that up but I'm not). I don't suppose you guys are working there eh'?? Or is part of the job outright lying about who you are??

[bean19]

You guys crack me up. All it's going to take is a killer game to come out and you guys will by it. Even if it has ads. Just like anything else.

Good point.

However, it did keep me from purchasing Fight Night Round 3.

I was renting the game through Gamefly and was willing to put down $47 to keep it because it is a really satisfying boxing game even after you have "beaten" it.

If I had a friend online who I liked playing with or if it was more popular amongst my friends who visit, I probably would have bought it despite the ads though.

So. . . yes and no. Before Fight Night Round 3 I was all for in-game ads as a way for developers to offset development costs. I don't care that Burnout 3 had billboard ads and even thought they were kind of cool the first time I saw them.

It is really a matter of degree. Fight Night proves that game makers CAN make games that are too invasive with their ads to be bought by gamers.

Auto Assault won't be like that, I don't think. In fact, if they make it so that the billboards out in the world remain dilapidated and post-apocolyptic AND they allow us to blow them up still, then I think it will be one of the coolest marketing campaigns EVER.