Adverts coming to Counterstrike

Gorion · December 12, 2006, 03:24:29 PM

IGA advertising company and Valve have reached an agreement where Valve will be including advertisements in their games. Early next year, all you Counter Strike 1.6 players will be seeing advertisments supplied by IGA on map walls, on the scoreboard, and in Spectator mode.

CS Nation have interviewed Valve's Doug Lombardi about games becoming potential advertising media. It seems that games are becoming targeted for advertising due to the large audience. For now, advertising will only take place in Counter-Strike 1.6, so games like CSS and HL2:DM will not be affected. However, Valve plans to expand this advertising if the implementation in CS1.6 succeeds. Moreover, it seems that these advertisements will not be optional and thus cannot be turned off neither by the player nor by the server administrator.

Counter-Strike 1.6 is currently the most played online First Person Shooter, having an average of 70,000 gamers playing at any one moment. After the announcement of in-game advertisements coming to EA Games such as the Battlefield series, which are the third most popular online FPS (after CS1.6 and CSS), these announcements show that advertising in the gaming industry will take on major importance in the future.

http://csnation.net/articles.php/interview_231/1/

Jamoe · December 12, 2006, 05:15:24 PM

I can't decide whether this is a good or bad thing. It may just be that we have to put with it, as cost to develope games has rocketed there is probably a massive need to find new sources to generate cash.

smilodon · December 12, 2006, 06:09:00 PM

It's very bad...maybe. BF2142 has adverts and also a nice bit of spyware that sends back information about which adverts came into your field of view, how long they were there for and whether you paused long enough to read them.

Add that to Valve products who have your personal details (Steam account) and frankly it's the end of the world.

But no we're saved. As soon as these grubby bits of software are released some kind Computer Nerd types produce a simple method for blocking all the adverts without breaking the game itself. So as soon as the greedy *******s try to f*** us over we can f*** them back.

http://igaeditor.sourceforge.net/

Carr0t · December 12, 2006, 09:47:59 PM

Quote from: smilodon;167776...and whether you paused long enough to read them.

More of that please! The only way i think i'll ever be able to kill anyone is when they're too busy looking at adverts to see me. More boobies in adverts please, it can only help my cause ;-)

sheepy · December 13, 2006, 10:42:25 AM

noooooooooooo that sux.

but agreed about the boobies

Bob · December 13, 2006, 10:44:27 AM

How would you be able to do anything sensible at all if there were lots of posters with boobies hanging around Sheep?

sheepy · December 13, 2006, 10:49:12 AM

It would make me play the game more tho

Bastet · December 14, 2006, 07:00:54 PM

would make your a more terrible team player though, with you just staring at the wall till you get shot

TeaLeaf · December 15, 2006, 01:58:01 PM

.....no change there then :roflmao:

TL.

Gone_Away · December 17, 2006, 02:26:57 AM

Quote from: Jamoe;167765I can't decide whether this is a good or bad thing. It may just be that we have to put with it, as cost to develope games has rocketed there is probably a massive need to find new sources to generate cash.

That was my initial thought but I can't be that optimistic about this. I can't see how bombarding us with advertising will make me want to play more games..

It'd be like seeing a Nike ad in WOW.. lame

suicidal_monkey · December 17, 2006, 11:08:24 AM

Quote from: Ninja_Freak;168289It'd be like seeing a Nike ad in WOW.. lame

If however there's a nike ad on the wall of a level that's played out in a shopping mall, or food ads in a supermarket, or posters in a tube station, or, er, refreshing water ads in dust?

Anonymous · December 17, 2006, 11:10:14 AM

Quote from: suicidal_monkey;168307If however there's a nike ad on the wall of a level that's played out in a shopping mall, or food ads in a supermarket, or posters in a tube station, or, er, refreshing water ads in dust?

Yes, but will it be that Ethical or are we going to get advert spammed randomly? What if i come round a corner and an advert appears for me but not for the opponent I'm about to shoot. I've just got a whole new bookful of excuses for being shot!

suicidal_monkey · December 17, 2006, 11:24:42 AM

Quote from: BlueBall;168308Yes, but will it be that Ethical or are we going to get advert spammed randomly? What if i come round a corner and an advert appears for me but not for the opponent I'm about to shoot. I've just got a whole new bookful of excuses for being shot!

I guess it depends how it was implemented - serverside or clientside.

Ethics? This has got to do with making money so ethics probably doesn't come into it

If it's intrusive then the community will have to complain/act, opening doors to competing games perhaps? If it made the game significantly cheaper that'd be a plus maybe. Perhaps it could be tested out as a new way to let people have "trial" versions, same way some software is advert-supported?

Perhaps companies could pay to have bill-board sections in maps and rather than a server serving the advert it's actually a texture, part of the map, and steam just updates the advert/map every now and again?

lots of possibilities, none of them terribly appealing. If it's uk2-style pop-up text I'll be finding a new game pronto!

DogMeat · December 17, 2006, 12:22:42 PM

I can see it now...

"...and we'll be right back to the game after these messages from our sponsors."

Sweet.

Luminance · December 18, 2006, 10:03:09 AM

lol goodun doggy