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The Commercial Pay Model

ompgamingompgaming Member UncommonPosts: 188

I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

 

I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

 

I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

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Comments

  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719

    Please delete this thread before a developer sees it!

     

    (PS - none of them would ever do this instead of any current pay model--they'd do it on top of the pay model just the way movies and some sports games -- EA games especaially -- do now with product placement. I've never seen the cost of a game or movie go down because they're getting product placement revenue.)

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  • ArtificeVenatusArtificeVenatus Member UncommonPosts: 1,236
     
  • Superman0XSuperman0X Member RarePosts: 2,292
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    The issue here is not the gaming company, but rather the advertisers. Advertisers pay based on the number of people that see the advertisement. This means that you need to have a very large audience (like WoW or LoL) to be of any interest to the advertising networks. Then you would need to do constant advertising, which is generally not enjoyed by the masses.

     

    So, it is a model that could be used by companies (once they have established a large userbase), but then it would be intrusive, and most people would rather just pay. It could be offered as a 'free' option to earn people money with these games, but there is not a lot of demand for this.

  • SpottyGekkoSpottyGekko Member EpicPosts: 6,916
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    I'm fairly sure that ingame advertising was actually tried at some point in the past, but it was abandoned as it was not generating sufficient revenue.

     

    However, it may well come back as an additional means to generate revenue alonside the Cash Shop and freemium subs ! Just give it some time... 

  • udonudon Member UncommonPosts: 1,803

    With how much money they can make from lock boxes and selling in game currency for real world money why would they need to mess with a good thing?  I mean who wouldn't want to sell a mount for a $1000 a $1 key at a time?

    I think the bad player experiences you would get from pausing the game a couple times a hour to display a ad would far outweigh any money you made off of it.  Most of the really successful models like I mentioned above are much more in the background with things like world wide chat messages telling you someone won the jackpot from the lock boxes being plenty to remind people they are there and play on the emotions of desire and envy in people.

  • ForgrimmForgrimm Member EpicPosts: 3,059
    Everquest 2 used to have the feature where you could type /pizza and it would bring up an interface that would allow you to order from Pizza Hut directly within the game lol.
  • thinktank001thinktank001 Member UncommonPosts: 2,144
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

     

    Some interesting ideas:      

     

    Inventory screens could have a border ad much like you see here at MMORPG.com

     

    Instead of instant teleportation the game could have players watch a 1 minute ad. 

     

    Developers could sell companies the ability to create an item in a similar fashion that POE sells players the ability to create an item.

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  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    No thanks. A modern MMO with commercial posters around would be fine as long as they fit into the game as would force you to watch commercials when you log in but interupting me while I play is a sin.

    I guess you could use commercials during stuff like boat travel and such though, it would still be annoying but not nearly as much. After all did we used to let our characters stand still and doing nothing on that boat in most games in the beginning but I fear you would loose the casual players there, they rarely play for over an hour and commercials would limit their time even further.

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    It works for iOS puzzle games. I am playing a game called rescue quests that tries to fund the game precisely with 15 seconds commercial in between levels (and there is also some IAP stuff that i ignore).

    F2P at its best. Just do something else (watch tv, and surf on another device) for 15 second and you get a free decent puzzle game.

     

  • vadio123vadio123 Member UncommonPosts: 593

    o WAIT i can imagine figth against CocaCola Dragoon or use Microsoft Gates to travel around 

    o hell its acceptablle in SCI FI mmo or modern mmo (i remember entropia did and still do)

     

    but fantasy/medieval probably i hope never see this 

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by vadio123

    o WAIT i can imagine figth against CocaCola Dragoon or use Microsoft Gates to travel around 

    o hell its acceptablle in SCI FI mmo or modern mmo (i remember entropia did and still do)

     

    but fantasy/medieval probably i hope never see this 

    no one says you have to put commercials INSIDE a game. Just take a commercial break, like TV. I am not saying i prefer it ... but if i can live with it on TV, I can live with it on games, particularly when i can always do something else when a commercial is showing.

