CS Ads Are a Go - Deal Signed

[pistachio]

Well why didn't you say so in the first place?! Of course everyone has a hippie friend, or at least knows of one. Can't say I'm close to too many people who own a hookah but we'll see what the future holds eh?

[Bokuho]

It'll all backfire on them when the various sponsers and so forth realise that CS players aren't going to suddenly stop and think mid-game "hey, new sunglasses. Yeah, that's what I need!", and will stop paying out to VALVe as a result.



You just wait and see. I bet everyone £0.00 that it'll happen within a year.

[Thortok2000]

Edited by [user="152360"] @ [time="1166696777"]

I agree completely with Nighthawk, like always. (Of all the people I've ever seen on CS-Nation, his opinion matches mine the closest.)



I don't think it ever occurred to Valve to try making money by, instead of advertising, actually making new and interesting games that are worth buying.



I mean, take Episode 2....All I want is Episode 2. I don't want Portal, I don't want TFC. If you give me portal and TFC, I will never play TFC and might play portal once. It was first announced that 'episodic content' would mean less costs to the consumer, buying a 6-10 hour game for 20 bucks instead of a 20+ hour game for 50 bucks.



And now? Now I have to buy a 6-10 hour game for 50 bucks. Sure, I'm actually getting three games, but if you think about it, there is NO option to buy JUST the game I want. I'm not interested in playing 2/3rds of what I'm paying for; but I still have to pay full cost.



Also, last I heard, Episode 2 is being added to the 'half life pack' that I purchased, with no change in price for that 'pack' (again, this is just last I heard). Meaning that if I bought the exact same pack I bought before, after episode 2 is released, I'd have episode 2, for the exact same amount of money. But now, I have to pay 50 dollars extra, just to get episode 2, and the two 'free' games with it, just because I was one of the people who supported Valve and bought the pack earlier. This is how they 'reward' the people who have already given them money; by making them give more.



The similar philosophy of 'rewarding' their consumers by squeezing more money out of them is with the in-game ads: They are, essentially, 'pay to play', and you pay by having the advertising. There's all kinds of things that are free, but you have to view ads, or you can pay for the no-ads version. I can easily see Counterstrike becoming a game you have to pay 35 dollars a month for to play ad-free. When we bought the game, there were no ads, there was no monthly fee. Now there will be.



Valve is seriously screwing us over, more and more. I can't wait until they go out of business and all the good minds at Valve quit to start their own game company.

[ALT+F4]

I miss Pop Dog.

[_PeNgUiNs_ lord]

i'm ok with that, i think perhaps they should have them constantly moving around aswell instead of having that train as a constant advertising board, one day its there, one day its on the wall, then its at t spawn etc...

this would also solve any possible problems cus if you don't like where it is one day it'll move the next.

[Fragalishus]

Steam is the biggest bait-and-switch scam ever perpetrated. Promise after promise of lower cost to gamers, better service, less piracy, and better anti-cheat measures. All of which are the complete opposite.



Games are shorter, and cost more.



Service is questionable, at best, execept for the most mundane of issues.



Steam has made piracy even easier. In the past it was probably difficult finding a working key. Now all you need is a new Steam account.



Anti-cheat? Sure it stops noobs, but so did the AC stuff pre-steam. Combined with the above, ban a cheater and he's back in 5 minutes with a new steamid. gg...



If you're on a public server, the only ads I wouldn't have a problem with are ads for the server's community, or a product the server owners endorse. If they need help off-setting the cost of providing us an arena to play in, so be it.



Should Valve get a cut of that? Possibly. I say possibly because I doubt those types of ads are going to provide the server owners any profit. In fact I doubt they'd get anywhere close to even breaking even for what the bandwidth costs are. If they started making more money off ads than it cost to run the server then absolutely, Valve should get a cut of that. Or Valve's cut should come out of the 3rd party sponsor, and not the server owner's.



CPL and tournaments are a completely different story. As disgusting as it is, an "Nvidia half-time report" or "ATI scoreboard" wouldn't be out of the question, since those types of companies are paying for the prize money. And of course they should pay Valve if they want to run their ads in Valve's game.



But public play should stay ad-free, or left to the discretion of the server owner. If Valve wants to start footing the bandwidth bills and provide some game servers, plaster all the ads you want all over the place.



