Did you agree to in-game advertising?

[bambam_ofc]

The question is "do you want the game development fully funded by gamer purchases, or would you like some of the investment to come from in-game adverts".

For me it's easy - if FD can get Pepsi to sponsor holographic billboards outside stations they should go for it...

 

[reverendK]

you don't have to agree to the game having in-game advertising. it's a thing they're permitted to do without your consent.

true story.

 

[Armour]

Well as I see it - the reason we have these advertisements (or this advertisement) isn't because of any reason FD would come up with on their own, it is because it is part of an advertisement done by another company in FD's game.

I'm not even that concerned with one event, to be honest. I think it was/is a bit tacky, but I think the greater issue is whether there is any potential for the game we paid for to be turned into an advertising platform in the shape of a game. I don't want that, and I think it would suck for the reasons I gave previously. Others may agree to disagree, but they can't really dismiss those concerns as invalid.

 

[reverendK]

that aside - i'm totally ok with them getting money to drop an add or two into the game. it's not like they're making you click on anything. there's not trickery happening - it's even pertinent to the game industry (nvidia rather than, say, mcdonalds). let them get their funding for lave sake

 

[Witzo]

Advertising? In this game? I actually think it could work, with the right hook.

It's already there, with the find-the-Nvidia-cargo race.

 

[Epicurean Dream]

we need a third option on the poll "I don't really care".

Why does it bother you OP? I deal with advertising every day, we all do. If you haven't developed the ability to mentally filter out stuff you're not interested in by now then. Well. wow.

 

[Slopey]

<mod hat off>

@OP - what's the problem???

Nvidia, or FD have donated 5 high end graphics cards as a treasure hunt for players to find. It's not in-game advertising, it's a competition.

If they'd said "Find the Graphics Chips" and not mentioned Nvidia, would you be happy then?

I don't see billboards saying "Drink Coca-Cola", "Barry Scott's Cillit Bang" or "Sign up to Netflix" on the way into a station.

All this consternation over a competition.... sheesh!

 

[Defacto]

<mod hat off>

@OP - what's the problem???

Nvidia, or FD have donated 5 high end graphics cards as a treasure hunt for players to find. It's not in-game advertising, it's a competition.

If they'd said "Find the Graphics Chips" and not mentioned Nvidia, would you be happy then?

I don't see billboards saying "Drink Coca-Cola", "Barry Scott's Cillit Bang" or "Sign up to Netflix" on the way into a station.

All this consternation over a competition.... sheesh!

Nvidia or FD? What do you mean by this?

And not advertising? Are you serious?

It's not advertisement... it is competition! Is that how it works?

 

[Armour]

If they'd said "Find the Graphics Chips" and not mentioned Nvidia, would you be happy then?

I don't know about the OP, but if they had managed reconcile the fact that the cards are over 1000 years old in the context of the game with the Galnet article, I think it would have been less tacky.

I don't see billboards saying "Drink Coca-Cola", "Barry Scott's Cillit Bang" or "Sign up to Netflix" on the way into a station.

All this consternation over a competition.... sheesh!

I think the issue is a bit wider than this one incident.

 

[Monk]

<mod hat off>

I thought they sewed that hat to your head as part of the initiation!


@OP
In my opinion, it is Frontier's game. If they want to advertise in it, they can. It is up to them to analyze the potential risks and how far they should go. While instant revenue from ads is good, I feel that long term financial goals are more important. Besides, ad revenue would plummet if people stopped playing the game because they are too intrusive.

Have some faith and wait until they actually do something intrusive with ads (they probably won't).

 

[DailyDoseOfAwesome]

Correct me if I'm off the mark, but shouldn't this be a discussion about the ethics of advertisements in a paid product? I don't know about any of you, but it irks me when I find advertisements in a product/service I have paid for. I pay for cable TV "On-Demand" service and the On-Demand content has commercials in it, commercials that can't be fast-forwarded through. But wait a minute, I'm paying for the extra service so shouldn't it be ad free? A year ago it used to. I see 99 cent Android apps that have still have ad banners in them too. Elite's native advertising (the GeForce one) isn't anywhere near as invasive as disabling fast-forward capability during commercials, but is that not minimizing the act of crossing the paid-content-advertisement line?

 

[Defacto]

I thought they sewed that hat to your head as part of the initiation!


@OP
In my opinion, it is Frontier's game. If they want to advertise in it, they can. It is up to them to analyze the potential risks and how far they should go. While instant revenue from ads is good, I feel that long term financial goals are more important. Besides, ad revenue would plummet if people stopped playing the game because they are too intrusive.

