In-game advertisements, courtesy of Massive Incorporated, have begun showing up in Planetside. SOE’s small Tribes-like cult favorite isn’t the first MMO to drink the Kool-Aid, but the previous game that did so, Anarchy Online, preceded the move with an option to play certain parts of the game for free. As of yet, no such price decrease has occurred in Planetside. A quote from SOE:

Louis Figueroa, Director, Business Development, Sony Online Entertainment, commenting: “Realizing another revenue stream in PlanetSide will ultimately be good for the entire PlanetSide community. The additional income will allow us to support the game with continued development and new features that the community has been asking for. Working with Massive’s network helps make this possible.”

Undoubtedly true. One of the problems of running online games is that the cost per customer rises as your actual number of customers drops, which leaves a smaller and smaller pile of cash left over after paying for CS, bandwidth and other relatively intractable costs. So you want to make changes to improve things, but ya lack the green. I hope they made enough from the deal to add a couple of features players have been clamoring for.

Everyone I know of who loved Planetside didn’t feel like there was enough bang for their monthly $12 bucks. But all of them seem to occasionally get the fever and resub occasionally to get their Planetside fix. I talked before about how Guild Wars’ billing model, if successful, could encourage patterns like that. If SOE could turn this experience into an AO-like or Guild Wars-like experience where the monthly fee was lighter or even non-existent, they could probably enjoy a minor renaissance. Hell, if they could get that monthly fee under the $10 dollar mental barrier, it could be huge. But then, I say this without the benefit of their internal numbers.

But that’s neither here nor there. What bugs me about the ads (some of which can be seen in this thread found on CorpNews) is not their existence. Hell, I’m an advertising major (no, really!), so I’m not against advertisements. Also, as a game designer, part of my job is to figure out how to make my game earn more money without making the players hate me for it. The latter part’s crucial – if you hate us, you’ll quit, and no more sweet, sweet monthly fee. So I can deal with the existence of the ads.

No, what bugs me are the ads themselves. The Coke and Fanta ads I can deal with. I can imagine a future where Coke and Fanta win the cola wars (in a surprise move, the Fantanas bomb P.Diddy’s Diet Pepsi truck). I do wish the ads were a bit grungier to fit into the world, but then again, billboards are designed to be eye-catching in all time-periods. No, what bugs me are the ads for Deuce Bigalow – for one simple reason: they so much more bring me out of my dystopian future and ground me back in the dystopian present where Rob Schneider is considered a major star.

The ad shows a URL, the release date, and Rob’s obnoxious mug, all of which it would seem to me would fully yank you out of the future world they’ve created. And, for the love of all that’s holy, Massive Incorporated guys, try to think about what you can place that might make customers feel less like quitting on the spot than Rob Frackin’ Schneider. Mr Schneider will NOT survive the upcoming cataclysm which leads to the dark future unless he is part-cockroach (which come to think of it, is entirely possible).

Of course, the real question is, will Coke and Deuce Bigalow still want to shell out the big bucks when they find out you can hack out the ads with a simple change to your hosts file?