You know how Coca-Cola has those codes on the bottlecaps and twelve packs that you can go on their website and enter for "Coke Points" then save up your points and get like a Coke bottle opener (I haz it) etc? What if CoT had a deal with Coke whereby the Coke points could be exchanged for in-game stuff in CoT like powerset unlocks, costumes, etc and Coke got advertizing in the game on like billboards and loading screens etc? You could even have Coke vending machines in town that you can click on for Inspirations (or whatever we're calling them now).
—
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
But only if they'll still let us sell Amerikatt-Kola!
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
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Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Not to mention the question of "What ever will Pepsiman say?" :)
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
In-game sponsors and advertisements of this sort would be nice, in my personal opinion.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
For what it's worth I personally would not have a problem with having to watch a short (15 sec?) ad when I log in.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
As long as the loading screen ad is short I won't mind it, and since the game environment is a modern city, having real world ads will just make the game seem more real. I'd like to have a McDonalds for my hero to hang out at and a few other sponsors. I remember seeing some funny ads for fictional businesses in COH and there's no reason they couldn't be replaced with real ads or have real ads put up with them. You could even put ads for real movies outside the theaters.
It might help to minimize the cost to play, and being poor, I'm all for that!
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/browse/pub/3185/Crusader-Game-Books
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC48O9dPcNVdeyNM4efAvX6w/videos?view_as=subscriber
Oddly, I'm actually opposed to loading screen ads. This doesn't mean I couldn't be persuaded, but they seem both the least effective and most jarring way to introduce advertisements. Maybe if it were a selection of shots of billboards or flyers already in game, showing one each loading screen. Or were a parody on par with Hostess Fruit Pies ads from the silver age.
But my "vision" (and I feel very pretentious using that word) is more product placement or advertisements that are ostensibly in-universe. Billboards/sandwich boards/bus sides with real-world products, flyers hung up on telephone poles, actual models of products our sponsors want to advertise as part of the game world (and with options to learn more about them), base items and costume pieces with sponsors' logos (or even that are, themselves, products of our sponsors), and even the ability for sponsors to literally rent buildings in the game (imagine if the fast food place in-game at such-and-such a location WERE a McDonald's).
One of our higher-end options would be to allow a sponsor to pay for sponsoring entire missions, or segments of missions, or (at a lesser fee) inclusion in missions. Ronald McDonald's been kidnapped! the villain has stolen the prototype for the next generation Prius! Find and protect the winners of Willy Wonka's Golden Tickets before the bad guys do (or kidnap them or steal their tickets for the bad guys)!
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
I think I'd rather see posters on the sides of buildings, vending machines on the sidewalk for Coke, Billboards, televisions in a window playing a commercial, maybe planes flying with banners behind them. I would rather not have to watch a video every time I logged on to the game, or during load screens for missions.
I got chills! They're multiplyin'. And I'm losin' control. Cuz the power, I'm supplyin'. Why it's ELECTRIFYIN'!!
I'd be fine with a load screen ad for when I log in, or when I switch toons, but not for loading a new mission map or whatever during actual "immersed time" if that's doable. And whether or not that type of ad is really the best value for the advertiser I don't know, but if they're willing to spend decent money for it, I'm not going to say its a deal breaker for me.
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
I feel I should speak up for all the players outside the US and suggest caution when considering implementing any sort of outside-game product tie-ins that provide anything material inside the game, because folks in other countries could be disadvantaged by this through no fault of their own if products are not available where they live. Even for something as ubiquitous as Coke, I'd suspect their advertising is done locally, so MWM would have to deal with the Coke people in multiple countries to keep it fair for everyone.
Aside from that, I'd like to +1 what Segev said about ads:
I'd find having to watch an ad every time I started the game to be very offensive. I hate games that make you sit through multiple videos that identify the makers of the game itself, and quickly look for ways to suppress them.
On the other hand, I think the fact that CoT takes place in a version of the real world makes it uniquely poised to take advantage of the various in-game advertising techniques that Segev describes. You couldn't put a Taco Bell ad in WoW or SWTOR without breaking the lore, but something like that would fit perfectly into CoT.
Spurn all ye kindle.
The localization issues regarding ads are a concern. This will be a problem our marketing department will need to work out with potential sponsors.
One possible approach would be to have ads vary in visibility by region. Players let us know where they are in the real world (roughly; we're not looking to invade their street address, here), and we change the ads visible on their billboards accordingly. Privacy issues aside, though, that still leaves the problem of not having the same thing show up to the same people. Phasing could help with this, perhaps, but it's still sticky.
Another possibility would be to take a particularly aggressive approach. Some products and companies look to expand their areas of service, and we could offer to help with that by having the ads include information or suggestion to tell local retailers to look into selling this product if you can't find it anywhere.
