Discussion: Optional In-Game Advertising
By
Anightgirl,
Posted on: 2008-04-03 06:52 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
I could've sworn someone (you?) specifically said something about not having advertising in cox...
EDIT: I'm happy about this, so ignore my negativity ^_^
Listen to Survival Guide. Because you should!
"You have a mom? I thought you were conceived through pure win?" ~Spinestradamus
"reading ur posts is like reading a stop sign, its red oddly shaped and makes me come to a complete stop...then i go" ~anon rep; thank you
I think it's a great idea, and the optional part really gives players control over their experience. I love that fact that the game is undergoing a renaissance and I hope you guys make all the money you need to keep pushing out fantastic content.
**Edited for a typo
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I could've sworn someone (you?) specifically said something about not having advertising in cox...
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Good point, Love Life. Previous statements were to the effect that advertising was not currently scheduled and that we would always 1) tell you when we were going to do such (as we are here today) and that 2) it would be Optional. I'll find the previous quotes for reference.
Edit: Here is the previous statement.
The City Scoop reported on discussion about Advertisement when discussion about it came up regarding a quote by NCsoft about possible future advertisement.
You can read the back issue of the City Scoop here.
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NO PLANS FOR CITY OF BILLBOARDS, YET
By Hertz
Advertising and entertainment became ever more intertwined this summer. In addition to the release of the film Transformers, called the worlds most expensive toy commercial by Josh Rottenburg of Entertainment Weekly, and Xbox video game titles featuring the disturbing plasticine Burger King mascot, coxwashington.com reports that more MMOs are becoming interested in selling advertising space in some of its multiplayer online games.
Bob Keefe of coxwashington.com quotes Dorothy Ferguson, vice president of sales and marketing for NCsoft North America, as saying, "We're really intrigued by it. It has the potential to increase (revenues), but its really also about enhancing the game-playing experience."
In-game advertising, better known to many acronym-happy gamers as IGA, has had a controversial past. Everquest II introduced a keyboard command in February 2005 that allowed the player to place a delivery order through Pizza Hut. Second Life, which bills itself as an online digital world, has included virtual versions of the Nissan Sentra SE-R, the aloft Hotel, Apple Computer stores, and American Apparel.
Some gamers see potential benefits to an influx of advertising dollars. Additional revenue for the software company could translate into more content on a quicker schedule, or reduced fees. The notion is tempting.
However, many players worry that yielding to advertising interests gives marketers too much control over the gaming experience. In a lively discussion, posters on the COH.com forums expressed concern that the proliferation of advertising would harm the game-playing experience, not help it. Detractors of product placement sometimes point to flops like Batman and Robin, the fourth installment in the Batman series released in 1997, which was lambasted for its highly conspicuous promotion of Taco Bell toys.
Lighthouse, community relations manager for NCsoft, was quick to enter the discussion to put out the fire. He said, "First, let me say that advertising companies who do in-game ads have been knocking on our door for years, so really, this is nothing new. Second, to be clear, no deals have been signed to do in game ads in City of Heroes or City of Villains."
Lighthouse added, Should we pursue the implementation of in-game advertisement in some future update, the concerns of our customers will always outweigh any simple grab for additional revenue. We would include a way for subscribers to have the option to not view ads, make sure the advertisement is immersive and fits into the game world and that there are other tangible gains for our subscribers, such as a resulting more rapid introduction of new features and updates.
Paragon City and the Rogue Isles are peppered with advertisements for story-related products and services, such as ads for Crey Corporation, recruiting posters for Arachnos, litigious attorney Chris Jenkins, Red Beast energy drink, and minions for hire. There is no plan at this time to replace them with real-life corporate logos.
For now it appears as if NCsofts pledge to explore in-game advertising will apply only to some of its other titles, possibly including Tabula Rasa, Lineage, or Guild Wars, although no official announcement has been made. Another NCsoft title, Auto Assault, will be discontinued at the end of the summer.
We would be foolish to ultimately lose subscriptions by alienating our valuable customers, Lighthouse stressed. To reiterate, there is no current deal to place advertisements into the City Of games.
