EA: Ads In Games Will Be A Success

[jacksunny 741]

^I agree, that would be overdoing it.

[trar 336]

I too would not mind ads for actual products appearing in my cities in the vein of actual ads. I wouldn't even mind the idea of constructing extra-large ads as business deals, such as a billboard placed on the top of a hill (voluntarily of course). Here's an idea: fielding different offers from different companies for ad space, or choosing to place your own image/a municipal advertisement instead. For some reason, I find the idea to be slightly humorous.

  Edited April 7, 2012 by biff  

[Ocram's Razr 964]

I am vehemently opposed to popup ads opening up separate browsers, however, I would love good product placements in the form of real life businesses.

[GrayAnderson 6]

I am vehemently opposed to popup ads opening up separate browsers, however, I would love good product placements in the form of real life businesses.

There was some similar stuff in The Tower (i.e. SimTower's non-Maxis) sequel, and it was nicely unobtrusive (billboards you could place for revenue). I don't have a problem if we have this or something in this vein (instead of the Braun Llama Dome, it's the [sponsor] Llama Dome, for example) so long as it isn't obnoxious.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Are you talking about Yoot Tower AKA The Tower 2. I played that. It is the sequel to The Tower (published in English by Maxis as SimTower). It was very fun. My favorite was the water fall.

[GrayAnderson 6]

Are you talking about Yoot Tower AKA The Tower 2. I played that. It is the sequel to The Tower (published in English by Maxis as SimTower). It was very fun. My favorite was the water fall.

Right...sorry, I mangled which was which. I think of SimTower as SimTower, and all the other labels as "the sequel".

I tended to enjoy the Waikiki hotel level; the Tokyo one was pretty much baseline SimTower, and I could never quite nail down what to do at the waterfall.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

The waterfall had an off season you had to plan around and its wonder (the cultural building you build on the top) upgraded after enough visitors to make more money with the same expenses.

I certainly expect to see altered (realistic proportions, 3d) versions of SimCity 4 and SimCity 3000 buildings.

[AIX 270]

No. If I want billboards to be a "further detail", I want it to be for fictional in-game companies only. Advertising invades enough of our lives and I actively work to NOT view advertisements. The only medium in which I am not able to is when I am out in public. I do not see ads online, on TV, or in print and I plan to keep it that way.

[LivingInThePast 364]

IIRC, the original plan for SimCity 2000 was to include real-world businesses, but there were legal concerns for various reasons.

I never heard such a thing. I DO know, however, they wanted to include the Transamerica Building, but they couldn't because the building was part of their official logo.

The problem with real-world businesses is that it'll look great, but they'll all be of maybe one prototype with zero variation or historical value. Think of the current Target models, or the current McDonald's buildings (which are painfully boring, at least those tacky mansard roof ones were quite iconic).

I also hope that EA will allow mods that use copyrighted trademarks, like I am accustomed to in my city.

[Mark Waybill 242]

I seem to remember a tileset with a Maccas in it in 2000.

I think real world businesses are a great idea, and also the idea of a business deal selling space for billboards etc. In Sydney they have advertisements on monorails. There is no limit to the potential of advertising in this game genre.

I would disagree with the sentiment that they are bad just because they are a form of advertising, because primarily, advertising is after all an integral and necessary part of the real and any realistic fictional economy. However naturally I'd rather the more obnoxious and mindless ads be kept out of the game, and also hope they will be aesthetically flush with the city's architecture and era.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

If the default is pay to play, maybe the player could opt to pay in advertising. If they build a cyberpunk city, they will not have the luxury of fake Zaibatsu billboards but will rather have a ton of advertisements for real products.

[Crazy P 1]

I could see advertising leading to advertisers "sponsoring" custom lots signs etc. with their logos, billboards on them. Would be cool as long as it adds to the look and feel of cities. I'm all for it if they implement it right.

[LivingInThePast 364]

I seem to remember a tileset with a Maccas in it in 2000.

I think real world businesses are a great idea, and also the idea of a business deal selling space for billboards etc. In Sydney they have advertisements on monorails. There is no limit to the potential of advertising in this game genre.

I would disagree with the sentiment that they are bad just because they are a form of advertising, because primarily, advertising is after all an integral and necessary part of the real and any realistic fictional economy. However naturally I'd rather the more obnoxious and mindless ads be kept out of the game, and also hope they will be aesthetically flush with the city's architecture and era.

(Had to look up what Maccas was. Thought it was a hypermarket, or something, but it's not!)

Hmm. There were a bunch of tilesets distributed in the late 1990s on the Internet (a pre-BAT world), but they weren't official. If it was in the SC2K SE CD, it's possible that it was fanmade (I know they included fan-made cities, dunno about tilesets) and slipped through the cracks.

[Cockatoo 2,257]

(Had to look up what Maccas was. Thought it was a hypermarket, or something, but it's not!)

Yeah, most Aussies are too lazy to say a three syllable word. We just shorten everything.

I could see advertising leading to advertisers "sponsoring" custom lots signs etc. with their logos, billboards on them.

Now that would be interesting. I think that’d be the only way I’d ever feel good about profiting from BATing, although I still think it’s seriously unlikely.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

If you think about it, the modding community already does a good job giving real world businesses free advertising. I have quite a few McDonalds in my cities. I like placing them in. My fastfood areas seem more satisfying.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you think about it, the modding community already does a good job giving real world businesses free advertising. I have quite a few McDonalds in my cities. I like placing them in. My fastfood areas seem more satisfying.

Fine, but this time we want the advertisers to pay for our use of the servers.

[LivingInThePast 364]

Hopefully, if there's "real world as buildings", it won't turn out like CityVille, which does feature real world buildings occasionally (such as Best Buy), but after the promotion ends, they turn back into generic buildings.

