I hate myself for suggesting this...

**Animosity** · Oct 18th, 2002, 11:38:27

... There is lots of advertizing space built into AO.

I dont think it would be a departure from the storyline if various companies, such as Nvida, coke, and Nike were still around in the future. It wouldnt ruin the storyline if these companies were allowed to advertize ingame, they couldnt say products, as that would obviously create an asynchronous element. But I suspect that coke will be around in the future, will want to put billboards all over our cities, and be able to sell its products to people.

What do players get? Simple, if FC's bottom line improves, they can hire more people to make more content for us.

Companies like Nike could also take over production for the footwarming boots. For example WTS Nike Armour boots + 10 to runspeed.

Speedo could make bathing suits.
GM, Honda, or Toyota could make yalms. Though I would never buy a Ford anythings, I would rather walk.

The list is endless. And I hate myself for saying this, but it would improve the longevity of the game, and depth of content. The ads would add some more realizm. I would hate to have to buy nike equipment or Dell robot brains, but if it would mean that we could have x more playing fields, x more items, x more stories, emotes, and dungeons, yep it might be worth it for me

Do you agree and think ingame advertizing would not hurt?
Do you think its the worst thing in the world?
Would you reject it if you knew it was paying for part of your gameplay experience?

(My personal favorite would be if you could bash people wearing corporate logos)

**____________Dominata** · Oct 18th, 2002, 13:30:47

If you hate yourself for suggesting it, why do you even do it?

Talk about game killing feature, advertising from RL companies would completely destroy immersion.

So I will have to agree with your second choice there; It would be the worst thing in the world, sorry.

**Gearbox** · Oct 18th, 2002, 13:46:45

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, that was originally the plan. But the ads weren't for decorations- they were meant to be sold to rl companies, as any other billboard space is sold. It was nixed for some reason (I think simply because rl companies didn't respond).

I always thought it was a pretty cool idea, as long as the ads could be given the proper futuristic quality.

But I'd rather see fictitious products and services being advertised. There's so much you could do with fake future advertising (see RoboCop's ridiculous commercials like the board game, "Nuke'Em").

**______________hobbes** · Oct 18th, 2002, 14:35:22

I actually like the idea, more money to Funcom at no cost. Perhaps now that the game is established, companies will be more interested.

This will allow Funcom to hire more people on TLJ2.

Maybe you should repost this in the form of a POLL.

**Myers** · Oct 18th, 2002, 14:45:43

In the Year 2017 billions of people died in huge a plague. Surivors were killed by some crazy cults thus ending civilization.
Then came The Great Winter where the last survivors were living basicaly in the Stone and Copper ages for about 1000 years (I think this is when the Solitus came about). The Omega appeared and took over after that enslaveing the Solitus. So I doubt they perserved any corporation from today.
Its an intersting idea, but it doesn't work RP wise

**Gene13** · Oct 18th, 2002, 14:50:18

27000 years. Nike? Yeah, right.

/G13

**_______________Vydas** · Oct 18th, 2002, 14:55:30

I don't care for this idea, but would just like to point out that the original Nike might indeed be a symbol for Omni Tek. I doubt, though, that the influx of cash from Greek Mythology scholars/buffs would be enough to do Funcom much good

.

**MissMaul** · Oct 18th, 2002, 16:37:58

If Funcom can think of some fun, creative ideas for advertisements (Leety's Pizza) I'm all for it.

**__________Specialone** · Oct 18th, 2002, 20:52:23

What's scary is that it will very likely happen in the next generation of mmorpgs. And it will totally suck.

**_____________Daschle** · Oct 18th, 2002, 21:08:07

I have a suggestion...

How about we don't stupid-ize AO with idiotic advertising, and just pretend we did instead?

If you want useless advertising, go watch TV. I'm not going to pay $12 every month to watch advertisements. Same reason why I rarely buy magazines or newspapers... I'm not going to PAY someone to advertise to me. Same reason I don't have cable or direct tv.. (Well, I don't own a TV, but if I did, I would't have cable..)

I do have XM satelite radio for my car, though, and it pisses me off when I'm listening to a channel which has advertisements. I guess XM's boast of "101 commercial free channels" means something else in their native language than it does in mind.

