21 replies to this topic

[Enkouyami]

To help development I propose having an option where you can "Opt-in" to have ads on main site, forums, and while the game loads. This way more people can support development. Just to be clear, if there's something you have to opt-in to receive, by default it is DISABLED. Devs feel free to vote

Edited by Enkouyami, 26 December 2011 - 08:24 PM.

[shnbwmn]

afeder, on 26 December 2011 - 08:32 AM, said:

I appreciate the idea, but I have to say no. Ads, in any shape or form, just feels so cheap.

Totally agree. Rather get the money by generous people making donations. This is an open source game, not an ad-supported game.

[Arthur_D]

Got to agree with the previous two posters. If ads are opt-in, how many do you think will care to do so? And of the few that do, how many will care to click on any ads, thus generating a few cents each click? Probably way too few to be of any worth, I'm afraid.

Their donation campaigns, on the other hand, is a great idea. But it seems more publicity might be needed to finish the second campaign.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Opt in ads are an interesting idea. I think the main issue with ads is that we probably wouldn't have any control over the content. Wouldn't really want to have a possibility of potentially offensive ads. There may be some way to make it work, just I don't really know much about it.

[Geek377]

That goes against the whole idea here. Too contradictory. But seriously, this works:

Quote

If we could get just 1000 folks to pay a dollar each month, that would still get WFG a long way

note: I don't think you should feel bad. Its just not appropriate for this game.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Geek377, on 26 December 2011 - 04:55 PM, said:

That goes against the whole idea here. Too contradictory. But seriously, this works:

note: I don't think you should feel bad. Its just not appropriate for this game.

Please explain, I don't understand. He did say opt in, not opt out. There could certainly be issues with it, but I don't think it's that big of an issue.

[Enkouyami]

WhiteTreePaladin, on 26 December 2011 - 03:29 PM, said:

Opt in ads are an interesting idea. I think the main issue with ads is that we probably wouldn't have any control over the content. Wouldn't really want to have a possibility of potentially offensive ads. There may be some way to make it work, just I don't really know much about it.

One ad service I know that offers some control is Google AdSense. It tries to display ads relevant to the category of this site. It does that by allowing you to manually review the site ads and block ads that are not relevant to your site content. There are other ad services that are just as good or even better.

Also I don't think people would be offended and not play because of something they chose to enable.

Edited by Enkouyami, 27 December 2011 - 03:41 AM.

[fireprog]

My first post on this forum, so I'm not sure if my opinion is actually needed in this topic.

As an end user, I would not have anything against non-offensive adds in the game like customized Google Ads (I would certainly choose to enable it if its opt-in). Another possibility could be to include a "0 A.D. Advertisement" in-game. Purely to make people aware that they can donate or help out if they are developers.

I'm already supporting this project through Flattr, an in-game donation ad would remind me to donate more each month

[WhiteTreePaladin]

We're not talking about the game, just the website. There's no way we'd put ads in the game, not even opt-in ads.

[Edit] As for opt-in ads on the website: I'd support that if we had some control over the content.

[Geek377]

Oohh... sorry I misunderstood you. Thanks for the clarification.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

I don't think that ads inside a game are inherently bad, (think about a racing game with billboard advertising), but I do agree that they wouldn't work well in our case. Opt-in website ads should be alright assuming we can control the content somewhat.

[Edit]
@Geek
Hmm, looking back at the original post, I do see he mentioned loading screen ads. I missed that. I don't think we should have those. I see why what I said caused the confusion. Sorry about that.

[Ykkrosh]

We used Google AdSense on the web site for a brief period many years ago, but complying with their requirements was a bit of a pain (I think they didn't allow ads on non-content pages of the forums) and the amount of money it made was about zero, so it wasn't worth the effort of continuing to use it. In-game ads would likely be much more complex to set up (both technically implementing it in the game, and also finding advertisers who'd agree to support it), and provide much less return (since far fewer people would be exposed to the ads) - I don't have any real numbers so I'm just guessing, but I'd be very surprised if the numbers could make it worthwhile.

[fireprog]

Just brainstorming here, I can see that ads would make 0 A.D. look 'cheap' and I agree that the little amount of money you would make with ads isn't worth the effort of implementing those ads. For me, donations would be the best way to go about it, if you attract more players you would get more donations. (if players know that donations would actually speed up the progress on the game.) But I think this game also needs more marketing, the youtube channel etc. is a good start but not quite enough I think. More 'mainstream' media coverage would be better, I haven't seen a lot of articles about the alpha 8 release. Do people actually know 0 A.D. is playable now?

[dinosoep]

I agree ads would make the game look cheap. Even those options like "donate to get rid of ads" will never get me to donate
I like the ability to choose, not beeing forced to. I think if someone really likes the game he will donate anyway. If we want money, then we should create more "visibility". If it wasn't for youtube I'd never found this.

If ads do make it in the forums/site (which I would understand) then please let them be non-intrusive to avoid scaring people away.

[Seru]

afeder, on 07 January 2012 - 11:45 PM, said:

Another idea in that vein: in-game (multiplayer) donation badges. It would be interesting see what kind of dynamic this would lead to in a player community:

Player A: You lost
Player B (donator): Yeah, maybe I lost - but at least I helped make the f*ing game!
Player A:

the game is to themselves.

[hhyloc]

Playing alone is already helping the game I think. Instead of ads we could have a little "donate" button in the main menu that will lead to the Support WFG page.

btw, the Support WFG could use some updates, it needs the corresponding buttons for Pledgie and Flattr beside the existing PayPal button.