Quake Wars will have in-game advertising
The guys at Splash Damage talked to the community about in-game advertising in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, that hot shooter built using a modified Doom III engine. And you know what? The response seems to be generally good. For now, at least.
Neil Postlethwaite, managing director at Splash Damage, explained that the developers want to keep supporting ETQW and not just “walk away” after releasing the game. Postlethwaite thinks in-game advertising would help maintain the persistent stat servers and the community site, in addition to the updates and improvements that they planned.
It all sounds great, but where will the ads be placed?
According to the Splash Damage executive, the ads won’t be intrusive and you won’t have to interact with them. The ads are planned to be part of the normal environment, and might actually add to the game’s immersion. Container trucks, for example, would have ads on its sides. Postlethwaite assures us that if the ad isn’t appropriate or it’s distracting, it won’t go in. No personal data that can be used to identify you will be stored. They said you’ll be tracked on how long you look at the ads, nothing more.
The problem with this is that the developer decides which ad is distracting, not the community.
Splash Damage could handle this aspect well, or they could ignore distracting ads and argue that it’s not—all for the sake of revenue.
It’s odd though that Counter-Strike: Source, one of the most popular multiplayer games, doesn’t use in-game ads, and Valve (and Turtle Rock Studios) has continued to support the game for the longest time. So far, Splash Damage has also been mum on the effect of in-game ads on the game’s retail price.
All these things considered, would you tolerate in-game advertising?
I’m sure a lot of people will complain about in-game advertising, but I feel that most complaints are groundless.
On my way to work today, I was assaulted with no less than 50 advertisements in the newspaper I read, on the billboards I passed by, and on the benches littering the sidewalks.
If we are committed to making game’s more realistic, I’d argue that in-game ads help preserve the real-world illusion of videogames.
Now, if it comes to the Burger King or Ronald McDonald teaming up with the squad in Gears of War 2, I might have some harsh words for game producers and publishers…
Amen. I wouldn’t want to see a McDonald’s tattoo on Marcus Fenix.