Snapple was the surprise beneficiary of one particular brand-new national radio talk show deciding to use this as their own marketing strategy. They wanted to create a new model for valuing their advertisements: results-based. Most ads up until then were done by "number of ears reached," which is just a measure of audience size and number of times the commercial would air. This show wanted to instead sell based on how much they could claim the sponsor's sales would rise.
So, the host chose a product he liked and new was good, and simply started talking it up on the air. No official commercials, because he hadn't gotten them to pay him as a sponsor. But Snapple, then a New York City-only company, started getting calls from individuals and retailers across the USA, looking for their product, and then Snapple tried to figure out how word had reached so far.
They became a paid sponsor for the program, and many others joined them.
Many modern radio and internet advertising models are based on this now; if you ever hear or see an ad say "use offer code 'blah' for a discount" or "tell 'em I sent you" from a personality, that's the means of generating the metric for telling WHERE the sale came from. MWM could do this in CoT by offering coupons to our players who buy the product (the coupons identify to the sponsor that the customer was drawn to their product by seeing the ad in CoT). We could also, as part of our selling model (if we can sell sponsors on this), offer Stars for entering your receipt code from buying such products. Those Stars are paid for by the sponsor.
*cough* Sorry, that got off on a bit of a tangent.
The point being, depending on the sponsors' marketing goals, we could attempt to empower our players to be pioneer customers of sponsors who want to expand their business by encouraging them to contact local retailers and ask them to start carrying the product.
There's also the fact that online shopping is a big thing, now, and usually can reach anywhere in the world with internet access. Not always, admittedly, but it will help with the universal applicability of our ads, anyway.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Ok 1st, don't shove a coke or pepsi add in my face while I am on a loading screen. I hate that, especially if I've seen it every time I've loaded for the last 12 hours and the load screens are slow. I will learn to hate that product for getting in the way of villainy or world domination. 2nd, if your doing in world product placement like billboards allow a option to not see them. If you have a McDonalds building fine, just don't want to use my Super Jump and get face planted by the stupid golden M because it's taller then any of the surrounding buildings.
Constructive Time with Kitsune
Having pre defined plots of land that are under construction and in limited supply in each zone to allow zone appropriate building placement would reduce it becoming over crowed. Placing Rich Corp Fine Jewelers in the run down part of town will upset me, placing a Mc'y Ds there will allow me to ignore it as I naturally do IRL. I would say no more then 1 Ad building in line of sight from any angle while standing on the ground. I would set up zoning ordinances for your areas before you get corps in wanting to advertise not after.
Billboards, posters, TV in windows, Ad covering the Moon at Midnight for 15 seconds to fund the "Moon base of Good and/or Evil Incorporated" or "M-BOG & OREI" should have a micro subscription to allow a user to chose not to see product placement. If a Million user paid $30 each to never see product placement, does that make you more then the product placers pay you? The added benefit to having such an optional micro sub is it can let you organically see how your users feel about product placement.
If your going to let heroes save Ol Mc Donald, let the anti villains help him buy the farm. Now I'll stop picking on one food chain, Let them steal the crown from the king, rob the jeweler, get the blue prints for the Prius, and them build it to place as a trophy in their lair. (Giant Penny anyone?) If I can go to my vault and show a friend the bloody outfit of a clown, the crown of the king, the jewel of Kay and the Prius that I crafted myself but couldn't get a permit to drive because I kind of stole the only copy of the blue print so it's technically stolen goods. Then you've rewarded someone for interacting with your product placement in a way that doesn't foster disgust or nerd rage.
Loading screens should have 2 things on them. A really cool picture with a large pool of pictures, like 3k-10k and a loading bar that means something. Ping/Latency of X Loaded Y of Z files A% complete B estimated time remaining based on start to present not based on last 2 seconds of download speed.
How to handle Ad space for uses opting out micro sub. My idea is put Heroes and Villains who Opted out's faces on them based on their exploits. Reward them for paying you extra in place of a corporation. Allow them to even access a limited survey with radio buttons. Not just their own but anyone who's opted out can see "ads" for other players in game activities. Then you can always show the same thing in all places no phasing needed. Have them update one per hour with the latest headlines only showing things that have happened within the last 1000 quest completions by those players as an example.
1> Hero, Villain, Vig, Anti Vill, Anti Hero
2> Creature, Person, Robot, Allein, Unknown
then tailor it based on area most missions completed, most resent story arc done, and things like that.
The line between knowing and understanding is often blurred.
Cute Kitsune the Anti Villain of Phoenix Rising.
I have more fervor then empathy, I still like you.~Me to a friend
It applies here too, I'm passionate not hostile.
I never understood all the grumbling about ads in CoX. The few billboards that I saw were not immersion-breaking and in fact were pretty funny. I would rather see that kind of thing than a loadscreen commercial.
