In-game Advertising

Well it appears that the in-game adverts have arrived on the European servers and I have to say they look good.
Well done NCSoft on a good implementation.

If I’m completely honest there was a worry that adding adverts could seriously distract from the gameplay.
During my years playing Planetside the in-game adverts were only ever available if you where playing from the US, but using an ISP like AOL would allow you to see them in the UK.

I think the important thing to remember is that advertising need to fit in with the game and not appear to be just thrown in, just so that the company can make a cheap buck. This golden rule was lost on SOEs Planetside where 3 factions in a distance galaxy were getting adverts for todays films, kind of spoilt the immersion experience of the game-play.

With the rising costs of games development and continued service ingame advertising gives a very natural method to generate more income for the game without the killer move of increasing the subscription rates.

adverts.gif

Giving players the ability to toggle adverts on and off was an addition nice move, that will help out players without high-speed connections. But for all those that keep the adverts turned on there isn’t anything to worry about as they fit in just right and bring a little mordern edge to the game.