f13.net

Sprite ad from a "rotating ad" spot in Subway:

(http://home.broadpark.no/~tiwilhel/image/ao-sprite.png)

But mostly they show game-related stuff (paying customers only get the commercial ones if they choose to in options):

(http://home.broadpark.no/~tiwilhel/image/ao-rumble.png)

Personally, I think the ads are jarring. What are the chances the Coca-Cola Company will be around 30,000 years into the future?

What took them so long?

Yeah, Coke may be gone in 30K years, but I'll bet there is something just like it.  Why create fake ads when the real thing is available?

I'm ashamed at myself for not immediately predicting this when I heard about the "Download for free, pay nothing monthly" plan. 

I already detest the prevalence of advertisements in the real world - here in Maryland we have trucks with large billboards that drive around all day just to be seen.  The trucks have no storage capacity of any kind, they are not hauling anything, they literally get paid just to drive around and be seen be people. They often blare loud music to attract attention. 

But now you can't even log in to avoid this.  What's frightening is the very real possibility that such a trick would be used in CoH, what with its modern setting.  I would cancel immediately, despite all the goodness that CoH is.   

I'm with Meso. I won't be supporting any game that does this, no matter how fun it is. In a more hardcore phase, I didn't watch any commercial television for a span of five years because I hate commercialism so much. Greedy money whores bug me.

Man you guys aren't real big on this capatilism thing are you? Pay nothing to play and have to see some in game ads? No big deal. Genius really.

I'm just wondering how functional the play experience is without the expansions.

If EQ taught me anything, it's that playing without any expansions that have been released is utterly pointless.

You only see those craptastic ads if you are playing for free, right? I don't think theres a problem there.

I'd quit the minute I say something like this in a game I was paying a subscription for. Sprite in the AO universe? Yeech.



Whats the most jarring product placement you guys have seen?

    The one that drove me nuts and made me return the game the next day, was that damn Cingular Wireless symbol stuck on the screen of NFS2 taking up valuable real estate.  Stupid game. 

No. Greed is the root of all evil.

I don't mind it, so long as it isn't immersion-breaking. If that was in a fantasy game, yeah, complete whores. It's a stretch for it to be in AO, but not that bad. In CoH, it wouldn't be out of place at all.

If it meant I could pay a smaller subscription fee, or the devs could actually add more things/better customer service, that's fine. That's good capitalism, because for almost no real annoyance, I get something done better without having to pay more. And since this is only shown to the people who play for free, it's all good.

Now /pizza in EQ2? THAT'S WHORING, MY FRIENDS.

I don't have a problem with it, as long as the ads are somewhat appropriate to the genre and do not skull fuck me every time I glance at them. If they were on billboards and such in CoH, for example, I wouldn't mind at all.

I'd be unhappy if mmorpg I was playing so bluntly put adds into game, especially if I pay monthly fee.

I think what people are saying is that ads are acceptable if the monthly fee is lessened or if the money from those ads is going towards new content that isn't just a vapor promise.

Capitalism is great, love it.  

But my theshold for unceasing advertisements is low.  A game is not worth it to me if it is not also an escape from Pepsi ads.  

In retrospect, I think the TV ads at the bottom of the screen for Show #2 while you're watching Show #1 were what pushed me over the edge.

Currently they show a ot of various ads for Mötley Crüe's latest "We're not old geezers, honest" album. Yeah, as if their lifestyle led to a healthy 30,000 year life span.

(Not to mention that in AO's timeline, nearly all humans were wiped out in the 21st century after a nuclear winter. AS in Nikki Sixx and friends would survive that.)

He survived two heroin OD's, and still shot heroin! NIXXI IS UNVULNERABLE!1!

As a child of the 80's, I find this very /sadf.

I think my threshhold on ads would be run out of the building if they were something like this atrocity (http://www.warcry.com/).

++ funny because of your avatar, Haemmstein.

That was a good TV show.  And it lasted two seasons.  Just imagine how popular it would have been in the post X-Men "Superheroes are cool again" era?  Hell, Mutant X is still on the air.

Bruce

Gordon Gecko says you're wrong.

Do you remember what happened to the company?

No, but I remember what happened to the USA.

For me, the Gordon Gecko thing encapsulates what happened to the USA: the "WTF! Gordon Gecko was good!" crowd gained control. Terms like "the liberal media" and "Hollywood communists" still come up when anyone points out that greed is evil, but why bother when the sexy neo-con PR machine (which also uses the media and Hollywood) can make 51% vote for greed.

That said, I don't have a problem with what AO has done, because it's not greed. It's barely even capitalism - it's offsetting the cost of providing a long-term free trial in the hope that people will subscribe.