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[Carcetti]

Advertising in products you paid for defense force ACTIVATE!

Ridiculous. I don't expect ads when I spend my money on something. I understand if the game is free but this is bullshit.

Just saying but... have you ever bought a magazine, or perhaps a DVD with trailers. I read a lot of books, and even they have ads for author's other works in front and publisher's other stuff in the end these days.

Actual ingame advertising in Deus Ex: HR would be terribly moodbreaking, but I can't bring myself to care about the loading screens. Maybe it's because I usually read something else while the game loads.

They should've just been forthcoming about this pre-release.

 

[Red UFO]

I don't mind 'advertising' akin to product placement in movies and television, but this is BS.

EDIT: Although that wouldn't make much sense with this game since it's set in the future.

 

[Hazanko]

Without at least expressing your displeasure with the publisher and developer there's a chance that next time it won't be quite as easy to disable.

I have also been seeing a few people mention that it's in their PS3 version, which would make it impossible to disable the ads. Load times are also longer than PC, I think.

 

[Interfectum]

Fuck that shit. I paid for my game, don't punish me with these shitty ads. Not spending a dime on DLC until the ads are removed.

 

[dr_octagon]

I feel entitled to no in game ads when i pay 60 bucks for a game, and i always get it my way, until this case

the fuck are you talking about?

I agree with SalsaShark.

Free services will have ads and that's accepted because you benefit and don't have to pay (eg. youtube). When you pay for a game, you know what you get and that includes no changes (such as ads) and it's nothing to do with entitlement.

The game remains the same but any changes (regardless of whether they are perceived as minor or not) should be down to the person who owns the game. There should be an option to unsubscribe but that is unlikely. The size of the ad and it being on the loading screen doesn't matter, it's the principle.

Also, these steps are retroactively implemented and there is zero indication that ads will appear - so they get your money and expect you to put up with it. People should kick up a fuss because it is bullshit and the fact it is a game makes no difference. It is an item you have paid for, not something to later tinker around with and say it's an acceptable practice.

There are alternative ways and asking gamers might be useful rather than sticking ads later. Sony got shit for Wipeout because it was an attempt to sneak in ads. They learnt a harsh lesson and their 'foray into dynamic advertising' was told to take a fucking running jump by fans.

 

[theinfinityissue]

Saw this at Reddit

I haven't played DX:HR yet, but that ad certainly looks obtrusive and I would be upset.

Searched, didn't see anything. Lock if old etc.

 

[AEREC]

Just saying but... have you ever bought a magazine, or perhaps a DVD with trailers. I read a lot of books, and even they have ads for author's other works in front and publisher's other stuff in the end these days.

Actual ingame advertising in Deus Ex: HR would be terribly moodbreaking, but I can't bring myself to care about the loading screens. Maybe it's because I usually read something else while the game loads.

They should've just been forthcoming about this pre-release.

Why do in-game-ad sympathizers keep falling back to "but but it's already in tv shows, magazines, etc...we should just accept it in games now too." Thats just fucking ridiculous...why even try to justify it.

 

[hiryu]

Add me to the camp of I'm fine with ads in free stuff but once I pay for something you can fuck off with your ads bullshit. This is even made worse by the fact that it was patched in later and I had no choice in the matter.

Oh look, I bet pirates don't have ads in their copies. Tell me again why I paid full price so you could advertise to me?

 

[Carcetti]

Free services will have ads and that's accepted because you benefit and don't have to pay (eg. youtube). When you pay for a game, you know what you get and that includes no changes (such as ads) and it's nothing to do with entitlement.

More to the point, there are lots of things that you have to pay for and still get ads. Magazines and newspapers are one, but even going to a hockey games forces you to watch adds in the rinkside and on the shirts. It's just something we've gotten to accept and I don't hear hockey fans having riots over it.

I do agree that changing the game afterwards is shifty. It really is like sneaking in to your house and putting stickers on stuff that you thought you owned.

Why do in-game-ad sympathizers keep falling back to "but but it's already in tv shows, magazines, etc...we should just accept it in games now too." Thats just fucking ridiculous...why even try to justify it.

Why? Because some of these services couldn't function without the ad revenue. The cash gotta come from somewhere. I'm not saying Deus Ex falls into this category as it seems pretty succesfull, but as someone else pointed out in this thread earlier, budget growth in AAA games is unsustainable unless you look at only the biggest sellers. Listen to the talks in GDC etc for the last few years, the message about unsustainable state of the industry gets repeated a lot. Or maybe the devs are just trolling you in the panel speeches.

 

[Angry Fork]

More to the point, there are lots of things that you have to pay for and still get ads. Magazines and newspapers are one, but even going to a hockey games forces you to watch adds in the rinkside and on the shirts. It's just something we've gotten to accept and I don't hear hockey fans having riots over it.