I had not thought of sponsoring specific missions or arcs. Fighting a horde of bad guys trying to take over a Coke or Pepsi plant might be cool.
I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...
[b]COKE[/b]
A "wakie" for the rest of us ...
[center][img=44x100]https://i.imgur.com/sMUQ928.gif[/img]
[i]Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.[/i][/center]
Whoa.
If this sort of strategy would make Taco Bell, root beer, Eggo waffles, and 100 Grand Bars readily available in Scotland, I'd even sit through load screen ads!
Spurn all ye kindle.
Mmmm coke is equal to the buff adrenaline boost !!!
This reminds me of the thread I started on addictive Insps. You use one, it buffs the heck out of you, then again, then after a while they're less good, but you notice when you're NOT using them you get a minor debuff. Eventually you either end up paying a lot of Inf for a constant supply of them to chain-smoke or you have to run a mission arc to kick the habit. Everyone said it sounds too much like real drugs, not a "T for Teen" appropriate thing. What if the "Can of Coke (TM)" Insp worked that way? :)
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
As interesting as a mechanic that is, Radiac, I think it would come covered in too many unfortunate implications AND smack to too many players of extortion. I don't think it's a good idea as a general rule. (If nothing else, I've seen too many arguments that microtransactions already tend to fall into a "just one more hit" category of marketing, and I don't think that's a good business model.)
While that would be cool, I don't want to get your hopes into unreasonable territory. I would only expect things like the "100 Grand Bar" to potentially get there, as there are existing retail establishments which could theoretically order them. Taco Bell is a whole store. (Also, unlike many fast food chains, Taco Bell is not a franchise; it's a chain store, with each one owned by Corporate. So you couldn't even convince a local entrepreneur to franchise a store; you'd have to convince Taco Bell Corporate to build one out there.)
But there is potential, provided the logistics of getting a good ordered are not prohibitive and our players did, in fact, coordinate enough demand to encourage retailers.
Note, though, that such things are always a bit of a long-shot, even at the best of times, because it requires convincing the retailer to seek out a new product for their store AND the wholesaler to be willing to ship to that location. Some wholesalers just aren't equipped to ship products overseas in a profitable way. (But we'd gear our marketing with our sponsors to try to avoid creating situations like that.)
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
I'd be fine with in game advertizing and paid product placement, that's actually pretty good for immersion. I would despise ads on loading screens though. Also, I would like to see no more than 1/3, maybe 1/4 of the billboards and such getting sold out for RL advertizing, with the rest reflecting fictional, in-game goods and services. If there were to be such functionality however, I would really like to see it opened up to players (at a significant discount, possibly payable in stars, or even in game resources) to use for guild hawking. It'd be great if guilds could just rent a billboard or three for a reasonable fee (maybe even with interactable "click to request membership/info") instead of recruiting spam being loudspeakered in /Zone every so often.
I was being mostly facetious, but there may be more hope than one would think at first. There are currently 4 Taco Bells in England, with the newest only about 4 hours south of the Scottish border. So it may be just a matter of encouraging a little more northward expansion....
Spurn all ye kindle.
Speaking as both a marketer and a Canadian, I would voice a high degree of caution with this sort of thing, as different nations have very different advertising standards (For example, you WILL NOT FIND a pharmaceutical television ad domestically produced for airing in Canada, by dint of law). As we do not have in place our own in-house standards for advertising (although they are being worked on), it is far too risky. Even if we set it up so that different nations get different in-game ads, all it would take is for a simple bug to cause us to violate advertising standards, and thus in some cases, the law.
So, once we have pinned down our advertising standards, we'll begin to explore this option in detail, so feel free to discuss it further. I'd be happy to answer any and all questions about advertising standards.
It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.
[color=#ff0000]Business Director[/color]
In many ways I think that while we need to obey the legal niceties, our moral code on who we will accept ads from may be more important.
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team and Forum Moderator[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Quite so, and this is much of what an Advertising Standard attempts to establish.
I will say outright - I very strongly feel that we shouldn't take any ads from the tobacco or alcohol industries. While the products themselves may appear in game, as we're aiming for a T-rating, and many areas have age limitations, it's a wise precaution.
It is only when we stand up, with all our failings and sufferings, and try to support others rather than withdraw into ourselves, that we can fully live the life of community.
[color=#ff0000]Business Director[/color]
It depends how much further than that we want to go, I took that as a given for legal reasons. Gambling I suspect would be another no-no.
But advertising of unhealthy fast food and sugary drinks is an issue in the UK atm, there is some talk of restrictions from the medical community etc.
[color=#ff0000]Tech Team and Forum Moderator[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
I'll be honest, it's not a question of what restrictions we have on advertising, it's what advertisers we can get into the game. We're a modern city. We can fit a LOT of things in the game without breaking realism. Down to Pepsi T-Shirts.
