I got this idea when I saw that Sony was allowing members to order a pizza while in one of their online games through commands within the game. No more having to pick up the phone, just type in something like "/pizza" and you will open up a menu selection to order a good old Pizza Hut brand pizza.
I had the thought that this should be further used within online gaming worlds [b]in order to decrease end-user costs.[/b] Envision a world inwhich products which are highly sought for have within their description advertisements for real world items or services.
The "Wand of Fire" is descriptioned as.... --------------------- "an old piece of drift wood which has been meticulously fashioned into a magical focusing device specializing in the useage of combustion or conflagrational attack types. Brought to you in part by Burger King, flame grilled burgers. To visit the Burger King website type /Burger King in the chat box. This has reduced your monthly fee from $12.95 to $7.00 USD and if you enjoy this feature please email them and say thank you for their continued support. All advertising can be turned off if you go to the account panel and select the "full payment" selection on the right, but this will return your monthly rates to $12.95 a month." ---------------------
Due to cleaver programming, people who wish to not have the "rollplaying" hurt through such product placement could setup an account to pay the full price and not see such ads within descriptions. Items nor towns nor buildings nor people would be ad specific (although NIKE Boots of Speed might be a good quest item, heh) so that only the description would perhaps remove a slight portion of the rollplaying aspect of the game, and then ONLY for those that wish to save on their monthly rates.
As pricing continues to climb in the online gaming world and monthly rates continue to climb, this would be an easy way to increase monetary income and/or to help belay some of the initial costs in setup of some online games.-- McGyver, Jun 05 2005 about.com: Advertising Enters the Game http://internetgame...ews/i/ingameads.htmMentions your /pizza, signs, and virtual consumer goods. [jutta, Jun 05 2005] sp: "roleplaying", "product placement", "is described as"
I thought that this kind of thing was pretty much already happening, i.e. branded consumer goods as items in the play world. See link.-- jutta, Jun 05 2005 Though admittedly neither online nor roleplaying, check out the shops in Crazy Taxi. As one of your passengers says, "Take me to Pizza Hut!".-- wagster, Jun 05 2005 I can't begin describing how annoying this would be. I occasionally partake in online RPG's ( role playing games, before anyone suggest that I play with explosives :P ) and it hacks me off that some people just come on to advertise their stupid website, or free i-pod scheme, or e-bay auction, or *insert annoying online thing here*-- kaz, Jun 05 2005 I have trust issues when it comes to cleaver programming.-- hidden truths, Jun 05 2005 Hey, whatever reduces RPG players to 10 minutes of web surfing a day is okay with me.-- reensure, Jun 05 2005 I cast "McDonald's Grasping Fist" on the Intel Goblin.-- Laimak, Jun 05 2005 Baked, Sony Advertises for itself in the game from time to time. And they promoted some R.A.Salvatore thing a few years back when I still played. And the reaction was negative.
However, some RPGs might lend themselves to advertisement.-- Madai, Jun 06 2005 I have applied my usual rule of thumb that I apply to all ideas that encourage advertising.-- wagster, Jun 06 2005 Let me try this another way.
You love an online game and enjoy playing it.
But the cost of running it is growing year to year and the monthly rates are becoming rather large.
You have the OPTION to turn on advertisement to belay the monthly rates. This is merely an OPTION to the customer who makes a decision to allow corporations pay to allow them to place ad's within item descriptions and in other inobtrusive places within the MMO world.
If you would rather play without ads, you pay the normal higher fee and you see no ads. For those that allow ads they have lower monthlys and see an ad or two within item descriptions. This is NOT an idea for "NIKE BOOTS OF SPEED" or the "I ATTACK YOU WITH THE MCDONALD'S SUPER VALUE MEAL SWORD OF BUGERWORLD."
This is "Atlan" (sword within the online game Asheron's Call).
Description: higher fee customer - "formed from motes and forged in the northern mountains."
Description: lower fee customer - "formed from motes and forged in the northern mountains, for a mountain getaway visit www.vacation.com this has reduced your monthly fee by five dollars."
Not the same as what is happening the the REAL world inwhich you have to go to "Lowes Speedway" to see a NASCAR event that is in the Nextel Cup. HEH, this is even less than what is happening in the real world, and could potentially cut costs to many consumers THAT DESIRE IT (not those that do not).
I see no reason why anyone boned this idea. HEH.-- McGyver, Jun 16 2005 random, halfbakery