Have some faith and wait until they actually do something intrusive with ads (the probably won't).

It would be pretty interesting to know how much FD got for this.
A lot of people say that they don't care or didn't even notice. How does this affect the price, I wonder?
I'm not into the advertising business at all, so I'm not sure what really matters if you're the one that wants to be advertised.

 

[Dante80]

I have absolutely no problem with advertising inside the game world, as long as its done well, and fits the lore appropriately.

The Nvidia competition did that well, but imo not as subtly as it could. A little more attention regarding the language in the galnet report would make it perfect.

Between smart, in-lore advertising and a P2W cashshop, I would choose the former.
Between smart, in-lore advertising and a monthly subscription, I would choose the latter.
Between blunt, in your face advertising/malware/clickbait and a P2W cashshop, I would choose neither..and uninstall the game promptly.

 

[Arsen Cross]

I personally am extremely against in-game advertising. However for a non-subscription model game where there isn't any pay to win it's something that I would accept just to ensure continued development of what has become my favorite game.

With that said though there are some things that I would never be willing to accept, for the same reasons I block advertisements in my web browser. Any of the following ever happening with ingame advertisement would cause me to never put any of my funds towards Frontier ever again as it would be viewed as a breach of trust by me and I would uninstall the software and speak against Frontiers products when the topic presented itself.

• Any tracking or data gathering from my machine, whatsoever.
• Any sharing with advertisers any information about me, my machine, my habits or anything else at all. Even if all uniquely identifying factors are removed.
• My machine is forced to make any type of connection to advertisers or any third party what so ever.

I personally work for a market research company and I am very familiar with the laws that are in place globally to protect users from predatory information gathering. I am also very familiar with how easy it is to use technology against a user and gather information about them with a connection. If I ever found that my game client was reporting any data (even something as harmless as "Viewed Coca Cola ad = 1") to a third party I would never load the game again and remove it from my computer because you're forcing me to connect to them and also giving them data on my play habits.

Why would I do that? It's simple. Each and every time you connect to a server without the use of a VPN or IP spoofing tool that server gets your IP. Most web browsers also report other "harmless" information such as your operating system, and sometimes even device hardware configuration/names etc. This device information combined with your IP is enough information to uniquely track you as an individual. The IP address can also be used to look up your address and research other information about you. All together this allows for an advertiser to build a profile on you and directly advertise to you through other targeted means outside of the game.

 

[Slopey]

Nvidia or FD? What do you mean by this?

I mean either Nvidia have provided them, or FD have bought them. Either way - you're not paying for one if you find one.

And not advertising? Are you serious?

It's not advertisement... it is competition! Is that how it works?

I don't see it as an advertisement. It's a treasure hunt. It doesn't make me more or less likely to buy and Nvidia card, it just means I'll be on the look out for one.

So if you find one of the items on a station, are you going to just leave it there in protest, or try and claim it.....

 

[figola]

How do i take part in the poll. Dont see how. Is it because Im on the forum on my cell phone. Thanks in advance

 

[Synther]

I was a big fan of the Wip3out series on Playstation, going back to the original on the PS1. When Wipeout XL came out, it was "sponsored" by some obscure company called "Red Bull." There was a Red Bull logo on the loading screen, and there were Red Bull ads scattered all over the track.

Slightly offtopic, but Red Bull is far from obscure. That stuff gives you wiiiiiiiiiiiings.

 

[DarthBlingBling]

<mod hat off>

@OP - what's the problem???

Nvidia, or FD have donated 5 high end graphics cards as a treasure hunt for players to find. It's not in-game advertising, it's a competition.

If they'd said "Find the Graphics Chips" and not mentioned Nvidia, would you be happy then?

I don't see billboards saying "Drink Coca-Cola", "Barry Scott's Cillit Bang" or "Sign up to Netflix" on the way into a station.

All this consternation over a competition.... sheesh!

I found a CMDR Barry Scott tho, he told me he was cleaning the dirt from Leesti.

MA IMMERSION

 

[Psychosis 808]

Honestly can't see what all the fuss is about with this competition, god forbid a company should try and hand out free goods to the customers and get a little earner on the side.

 

[Doolittle]

In game advertising. No issue as long as it's not in your face. Once it gets to a point where you have to click through a bunch of ads to get to the station console than game over. Kinda like the US Post Office..... game over when you have to sift through 20 ad mailers to get to the one piece of mail you want. Our tax dollars hard at work maintaining a defunct service simply for large pensions, should be more of a problem than FD putting ads in the game at locations where you'd expect them to be.