     

  • thinktank001thinktank001 Member UncommonPosts: 2,144
    Originally posted by greenreen

    No farking way in kale would I put up with a commercial in a game especially proposed as a complete stop to the game to do it.

     

    I definitely agree that there would be very few players that would accept a break in the action, but what about just before, or just after? 

     

    IMHO, if it keeps a game totally free for those that don't want to pay, and ad-free for those that do want to pay, then it probably wouldn't be such a bad deal.   

    All these broken microtransaction games wouldn't be so broken anymore.

     

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  • thinktank001thinktank001 Member UncommonPosts: 2,144
    Originally posted by greenreen

    NO!

    Do you know how much an ad costs to run - pennies. Larger payments come when people use/click an ad and if sales don't come with those clicks - people change ad networks so just clicking every once in awhile won't trick anyway over time.

    Even if you got a decent fee like .05 per impression you are talking about 20*15=300 ads in ONE monthly period per user to break even to a sub game. What happens if you don't login 300 times in that month - then it turns into Hulu where you get 5 ads in a row because there is a quota to reach per user. They started at one and bumped up to 3 then to 5 for each ad break as Netflix began taking their viewers. Mind you, Adwords gives free impressions so it would make more sense to advertise on a site than in someone's game.

     

    I'm sorry this is my fault for forgetting that the border ads are interactive.  

     

    I don't think having interactive ads in an MMORPG would work well.

     

     

     

  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,769
    Well they could support a server.  For example.  Play on World of Warcraft's Pepsi Server.  Pepsi can have tie-in items you can get.  That is one way.
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  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    I'm pretty sure that Sony, at one point in time, started to go in this direction. It was slated as a "big thing" for the original Planetside, and there were even giant Billboards in each of the starting areas.

    They only ever showed commercials for Planetside and I think Alienware or some such computer retailer, that I ever saw in game.

    It's entirely possible that these were just more eyecandy and not some kind of preliminary step towards monetization, but I seem to recall at one point it was discussed.

    Actually, I found the announcement, and it was parroted on these forums. From 2005

    http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/71/view/news/page/2/read/3318/PlanetSide-SOE-Jumps-On-InGame-Ads.html


    As far as my opinion on it - I loathe commercials, and the fact that these weren't as overtly obtrusive as adverts on TV/Radio (where it interrupts your programming) is probably why advertisers didn't sign on, and developers didn't persue it further because if you did actually interrupt the programming (the game) players would revolt.

    It happens a bit on iOS (and I imagine Andriod) apps - some are just banner ads that exist alongside your app/game,. or allow you to earn some small amount of in-game currency for voluntarily viewing a full-screen commercial - others are full blown commercials that you are forced to watch and do interrupt the game, but those are more rare.

    The former I can tolerate. I don't like them, but I can tolerate them. They are unobtrusive, or for the full screen ads that are voluntary I can start one and go get a drink or go do something else for a bit because I know the commercial is on autopilot for a bit of time.

    I don't tolerate adverts on my TV or Radio. I DVR the very few OTA TV shows so I can skip the commercials, I watch streamed/online/DVD versions whenever possible. I have satellite radio and streaming radio in the car. I aboslutely hate commercials that interrupt programming. If they were to pop up in a game - I flat out wouldn't play that game if there were no way around them.

    *EDIT*
    And if you think about it - titles like Defiance are huge online adverts. They have Dodge stuff all over the place, inlcuding a lot of in-game promotions (races for unique cars, for instance) - they are essentially a giant Fiat-Chrysler ad disguised as a video game. That is a clever form of advertising I recognize and don't utterly dispise, at least yet.

