"View to play" better than pay to play?

CT1888

I'm now picturing ads getting added into DDQ, you open up a node and Deadpool tries to talk you into following the link for razor blades or phone covers.
(sure, Marvel aren't going to let their characters get used that way, but still)
On that thought though, are any Marvel FTP games loaded with ads? Or could they look to restrict what is getting linked to it? Can't imagine Disney'd be too happy if there was a licenced game with dodgy adverts running alongside it.

TLCstormz

If its all Disney and Marvel related, yes. lol

Tanarus

Microsoft did this with their newest Hexic game. Run out of moves? Watch an ad to get five more. Out of lives? Watch an ad to get another one. It's done really well -- the only ads you see are the ads you opt into seeing.

Give the player the option to view the ads, and it could actually add another layer of strategy to the game. There's five minutes left in the sub, your characters are at half health, and you're out of health packs? You'll have to decide if you want to sacrifice some of that precious remaining time to watch an ad and get additional health, or just risk running the node at half health with all your remaining time.

Unknown

As always, I feel it important to mention, mostly because tone is so hard to read online, I'm not being snarky with the following. I'm genuinely curious. Sooo...

After reading through the thread, I guess an obvious two-part question to ask the group would be:

1.) How much experience do we in the forum have with other mobile games in general?
2.) What about other FTP titles specifically?

I only ask because there seems to be a lot of speculation about how ads would work, and out of the 1000s of mobile games I've tested and played (I currently have 5 screens on my phone filled with games alone, and have run as many as 7 betas at once, which I wouldn't recommend), I've not experienced much of what people are suggesting, at least not to the levels being described.

Usually, you'd have a permanent button on the home screen, like up by the settings button, or you might see a small button on the team page just before a fight, or on your roster page, or the large single heal button might turn into two smaller buttons, one for using a health pack and one for watching a video. During beta testing, developers will actually ask the testers how they like the ad options, the portals, the UI, etc. It's something the bigger developers take pretty seriously, specifically worrying about whether the ads turn people off.

All the conversation about things interrupting the actual game obviously sound pretty horrific, and I'm quite confident no developer would get away with something so jarring. I mean, not for long anyway. Sure, there are "those" games, but people pretty quickly recognize them as "those" games. I could name a few development groups with less than sterling reps on this front, but I like my finances the way they are, so I'll refrain.

For the record, and forgive me Jeebus for saying this out loud where the devs could possibly read it... Removal of ads is a HUGE source of income in the mobile market. If I had to pick one single thing gamers consistently demand from a FTP game, it's an ad removal option. Over and over and over and over again, and usually in the form of a $0.99 one-time IAP or "make any purchase to remove ads" option. Go over to a bigger mobile gaming site (Touch Arcade, etc.), open an account, and pose the question, "Yay or nay on ad removal IAPs," and then prepare for ton of positive responses... dear God, I'm going to post this publicly. May God have mercy on my soul...

@ Tanarus - This has been happening for a year+ with many, many titles. You have no idea how often services like "Tapjoy" (to name just one) actually figure into peoples' strategies these days. Progression mostly, but definitely a factor with considerable weight in the era of FTP titles. I'm not the world's biggest fan, but it is what it is, and it does serve to take some of the sting out of an aggressive FTP monetization structure, so there's that...

BTW, GREAT discussion! Threads like this are pretty rewarding and help with the "another thing I hate" threads. I like complaining as much as the next person, but what I like even more is having frank, open discussions about solving the things I'm complaining about.

Cheers!

DBC

SnowcaTT

If it was something like this:


Even if those are video ads, if I get a fair bit out of it sign me up. I still don't know how anyone makes money out of ads, I never click on them and I simply ignore them - I often have the PC's on mute so I can't hear them.

Is it uglier? Sure. Does it block anything relevent? Hard to see back player with a visual glance on the sides, the bottom reminder text is now blocked. But tell me I get free roster slots and twice as many health packs if I sign up for it -- where is the dotted line?

Click on video ads would be interesting, but I mentioned in OP the same concern HiPhoneGamer has - they simply wouldn't work with PVP, the time is to intense. Unless you could watch an ad for a free shield and shield cooldown (while shielded) - in that case holy cow would I shield-hop the ENTIRE event.

