ReachCast Community Question #80 - "Have friends bought a membership due to the ads?"

This. Ads only create awareness of a product. If you buy something is because of the product itself. No person buys a soda for the sole purpose of attracting girls who can't afford more than a bikini, while buildings explode in the background.

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That's right. There is nothing wrong with ingame advertising in particular, especially in a F2P game. But the way SOE is executing it in PS2 is too aggressive and cheap. A company as resourceful as SOE shouldn't need to resort to something intrusive as a giant yellow button in nearly every screen.

Lemme think...

*counts on fingers*

Oh, right. None.

This. ^^^^

It makes the game look cheap and desperate.
Factor in all the problems, bugs and missing content and you get a pretty good picture as to why this particular clumsy form of advertisement didn't fly well with the players.

I subbed recently, not because of the ads, but because I noticed that it had recently overtaken Civ V in the number of hours I have put into it so it must be doing something right!

I have no idea about marketing but i do believe advertising does play a role for the consumer. The product being defective or silly obviously plays a major role but that doesnt mean advertising fails. The consumer will constantly be reminded and therefore crave it more. If you didnt see Pepsi adverts every 2 minutes you probably wont think to yourself "i really need a pepsi" after the advert or at least wonder what it would be like.

I dont approve of writing "Upgrade now" on everything but something like the XP line was a smart move.

Tl; dr
Advertising reminds the consumer therefore it has an effect, even if minimal
Having a good product is more important but advertising is still important
Smart advertising is the way to go, not writing UPGRADE NOW on everything you see

Advertising is very important. The trick is to be subtle.

One of my friends quit because the "Upgrade Now" ads p-ed him off. So -1.

Its intrusive to normal gameplay and I have already have put money into the game. I payed, and I want it gone.

Any friends I have/had that played PS2 wither cancelled their subs awhile ago or refuse to sub because they think it is a bad deal. Me? I just buy SC and buy camo or weapons because I am not a super regular player. I started playing other games to get a break from all this Upgrade Now nonsense and Liberator BS.

Not Zero. More like -1.

The ads got me playing less because it was yet another dumb move by SoE.

Nobody I know heard of this game so zero.

What Ads?

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Just ignore it and play the game man... There's no real reason we should stop playing, stomping nubs, rekt vehicles just because of a dumb ads

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I actually decided to play even less than I was because it confirmed to me that SOE is desperate to get money out of PS2.

Yeah, let's just ignore all the stupid things companies are pulling off and consume and pay in silence like they intended us to do. That's some real forward thinking right there and definetely not an invitation for even more absurd ****. Sarcastic commander approves!


Phew. Well, guess i still had some ******** points left for today after all.

Yeah, they definitely messed that one up. I thought the advertisement on the loading screen was a nice touch--noticeable but not intrusive. Should have just stuck to that style instead of inserting a ubiquitous giant yellow rectangle into the game.

EDIT: I do think the game is worth subbing to if you have the money, but that's completely independent of the obnoxious ads.

Well, the buttons got in the way of spawning, like accidental clicks. I also didn't like being forced onto a base the game chose for me when I logged in, like it was trying to keep me on its preferred continent. It's obnoxious over how it used to be. That fact the game has grown stale after 33,000 kills, doesn't help.

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I renewed my sub, but only because clever timing of members-only sales made me forget to cancel.

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The thing I hate the most about these ads is that they render in before the rest of the UI...I'll go up to a terminal at a warpgate and all I see is UPGRADE NOW! for the first 5 seconds. The fact it renders before the "Spawn" button is horrible.