Quake Wars to have in-game ads
by Ross Miller 
{ Jun 19th 2007 at 6:55PM }
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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shagittarius @ Jun 19th 2007 7:05PM
Achievement 50G - Play a game and stare at all the ads on every level for 10 minutes.
karmaghost @ Jun 19th 2007 7:06PM
That photoshop is simple but awesome.
AirIntake @ Jun 19th 2007 7:06PM
Yup, it begins!
b0ogie @ Jun 19th 2007 7:10PM
Soooo, that should mean the game will be cheaper for us to buy... correct? If they are going to have in game advertising, that pays the company to put their snazzy logo on some bilboard, the game should cost us a percentage less.
Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Jun 19th 2007 7:09PM
"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,"
Is that because id's games have not been as good lately?
eldee @ Jun 19th 2007 7:10PM
Honestly, if it helps them maintain a stable game and keep patches and improved content rolling out, I'm all for it. ET was fucking awesome, and it was self sustained on momentum alone. A little ad revenue would really go a long way to keep the game interesting.
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 :)
Fernando Rocker @ Jun 19th 2007 7:12PM
Maybe an Ad to buy Manhunt 2
eldee @ Jun 19th 2007 7:13PM
@5: Seriously.. read the article before you post.
"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?
Sidepocket @ Jun 19th 2007 7:24PM
I agree with Morgan Webb for once: If you are going to put in-game adds to cover the cost, lower the cost of the fucking game.
Chris @ Jun 19th 2007 7:24PM
I haven't really been up on the whole Quake franchise lately. The game that really introduced me to gaming was Quake 2, which I still think is one of the best games ever made.
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? :-)
bigd7387 @ Jun 19th 2007 7:25PM
Ok this is why I will pay $50 a year for Xbox live. I don't want any stupid ads in my game. You don't get anything for free. Now if Live does this then I will cancel it but if you don't pay for it someone has to, Nothing in Life is free. This is how PS3 live system will be when it hits.
Relix @ Jun 19th 2007 7:36PM
WTF is the Burger King ...erm, King, doing there lol.
Citizen_Snips @ Jun 19th 2007 7:38PM
@11
Hello, Mcfly!
they already have advertisements in Xbox Live, look at that little box in the right hand corner.
Justin U @ Jun 19th 2007 7:41PM
Greatest Joystiq image posted ever, hands down.
Joshua @ Jun 19th 2007 7:43PM
Well, that settles that. There's no way that I'm buying this game, then.
If a game has ads of this type, it should be free. There are no exceptions to this rule.
just a guy @ Jun 19th 2007 7:56PM
In-game ads don't make games cheap or free for a couple reasons. First, in-game advertising only comprises about 10% of the profit for the game. That means it wouldn't be nearly enough money to make the game free. Second, it takes a team of people four years to make a game, which is double the amount of time the average game took a just a few years ago. And yet the prices of games haven't doubled, in fact they've stayed pretty stable for almost 20 years. That extra cash has to come from somewhere.
KiwiLord @ Jun 19th 2007 7:58PM
11 and 15, you guys are missing the point. These ad's won't help pay for the cost of the game itself, but for content further down the road. You still need to pay for the game as advertising won't cover the cost of the game's production.
In Battlefield 2142, The booster pack Northern Strike costs half of previous booster packs in Battlefield 2.
Avatar @ Jun 19th 2007 7:58PM
@ 10
You mean Morgan Man-jaw? The only video game show with a chick and she looks like a man. Ick.
Ryan @ Jun 19th 2007 8:04PM
@11
You obviously have never played Rainbow Six: Vegas, have you?
Keef @ Jun 19th 2007 8:04PM
Greed.
Anticrawl @ Jun 19th 2007 8:13PM
If a multiplayer game has in-game ads, then I damn well better get free content like maps, weapons, character models etc, charge me a dime and I'll never buy from you again.
BT @ Jun 19th 2007 8:08PM
The solution here is simple: Get a machinegun. Use it to write (politely of course) your protest on the ads. Take a screenshot and send it to Neil Postlethwaite. Problem solved.