There is, however, a difference between selling adds, shilling product, and being a complete sell-out, and we ain't selling-out entirely.
One thing I've been toying with is having 'live' streamed events, like a rock concert in the game featuring Kirby Krackle or something. We could sell tickets, it'd livestream, it'd be awesome.
On the other hand, if every third item has to be wrapped in a Pepsi logo, it'd, you know, not work so well with the game.
There's a lot of things we can do, but we need to make the game first.
[color=#ff0000]Project Lead[/color]
Rats! So much for my Taco Bell plan!
Spurn all ye kindle.
Me I am more partial to Bingo Cola (of The Longest Journey fame)
I can just imagine it:
This iconic evil mastermind is brought to you by Microsof (tm) and Gogle (tm): Controlling YOUR computer since 1999.
or
This epic monster from the Gulf of Mexico is brought to you by BeePee (tm): Careless with our future since, well, the dawn of time.
First off, it will take a sponsor with an extremely good sense of humor to be willing to be associated with villainy in-game.
Secondly, I, personally, would like to avoid the frankly irritating meme that all business is evil that pervades our media zeitgeist. It's hideously [i]predictable[/i]. And oft used lazily; there was no reason nor foreshadowing to Varrik, in Legend of Korra, being up to no good [i]except[/i] the assumption that, since he's a businessman, obviously he must be. So, unless you're leaning heavily on this trope, his badguy moves are out of left field.
So for a number of reasons, I would not find it clever, funny, nor good writing to take "our morals" as "painting all businesses as evil." After all, MWM is, itself, a business. Without business, we can't produce this game and sustain it.
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
But are you Evil?
DocT has a beard, so it's obvious he's Evil. However, I'd put good money on it that a part of his plan is to use his beard to distract us from the Bald Evil and Moustache-Twirling Evil.
And the Mini Evils. Can't forget about those vicious Mini Evils.
(Or the Lap Cat Evils. Those guys are insidious.)
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[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
Well, I AM a necromancer. But that is entirely besides the point! >_> <_<
[color=#ff0000]Business Manager[/color]
[img]http://missingworldsmedia.com/images/favicon.ico[/img]
Always embrace the hellfire, hellfire, hellfire, I say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rADdKqPNdaM
R.S.O. of Phoenix Rising
As long as the advertisements blend into the game world it will be fine. I can handle ad-boards, NPCs wearing t-shirts with advertisement, vending machines and all that. But missions sponsored and written (or at least heavily influenced) by companies? Those I would avoid unless perhaps I already am a customer of them and like them a lot. I would not mind them being there, but I would also likely never play most of them.
And a commercial at login would probably chase me away for good, I am very glad to hear that I am not likely to encounter them.
[img]http://www.pockethercules.com/assets/images/work_lm_02.jpg[/img]
:)
Lets play Memory! with Coke Bottle Caps! :D
[img]http://i.imgur.com/zyZIQey.png[/img]
Do i get a free in-game COKE T-Shirt if i win? ;)
Wait, does that mean Santa is evil??
Spurn all ye kindle.
We have too little information to answer that question.
Perhaps beards do not affect mythical beings. Perhaps having a natural beard protects one from the Bearding. Perhaps Christmas time neutralizes the beard and the elves keep Evil Santa in stasis for the rest of the year.
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[font=Pristina][size=18][b]Hail Beard![/b][/size][/font]
Support [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/52149#comment-52149]trap clowns[/url] for CoT!
I realy like the idea of using in game billbords with real world advertizement (and hoping for companies to make CoT themed ads), while opening screen ads are a total nogo.
Localisation might not only be a issue about who pays, but also because of campains may use material (like songs) licenced only to be used in certain parts of the world. Thus uncontrolled spread might create additional problems. One realy needs a strategy to direct coverage.
Sponsering is another critical issue. While there is potential for rather funny content, I fear most will be less entertaining when their corporate guidelines are to be implemented. This is a comic universe, so the exact shape and colour of the archess (or whatsoever) migt be disruptive. Also contractss aren't made for eternity. Let's assume CoT accepts McD as a sponsor for a serious of fast food restaurants thruout the game. Fine. Even if we accept the less than desirable effect that they don't want any other chain arround (not cool), what happens when the contract ends, or BK offers a better deal? Will all installations be remodeled? As for myself, I do not want to have lage visible parts of the city be remodeled depending on monthly changing contracts or payments.
The Coke points idea again is something nice. They had some marketing campains (at least in Europe) where you had to type in numbers from bottle caps to earn points that could be redeemed with various Coke merchandise, but also non-Coke items and events. So why not having a special costume set (Santa?) available at the point store. With all the variations possible in costume options or special emote-items, there is quite some room for sponsering relations.
H.