You've gotten to accept.

If enough people are vocal about this and raise hell against it they won't be here for long.

 

[Carcetti]

You've gotten to accept.

If enough people are vocal about this and raise hell against it they won't be here for long.

Fair enough. For me, the tiny loading screen ad in the OP is non-issue, as it's one of the least visible examples of in game ads I've seen. On the other hand I have a problem with how it was added into the game after release though.

Edit: That's what's interesting in this case, isn't it, the acceptance. Game companies will want to make us desensitized to adding ads to the game, and we'll see in next few years how that will pan out.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

So all of you guys who are upset aren't going to buy Thief 4 or a new Deus Ex game, right?

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Doesn't bother me at all, I didn't even notice it until I scrolled over.

 

[mxgt]

It's been mentioned in this thread but there are no ads on my UK version which is awesome.

The ad defence force is amusing though. Is it really that unreasonable that people don't want ads in their games?

 

[Gustav]

Just read about this and laughed for about 10 minutes.

I hate this fucking shit, and if it becomes normal behaviour then well.. guess im not getting as many games. Im spending my money on this, dont throw ads at my face.

Stuff like this just goes a long way to show how much a particular dev cares about their customers.

It's clearly the devs that struck that deal!

You've gotten to accept.

If enough people are vocal about this and raise hell against it they won't be here for long.

Worked for Wipeout on PS3!

 

[Interfectum]

Why? Because some of these services couldn't function without the ad revenue. The cash gotta come from somewhere. I'm not saying Deus Ex falls into this category as it seems pretty succesfull, but as someone else pointed out in this thread earlier, budget growth in AAA games is unsustainable unless you look at only the biggest sellers. Listen to the talks in GDC etc for the last few years, the message about unsustainable state of the industry gets repeated a lot. Or maybe the devs are just trolling you in the panel speeches.

They are already charging $60 per game plus attempting to milk us after launch with overpriced DLC. If they can't sustain that without slapping ads on their products then maybe it's not a business model worth saving or supporting.

 

[AEREC]

So all of you guys who are upset aren't going to buy Thief 4 or a new Deus Ex game, right?

Im done with Deus Ex and Im not buying the DLC because of this. If Thief 4 has the ads, I wont be buying that either.

 

[Dali]

More to the point, there are lots of things that you have to pay for and still get ads. Magazines and newspapers are one, but even going to a hockey games forces you to watch adds in the rinkside and on the shirts. It's just something we've gotten to accept and I don't hear hockey fans having riots over it.

All your examples are different experiences from that of an epic video game that is trying to deliver something of an engrossing cinematic experience. A more apt comparison would be let's say you're watching the Kingdom of Heaven directors cut DVD and the intermission card had ads for other movies on it.

 

[Carcetti]

They are already charging $60 per game, plus attempting to milk us after launch with overpriced DLC. If they can't sustain that without slapping ads on their products then maybe it's not a business model worth saving.

That is a good point. I'm not saying I'm _right_ in this discussion, I'm just saying I don't find this particular ad very troubling.

The next question is really that is huge budget AAA business model worth saving? Maybe not, when you look at what's happened to a lot of studios last few years. Gamers are going to demand higher quality, more production values for ever though. Something gotta snap. Midtier games are the first to go, the ones that don't fall into indie or cheapo or real AAA, though.

All your examples are different experiences from that of an epic video game that is trying to deliver something of an engrossing cinematic experience. A more apt comparison would be let's say you're watching the Kingdom of Heaven directors cut DVD and the intermission card had ads for other movies on it.

That's a good point as well, everyone has different thresholds where their suspension of disbelief suffers. I think in this thread these's two different issues which should be talked separately though: actual ingame ads and retroactively altering game experience with ingame ads.

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

anyone know how to block the ad servers at the ROUTER LEVEL? i have the PS3 version and people are reporting the ads there too. this is such bullshit.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

It's been mentioned in this thread but there are no ads on my UK version which is awesome.

The ad defence force is amusing though. Is it really that unreasonable that people don't want ads in their games?

I don't want ads in my game, but at the same time I'm not one to get upset over something that has little to no effect on me. If the ads become obtrusive I will take the appropriate actions (rage, protest, etc.) but I'm not going to let something this small get under my skin.

The fact that the advertising was added later with a patch is the only part of this that I find mildly irritating, but when I say mildly I mean mildly.

They are already charging $60 per game plus attempting to milk us after launch with overpriced DLC. If they can't sustain that without slapping ads on their products then maybe it's not a business model worth saving or supporting.