DFiPL

SnowcaTT wrote:

If it was something like this:


Even if those are video ads, if I get a fair bit out of it sign me up. I still don't know how anyone makes money out of ads, I never click on them and I simply ignore them - I often have the PC's on mute so I can't hear them.

Is it uglier? Sure. Does it block anything relevent? Hard to see back player with a visual glance on the sides, the bottom reminder text is now blocked. But tell me I get free roster slots and twice as many health packs if I sign up for it -- where is the dotted line?

Click on video ads would be interesting, but I mentioned in OP the same concern HiPhoneGamer has - they simply wouldn't work with PVP, the time is to intense. Unless you could watch an ad for a free shield and shield cooldown (while shielded) - in that case holy cow would I shield-hop the ENTIRE event.

1) that looks like ****. aesthetics aren't everything but they are important. If it's too overwhelming it's going to look like naked monetization more than a game. That will turn at least some contingent of the prospective user base off.

2) I value the reminder text over whatever that bottom banner ad would bring.

3) video or static, I can still see a situation where loading a rotating ad causes the game to hang for a moment, especially if the rotation is taking place in the middle of a powerspam or cascade. If there are concerns about the ads being intrusive enough that they interfere with PVE/PVP play at the end of a sub/shard, why wouldn't this cause the same?

4) Seriously, I said it upthread and I'll say it again here. The way you make ads, video or otherwise, work in a game like this is you wall them off separate from the core gameplay, but offer incentives attractive enough to make people want to seek them out. As an advertiser, you want positive engagement with your ads, not negative. As a publisher who gets revenue from those advertisers, you want to incentivize the users to seek out more of them, not beat them over the head to the point that they leave the game, or play less frequently. That creates fewer eyeballs seeing those ads. Fewer eyeballs = fewer impressions = less money.

If a F2P publisher wants to make ads work, the way they do it is set up an ad garden and wall it off from the main game, but make it a place people want to use. Maybe the way you do it is a health pack for watching a short video. A heroic token for watching a longer video. Hero points for positive interaction with the ad, whether that's a clickthrough, a purchase, what-have-you. Periodic incentives for ongoing interaction similar to the daily rewards. Have you watched an ad today? 70 ISO. Two days in a row? 100 ISO. Three days in a row? 250 ISO. Four days in a row? 500 ISO. Five days in a row? 1000 ISO. Six days in a row? 1500 ISO. Seven days in a row? A special "ad event" token that pulls from the 3* characters who are boosted this week.

Do a setup like that, and you won't need to put the ads front and center, because people will go looking for them.

Unknown

@ Snowcatt - FWIW, the above is far more intrusive than what I'm even imagining. Banner ads as permanent advertisement aren't likely to get much traffic if the existing statistics mean anything, and it would be a challenge for D3/Demiurge to translate any tangible benefit to the player. Said another way, their benefit would be minimal, and so would ours.

The idea I'm more interested in is giving people an option of watching an ad to earn some tangible benefit.

For example, what if I could earn my 5, 10, 50 health packs an hour+ before the event ends? What if I could earn the 125 HP needed to get another roster slot directly after opening the Hulkbuster I've been hoping for?

These are situations in which I would gladly watch videos.

DBC

SnowcaTT

DFiPL wrote:

If a F2P publisher wants to make ads work, the way they do it is set up an ad garden and wall it off from the main game, but make it a place people want to use. Maybe the way you do it is a health pack for watching a short video. A heroic token for watching a longer video. Hero points for positive interaction with the ad, whether that's a clickthrough, a purchase, what-have-you. Periodic incentives for ongoing interaction similar to the daily rewards. Have you watched an ad today? 70 ISO. Two days in a row? 100 ISO. Three days in a row? 250 ISO. Four days in a row? 500 ISO. Five days in a row? 1000 ISO. Six days in a row? 1500 ISO. Seven days in a row? A special "ad event" token that pulls from the 3* characters who are boosted this week.

Do a setup like that, and you won't need to put the ads front and center, because people will go looking for them.

Yeah, I was kind of worst-casing it quickly there (obviously). I'd love to see things like this, almost like a second "daily drop" if you watch a video ad. I agree with you, there are lots of ways they could do those that folks would go looking for the place to click.