November 7th, 2005
Can’t … Escape … the Ads …
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
I’m old enough to remember when we used to just get trailers before movies, whereas now we also get advertisements. Ads also appear in MMORPGs such as PlanetSide. Now those simple online games that you play in Web browsers are going to start selling you things as well, not just as the game loads, but during the game.
You go to a gaming Web site and try to ignore the ads on the page. Then you wait as the game loads and a 10-second advertisement covers your computer screen.
Ah, the start button. Now you can play, but don’t expect the virtual escape to guarantee relief from marketers’ attempts to get in front of your eyes.
On Monday, online game provider Shockwave.com will begin offering advertisers a way to insert ads within the games themselves. Source: Yahoo! News
We Say: It was inevitable. If you can insert ads into something much more complex like a MMORPG, why not one of these games? And since a lot of us are turning to PVRs and skipping commercials, they have to think up another revenue stream.
vak66 says:
The traditional ad revenue model is dead. It is only a matter of time before you have ads inserted into everything. Wait until the day you goto church and the sermon is brought to you by “Ford”.
November 7th, 2005 at 12:29 pm
Alice says:
Wow - that is worse than I even pictured. But I can see that happening.
November 7th, 2005 at 1:37 pm
Ron Ingram says:
Nothing is free anymore! Pretty soon, babies will born with ads on their skin!
November 7th, 2005 at 1:56 pm
David Johnston says:
Yeah, ads have gotten worse and worse as larger numbers of people have been using the internet and video games more. It’s sad, but hopefully the trend will reverse at some point when companies realize that sometimes fewer ads are better.
November 7th, 2005 at 5:45 pm
Mark says:
I like playing games to get away from all that S**T. If they start doing that to games people play I can guarentee you that people will start doing something else to get away from it.
November 8th, 2005 at 8:25 pm