Well, this is better than a 25% subs increase.

holds it off a bit longer.

Personally I like it. Adds abit more realism and also generates revenue. Wonder why its taken you so long to do this >.<

Great Idea, theres nothing more immersive than real billboards that get changed often.

To be able to see player art, competition winners and even the chance to have your own hero plastered all over paragon is also an exciting bonus.

And on top of everything, its bringing in more development cash - I don’t see any negatives to this

Whilst I understand the revenue benefits this would bring, I’m glad there’s an “opt out” option.  I for one, will certainly be using it.

Advertising is such a large part of modern life, being in a computer game environment is often a welcome break from the constant on-slaught from companies trying to sell you their wares.  I really, really, really want that break to continue.

To be honest, how much do you really see of these signs? I cant think the last time i saw one because their not that common. If you dont increase the sign amount i’ll leave it turned on.

The idea of seeing something you drew or your character on the side of a building is amazing. :D

Looking forward to this.

I think this looks great, im a bit bored of seeing those old ads anyway, would be nice to see it brightened up.

It will also make it seem more realistic and show that Paragon City and the Rogue Isles aren’t just blackspots on our maps, but actually part of the real world.

Good Job Guys, Would Really like to see this :D
LB

It would be great if we could graffiti the signs too… make it even more like the real world.  To be honest this would probably get more people looking at the in game adverts in the first place. 

Spray can could be a temp power… you could maybe buy it for quite a bit of influence… say it only lasts 10 secs so you can’t cover the whole bill board.

What about additional applications that maybe installed on your computer to get these ads? What about security and data mining? If you’re a 50 year old gamer, do you really want to see Cialis or Viagra billboards, or if you’re a teenager, do you really want to see McD’s or Burger King Ads plastered all over the place?

We get enough of that from the REAL world!

Personally, I’ve stopped playing other games that have in game Ads because I didn’t feel safe with having to download or agreeing to having additional software installed on my computer. 

If it brings the down the price for month subscriptions or you give us some type of reimbursement for actually leaving the Ad’s on, then I’m all for it.

Otherwise, whats the point of having in game ads if people can just turn them off.

Hey great idea. It will add more life to game.
It fits CoX perfectly and generates more money for game development.
What not to like here?

I pay to play CoH.  I do not pay to allow companies to send adverts to me - that’s not what my subscription should be used for.  I would prefer to see this as opt-in rather than opt-out (in fact, if you sell this game in the UK, shouldn’t it be opt-in due to UK law?) but, either way, I will make sure I tick/untick the box to remove the ads on the basis that it’s a break away from real life - I don’t want to pay to be reminded about it.

You could even add some new NPCs posting up the billboards, just an NPC on top of a ladder with a brush…

They could even comment on the advert when you get close, (Random NPC ‘Man this is hard work, I could do with a Mountain Dew myself’

Again, only the opt-ins would get the ad-speech, opt-outs would get something generic like ‘Maybe I should join arachnos… it’d beat posting these billboards all day’

ads in game=reinvesting
reinvesting=more quality
more quality=Translate City of.. to other languages (spanish, italian, etc)
Translate=More people in the game
More people in the game=More companys paying ads
More company paying ads=More quality

I’m for the inclusion of adverts, but have a few questions.

Aren’t some badges located on or around certain signs? Will all bill boards be changing? Will the adverts stay consistent long enough to be familiar, or will the poster change every time you log in/refresh?

Hi Jonny B,

The concerns you raise are mostly already covered in the article. All ads will be vigorously checked by NCNC to make sure they fit with the game world, and that includes considerations for the age rating of City of Heroes and Villains - as such, no ‘mature’ ads. You also have the option to simply turn off the real-world ads, in which case your current gameplay experience remains unchanged.

Further, neither the advertisers nor Double Fusion receive any private data about the players viewing the ads. The only data they receive is data that we collect about how long the ads have been viewed for. There is no data sent that allows for the identification of personal information about a player viewing the ads.

The “reimbursement” players get for leaving the ads on is that the dev team will be able to use the additional funds generated to develop more content and new features for future Issues. You’ll get more.

- GhostRaptor

This sounds like a great idea for generating more income for the development of CoX and one that seems quite appropiate.

Honestly I’d rather see this implamented than an increase in subscription fees and since its not being completely forced upon everyone via the opt out option people can enjoy the game as they always have.

