APB in-game voice chat will be ad-supported

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Go to McDonalds. Man, where was your head at?

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I've always liked Burger King's fries way better. It doesn't matter though, because Arby's fries are better than both of them.

Oh my god, Burger king are the only takeout who cook their chips right, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. Mmmm.

@RustyJack

I think Checkers has the best fries.

On topic: Lame!!!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Well i find burget king's fries good, but they can't be compared to carl's jr's(?) Fries.

Also, i dont mind advertisements every three hours, as long as they dont interrupt gameplay.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze Huh. Maybe it's a regional thing. The fries from Burger Kings around here are just.. garbage. Mushy and tasteless.

If I'm not pressed for time, I'll usually go to BK for a burger, and then go next door to Wendy's for some fries, since they have the best fries around here, at least in my opinion.

McDonald's is good, too, as long as you get them hot and fresh. Otherwise, meh.

Good call on Arby's fries as well. The Waffle fries are near the top. =P

Chick-fil-A fries.

I win.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Arby's has the curly fries, not the waffle fries, thats Chic-fil-la.

Arby's fries are king though.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I make my own using real potatoes, leave the skin on, and sprinkle them with a home-made seasoned blend. No one has it on my fries.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

KFC actually has the worst fries... FACT!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze Oh, those are fightin' words.

KFC has AWESOME potato wedges!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
In-N-Out Animal Style Fries are the best!

On topic: Every three hours for ads in free VOIP in an MMO? That's not bad!

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
Carl's Jr has the best everything.

@Coffey : The hate on Ads is because there SHOULDN'T be billboards and commercials and radio spots EVERYWHERE in real life, let alone in our video games.

I made a point two years ago to get rid of Cable TV, stop listening to the radio, and try my hardest to just generally avoid advertisements in general. Two years later I can not stand any form of commercial. If I'm at a Doctor's office and the TV is on and a Colgate commercial comes on I feel uneasy inside of myself. Once you realize how perverse and overwhelming the advertisement industry is, you can't unseen it.

But ultimately, I play video games to escape from real life. Putting ads in games just takes away from that and is just further proof that our beloved hobby is going down the drain.

@(Unverified) You basically completely pulled out of a segment of society. You can't blame the advertising industry for being 'invasive' if you've purposely censored your entire life. Learn to deal with it.

@(Unverified)
*GASP*
You at least watch the Kevin Butler ads right? O_o

@Sally

Whilst I admit to doing all that myseld, it's worth bearing in mind that without adverts those tv programes we torrent wouldn't exist in the first place. Gotta find a reasonable middle ground IMO

@Sally

Whilst I admit to doing all that myself, it's worth bearing in mind that without adverts those tv programes we torrent wouldn't exist in the first place. Gotta find a reasonable middle ground IMO

@Coffey

I don't see why we can't compromise. I'd gladly take relevant ads in my game so long as they pay for any premium service (i.e. no monthly fee for an ad filled MMO) and don't intrude my cutscenes or audio.

@(Unverified)
Wrong. My mother is from Poland and said that TV over there NEVER had as many ads as American TV. It has just recently been getting more ads.

I think all these ads may just be a cultural thing.

@Sally : If I wasn't already married, you'd have just won my heart.

@ch3burashka : I didn't say I've completely stopped watching television or movies, I've just started taking the route of Sally above. Netflix Instant Streaming is amazing because of it's ad-free-ness. Torrents are great as well. When I go to see a movie in theaters, which is rare (because most are junk remakes/sequels/exploitation/etc), I don't mind sitting through an ad or two if they're before/after the trailers. They may be advertisement, but I do like trailers. A really well made movie trailer is enough to make you forget about the movie you're seeing. But I digress. I'm not cutting society out, just as much of the junk as I can.

@Tenacioustoaster : Yes, I have seen some of the Kevin Butler spots, some of which I actually looked up on my own, namely the Uncharted commercial. I think that some advertisements can be acceptable, and I'm not just saying that because it's video game related. Any advertisement with a sense of self-awareness and strong wit can win me over. At work earlier tonight I caught an ad by a big insurance company that stated the most common element in the universe was Hydrogen, and the second most common was advertisements. I gotta admit that it made me smirk. Not enough to make me change my insurance, but it's good to know they're aware of themselves.

