Paying Subscriptions for MMOs with In-Game Ads? 246
CokoBWare asks: "Next Generation is reporting that NC Soft, makers of the beloved City of Heroes, Guild Wars, and other MMOs have announced that they will be incorporating in-game advertising for their MMO Auto Assault, using an ad service from Massive Inc. NC Soft has made no indication that they intend to change their subscription model in light of this new announcement. I wanted to know how other people would feel paying $50US for a game, plus approximately $15/month in subscription fees, and in addition be served with in-game advertising as well? Is this a good trend for subscription-based MMO games of the future? Should gamers pay for the privilege of having to be subjected to in-game advertising on a monthly basis?"
Missed a point.. (Score:5, Informative)
Planetside has that (Score:3, Informative)
It's also very very easy to get rid of the ads. Apparently you just enter a line in your lmhosts file that tells the game to redirect all requests to the Massive Inc servers to some black hole. No more ads.
Re:How do you even know there will be a fee? (Score:3, Informative)
Seeing as they *already* have multiple MMOs which require a monthly fee (City of Heroes/Villains, Lineage II)and have stated in their Auto Assault faq that the game will have monthly fees [autoassault.com], I think it's unlikely that the game will use the Guild Wars model.
What remains to be seen is if they will do the advertising vs paid model like Anarchy Online or if all paid accounts will have advertising.
Re:It's quite simple: (Score:3, Informative)