Advertising in Lieu of Game Fees in MMORPGs? 46
Mat/.Cloud asks: " Am I the only one that thinks it's incredibly unfair to have to pay $20 a month to play a game that I've already paid $50-$60 for? I realize that companies have to charge this fee or they would loose money from the cost of operating the servers. I guess I'm just so spoiled from having everything else on the net being free that I expect this to be also. Then I realized how everything else on the net is paid for... advertising. Would it be possible for companies to put ads in their mmorpg without drastically detracting from the game play? The only reasonably feasible solution I came up with is to have a banner ad at the top of the screen. Do y'all think it would be worth a small sacrifice in game play to keep the games free? Any other ideas on how to insert ads or ways for the companies to pay for their servers?"
Disrupt the flow of the game? (Score:2, Interesting)
This might disrupt the flow of a game in a fantasy setting... This magic vorpal sword +8 drop has been brought to you by Smashdot.
However something like this might work better in a futuristic setting such as the upcoming Star Wars MMORPG. Also, Blizzard currently does some banner advertising at the top of the battle.net chat rooms.
Advertising costs the same (Score:3, Interesting)
You're either letting your privacy be violated to get something free (and let's face it, advertisers won't pay nearly enough to cover a $20/person-month subscription without mucho private info), or you're protecting your privacy by giving them just money.
No, subscriptions are the Right Way to Do It. It costs you money, but we're concerned about free-as-in-speech, not free-as-in-beer. Complain about the closed nature of the games first, then we'll talk about the cost (at which point I'll bring up the costs of paying all those developers, admins, and maintaining those servers - and subscriptions will still be the Right Way to Do It).