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Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.
Could someone provide a summary of the announcement? Some of us can't access the other sites due to firewalls (at work).
Edit: I was able to read the press release, but not the other links.
Personally, I don't have a problem with it. I have always felt that CoH was a natural for in-game advertising, as long as:
1) it is optional (Check),
2) it doesn't disrupt game play or reduce performance,
3) it is not annoying with too much repetition,
4) it provides a benefit, either by reducing the monthly fee for those who agree to accept it, or by funding additional development for the game. (Check)
As long as the ads follow factors 2 & 3, I'm all for it.
LOCAL MAN! The most famous hero of all. There are more newspaper stories about me than anyone else. "Local Man wins Medal of Honor." "Local Man opens Animal Shelter." "Local Man Charged with..." (Um, forget about that one.)
Guide Links: Earth/Rad Guide, Illusion/Rad Guide, Electric Control
In my haste and morning-tiredness I missed the whole "opt out" thing. Sorry if I came off sounding like an [censored].
<3 <3
Listen to Survival Guide. Because you should!
"You have a mom? I thought you were conceived through pure win?" ~Spinestradamus
"reading ur posts is like reading a stop sign, its red oddly shaped and makes me come to a complete stop...then i go" ~anon rep; thank you
I'm more than fine with developers making money off of truly unobtrusive advertisements.
CoH is set in a modern world, having some of those "injured by a super related accident" billboards replaced with real life advertisements only increases the immersion in my eyes.
I wouldn't mind seeing real products alongside the fake ones on the shelves of the natural origin stores either.
Having ALL of the comical advertisements and content replaced is another thing, though.
Here's the article for ya....
NCsoft Selects Double Fusion as Game Advertising Partner for City of Heroes
Thursday April 3, 9:02 am ET
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leading independent game advertising provider Double Fusion has entered an agreement with NCsoft®, the leading developer and publisher of online computer games, to represent the successful comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online game, City of Heroes®. Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive in-game advertising.
ADVERTISEMENT
Double Fusion and NCsoft are focused on providing value to the players through this advertising partnership. While real world ads will lend realism to the urban world of City of Heroes, NCsoft also plans on taking advantage of Double Fusion's technology to display player-created content within the game. The publisher will dedicate all advertising dollars it earns to fund further game development for the online title, yet still allow players to opt out of advertising in order to provide flexibility to community members.
Our partnership with NCsoft is a clear showcase for two of our guiding philosophies: bringing value to the player through appropriate use of advertising spaces and bringing new business models to the marketplace by creating new revenue streams that can help fund game development and community support, said Jonathan Epstein, president and CEO, Double Fusion.
City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community, said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsofts Northern California studio. We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials.
The addition of City of Heroes to the Double Fusion network demonstrates the companys commitment to offering their advertiser and agency partners a wide array of in-game advertising opportunities, to maximizing revenues for its publisher and developer partners and to building a portfolio of top titles among retail PC and console games, massively multiplayer online games, social networks, casual downloadable games, advanced online games and virtual worlds.
About NCsoft Corporation
NCsoft North America is headquartered in Austin, Texas and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Korea-based NCsoft Corporation. NCsoft, with its own development and publishing offices in Texas and California, also works with other NCsoft subsidiaries and third party developers throughout North America to develop and publish innovative online entertainment software products. The company has successfully launched multiple online titles in the last three years and continues to support its franchises, which include Lineage®/Lineage II, City of Heroes/City of Villains, Guild Wars®/Guild Wars Factions®/Guild Wars Nightfall®/Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Richard Garriotts Tabula Rasa® and Dungeon Runners. More information about NCsoft can be found at http://www.plaync.com.
NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, ArenaNet, Tabula Rasa, PlayNC, Lineage, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Dungeon Runners and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Double Fusion
Double Fusion is the game advertising expert. The company brings together the leading in-game ad serving technology, the broadest network of games across a wide variety of genres, and a sales force that has helped create and evolve the in-game advertising industry. Double Fusion provides marketers and their advertising agencies with the broadest range of in-game, around-game and web-based solutions with which to engage and sell the valuable and hard-to-reach gamer demographics. Double Fusion is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Jerusalem, London, and Tokyo. More information on Double Fusion is available at www.doublefusion.com.
