Quake Wars to have in-game ads
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars producer Neil Postlethwaite has announced on the community site that the upcoming game will feature in-game advertisement. The ad revenue is to help the developers to "provide a higher level of on-going support to the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars community than would have been possible otherwise," he said.
Postlethwaite explains that the ads will be appropriate in content and placement (e.g. the side of container trucks), non-intrusive and non-interactive. The developers have absolute approval rights. "If it's not appropriate or it's distracting, it won't go in," he said. No personal data will be collected. "All they track is if an how long you look at the advertisements."
Since we've yet to see any in-game ads in the screenshots, we don't know how well developer Splash Damage will implement them. However, that Postlethwaite is being open about the process is always appreciated, and he keeps to his word and it does mean more substantial support (e.g. free content packs in the future), it doesn't sound like a bad trade-off to us. The first sign of the advertisements will be seen in the upcoming public beta.
Postlethwaite explains that the ads will be appropriate in content and placement (e.g. the side of container trucks), non-intrusive and non-interactive. The developers have absolute approval rights. "If it's not appropriate or it's distracting, it won't go in," he said. No personal data will be collected. "All they track is if an how long you look at the advertisements."
Since we've yet to see any in-game ads in the screenshots, we don't know how well developer Splash Damage will implement them. However, that Postlethwaite is being open about the process is always appreciated, and he keeps to his word and it does mean more substantial support (e.g. free content packs in the future), it doesn't sound like a bad trade-off to us. The first sign of the advertisements will be seen in the upcoming public beta.
















(Page 1) Reader Comments
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Is that because id's games have not been as good lately?
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You have to realize also that they're not going to have the BK sneak king in strogg armaments either.. It'll be subtle. To me this isn't nearly as worrysome as the fact that they're doing a public beta a month after it was originally supposed to come out :)
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"For the last four years, we've put all of our effort into making Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars. So, we're not planning to ship this game and walk away. We want to keep supporting ETQW in as many ways as possible. We'll be maintaining the persistent stats servers and the community site, and continuing to support ETQW with updates and improvements."
Or maybe you would prefer they charge a monthly fee like MMO's do?
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I'm fine w/ ads in games as long as they don't take advantage of the PRIVILEGE. I usually play Nintendo franchises and fantasy, so I haven't experienced a ton of advertising, but I'd imagine it wouldn't be any worse than product placement in TV shows. They run rampant in 24, and honestly it doesn't really both me, nor does it make me want to go buy an HP computer. Anyone else notice how every season the brand of computer they use at CTU changes? :-)
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Hello, Mcfly!
they already have advertisements in Xbox Live, look at that little box in the right hand corner.
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If a game has ads of this type, it should be free. There are no exceptions to this rule.
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In Battlefield 2142, The booster pack Northern Strike costs half of previous booster packs in Battlefield 2.
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You mean Morgan Man-jaw? The only video game show with a chick and she looks like a man. Ick.
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You obviously have never played Rainbow Six: Vegas, have you?
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Your computer is not a billboard? Did you visit this site? Or for that matter, almost any other site on the web? Hmm.
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I doubt QW will be much different.
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I also think it's absolutely ridiculous for some of you to actually say "well, it should be for free then". I mean, id software is a business that needs to make money from this game, or else there will be no more quake franchise.
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The marketers achieved what they were hoping for. I noticed their ad. Nevermind that, having noticed it, it annoyed me in an indirect but no less annoying way that a browser pop-up would. I'm not going to watch Mindfreak, and meanwhile my enjoyment is interrupted as the whole suspension of disbelief has dissipated.
Developers, ask yourselves--are you using game-ads to make the game better, or your wallets fatter? If the latter, who can blame you. Everyone's got to make a living. But if your intention is to give the world more credibility, i.e. name-brand soda cans, real-world vehicles (that are of course fully destructible), that sort of thing, then kudos for using licensed products in a way that doesn't sacrifice the design, but complements it.
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Besidesd how can they know what adverts you read, how do they differentiate between you using a place to rest, hide or wait for an enemy or if you are actually reading the stupid advert.
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Where do you think the money for development of free addons come from? Most developers don't have money that just pours out of their ass. That money needs to come from somewhere to pay for the employees time working on that "free" content. Plus it has been reported on many news game sites that in game advertising is mostly ignored by gamers (http://www.gametab.com/search.php?w=In+game+ads&ty=News&x=0&y=0). If idoit companies want to dump money into something that doesn't work, and Quake Wars player benefit, more power to Splash Damage.
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I've never seen a game like ET:QW give out free stuff long after its released. I doubt they will, they are just using it as an excuse for a few more bucks in their pocket. Plain and simple.
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I boycotted Battlefield 2142 because of this crap and unfortunately it looks like I'll be boycotting Quake Wars as well. I don't want any tracking of any sort. Maybe if this game was free, but otherwise you can take your spyware somewhere else.
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Valve has been punching out free content? Where is this free content that you speak of?
Holy shit ads? Wow so instead of Squirt Cola machines I'll be looking at Coke machines. Instead of FatGuys Moving I'll see a U-Haul truck. Big fucking deal.
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In other words, you can't shoot them or blow them up or put graffiti on them, right? Sounds more akin to licensing cars and not using a damage model.
Interactive or not, I'd sooooo love to put a bullet between the eyes of The King. That'd make my day.
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I've never seen a game like ET:QW give out free stuff long after its released. I doubt they will, they are just using it as an excuse for a few more bucks in their pocket. Plain and simple.
Of course! I've yet to see a developer release one of these 'patches' that people keep talking about!
Companies make money from games for a few months at best. After that the actual profit from the sales drops like a stone. As such, if you want them to keep developing for it they, at the very least, need a way to cover their costs. Advertising does that. So does selling expansion packs for $50 each.
Personally I'd prefer in-game ads and cheap expansion packs to no ads and having to pay full price to get three new kinds of gun.
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Like a pepsi add in post apocalyptic times seems retarded.
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mc donalds will think i'm wanting their food... when i'm shooting a penis into the sign...
But... if they want us to go onto the next Quake Wars or whatever, they should give new maps, guns for free without hampering us... what of all of those epic unreal packs there are :(
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great... i can only imagine the complex and convoluted lines of code to accomplish that...
wont that just burden the fucking net code even more?
how the fuck are you going to make an advertisement relevant for a game like quake?
1/2 of the 'open' beta slots require a paying file planet subscription, and now this?
allow you to support the game better? lol... isn't that fucking mandatory for any pc title?
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