a way to take a bite out of piracy

[damonposey]

everything is meant to be broken

which includes pirates' faces

WATAH!

 

[phide]

Whether or not a viewer goes out and buys a product has everything to do with it. How do you think they determine how much to pay per impression? If those impressions aren't translating into sales, this idea will never get off the ground.

Well, you can't correlate sales with impressions in this medium. There would be no established referrer unless there's also a tracked click-through mechanism, i.e. you can click an ad in-game and be driven to a website where you can buy a product, and the referrer is recorded throughout process (so the referrer is directly tied to the sale). If there's an in-game billboard, for instance, and it isn't clickable, there's no way to establish a referrer, so the rate per impression would be flat. The number of impressions could be logged and tracked by the publisher or you would have a mechanism where advertisers simply pay a flat rate for inclusion. This is how's it's worked "traditionally" in games.

If you think about television and radio advertising, it's the same concept. The rates there are established by the number of users (television viewers; radio listeners), not by anything that correlates directly to product sales. The larger the audience, the greater the ad revenue.

 

[dandrop]

IMO, one way of lessening piracy is to price the game in such a way that 'would be pirates/leechers' would rather just buy the game legitimately instead of dealing with the hassle of pirating (ie looong download time, not guaranteed to work, virus in cracks etc.

I mean let's face it, one of the root causes of game piracy is the steep price of games.

 

[ojax]

I think a lot of people absolutely do not understand how ads and marketing work... It doesn't fucking matter if the player goes and buys the product he sees in an ingame ad... Does someone actually need to explain this?

 

[RyanLucier]

I didn't read through the entire thread, but the OP has a compelling idea. However I think it would be best implemented on a console like 360 or PS3. As was mentioned, the pirates would pirate the game irregardless if there was a free "nagware" version, but console gamers I have to think wouldn't necessary be in the same boat. They just generally aren't savvy enough or care enough, especially if there's a LEGAL version that has nagware in it.

I think most people would settle with that happy medium (nagware) and the developers would still see their profit, and then some. And, if the users wanted to get rid of nagware, they would buy the game at full price and the developer would net even more profit.

THAT SAID... I think once we start travelling down this road, it's not necessarily going to be a fun drive. I personally think if "nagware" becomes popular, it just might become "the norm" and then it will RUIN the gaming industry, in my opinion. TV for me has been absolutely ruined (33 minutes of TV in a 1 hour time slot? 27 minutes of commercials? WTF!), and there's no reason why the same can't happen to games. Greed is a powerful thing when left unchecked, and it's ruined TV for many.

It's important we don't let the "commercials" become interrupted by "1 minute of gameplay" every so often... gas prices are INSANE right now, but I doubt most people would be willing to get 1 mile of driving for free if it meant they had to completely stop their car and watch a 1 minute advertisement and then drive another mile and then stop and watch another 1 minute advertisement over and over again... And that's exactly what the OP is proposing for the nagware'd games.

My 2 cents

 

[guitarguy6]

IMO, one way of lessening piracy is to price the game in such a way that 'would be pirates/leechers' would rather just buy the game legitimately instead of dealing with the hassle of pirating (ie looong download time, not guaranteed to work, virus in cracks etc.

I mean let's face it, one of the root causes of game piracy is the steep price of games.

Apparantly you have never heard or usenet... other than that I agree %110 that if games were something like $20 more people would buy instead of pirating

 

[dandrop]

Apparantly you have never heard or usenet... other than that I agree %110 that if games were something like $20 more people would buy instead of pirating

I've been using usenet for a while now so i know it's advantages and limitations. But as I said (and i'm glad we are in agreement) that more would rather buy the game for about $20, get the legit manuals, get the legit updates, get the legit support, get legit access to MP servers, while rewarding the company that made the game.

Even with usenet, some games/movies don't work (incomplete or missing PARS, bad rip, bad crack etc). Retention is somewhat limited, some have viruses and such. For some people, the hassle is worth the trouble because they are getting it free.

But for me, i'd rather pay a reasonable price rather than deal with the pirate headache.

 

[k1pp3r]

Viewing ads does not necessarily lead to profit.

How do you thing Google got rich? they have no true products, until the recent gPhone thing.

If done right, it can be a huge cash cow. Just think the game tries to contact the developers datacenter for ad file verification, If it cant contact then it won't run (price you pay for free)

It could be done, and a lot of money could be made on it, but it will never happen.