Next up on Saint's rants: Modern music and the kids who listen to it.

@Saint43 man, i couldn't agree with what you said more. it's sad that gamers have come to accept advertising in their games, and console gamers have come to expect it and willingly pay for content that should be free. i too stopped watching television via cable, when i am forced into watching commercials at someones house or visiting parents it makes me CRINGE. it's such a heavily funded part of america and people just keep eating it up. they want to be told what to buy even if they don't need it and seemingly the majority never researches anything anymore. in game advertising is such a horrible thing. you summed it up best when you said these are game dev's, a great game sells itself! not figuring out ways to create microtransactions.

this game is extremely sub par for a number of reasons, they introduced their pay to play scheme VERY late in the development stages, then tacked on pay for voip? i mean if this doesn't set off red flags that the company is in trouble i don't know what it would take.

really it just makes me sad that game developers are at the mercy of extremely rich business folks who keep pushing these bad features, and pushing games out before they are in fact completed and well tested. instead we get to be the testers and it's really made me lose a lot of interest in gaming over the past years.

@deddyluger

How so?

I quite enjoyed it. I love the theme of the characters and the customization is in a league of its own. Pus I have to give the game props for being a pvp game that I actually enjoyed playing for more than 2 minutes.

@ch3burashka

Or, just use Firefox to Adblock them! That's what most people do... And ads can leave tracking adware cookies in your browser, so no, many of us will not shut up and take ads being shoved down our throats.

@Omnistatic I agree!! You have to pay to play online and hear ads!!? Good god what the hell are these guys smoking!? Ads on a billboard is one thing, but ads through voice chat is just wrong. I can't wait for the reviewers to murder this game... No one will want to buy it when it gets a 6 and 7's across the board!

@Omnistatic

I agree, as well!

@Sally

And now, XBL has ads, and PSN's still free with no ads...

The ads wouldn't be a problem if the game was F2P. In fact, I think we can all agree that if we're getting something for free (online video, email, videogame service, for instances), the presence of advertisements isn't a big deal (at least, not for me). The big problem with APB, it seems, is that they are placing advertisements on top of a subscription, which is absolutely ridiculous, no matter how you spin it.

@Padilla7921
Ageed - if it was F2P, that's just a price to pay so the game can survive, but this is inherently screwed. It's basically bolting on a new revenue stream (whether it's advertisers paying for the commercials or player paying to not hear them) to an already pay to play game & is a bad precedence to set.
I've followed the game a bit, but likely wont be playing. If the core audience that visits their boards & are the ones pre-ordering & buying are not up in arms and throwing an absolute fit, then something is very very wrong.

@Alphathon I never even thought of them as ads in Burnout Paradise (even though they obviously are), they just feel like part of the world - like the locations in (the original) Crazy Taxi (at the time did, at least).

@KeenCommander Which is why they are good - they aren't rammed down your throat. Ads that are so obvious and in-your-face make me want to buy the product less since they are annoying, so in my case at least don't even work (I'm sure I'm not alone, but unfortunately in the minority). The ones in Burnout at best subtly condition you to like Slingbox or Burger King (or make somebody think "I could really do with a burger right now), but I doubt they make anybody actively hate the brand they are advertising, so they are arguably more effective.

@Faenix
1) You start up the game and enter the social district.
2) You will hear a short audio ad.

A lot people "bitching" have read how it's being implimented. The point is, is not okay to put an audio ad into the game or make you pay to not hear one, for a game that you are already
1) buying upfront
2) paying some sort of fee to play (be it monthly or the time purchase)

Whether it's once per play session (if you time it just right, like your example, which assumes you're not going to change districts around the 3 hour mark, or are just going to quit out...) or once every single three hours isn't the issue. The issue is that it's just plain wrong to do on principle alone..

How, in your eyes is it a GOOD thing?