Milking with DLC? HR is extremely heavy on content. Complaining about the price-tag is a little extreme. Can we at least wait to see how the DLC turns out before labeling it as "overpriced"?

 

[Carcetti]

I don't want ads in my game, but at the same time I'm not one to get upset over something that has little to no effect on me. If the ads become obtrusive I will take the appropriate actions (rage, protest, etc.) but I'm not going to let something this small get under my skin.

The fact that the advertising was added later with a patch is the only part of this that I find mildly irritating, but when I say mildly I mean mildly.

This describes my attitude pretty well too, in case someone is wondering.

It's not unreasonable not to want ads in your game, I don't want ads in my games either, but I won't die of horror if there's a tiny button somewhere on the corner of a loading screen. I'll save the rage for something more blatant.

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

This describes my attitude pretty well too, in case someone is wondering.

It's not unreasonable not to want ads in your game, I don't want ads in my games either, but I won't die of horror if there's a tiny button somewhere on the corner of a loading screen. I'll save the rage for something more blatant.

it's not just a 'button on the loading screen', it's some of the fictional billboards and advertisements in the game being completely replaced with current-day ads that completely break the immersion of the game world.

 

[Londa]

So all of you guys who are upset aren't going to buy Thief 4 or a new Deus Ex game, right?

Won't buy it on release day. Will wait a year for the game to be 19.99, or download it on Steam when its 10 dollars. What do I look like spending 60 dollars for a interactive ad? Lol

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Won't buy it on release day. Will wait a year for the game to be 19.99, or download it on Steam when its 10 dollars. What do I look like spending 60 dollars for a interactive ad? Lol

Now an ad on a loading screen is enough cause to categorize an entire game as an "interactive ad"? Did you know that there is a solid 30+ hours of in-game content in Deus Ex: HR, and that the content in the actual game is exactly the same now (post-patch) as it was when the game first came out? The interactive aspect of the game is completely untarnished.

 

[Interfectum]

This describes my attitude pretty well too, in case someone is wondering.

It's not unreasonable not to want ads in your game, I don't want ads in my games either, but I won't die of horror if there's a tiny button somewhere on the corner of a loading screen. I'll save the rage for something more blatant.

By then it's already too late. There is no rage here... it's push back. You accept this 'tiny button' now, expect a bigger one in the future, perhaps even the entire loading screen.

 

[Leckan]

Maybe already discussed but wouldn't it be funny if the long loading times (on consoles) was deliberate in order to maximise ad-revenue?

 

[TetraxShards]

I remember back when Battlefield 2142 had ads.

Not a good move by Square-Enix. I've bought Deus Ex HR but have yet to play it.

 

[Persona7]

It is not like the ads screw up the loading by making the load times longer so you can view the ad for a extended period.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

By then it's already too late. There is no rage here... it's push back. You accept this 'tiny button' now, expect a bigger one in the future, perhaps even the entire loading screen.

It sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. Maybe you've been playing too much Deus Ex.

In all seriousness, in game advertising has been around for a long time and there is no evidence supporting a universal trend towards more obtrusive ads in games that I can see. If anything they've remained fairly consistent throughout this generation. It's not like the ads in HR are more obtrusive than anything we've seen before, in fact they are less obtrusive than what we've seen in many games, it's just that people are upset because they were added as a patch. While that particular angle makes the complaint slightly more legitimate in my eyes, it still does nothing to support this "ad-drenched future" of video games that you seem to be so afraid of.

It is not like the ads screw up the loading by making the load times longer so you can view the ad for a extended period.

If this is the case for HR then I certainly see that as a legitimate reason for complaining.

 

[Leckan]

Thinking about it; I wouldn't be surprised to see MW3 or the game after that to have ads considering what a cash-cow it's for Activision. A feature for COD Elite could be an ad-less experience if you subscribe.

I'm almost certain it will happen. Now, I don't care about COD but considering pretty much every game wants to be COD these days it looks pretty grim for the future.

 

[Gustav]

It is not like the ads screw up the loading by making the load times longer so you can view the ad for a extended period.

Different game?

 

[Hazanko]

Maybe already discussed but wouldn't it be funny if the long loading times (on consoles) was deliberate in order to maximise ad-revenue?

And yet people say this kind of crap doesn't effect gameplay. Well it does if it takes longer to get in-game. Someone will have to do a side by side comparison like in that Wipeout video.

 

[Interfectum]

It sounds like a conspiracy theory to me. Maybe you've been playing too much Deus Ex.

