Real ads in videogames. A good idea?!

I just wrote a blog a few hours ago but something came to my attention a couple of minutes ago, I not only wanted to share with you but also hear your opinion about. I was driving around in Mercenaries 2 and shooting billboards usually rewards you with 5 K. So I took out my rocket launcher blew it to hell and... nothing. I turned around to another billboard and what do I see: TRANSFORMERS. IN THEATERS NOW! (In German, eventhough my settings are in English, but I guess the add detects my IP). Not only do I get bothered with stupid ads in a game I PAID for, it also screws up the game by not rewarding me anymore. Don't know about you but I don't think it's cool, funny or anything else positiv. If I pay good money I expect not to be bothered with ads, I mean that Transformers crap is not even game related.

I just wrote a blog a few hours ago but something came to my attention a couple of minutes ago, I not only wanted to share with you but also hear your opinion about. I was driving around in Mercenaries 2 and shooting billboards usually rewards you with 5 K. So I took out my rocket launcher blew it to hell and... nothing. I turned around to another billboard and what do I see: TRANSFORMERS. IN THEATERS NOW! (In German, eventhough my settings are in English, but I guess the add detects my IP). Not only do I get bothered with stupid ads in a game I PAID for, it also screws up the game by not rewarding me anymore. Don't know about you but I don't think it's cool, funny or anything else positiv. If I pay good money I expect not to be bothered with ads, I mean that Transformers crap is not even game related.

Allot of games have adds nowadays, you just get to tune them out. Think the millions of adds in Burnout Paradise bother me? Or in Prototype?

Did anyone catch the Barack Obama Campaign ads in Burnout Paradise?

If you think your 50 dollars, multiplied by a few hundred thousand customers, divided amongst like 5 or 6 groups, is enough to cover the cost of a multi-million dollar endeavour, then you have very little knowledge of mathematics.

Why does the advertisement need to be game-related? If it blends in with the game world then it's a wasted investment on the advertiser's part, it needs to stand out to get attention, and it needs to get attention to be worth the investment.

i think that games with adds need to be cheaper. i play games to tune out reality after a day of work and school. adds that are suppose to be in the game are good, like ones on gta that make fun of other ads or are fake one. those are fine but it's just the real ones i don't like.

That's kind of an unrealistic attitude. Video games may in fact be a value to us because they are fun ways to temporarily escape reality, but their production is still based in reality, and the people who make them still need to feed themselves and their families. How do they do this? With the games they make. And if the consumers can't pay enough for them to do so, then they need to seek alternative avenues. And if companies are willing to do this and their only condition is a rectangular image of their choice in specific parts of your game then, can you really blame them for taking it?

It depends. If adds are put into games and the price of games are lowered then I don't mind them but it bothers me  a great deal when there are adds in a $60 game.

it depends on the game, i didn't mind it iin paradise becausse it got us free dlc plus some cheep paid dlc.  i just hate how they dont let you desroy them, what is wrong with destroying adds?

Personally, I wouldn't mind in game billboards and radio commercials and whatnot if it meant a lower cost for games. I've never really been bothered with that crap before, but that's all dependent on the extent of the advertisement.

You know that ads only have one "d" right? Cause they're short for advertisements, which only have one "d." So they aren't "adds."

"Adds" are an MMO term for additional enemies.

Ads haven't gotten to the point where they bother me.  I usually get a slight smirk on my face thinking "Hey i know what that is haha."  I guess for me if the setting is right ads are ok.  Like if im in an open world or urban based evironment such as prototype or rainbow six vegas.  However if im in the crusades era in assasins creed or in some monster's stomach on gears, i would have a problem with it.

" If you think your 50 dollars, multiplied by a few hundred thousand customers, divided amongst like 5 or 6 groups, is enough to cover the cost of a multi-million dollar endeavour, then you have very little knowledge of mathematics"

The ones in Rainbow Six Vegas are terrible and stand out like a sore thumb. What's worse is that the game updated and nothing else was added but ads...

I'm all for them but i'm disappointed in the direction they have gone in regards to their results. I always thought ads in games would result in cheaper games, but instead we get ads in games at the same price as games without them. Granted, you could argue that without ads the games with them might not have had the money to be made but its just not the route I was expecting and definitely not the route developers who advocated the strategy talked up.

I don't think I possess great intelligence, but I do possess a large vocabulary; and so I employ that vocabulary to get my point across.

Out of the words I used, which did you not understand? Do you have Firefox? If so, all you have to do is highlight any word you don't understand, change your search bar to dictionary.com (or another dictionary for which you can add the search feature), and right-click on the highlighted word. It'll bring up an option to search for that word in dictionary.com's database.

In all honesty, it is the primary source of my lexical arsenal ;)

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

I dont like that they are getting so invasive but i guess we dont really have much of a say.

Nobody likes seeing ads in games, but its a necessary evil I suppose, like giantbomb, nobody wants ads, but if it keeps giantbomb running then they are good.