So, in summary.... No.

Thank you.

**engelstein** · Oct 18th, 2002, 21:11:08

Yeah, yeah, Wen. And I'm sure that if you had to actually pay for what you get you'd be complaining that ABC "costs too much", that magazines "aren't worth it", etc.

WTG, man.

**_____________Daschle** · Oct 18th, 2002, 21:15:26

Originally posted by Shubalubdub
Yeah, yeah, Wen. And I'm sure that if you had to actually pay for what you get you'd be complaining that ABC "costs too much", that magazines "aren't worth it", etc.

WTG, man.

I'm sorry, spending $5 on a magazine is not "Paying for what I get?"

Odd. Maybe that $5 is a government "magazine tax" or something?

**________________Darq** · Oct 18th, 2002, 21:26:53

wouldn't change anything really if there were advertisements, instead of walking by a blank wall, that wall would have a billboard on it, you wouldn't have to stop and read it for 10mins in order to get buy it, it wouldn't shorten your play time, it'd just be there and ignorable, nothing like a comercial

i'm for it as long as it'd help FC make $$, and as long as it doesn't change gameplay in anyway (a penny arcade strip comes to mind, the sprite-meter)

**____________Ejeckted** · Oct 18th, 2002, 22:51:03

This was covered a while ago IIRC.

The main reason is that if you have sponsers,
they usually want a say in the content of the media.

Picture a billboard for an athletic wear company.
Now picture a couple Atrox in thongs having /emote sex in front of it.
That's not the type of image the sponser wants to pay for.

(just 1 example)

**_____________Daschle** · Oct 18th, 2002, 23:01:40

I think the bottom line is that some of us play video games as an 'escape' from reality.

A "role playing" game won't benefit much from real world advertisements. When real world stuff begins to influence MMORPG content, it's time to ditch the whole RPG aspect and just make it an Atrox Enf l33t d00d powerleveling festival and remove all the other "not l33t" classes.

**locomdenom** · Oct 19th, 2002, 00:07:11

Originally posted by Scumbug
This was covered a while ago IIRC.

The main reason is that if you have sponsers,
they usually want a say in the content of the media.

Picture a billboard for an athletic wear company.
Now picture a couple Atrox in thongs having /emote sex in front of it.
That's not the type of image the sponser wants to pay for.

(just 1 example)

Heh. Very funny, SB. I think that would go a long way towards convincing over-sized asexual beings to wear athletic wear from that company.

Seriously, I could care less if this happens. When I browse websites with advertising, after I flip the page I couldn't tell you who the ads were for. The same would apply here.

As to ruining immersion... WHAT immersion?

**__________Grimmtooth** · Oct 19th, 2002, 15:44:25

I'm suprised I have not seen advertising blimps like the one I saw in bladerunner (the movie).

Actually now that I think about it FC should do just that. Offer advertising packages to RL companies so the companies can advertise to us and FC can make more money to make the game better and their wallets phatter!

**______________Docben** · Oct 19th, 2002, 17:17:16

I'm with that idea 100%, if it is for the good of the game... But if FC do that (it will never happen anyway), they must protect their game by not being influencable by the companies that sponsors it. Otherwise it will really ruins the games instead of helping it.

Grabby

**Slavor** · Oct 19th, 2002, 17:28:35

Heh, but given some of the issues with the environment, I am not sure if people would appreciate getting stuck in the Nike billboard, or something. Advertisers might not for for that...

**spookiepants** · Oct 19th, 2002, 18:11:01

Advertising is a bad idea. As someone touched on earlier in the thread.

Advertisers will want a say in the content. They will not want to be associated with anything considered negative, or racy, or violent.
If Funcom becomes dependant on outside advertisers, you can be sure of the following changes:

Less violence.
Less emotes
Toned down, more conservative social wear.
No hope of seeing certain venues in Omni-Entertainment being opened.
No ability of players to play a 'evil' role, or anything that can be even slightly described as satanic.

If it comes to it, I'd rather pay a bit more every month than see the game dumbed down for a stupid public.

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I hate myself for suggesting this...

I'm with that idea 100%

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