[jacksunny 741]

I was thinking something more on the lines of billboards or ads on the buses, not buildings. But of course, if implemented correctly, they could make it work with buildings too.

[simlink 1,098]

Hopefully, if there's "real world as buildings", it won't turn out like CityVille, which does feature real world buildings occasionally (such as Best Buy), but after the promotion ends, they turn back into generic buildings.

That is exactly what I was thinking... look at the BATs of real-world retailers, commercial buildings, etc. That would be cool for realism-based CJs.

Billboards, if implemented, shouldn't be oversized. (i.e. If you zoom out on a towering, skyscraper only city you shouldn't be able to go "Oh, hey! Look, there's the [company/product] billboard!")

I'm not sure how I feel overall about them yet... it will take some time to decide, and perhaps get a glimpse on how they will be implemented.

[CommodoreTech 5]

I'd find it really cool, it would sync with the whole idea of Sim City beautifully. My cities would seem so much more realistic with real adverts on my billboards and hoardings. I think it would greatly improve the gaming experience, so long as it was entirely passive and didn't interrupt me or my playing.

However, I don't really think the Sim City audience is wide enough for any profitable advertising in game. The Sims, yes, that sells quite a lot, home store companies could create furniture for it, (Like having a Phillips TV or a Ford car for your family). But, unless this Sim City becomes a big hit, I don't see how any company would feel they'd benefit from advertising to Sim City players. I know the current one has sold a few million copies, but this is over a decade.

I don't know reallt, difficult to say.

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Advertising might generate (more than) enough revenue to make it possible to make online mode completely free to play.

[Crazy_Ivan80 35]

no advertising in my game please. there's enough advertising already, I don't need on even more places.

And assumign it get in anyways, then there have to be monetary rewards given that these adverts would invade my game, my free time and would eat up my bandwith. all of which have monetary value.

I already payed for the game, you will not earn money by forcing adds onto me.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

no advertising in my game please. there's enough advertising already, I don't need on even more places.

And assumign it get in anyways, then there have to be monetary rewards given that these adverts would invade my game, my free time and would eat up my bandwith. all of which have monetary value.

I already payed for the game, you will not earn money by forcing adds onto me.

You should turn right at the bottom of the hour and realize that advertising in the game might just pay for the servers.

[Mootilda 76]

And those of us who want neither advertising nor interactions with servers? Can we just get an offline game that we can play?

[Ocram's Razr 964]

Hopefully, the advertisements will be unobtrusive and online will not cost extra.

[Mark Waybill 242]

Advertising is smart, effective, and hardly obtrusive if done tastefully. It could allow, if this game gains momentum, for the game as well as GlaxxBox, if utilised smartly by EA/Maxis, for much success. Indeed if Maxis could become separate again, they might become as powerful as EA. (And I'd raise my glass to that btw) But even if they remain an organ of that terrible beast from the underworld that is EA, ads could allow the financial resources to utilise GlassBox and give Maxis and Simcity a strong future.

The possibility of free online/offline play is an idea. My idea is getting an initial five regions with the release, and then paying an extra charge initially for new regions. Ads could fund the maintenance of the server, and if additional regions did cause an overflow they could make us charge a subscription for any regions over a certain limit, or increase initial costs for virtual land purchase. We could act as virtual landlords, and pay a virtual rent, also. This could be a virtual credit that would be used to 'buy' virtual goods and services.

Of course I'm beginning to sound like Aldous Huxley or George Orwell so I'd best just recap that ads are gunna happen, and are a good idea financially, and that I don't worry too much about them being obtrusive.

[jacksunny 741]

I don't see why the ads would be intrusive. Let's say there is a billboard in your city with an ad for some fake Sim product. What's the difference if it is an ad for a real product? It's not like the game is going to have an ad pop up every 5 min. and force you to look at it for a minute.

[Mootilda 76]

Advertising might generate (more than) enough revenue to make it possible to make online mode completely free to play.

This seems very optimistic. I see no reason to believe that EA will not attempt to make money for themselves through in-game advertising, as well as making money for themselves by charging us to play online. After all, they are a company whose business is to make money.

[AIX 270]

I don't see why the ads would be intrusive. Let's say there is a billboard in your city with an ad for some fake Sim product. What's the difference if it is an ad for a real product? It's not like the game is going to have an ad pop up every 5 min. and force you to look at it for a minute.

Our lives are commercialized enough. There is a reason I flat-out refuse to subscribe to any form of pay television service. There is a reason I have ads blocked out on my computers. There is a reason I never by clothing with blatant logos and text. I find something fundamentally wrong with paying a company hard-earned money so you can look at ads or provide the company free advertising.

[Mark Waybill 242]

It is ironic that my political and social essays tend to be socialist in sentiment, but I understand the purpose served by advertising. Also, let's face it, a lot of the features we love in our cities are hardly Utopian communist features. Take fossil fuels as an obvious example. A finite resource is used or abused as the view may be, for a profit. However this does fund necessary infrastructure, and most people with cars, or who ride public transport powered by fossil fuels (and yes that includes electric trains) would hardly wish to walk, or might not be able to walk or cycle, such distances as they find necessary.

While some of us would like to build perfect (quote unquote) futuristic communist utopias without advertising, to be honest I do not see it as an evil, but as a medium, like any other, which can be employed by both sides of the force. Just as a television show could encourage bad or good deeds, so can advertising. (not for profit organisations anyone?)

So really unless they are beyond realism in extent, i.e in pop up windows rather than just in billboards and such, and as long as they are for respectable houses and firms, I daresay they are no more obtrusive in how we play the game than the architecture is. And of course these things would be easily moddable I daresay, for 'ideal' cities.