In-Game Ads Nearly Double Load Times

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There is a right way to do in-game ads and a wrong way, I’ll let you guys decide which category this falls into. On top of the longer load times, things were made worse by the fact that there wasn't even a mention of the addition of in-game ads.

After selecting a ship, it took us approximately 12 seconds to enter a race. With the ads playing, the race consistently loaded after around 20 seconds. The advertisements were added several days ago in an update to the year-old game, but were not mentioned in the patch notes or by Sony.
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They're adding ads to a game that you pay for? That seems a little greedy to me but hey they're a corporation after all.
 
I think if games are going to have in game ads they should be a lot cheaper.
 
did the ads increase load times, or did Sony so you had time to read/view the ad? lol
 
Vinnard said:
I think if games are going to have in game ads they should be a lot cheaper.
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In La La land, sure. But in reality you should be saying "Boy I'm glad they found a way to keep game prices the same as they've been for over a decade, despite ever increasing costs of development".
 
JethroXP said:
In La La land, sure. But in reality you should be saying "Boy I'm glad they found a way to keep game prices the same as they've been for over a decade, despite ever increasing costs of development".
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Selling more copies of games that cost more to develop seems to have worked fine up until now. If a game cannot sell enough copies to make a nice chunk of profit without ads, it should not have been made in the first place.
 
JethroXP said:
In La La land, sure. But in reality you should be saying "Boy I'm glad they found a way to keep game prices the same as they've been for over a decade, despite ever increasing costs of development".
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Nay, we must thwart this vile beast of a corporation who shall not rest until God himself is thrown down, and all of creation becomes Satan's black hell besmeared farting hole!
 
1. How many users will download a crack to avoid this type of thing from happening?

2. How will the above users answer the question "why am I paying for this thing anyway"?
 
I'd assume the lag is due to loading multiple ads per race instead of only using one ad per race. Haven't played the game so I don't know, Just guestimating.
 
if the game is free, put all the ads you want

if i already dropped my $40+ on a game, get your dam ads OUT! unless you are providing some other super stellar free servive like online friends, stats or other content worth the advertisments
 
How long b4 we have a version of ad block for console games?
On the PC side I am fairly certain that something like this could and almost immediately would be quickly hacked out of any single player game. Not so sure it will happen for the consoles.
 
anyone who supports ads in games are total tools. I paid for it and I expect it to be ad free. It will come down to having games with ads or not playing games..........not playing games it is then....
 
I should ad that I am cool with product placements in game where they fit. Soda machines that say actually Coke on them or a billboard in a normal place in street racing game, or a Nike symbol on a t-shirt, or the like. But not if they significantly increase load times.
 
Ah yes, just one more step down the road of whoring out our hobby to rampant and unchecked consumerism. Much like transformers was changed into a glorified GM advertisement, it won't be too long before games are just vehicles to sell advertisement magazines dressed up to look like entertainment.
 
why should games be any different than anything else. It's a revenue stream for the companies bringing you games. You pay for magazines, cable/satellite and newspapers. All of these things have ads. I have no issue whatsoever with in game ads as long as they don't effect game play.
Real life scenarios have ads. Try watching any motor sports race and not see an ad. there are billboards everywhere you look as well. Sporting events are plastered with ads as well as the venues those events are held in. There are ads on the sides and tops of vehicles. So it is plausible that ads could be anywhere, in multiple scenarios. As long as the ads fit the environment it's fine with me. It could also lead to some innovative advertisments. Just think how fun it would be to see a mt. dew ad in WOW that appears to be a sign carved in wood that advertises their game fuel. It would push advertisers to cater to the gaming communities and that is one more step to getting the influence you want and ultimatly will create cheaper games.
(I'm not a WOW player and not even sure if they have taversn or whatever, I just thought it could fit)
 
JethroXP said:
In La La land, sure. But in reality you should be saying "Boy I'm glad they found a way to keep game prices the same as they've been for over a decade, despite ever increasing costs of development".
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?? Most good titles are around $60. I definitely didn't pay that much for games back in '99
 
RS3RS said:
?? Most good titles are around $60. I definitely didn't pay that much for games back in '99
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Yep that's the truth there, until the 360 and PS3 came out all console games were $50. Once the PSOne, PS2, Saturn, Dreamcast and original Xbox came around all games were at the $50 price point. The last time games were 60 bucks was back in the Snes, Genesis and N64 days and some of those went as high as $80.
 
Ads are fine in games, so long as:
A) You did not pay anything for the game, or
B) The ads are relevant to the game content and do not distract from the gameplay

From what this sounds like, the imposed additional load time (regardless of reason for the greater load time) seems out of place.
 