There's only one solution, and it just won't happen. The day the ads roll out everyone just uninstall 1.6. Let them see the player minutes drop from 5 billion player minutes to 2 guys playing on a lan and we'll see what happens. Sadly, that just won't happen.



And sure Valve can say "if they don't like it they don't have to host the server". True, and we don't have to play their games, either.



I lost my CS addiction long ago, so it's no big deal for me. But it's completely up to the gaming community as to where this goes. If a strong message isn't sent now then every game in the future will be plastered with ads, and we'll be paying more for those games just to have ads thrown at us.



Who knows? Maybe a class-action lawsuit will be needed. The EULA aside, any competent lawyer could probably make a good case against bait-and-switch practices. We certainly wouldn't have purchased the game knowing that something like this was coming. Most of us wouldn't have, anyway. And this isn't a game play change or adding a new feature. It's straight up money-grubbing.



Want my money? Make a decent game. Or give me enough half-assed games at a reasonable price to make me think I got my money's worth. Until then, Valve is SOL when it comes to my cash.

[Thortok2000]

Unfortunately, I stopped playing 1.6 awhile ago when I moved to CS:S, and then I stopped playing that. Now I play it every now and then...I'm waiting until I get a computer upgrade before I really get back to playing it again.



So I can't really 'threaten' to quit 1.6...I already have. But I'd sign on to any class-action lawsuit just because I still 'own' the game and it's the whole spirit of the thing.

[Deletable_Man]

So these only appear on official maps or are they using some bastard ass system that measures the width and height of every brush in any map and then slaps ads on the winning results?



I'm asking because I don't think I've played an official CS map since around 2002. :/

[ioCS,undertaker]

Well if they finally gave up from dicating CS: Source for competitive play and if they need this income to support CS 1.6 further like updating the anticheat, improvements such as maps, weapons etc. this is a good thing. The reason why Valve stopped supporting CS 1.6 is that they could not earn any more money from that. And guys please be serious, this is business and business is made for profit. You have to at least cover your costs.



But if this is done just for making more money and if that means they will continue not supporting the game, if this is just for making gamers hate the game and leave it, i blame Valve too.



Lets wait and see what happens...

[pistachio]

Another thing, read the article and you'll find something to the effect of player minutes rivaling the top ten most watch TV shows in America.



Just a hunch, but could this have to do with prime time TV being total garbage and the fact that theres three minutes of commercials in between the shows? Call me a radical, but I think people like their games with no bullshit ads like they see on TV. If a video game had an equal amount of advertising, would player hours be the same? I mean, really.



They talk about reaching a target audience in the article like its a good thing. Like people actually give two shits about seeing ads in the game and that it's "above the line". The nerve of these people is astonishing.



I dunno about you, but if I need server hosting, soda, sunglasses, computer hardware, games, DVDs, office supplies, leaf blowers, whatever, I get up off my ass and go shop for them. I don't need to be reminded that computer mice still exist and that they're on sale. If I needed a new mouse I'd go get one before I even saw an ad for them, if not, the ad is useless because I'm not looking for one.

[Thortok2000]

Imagine if after every round there was a 30 second commercial you had to watch before playing the next round. Imagine playing fy_iceworld like that.



It brings to mind Futurama. There was an episode I saw where there were advertisements in his dreams. Then he goes to the store and sees what he had seen advertised, and it has a sign saying "As seen in your dreams!" (just like the 'as seen on TV' ads.)



Is there nowhere advertisements won't go? The only place they really belong is the phonebook, when you're looking specifically for the product or service you want and choosing who you want to get that product or service from.

[pistachio]

Amen Thortok!

[peagle]

Thortok2000 wrote..

Is there nowhere advertisements won't go? The only place they really belong is the phonebook, when you're looking specifically for the product or service you want and choosing who you want to get that product or service from.

So wouldn't sponsored ads for search engines fall in that category?

[pistachio]

Yeah they do, but in my experience the sponsored links don't really help. I haven't clicked on one to date and don't think I ever will. More often than not, I'll be searching for, lets say, a particular piece of computer hardware and up come some sponsored links. It's usually links to hardware distributors or the home page of the hardware vendor itself. If I wanted to go to their page, I just type in their name on a search engine and click on the links in search results. Rendering sponsored ads useless. Victory.

[WooFerPPK]

i just ignore the ads i see.



now were is my dam HeadOn, i need to apply it directly to my forehead.