Advertisers interested in opportunities within the Double Fusion network; and developers and publishers interested in increasing their per-title revenues through integrated and dynamic ad placement opportunities should visit www.doublefusion.com.
Double Fusion is a registered mark of Double Fusion, Inc.
All trademarks, copyrights, registered marks, brand names, registered brand names, product names, and logos found in this press release are the property of their respective owners, may be registered in certain jurisdictions, and are mentioned in this release for identification purposes only.
i want a damn discount in my monthly fee if im gonna be seeing adds tyvm.
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Could someone provide a summary of the announcement? Some of us can't access the other sites due to firewalls (at work).
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From the CoH website:
Today we announced our partnership with Double Fusion to provide optional in-game advertising for City of Heroes. I wanted take some time to share some details beyond those in the press release.
In-game advertising is something that we have carefully considered ever since the initial release of City of Heroes in 2004. From our perspective it always came down to a few fundamental questions: Will this technology make our game experience more immersive or less immersive? In other words, is City of Heroes an appropriate environment for it? In-game advertising in other MMOs has sometimes been received as an unwelcome addition, so could we actually find ways to make this a significant win for our customers? And with the plan of reinvesting all the revenue that we make from this, how much will this single (optional in-game advertising) initiative actually allow us to grow our development team?
These are complex questions that cant necessarily be answered with 100% certainty, but after discussing this for a number of years we believe weve found the right partner to bring ads to the game while being sensitive to our communitys needs. I want to make it very clear that we are not forcing in-game ads upon our players. Thus, the word optional is of key importance. None of our players have to change their game experience in any way if thats what they prefer. All that you need to do is opt-out via the Options menu in the game.
Having said that, I should make it clear that we are extremely protective of our City of Heroes game experience. Only contextually relevant ads or branding that the development team approves will go into the game. We will be very careful not to break the immersion and feel of Paragon City or the Rogue Isles. Additionally, we are a Teen rated game by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) and we will not be displaying any "mature" ad content like alcohol, tobacco, etc.
So, how far do we plan to take these optional in-game ads? Initially, we are limiting ads to the exact same fictitious billboard placements that are already in the game. To get a better idea of this, check out these screenshot examples.
We estimate that this will go live some time this summer. After that, what are our plans? We are definitely looking at how this feature is received by you, the community. If it makes sense, and keeps the same level of quality and immersion we believe the initial implementation does, we may look at other avenues in the realm of optional advertising. There are a whole lot of really fun ideas to consider, but the core game development of City of Heroes is by far our highest priority. Another interesting opportunity that the optional in-game advertising technology presents us is dynamically displaying other billboard content. We can swap in new signs that we create much more easily, and we can even display player-created content! This provides a cool new area for community contests, recognizing great player art, etc. In fact, we are inviting any interested players to submit their own advertising materials in our defined horizontal, vertical and square sizes (see all of the specific requirements here). We will use some of these to test the new optional ads on the Training Room (test servers).
So beyond all of this, what benefit does leaving optional in-game advertising on bring to the players? Why should you not opt-out? All ad revenue dollars go directly to the further development of the game, which means more great content than ever before! As we have made it pretty clear lately, with the acquisition of City of Heroes from Cryptic Studios last November, we are entering a major phase of reinvestment for the game (and brand). Our development costs are ramping up in a major way as we look to literally double the team this year to accommodate big plans for the short, medium and long term. Optional in-game advertising is another revenue stream that helps us to accomplish all of this at no additional expense to our players. Ultimately, we leave it up to you, the players, to decide which experience you prefer.
Listen to Survival Guide. Because you should!