RS3RS said:
?? Most good titles are around $60. I definitely didn't pay that much for games back in '99
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New games definitely cost that much in '99. NES games were $40-50 new, SNES $50, PS1 and Dreamcast $50, N64 $60-80! So if you didn't spend ~$50-60 on games in '99, you weren't buying new games.

Of course, adjust for inflation and you are talking like, what, $80 for NES games, give or take. So as development costs for games have skyrocketed, the price has stayed pretty fixed (thanks to inflation you could even make the argument that games are CHEAPER today than they were in '99)

NKDietrich said:
Selling more copies of games that cost more to develop seems to have worked fine up until now. If a game cannot sell enough copies to make a nice chunk of profit without ads, it should not have been made in the first place.
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Which is why we have increasingly fewer games with larger numbers bolted on to the end to market to the lowest common denominator. If ads means we can have original games in a variety of a genres like there used to be, then I'm all for them. If developers are going to sneak them into games through patches, then fuck em. I'm cool with it *IF* they are up front about it AND they aren't overly intrusive. An ad on the loading screen? Fine with me, as long as it isn't long. Real ads on billboards as I'm racing around a track? Bring it on.
 
Sounds like in this racing game, negative ad-ing is the same as sub-track-tion...
 
TopGun said:
They're adding ads to a game that you pay for? That seems a little greedy to me but hey they're a corporation after all.
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Buy a magazine (that you pay for with your own money ;))... just about ANY magazine... think you'll see ads in that?
 
bigbadgreen said:
e. Just think how fun it would be to see a mt. dew ad in WOW that appears to be a sign carved in wood that advertises their game fuel.
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That would be about as much fun as seeing my dead grandmother crawling up my leg with a knife in her teeth.

In game ads break the immersion, unless they are really are period/context appropriate. I don't mind in game ads in situations where you would expect to see an ad.

I sort of enjoy the fake products game developers come up with though. Nuka-Cola, and that softdrink from Counterstrike, what was it called?
 
Blackstone said:
That would be about as much fun as seeing my dead grandmother crawling up my leg with a knife in her teeth.

In game ads break the immersion, unless they are really are period/context appropriate. I don't mind in game ads in situations where you would expect to see an ad.

I sort of enjoy the fake products game developers come up with though. Nuka-Cola, and that softdrink from Counterstrike, what was it called?
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Personally, I think ads even on loading screens cheapen the experience.
 
I have no particular problem with ads in a game so long as they fit in the setting they are in. They need to be seemingly integrated and not adversely effect game play. If they do it right you can have your cake and eat it too. If they don't the developer screws up the game and noone will want to play a game borked with ads. Adding them by surprise in an update is, well, more than a little disingenuous it the people who bought it and maybe a little ethically questionable from a business standpoint.
 
If it really bugs you enough you can install a Linux based router firmware like dd-wrt and block the ad servers. Or maybe your router firmware already supports blocking.
 
Load times + Prices + Investment of platform... = BOOO!!!! As if I am not pissed off enough from advertising; Activia, Dell, and Free Credit Report TV commercials... Uhg... I think I'll have the 'Lolli-Pop' song in my head for the rest of my life. In fact I believe my mute button now reads '..te'.
 
Shameful that this was done well after the game had come out. Pay full price and then get worse performance afterwards in order to accommodate ads? Horrible, let's hope that at the very least these performance issues are ironed out (its naive to hope that the ads are also going to go away, they aren't).
 
There is a right way to do in-game ads and a wrong way, I’ll let you guys decide which category this falls into.
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There are 3 ways you can put adds in a game, only 1 is right.

1. Put Pepsi Cola on every surface in the game.

2. Decide to patch the game later to add Pepsi Cola bill boards in games.

3. Put fake, but entertaining advertising in games.

Only 1 of these is acceptable in games. The only other method is to take something like a Delorean and turn it into a time machine. Something that bad ass hasn't been done since 1985.
 
I immediately thought of Duke Nukem after reading #3...then I read your name. :D
 
Sony added advertisements to Planetside years ago. After the game had already lost about half its speed. Now it's still dwindling away. I'm going to miss it.
 
Ha ha good. Now all those whiny console gamers who chant pc gaming is dead will have to deal with software they can't modify and updates which don't roll back. I'm sure if this was released on pc someone would release a patch that disables it. /schadenfreude
 
Don't even need a patch for blocking the Ads. HOSTS can work wonders. Worked just fine in the 2 games I played that had ads. And it can't be considered hacking like a patch would, because the HOSTS file isn't a part of the game.

"There's nothing like 127.0.0.1"
 
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