Free to play with advertising model

[Mctittles 0]

 Hello.  I'd like to start off saying that I really want to support this game and will be one of the few to buy the planet mode as I see great potential here.

However, most everyone can agree it's not a deal.  There isn't anything to the online portion of the game that justifies a monthly fee.  Most MMO games have to support large servers for massive REAL TIME traffic, however in cities xl you are paying for something a simple web page could provide.  You get...a chat window and form buttons to submit information on trades with other people.  Now unless the walking around and chatting in real time takes off (which it won't), there is nothing I see here that a decent server pc couldn't handle.  So the price is completely unjustified.  Everyone I've mentioned this game to was interested until I told them about the monthly fee in which they laughed in my face.  It IS that ridiculous

In it's current form, this game is going to bomb.

But there is a way it can be saved.  Letting people download and play the game for free with advertising put into the game.  I cannot think of a game more suited for this business model.  All you have to do is place the ads in the same places they occur in real life.  Billboards, blimps, actual real store building models, big restaurant signs by the interstate etc.  And the great thing about it is it would be non-intrusive type advertising.  In fact, it would make the game more realistic with the advertising than without it.  Plus if you release the game for free, then you will have more players, which will give advertisers more reason to give you money to advertise in your game.

Well, that's what I would do.  I imagine they will release it as planned, and quickly go bankrupt.  Didn't they learn anything from their last MMO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarPeace_(video_game)) ??

[JakeMD 107]

Hmm.. You might be on to something, but releasing a game and expecting companies to advertise in it isn't the best idea.

[TekindusT 3,809]

I think that product placement in videogames has to be taken as a serious issue. For example, I've played Crazy Taxi and I find realistic the point of carrying customers to the Pizza Hut or the KFC. Product placement would work in the same way for Cities XL because of what you're saying. But this kind of advertisements could never be carried to World of Warcraft, for example; because a KFC ad in the midst of a forest is pointless.

[geek12 0]

You do have a good point., but the reviews/critics would absolutely tear them up for it.

[JanYpe 17]

Non-intrusive ads are the kind that we as players could work with, or at least not mind too much. But by being non-intrusive these ads by definition don't attract a lot of attention from the user. On top of that, unless you give the ads some click through feature or provide a monitoring tool, there is no way to measure how effective these ads are. That means any ads MC added in would be of a pretty low value to any would-be advertisers.

In theory it's a neat idea, but I doubt there's enough money in ads like that to cover development costs, let alone make a profit.

[Dirktator 2,326]

Well I think in this case, non-intrusive would mean that the ads have a context, not that they aren't visible. As Mctitles suggested, these ads would be placed in logical locations in and around your city where you would expect to see ads anyway. It would make for a pretty lively downtown area for example to see billboards of real world stuff.

In that sense, I think the model could work to reduce or even possibly remove the monthly fee, assuming Monte Cristo can achieve a critical mass of players...

[Tommo 0]

Are you sure that this isn't already in place?

Zooming to ground level i saw many omnicorp ltd banners (clearly fake ads) but there was also a .com site that i can't remember, that looked real.

[JakeMD 107]

Could it have been a CXL.com ad?

[geek12 0]

One would think that 5 dollars a month wouldn't bring them much, in game advertising could bring them a lot more money than if say only 500 people registered.

[Mctittles 0]

Originally posted by: swat-medic

Hmm.. You might be on to something, but releasing a game and expecting companies to advertise in it isn't the best idea.quote>

You are right.  It is probably too late in the 'game' to be changing things up.  Depending on their contract with the investors, they might not be able to change anything anyway.  However, a possibility would be to realise this isn't going to work, not release the game next month, and use their time to pitch to advertisers to see if they can get something like this going.  It seems they have some sales skills to be able to drum up money to make this game in the first place.

Originally posted by: geek12

You do have a good point., but the reviews/critics would absolutely tear them up for it.quote>

I think they are going to get pretty torn up anyway.

Originally posted by: JanYpe

Non-intrusive ads are the kind that we as players could work with, or at least not mind too much. But by being non-intrusive these ads by definition don't attract a lot of attention from the user. On top of that, unless you give the ads some click through feature or provide a monitoring tool, there is no way to measure how effective these ads are. That means any ads MC added in would be of a pretty low value to any would-be advertisers. 

In theory it's a neat idea, but I doubt there's enough money in ads like that to cover development costs, let alone make a profit.

quote>

I'd have to disagree on this point. Personally I think more passive ads can be more effective than ads you are actively engaged in.  For instance if you are constantly seeing the name of a product type that you don't normally purchase.  You don't pay attention to what the product is, but you are aware of the name.  Then a time comes when you need to purchase this product type.  When going to the store and seeing many names of brands you don't know you are probably more likely to pick the one you recognize from somewhere you don't remember.

On the other hand the GEMS model does bring in a way for a more active type of advertising.  How hungry would you get running Pizza Hut tycoon all day?

[SimFox 804]

Yep this is already in a game.

And I don't mean Omnicorp or MC... they have adds for Novotel -French Hotel Chain These are on the board along some streets...

But, you see, many of people wouldn't even notice them as people should be aware what those are. And here comes big problem. Advertisers want target audiences. Audiences in the market they are active in. And although there are some global players, like already mentioned PizzaHut.

However I believe it could be arranged with PO. Since game is true 3d every time player logs in localized textures for billboards could be downloaded in. It may take some time, but if people could save on fees and if it could ensure survival and farther development of the game... Of course how much would advertisers be prepared to pay and now much would it cost to get them on-board. is unknow and may be where real problem will be.

[DarkDays 0]

Has anyone played Burnout Paradise? They have dynamic in-game ads (client downloads new ones every update or something) spread across the city on billboards and I think it worked well for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_Paradise#In-game_advertising

[Cleaner475 150]

Originally posted by: DarkDays

Has anyone played Burnout Paradise? They have dynamic in-game ads (client downloads new ones every update or something) spread across the city on billboards and I think it worked well for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnout_Paradise#In-game_advertisingquote>

Yeah it did work well for them - In-game advertising will work it just needs to be in the right game. GTA games are perfect as are most racing games as in-game advertising actually adds to a more realistic experience anyway.

Richard

[JakeMD 107]

We can't have UK ads in a North american game, and vise versa.. there would need to be two separate deals that way.

[Cleaner475 150]

@swat - I'm pretty sure Burnout didn't have the Barrack Obama ads in the UK only in North America - Same can be applied to CXL.

Richard

[MandelSoft 2,775]

Hmm... not a bad idea at all. Not only does advertising look realistic in a city, but also some people WANT to have some adds in their game, because they look realistic. There are some buildings here on the STEX with a Real Life brandname, like McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks, Lidl, Albert Heijn, Gamma, De Bijenkorf, Nationale Nederlanden, Mark & Spencer's, Aral, Ikea, you name it! I think some people like to see for instance a Lidl growing on a zone for stores. It looks realistic for the players, it's a way to attract more people to the stores of the advertisors, it's just a win-win situation. It looks worth trying to me.

Best,

Maarten