  • Fly666monkeyFly666monkey Member UncommonPosts: 161
    Shadowbane tried this. It failed spectacularly.
  • ZhjrisZhjris Member UncommonPosts: 20
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    Seriously go screw yourself. We already get taken advantage of at every turn and you are proposing interrupting a gaming session with some commercial? This is why the industry is the way it is. The only remotely acceptable commercial form of any kind would be in game billboards and advertisements in a GTA fashion with real logos and companies instead of fake ones.

    I can't fathom why a player would promote anything like this, infact i think subscription should be the normal payment method again in my opinion. Better committment, player base, ect ,ect. Cashshops already make tons because all the casuals that flooded the market rather spend 20 dollars and get their gear instead of working for it. People that don't like the genre trying to change it to make it dumbed down and casual for a demgraph they obviously don't fit.

  • RaquisRaquis Member RarePosts: 1,029
    the developers like zenimax and WOW will have comertials and a cash shop and a subscription fee and say you are getting your moneys worth,we worked so hard for ourselves o shit I mean for you gamers!
  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by thinktank001
    Originally posted by greenreen

    No farking way in kale would I put up with a commercial in a game especially proposed as a complete stop to the game to do it.

     

    I definitely agree that there would be very few players that would accept a break in the action, but what about just before, or just after? 

     

    IMHO, if it keeps a game totally free for those that don't want to pay, and ad-free for those that do want to pay, then it probably wouldn't be such a bad deal.   

    All these broken microtransaction games wouldn't be so broken anymore.

     

    exactly, just put the ad before or after a 15 min dungeon. Or put it when people are queuing up for dungeon, raids, or instant pvp.

     

  • Superman0XSuperman0X Member RarePosts: 2,292
    Originally posted by nariusseldon
    Originally posted by thinktank001
    Originally posted by greenreen

    No farking way in kale would I put up with a commercial in a game especially proposed as a complete stop to the game to do it.

     

    I definitely agree that there would be very few players that would accept a break in the action, but what about just before, or just after? 

     

    IMHO, if it keeps a game totally free for those that don't want to pay, and ad-free for those that do want to pay, then it probably wouldn't be such a bad deal.   

    All these broken microtransaction games wouldn't be so broken anymore.

     

    exactly, just put the ad before or after a 15 min dungeon. Or put it when people are queuing up for dungeon, raids, or instant pvp.

     

    It is likely that they could make $5 per person off preroll videos what are shown at loading screens and such. However, these would be intrusive, and players would not like them. It would also not be enough to keep the game running, so they would also have to make money other ways.

  • RusqueRusque Member RarePosts: 2,785
    I would drop any game, regardless of how much I liked it if this happened to it. I'm not watching commercials in my video game.
  • goboygogoboygo Member RarePosts: 2,141
    Originally posted by ompgaming

    I see lots of discussions about MMO pay models these days.

     

    I wonder about the idea of commercials in game?  Like, what if ever 30 mins (or whatever is financially viable), the game paused for 30 seconds to play an actual commercial, then after the commercial, the game un-paused and you continued doing whatever it was you were doing?

     

    I'm just curious if that would work for the gaming companies.  Because, lets be honest, as much as we all love F2P games, the game companies have to generate funding somehow.

    I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.  There is a little movie I want you to watch its called idiocracy.  It sounds like your idea will fit right in.

    I have another idea that fly's in the face of yours, its called figure out how to afford one of the cheapest hobbies on the planet instead of coming up with more ways to try to get stuff for free and further degrade the industry.

  • nariusseldonnariusseldon Member EpicPosts: 27,775
    Originally posted by Superman0X

     

    It is likely that they could make $5 per person off preroll videos what are shown at loading screens and such. However, these would be intrusive, and players would not like them. It would also not be enough to keep the game running, so they would also have to make money other ways.

    Whether it is enough to keep a game running is the core of the matter. No one likes commercial, but it is not that hard to live with them. Just have another device next to you, and play a round of freecell (or your fav puzzle game) when the commercial is running.

     

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