MattF @ Jun 19th 2007 8:11PM
Well, I'm not paying for this crap. You want me to drop $50 on a game then have ads shoved down my throat? F*** off. My computer is not a billboard.
ryan @ Jun 19th 2007 8:20PM
@MattF:
Your computer is not a billboard? Did you visit this site? Or for that matter, almost any other site on the web? Hmm.
Dan @ Jun 19th 2007 8:27PM
BF 2142 has ads in it... and I for one don't think I've gotten anything in return.
I doubt QW will be much different.
Bdub? @ Jun 19th 2007 9:05PM
That picture is great.
UltimateQ @ Jun 19th 2007 10:10PM
Think thats messed up? check out "zeitgeist the movie" google it.
Paulwipe @ Jun 19th 2007 11:25PM
It really boggles my mind how so many of you are against ads being placed in the game, especially if it will help cover the cost of maintaining the game. I'm guessing you guys would rather spend $50 on a game and have it poorly maintained, then look at a few in game ads that will be non-intrusive anyway?
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.
mj @ Jun 19th 2007 11:29PM
A Photochop and a Burger King... 3 shots in the Joystiq drinking game! Yaya!!!
Keef @ Jun 19th 2007 11:36PM
Ads cheapen the experience. Recently I was playing Ghost Recon 2 and noticed an ad for an upcoming season of Mindfreak. I stopped what I was doing and stared at this poster, and reflected upon how absurd it was to see this thing in a Mexican city, while I was supposed to be trying to solve a nuclear crisis.
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.
Ben Hobbs @ Jun 20th 2007 12:26AM
What pisses me off about this is that multiplayer lag is bad enough anyway, now this is going to add to the problem with adverts having to be downloaded during the game, whats worse is that they will probably target each gamer seperately depending on what they spend most time viewing previosuly. So everyone will end up having to download different adverts.
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.
Robin @ Jun 20th 2007 12:29AM
The game should not be free. Jeezus. It should not be full price tho. $5-10 less would be reasonable.
Citizen_Snips @ Jun 20th 2007 12:53AM
DO you guys even read the articles before you comment?
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.
UltimateQ @ Jun 20th 2007 2:30AM
development for free addons generally comes from players. not the development team. Mods are not created by the game developers just average joes who want more.
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.
Xbox3604Life @ Jun 20th 2007 3:03AM
Who carss about the ads, what's more important is the spyware program they are going to have to install to watch what you are looking at in game at all times. This is another example of the unacceptable practices that advertisement companies (with the help of video game publishers and designers) are trying to force onto us. If I had to live with an (English) Coka-Cola billboard in the middle of Mexico City (like in Ghost Recon) I could, but add in a program that watches me, studies to see which ads I look at, and then phones home with my IP addy, my hardware configuration etc, I can NOT. The last thing I need is my video games (ontop of my google searches, my email contents etc) giving the lowlife marketing scumbags a better idea of how to market to me. You just lost a sale ID. Welcome to EA's world
DWells55 @ Jun 20th 2007 3:14AM
"All they track is if an how long you look at the advertisements."
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.
harrison_schaerr @ Jun 21st 2007 12:47AM
they'll track how long we look at the adds?
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?
Grey Fox @ Jun 20th 2007 4:18AM
I haven't seen any ads in the beta yet (got in early,its awesome by the way!) but as long as this pays off in free content I'm happy. But to be honest Valve has been punching out free content for years without ads so I really expect to see a reasonable amount to come out since it will be ad revenue supported.
dontlikeitmodit @ Jun 20th 2007 4:36AM
@38
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.
Burnt Meatloaf @ Jun 20th 2007 6:16AM
Non-interactive?
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.
GDwarf @ Jun 20th 2007 7:34AM
development for free addons generally comes from players. not the development team. Mods are not created by the game developers just average joes who want more.
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.
Phranctoast @ Jun 20th 2007 9:42AM
I dont really care, as lomg as it doesnt take away from the game at all.
Like a pepsi add in post apocalyptic times seems retarded.
Lusket @ Jun 20th 2007 9:51AM
Bah...
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 :(
ibike2live @ Jun 20th 2007 11:28AM
For those so inclined, (or endowed) the Mac OSX version of ETQW will not have in game advertising.