 

[UltimateNewbie]

i think what you have to understand is that ads dont do shit for the person displaying them if they are not clicked and stuff bought from them. You have to take into consideration that the advertiser of the original product is paying the software company to dosplay ads and will need a result.
if noone bought things then its a pointless advert

pointless adverts mean no profit for the software devs...

 

[UltimateNewbie]

....let's face it, one of the root causes of game piracy is the steep price of games....

if they were £5-£10 ($10-$20) i would buy them and not have modded my xbox.


on that note, if i watch a dvd that i LOVE i will sometimes go buy it on HD and put it boxed on the shelf, only because i feel they deserve my money for such a masterpiece

 

[phide]

I think a lot of people absolutely do not understand how ads and marketing work... It doesn't fucking matter if the player goes and buys the product he sees in an ingame ad... Does someone actually need to explain this?

It's amazing, isn't it? Is it possible some people haven't ever watched TV or listened to the radio?

i think what you have to understand is that ads dont do shit for the person displaying them if they are not clicked and stuff bought from them. You have to take into consideration that the advertiser of the original product is paying the software company to dosplay ads and will need a result.

Advertisers want impressions. They want you to see the ad. In the web space, an impression is essentially just a page load, so the metric for one impression is one "hit". On the web, ad servers additionally record clicks so that advertisers can knowingly correlate click-throughs with impressions so they can determine whether they want to renew a campaign or what have you. The click-through is what advertisters use to determine whether they stick or not -- not how much revenue the ad will generate for the site the ad is on (this isn't true for Google AdSense and some others which follow a pay-per-click model).

Again, think about television and radio. There is absolutely zero correlation between product purchases and the number of viewers/listeners. The correlation cannot be established, so advertisers basically undertake campaigns on the "faith" that their ads are effective across these mediums. Same deal here, but here, at least there's a potential to measure interest via some sort of pay-per-click mechanism.

 

[sparks]

yes but it won't be long before the ad guys say hey we are not getting seen enough.
When someone is sniping they get an head shot....and BAM its AD time. Do you really feel like shooting someone or wouldn't you rather mellow out with a nice thick frosty from wendys.
And a movie of them making the frostie...ok feel better, and ready to play...hit fire to continue.
you are dead and match is over...WASN'T THAT FUN

Even better, don't you want a dominos pizza, click fire to order we already have you name address and credit card information and ready to server you.

click fire to order, or any other key to order

yep can't wait for it...of course this will be better than EA protection
give it 1 month and then we will get both
=============
on your idea of purchase...
then it will be something like patch and new maps...free to paid users. and $15 for game ad users.
or if you have purchased over $200 of ad products you will get it for free too

 

[Frostex]

And the problem with adverts in things is that salesmen are VULCHERS, they're not interested in making a good living, or making a tidy profit, or getting what they deserve, they're about raping your wallet for every possible penny (cent for you americans) is gone.

When adverts creep into games, it won't be enough that billboard ads cover the cost of development, they'll slowly add in all sort of other exclusive deals and "bonuses" and ways to make money off you, it'll be pop ups to order pizza online, stuff monitoring your aiming to suggest new and improved gaming mice and mouse mats because they think you could use it...what resolution are you using, oh only 1280x1024 well you're a target for a popup about how good a 22" widescreen monitor would suit you

I've worked close to salesmen over the years and know how sales works, its rape rape rape, they're not happy with earning a honest days pay, if the medium supports it they will fill it with as many money making schemes and possible.

All you people who tolerate ads now a days because they're not "intrusive", I see you people as enablers for this sort of crap to come in future,

 

[damonposey]

that would actually be damn cool if in home for PS3, you could have like a pizza hut store in your house, walk there, look at the menu and order something and have it arrive in real life.

 

[Frostex]

I see, would it also be cool if you're trying to have a clan match, and the game is being auto paused every 5 minutes to show you pizza adverts, and asking if you want to order one?

 

[Spare-Flair]

This solution can give the publisher 3 additional profit scenarios for the publisher is pretty good IMO:

1. Player tries ad-supported version for 2 weeks, doesn't purchase game and stops playing. (profit from viewing ads)
2. Player doesn't mind the ads and never purchases game. (profit from ads)
3. Player tries ad-supported version, but later purchases full version. (initial profit from ads, later game sales)

Basically you are advocating full version shareware with commercials.