Optional In Game Ads

NCsoft, publishers of such online games like Guild Wars and City of Heroes has just signed a deal with Double Fusion, a maker of in game ads. The deal hopes to bring in game advertisements to the franchise City of Heroes, but there is a catch. According to the story, the publisher is making plans to include a free option that will allow gamers to turn of the ads. What is interesting here isnt so much the fact that the ads are being included in the game, yet the idea that they can be turned off, especially for free, by the individual.

The reasoning for bringing ads to the City of Heroes franchise is to create more realism in it's modern urban setting. With that said, the ads will also help to provide revenues to help furthur develop the MMO. Any gamer who chooses that they do not want the ads will have the option to turn them off, no strings attached. As an iteresting note, the same technology being used for creating these flexible ads, will also be used to help bring user create content into the game.

I like the idea that NCsoft and Double Fusion are willing to give users the options to turn off the ads within the game. In my experience I have never thought that ads were over invasive and disrupted the game experience( Fight Night Round 3 was pretty close). Nevertheless, there are those who are strictly against advertising in games and this option suits them well. For the most part it seems to me that players of the game will find the ads either do indeed bring realism to the game, or more likely be neutral towards their addition. In either scenario it is unlikely the user will opt to turn them off simply because if they do not ruin the game experience, then there is no logical reason to do so.