Not only that, but who knows… we may even get companies sponsering ingame events or even helping advertise the game by offering competitions that have CoX related prizes.

So I’m all for this as it can only benefit everyone in the long run =^.^=

I’m vaguely in two minds about this: my knee jerk reaction is ‘oh dear...’ but stopping to think about it, it does make a lot of sense.  But as it’s opt in or out it doesn’t matter too much. 

As long as they don’t stand out to glaringly I’ll leave them on, if only because I rarely pay attention to adverts anyway.

Of course… what would be really awesome is if there was enough revenue from this to have a fee reduction, but I’m pretty certain thats wishful thinking for the forseeable future.

While the promise of more content due to the increased revenue is worthy I’d still like a more immediate and tangible benefit.  If not a subs reduction maybe some in game freebies thrown in for people running the ads.  Costume tokens, Freespecs/Respecs, maybe character rename and server transfer tokens…
I’ve got a few chars I wouldn’t mind swapping over from Defiant to Union and vice versa but I’m not paying for it.  If a couple of months running the ads earnt me a server transfer I’d definitely do it though.

Its a good idea, I’ve seen the same thing in Battlefield 2142 and it doesn’t actually intrude very much at all

The one thing I would say
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a few vanguard / original boards around, its nice to see big advertising signs for things in world that you wouldn’t get from RW advertising.

A lot of people are going to have a knee-jerk negative reaction to this, but I actually think it’s a good idea. CoX already has advertising space because it’s trying to look vaguely like a real environment. Using that space for real ads may actually improve the look if it’s done well.

Thinking about how often you see the faux advertising in game now, I reckon there’s a _lot_ less than there is in the real world. They could probably get away with a bit more, especially if it was things like flyposters.

hmm… this is cool, i’ll do most things to help this game, and looking at a real advert in a game world every so often is one of the most easy things i can do XD

Why do people want a fee reduction? The fee hasn’t gone up since it started, as far as im aware, and we’ve all been paying that since we joined.

Adds would increase realism in game and provide for more content, thats definately a good thing. The opt out is there if anyone really has a problem with it.

For me ill be opting in to show my support for this idea, if enough people opt in then sponsors will see this working and will be even more inclined to support the game, leading to even more revenue and even more content.

I think its a fantastic idea.

I think they could step even further and for those people who currently have the real life advertisement on there should be an option at bars to “order” real life branded sodas or something. You click the bartender and you get “so what’ll it be?” followed by a list of products. It could add to the roleplaying if you could ask the bartender to give you a Coca-Cola or 7up or something else of another brand.

Preferably those would be brands that exist in Paragon City’s billboards.

Well personally i think its a great idea an im all for it if it’s gonna benefit the game. I’ll be opting in to show my support! 

Well, i like the bit where we see real world items.
But i like the adds that are there atm.

Oh well up 2 u guys!

Personally I have no problem with it on whole, but if there is revenue to be made then why not capitalise on it completely and move to a non fee gaming environment like other NC titles such as Guild Wars. This genre is ideally suited to advertising due to the fact its set in a city. I would think that with a non fee game, you would attract more players, more players means more people seeing the adverts which in turn could increase the revenue generated from the the game, its seems like a win win scenario.

I dont think its a step to far to make this leap, and I think that if the gaming experience remains the same, and there is no reason why it shouldnt, if its a non fee game make it a standard part of the game and the opt out wouldnt be required.

He he, sounds good to me, i like the part with more content, and its optional…

Whats not to like?

well that was my two Inf.

Lana out!

Yeah why not I’ve no problems with it but I just hope it don’t get too much, It acually crossed my mind a few years ago about putting ads in-game, but hey ya beat me too it lol fair play to you.

Take care everyone Keep it COH/COV

Anarchy Online uses this method, except they have the base rubi-ka with ads and NO SUBS or expansions, subs and a choice.

AO doesn’t look as good and may/may not be older but it’s fun and the worlds alot larger whatever you go for.

I thin its a good way of doing it. Better than some troll with ASDA tattooed on his forehead. I kinda likes how eg. Crey was advertised in the world so that it wasn’t just “heres some enemies, go fight”, but they actually something beyond that.

I’m fine with it as long as the people I save don’t start asking me if I drink Gatorade or something.