Ads themselves are annoying, but because of them we get better things. That being said, I hate when they shove them down our throats like purposely putting game objectives around ads like a burger king. Or in need for speed pro street, where its impossible to be driving without seeing some sort of ad on the screen somewhere, it may be more realistic. But we dont play games because they are realistic, if we did, the only game we would play would be a life like game where you play a character looking exactly like yourself, in your room, playing a game thats actually interesting.

as long as it keeps the game developers working on new and better games, im fine with it.

also, more ads might mean a price drop, and a price drop will lead to more games that you can buy, the more games you can buy, the better the sales are and rhe more money the developers get to make more and better games...

can you tell that im not an economist? :P

I don't mind them where they fit. If Elder Scrolls pops up a bilboard for Burger King's new burger, then yeah I'd be pissed. Do I mind ads in burnout? Nah, not really... Although these latest Netflix ad's are kind of aggrivating. I keep looking for Burnout posters and seeing those because they're both bright red.

I like ads in agmes, kind of. In Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six in the books you have a car comercial with the character using it game related (hiding behind, jumping over) then they advertise Ubisoft all over, and I believe there were some movie posters. I think its awesomly funny. and dont really take them seriously. maybe just because those games are kinda funny anyways (SC anyways :P) but I dont see a problem. I guess if it messes up actual gameplay tho its not too good.

I think done right it can even add to the experience. Take Burnout Paradise for example.

I don't see ads as a problem at all.  Anything that makes the publisher/developer money is good with me, as it might benefit the next game they release. With that being said,  I would prefer it to be part of the landscape and not sticking out like a sore thumb.  Do you get upset when you play Forza or GTA?  Those cars are all real makes & models, which is basically the same as ads.  What about when you buy a DVD and see product placement all over the screen, does that bother you? After all you've only wanted to watch a movie, not be bothered with an advertisement.  

I hate games with ads in them -- or rather games that you pay for, having ads. If it's free-to-play, then fine, but if I shell out 60$ there's no way in fuck there should be ads. It distracts from the game, as ads from our world lose their context in the game world.

I'm all for it. But I have to question the effectiveness of such ads. I mean, how many of you went out and bought any more Pepsi than usual after play Bionic Commando? I know I didn't. 

Ads in video games don't really bother me, as long as they keep it as a billboard or sign and not force me to watch something to experience the full game. How much harm can come from you looking at a picture of something in the real world? None, that's how much.

I don't really care. I don't see why anybody would care.

Blame pirates. With games not selling retail copies, they have to turn to other forms of gaining money. This wouldn't be the case with the 360 version, but I don't think the game sold very well, so maybe that's how they're returning their investments.

Adverts no, I dont think they have any business being around. I can handle some product placement if it blends. Check out CSI: Hard Evidence for a game that has product placement that doesnt blend. Awful.

I hate them. But offering advertising in virtual worlds is free money for developers. That being said,

here is an open message for US marketing departments: Please do not forget that the rest of the world is constantly being bombarded by advertisements for products WE CAN'T BUY!  TV shows WE CAN'T WATCH! and presidential candidates WE CAN'T VOTE FOR! Dickheads!

Sorry, had to get it out my system. Better now.

I don't mind the ads in my games as long my experience is not affected by them in any negative way like interrupting the action to make me watch something product-related or not fitting into the general vibe of the game (modern ads in a fantasy world, real-life ads in a GTA game).

I don't think it was the ads that messed up the game for you. That game is just jacked, normally.

Besides, ads, as long as they are integrated tastefully, are fine with me. I don't mind the Splinter Cell and Burnout Paradise approach. However, I find the Guitar Hero method egregious. That is not needed and I don't want an "AXE ax". That is where I draw the line.

I don't like the practice, but arguing that they should reduce the price of the game is simply not going to work out mathematically, while I agree that if a project is going to be funded through advertising then it should damned well be free, however subsidising some of the costs of your project with advertising is another matter entirely. So you have to view a few ads every now and then so what? Just don't pay attention to them.

I think real ads are fine if they balance it. Games like Burnout Paradise provided a ton of free content, so I don't mind if they throw ads at me. A game like 1 vs 100 I could care less about ads when I can actually win real stuff. To reiterate: if they balance it with free content, I'm all for it.

I liked the ads in Bionic Commando. They were random.

" @Vinchenzo said:

" I think real ads are fine if they balance it. Games like Burnout Paradise provided a ton of free content, so I don't mind if they throw ads at me. A game like 1 vs 100 I could care less about ads when I can actually win real stuff. To reiterate: if they balance it with free content, I'm all for it. "

Is that coming to the UK? Sounds like something you'd need to play for a long time to win anything too. "

" Allot of games have adds nowadays, you just get to tune them out. Think the millions of adds in Burnout Paradise bother me? Or in Prototype? "

When placed appropriately.  But if there is an ad, it has to fit the level of detail as the rest of a city.  And if there's an ad for axe, there probabyl should be some more ads as well.

PGR 4 has tons and tons of ads.  The game really is a walking advertisement of sorts.  Every track has tons of stuff on the sides for McDonalds, Powerade, you name it.  The cars themselves are ads too essentially.  That beign said, it makes it all look natural and nothing sticks out.  I frankly found the sony ericson in splinter cell double agent to be more invasive as it was the only real world product you come in contact with and they like to put it in your face bluntly (its on the menus)

The thing is, while ads in PGR or whatever is fine, I don't want to see an ad in Halo.