"You have a mom? I thought you were conceived through pure win?" ~Spinestradamus
"reading ur posts is like reading a stop sign, its red oddly shaped and makes me come to a complete stop...then i go" ~anon rep; thank you
Given that we've been told that sales of the Wedding Pack enabled the Dev team to get the VEATs done in time for issue 12, I say anything that brings in additional revenue to allow for more content more quickly is a great thing. As long as it doesn't detract from the actual play experience, I don't see how having real-world advertisements in the same places as the fake ones can hurt, especially since players can turn them off if they don't want to see them. I'll be watching with lots of interest to see how this will pay off for the game.
The gist of it is as follows from the first three paragraphs of the announcement.
"Today we announced our partnership with Double Fusion to provide optional in-game advertising for City of Heroes. I wanted take some time to share some details beyond those in the press release.
In-game advertising is something that we have carefully considered ever since the initial release of City of Heroes in 2004. From our perspective it always came down to a few fundamental questions: Will this technology make our game experience more immersive or less immersive? In other words, is City of Heroes an appropriate environment for it? In-game advertising in other MMOs has sometimes been received as an unwelcome addition, so could we actually find ways to make this a significant win for our customers? And with the plan of reinvesting all the revenue that we make from this, how much will this single (optional in-game advertising) initiative actually allow us to grow our development team?
These are complex questions that cant necessarily be answered with 100% certainty, but after discussing this for a number of years we believe weve found the right partner to bring ads to the game while being sensitive to our communitys needs. I want to make it very clear that we are not forcing in-game ads upon our players. Thus, the word optional is of key importance. None of our players have to change their game experience in any way if thats what they prefer. All that you need to do is opt-out via the Options menu in the game."
...My God. Let the doomcrying begin.
I don't have any problem with it myself. I'm just saying...hoo boy, others WILL.
And btw, I plan to opt in.
So opt out ?
Its optional not forced.
(Not sure if its 'opt out' or 'opt in' but I suspect the former)
<edit>
Re-checking the annoucement says it is an opt out process
@Catwhoorg "Rule of Three - Finale" Arc# 1984
@Mr Falkland Islands"A Nation Goes Rogue" Arc# 2369 "Toasters and Pop Tarts" Arc#116617
I second Austerity's post...she said everything I was about to type 
I'd leave the advertising on as long as it doesn't put a hit on performance. If it keeps the monthly fee the same, gives us more content, and perhaps a discount on other services.
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i want a damn discount in my monthly fee if im gonna be seeing adds tyvm.
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1) It's optional.
2) That's defeating the purpose of including the ads in the first place.
Now... there is an opt out ability but come on... this is ridiculous...
It better opt me out of ALL the advertising and it better not mean that I miss content, or that it increases my lag.
This is the silliest thing I have heard of... if I wanted advertising I'd watch TV which is 40% commercials...
This kind of reminds me when they started ruining movies by putting actual commercials, not just trailers, at the beginning of movies....
I'm all for it!
More revenue=more stuff for us 
I personally think tastefully done Billboards will actually make the city feel more real and immersive. Real cities have billboards advertising products, now so do we.
Speaking for myself, I'll have the ads enabled.
Please use this thread to discuss the below announcement.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Leading independent game advertising provider Double Fusion has entered an agreement with NCsoft®, the leading developer and publisher of online computer games, to represent the successful comic-book inspired massively multiplayer online game, City of Heroes®. Double Fusion will provide the technology and sales force to bring brands into the popular online role-playing game which takes place in a modern urban setting, an ideal environment for unobtrusive optional in-game advertising.
<ul type="square">[*] Click here to read a statement by NCsoft NorCal General Manager and Executive Producer, Brian Clayton, who explains this coming change to City of Heroes.
[*] Click here to read the Press Release of the announcement.
[*] Click here for the details to join us on The Cape Radio later this evening to talk with Sr. Lead Designer Matt "Positron" Miller and NCsoft NorCal General Manager and Executive Producer, Brian Clayton for an hour of questions and answers regarding the recent announcement of Optional In-Game Advertisement.[/list]
Lighthouse
Community Relations Manager
If you have a specific in game, account, tech or billing problem please contact our Customer Support team via The Knowledge Base "Ask A Question" page.