Thoughts on Jim Sterlings video about Advertisements in games?

[Frank_Underw00d]

Not sure why everyone is getting their panties in a wad for, EA has done this in BF4 and I know a few racing games did it as well. If you don't buy the crap they are selling they will stop, but i think will buy the skins anyway.

[Aidy]

It's not like they put it in your face with full screen ads, or anything.... Oh, wait, it is like that. Unless you haven't even finished the tutorial in the game there is no way in hell you can miss it, as the game gives you 500 of the ingame currency that you use in the built in shop to make you ogle at the things it is not enough for.

Are you serious? I don't even remember that happening. I'll take your word for it but there is so much going on at the start it just past me buy. I'm over 100 hours in, level 55 or so and have never had paid-for content mentioned or suggested or shown to me at all. Neither have I felt I've needed it, it's not that hard of a game.

Saying that being given some premium currency after a tutorial and told you can use it in the shop and it never being mentioned again is "in your face" with "full screen ads" is, IMO, fairly unreasonable.

[MadMummy76]

I wasn't aware there was scummy monetisation in RDR2. Though I'm currently playing AC Odyssey and I didn't know you could spend real money in that game until I saw some reviews moaning about it.

It's not like they put it in your face with full screen ads, or anything.... Oh, wait, it is like that. Unless you haven't even finished the tutorial in the game there is no way in hell you can miss it, as the game gives you 500 of the ingame currency that you use in the built in shop to make you ogle at the things it is not enough for.

[MadMummy76]

Ads in free to play games: OK
Ads in paid AAA games : HELL NO Especially injected retroactively after the players have already bought the game. Do you see now why i've been saying that games as a live service is a bad idea? Because they can pull any kind of crap that is detrimental to your experience and you can't do anything against it.

I'm fine with product placement tho, as long as it is not immersion breaking.

[Dub-Z]

How Street Fighter V ads work:

- 100% optional
- you get 16 extra FM per fight for leaving them on
- you still earn the same FM everywhere (super casual play gets me 5000 every couple weeks, easy)
- splash screen over the loading screen
- select costumes with small logos
- the ads are for tournaments and costumes

I can understand the slippery slope, dystopian future fears but this isn't new to games, he's soapboxing for people who wrote the game off years ago when it released, and really have no interest in seeing it be a sustainable competitive game for the people who actually play and follow it. SFV is my favorite fighting game in the series and of the generation. I watch EVO, Capcom Cup, and any other tournament I manage to catch.

A lot of shelf collectors just want a final release ASAP and for the whole competitive scene to just be irrelevant, so that it stops getting balancing patches, technical improvement, new systems, characters, stages, costumes etc + servers and Fighters Network functions like replays. I vastly prefer the business and distribution model the game has now to buying a new version for $60 every 2 years, let alone the 50 cent arcade days or the $75 SNES cart days.

[Aidy]

I wasn't aware there was scummy monetisation in RDR2. Though I'm currently playing AC Odyssey and I didn't know you could spend real money in that game until I saw some reviews moaning about it.

[GutsGodhand]

In a nutshell.

In-Game ads won't make a game cheaper for the end user. We're all kidding ourselves if we believe that. Would it help cut costs for the development? Sure. But we end users won't see those savings.

I mean come on......they won't even give us costumes or color palettes to unlock for free. We get nothing for going through arcade or story mode do we? You think they are gonna make their entire package cheaper in exchange for shoving ads in your face? Nah.

I grew up on fighters. Love them. But I can't support what Capcom is doing. I wouldn't support it if any other developer did it. And even though I love fighters, I just can't. I own every Street Fighter up to this point. But I won't spend a dollar on V. Just can't bring myself to do it.

If Capcom needs the E-Sports crowd so badly.....then put ads all over that shit and give it to them for free. So those ads pop up during big matches and everyone participating and watching on stream can see. But if we gotta shell out $60+ for a game, then it's DLC packs....and it's costume packs....and they still wanna shove ads in my face? yeah I'm gonna pass. I don't care how fun your game is. It's not worth that to me. There's plenty of titles out there that don't harass me after I've already given them my hard earned dollars.

[Damian Cunliffe]

You don't need a union to not buy a game I have no problem not buying games I don't want to play.

But like with anything else, only a tiny % of gamers are even aware of the issue. The rest just keep buying the games and encouraging the microtransacton culture.

Before I buy a game I look how it is monetized. If it's scummy I don't buy it, no matter how much I may want it. I want to play RDR2. I won't buy it because I won't support scummy monetization. Most gamers don't give a crap though, so my not buying it is irrelevant.

[Aidy]

Developers are beginning to unionize - gamers need to do it too, so that we can say "look, we want to buy your games, your DLC and expansions and even microtransactions if they're done right, but we're boycotting you until you get your **** together".

You don't need a union to not buy a game I have no problem not buying games I don't want to play.

[Aidy]

They want to make a profit? Make a good game. Indie games like minecraft, stardew valley, terraria, just to name three of the biggest ones, make a good profit and offer lots of content and a great story while making lots of profit. Gamers want a good game, that's it. Indie games don't need to advertise, cause a good game advertises itself.

In today's money GTA V cost about $280,000,000 to bring to market. Stardew Valley probably cost $280. The more a game has cost you the harder it is to make a profit as the more people need to buy it. Your market is finite. Starview Valley was a good distraction for a few hours, but if I had to choose I'd still rather have the Witcher 3s, the Fallout 4s, the Skyrims etc.

[Damian Cunliffe]

The problem I have is that it will never be discrete or done in a way that is respectful of gamers. Developers and publishers have proven that they have absolutely no respect whatsoever for gamers. If there's an extra penny to be wrung out of a gamer by making the game worse in some way then they absolutely will do it.

Developers are beginning to unionize - gamers need to do it too, so that we can say "look, we want to buy your games, your DLC and expansions and even microtransactions if they're done right, but we're boycotting you until you get your **** together".

[CuppaJoe]

Jim is always on the money when in comes to dirty developer and publisher practices.

[Imnotanybody]

Oh, it's coming. Games are costing more and more to make, but you can't keep charging more for them. Who is going to pay £100, £200, £300 for a game? Loot boxes are being shut down by governments, minimal content with chargeable DLC is getting panned by audiences. Game houses need to do something to claw the costs of development back and get into profit.

They want to make a profit? Make a good game. Indie games like minecraft, stardew valley, terraria, just to name three of the biggest ones, make a good profit and offer lots of content and a great story while making lots of profit. Gamers want a good game, that's it. Indie games don't need to advertise, cause a good game advertises itself.

[ryvrdrgn14]

For now there is an option to turn off in-game ads in SFV. The issue is if this will affect regular FM (in-game currency) earnings to force players to turn on the ads to make up for it. There apparently a limit to how much bonus FM a player can earn from ads according to some posts in /r/streetfighter so players who earn that amount can just turn the ads off afterwards.

I'm not for it consider how the game is priced, but Capcom is also putting a lot into its esports scene compared to other fighting games. It seems that a lot of Tekken players are hesitant to continue in the pro scene due to the low rewards that they are given and a lot of pro players from other games such as KoF and GG have been participating in SFV in the last couple of years.

I just hope they don't do worse things moving forward.

[Shades]

I strongly disagree with the idea of full on video commercials you can't skip... but it could happen... DVDs... I hated that shit when you would get a DVD and it had un-skippable trailers before you could go to the main menu.

Should we be worried though? I would hope they realize it's going to anger people if they implemented something like that; and I don't think advertisers want their products to be associated with making people mad. It would be a very poor choice.