In all seriousness, in game advertising has been around for a long time and there is no evidence supporting a universal trend towards more obtrusive ads in games that I can see. If anything they've remained fairly consistent throughout this generation. It's not like the ads in HR are more obtrusive than anything we've seen before, in fact they are less obtrusive than what we've seen in many games, it's just that people are upset because they were added as a patch. While that particular angle makes the complaint slightly more legitimate in my eyes, it still does nothing to support this "ad-drenched future" of video games that you seem to be so afraid of.


If this is the case for HR then I certainly see that as a legitimate reason for complaining.

If you start accepting ads on loading screens then you should start accepting artificially extended loading times from 30-60 seconds to show off the ads. Not sure why you think this is a conspiracy theory.

 

[LuchaShaq]

This, the ending(s), and the obviously ripped out or shoehorned in DLC makes me very glad I ended up gameflying instead of buying this.

Driver san francisco tries to do it right with realistic ads but then the same ad is on a million billboards and they are constantly in the background of fucking cutscenes.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

If you start accepting ads on loading screens then you should start accepting extending loading times from 30-60 seconds to show off the ads. Not sure why you think this is a conspiracy theory. You probably thought people were kooky when some assumed the idea of DLC would be heavily abused too.

If someone can demonstrate that the load times have increased I will change my opinion. Until then I'll keep my feet firmly planted in couldn't care less territory.

Show me that there is a universal trend towards things getting worse and I will start caring. Right now there is no reason to get upset other than baseless speculation born from irrationality.

 

[NullPointer]

In all seriousness, the only time in-game ads are not intrusive is in sports games (where the game mimics TV coverage) and in environments modeled on current day cities (billboards and the like).

Everywhere else? They can fuck right off. I don't need ads in Gears/Halo/Skyrim, etc. etc. etc. etc.

And the only way to go this route this without pissing on your customers is if the game content is free or if the ads are known to be in the game before release. If ads aren't harmful to the game then there is nothing to worry about in being upfront about it, right?

 

[Interfectum]

If someone can demonstrate that the load times have increased I will change my opinion. Until then I'll keep my feet firmly planted in couldn't care less territory.

Show me that there is a universal trend towards things getting worse and I will start caring. Right now there is no reason to get upset other than baseless speculation born from irrationality.

This is squeenix dipping their toes in the water for in-game advertising. If they dont suffer much blowback then they'll continue to do it. There is nothing wrong with complaining about it until they remove it. Deux Ex will be better for it.

Funny aside: Yesterday I wanted to show my boss a trailer for Drive and the the in-video ad showed a trailer for the Drive... the same trailer I was going to show my boss. I was watching an ad before watching an ad. /wrists

 

[LCfiner]

Just out of principle, adding these ads means i won't buy this game for more than 5 bucks on a Steam sale. And I might not even bother with that.

I was thinking of paying full price and playing it over the next couple months but this is just a dick move by the publisher and I can't support that.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

This is squeenix dipping their toes in the water for in-game advertising. If they dont suffer much blowback then they'll continue to do it. There is nothing wrong with complaining about it until they remove it. Deux Ex will be better for it.

Honestly, I don't care if they continue to do it if the ads are as minimal as what we're seeing here. Don't you worry though, the moment those ads actually start impacting the game in some meaningful way I will quickly jump on the anti-ad bandwagon.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Holy fuck, that is disrespectful as hell. Just goes to show what Square Enix think of their customers (you can forget about me purchasing any of your future games any time soon!)

Does the same thing happen with the console games as well? Or just the PC version?

FF13-2 to have Gillette ads appearing every time you level up!

 

[Chavelo]

When did Deus Ex go free-to-play? DAMN IT, I SHOULD OF WAITED. D:

 

[Commanche Raisin Toast]

Holy fuck, that is disrespectful as hell. Just goes to show what Square Enix think of their customers (you can forget about me purchasing any of your future games any time soon!)

Does the same thing happen with the console games as well? Or just the PC version?

PS3 users have been reporting it, and i hear 360 users are avoiding a patch so they don't have to deal with it either. it's not known if a patch added it or not though. could have always been there but wasn't 'activated' yet.

 

[AEREC]

Honestly, I don't care if they continue to do it if the ads are as minimal as what we're seeing here. Don't you worry though, the moment those ads actually start impacting the game in some meaningful way I will quickly jump on the anti-ad bandwagon.

Thats kinda stupid...thats like saying "I got this small rash on my balls, but it doesnt bother me too much...so Ill wait and see what happens." Before you know it you have full blown cock rot and you'll be wishing you would have taken care of it before it got worse.

 

[Gustav]

People are okay with ads on their Xbox dashboards although they're paying a monthly fee for the service. Actually, I'm surprised in-game ads haven't been pushed more this generation.

 

[Takuan]

This does nothing to hurt my game experience personally, but I agree with the opinions expressed here. It's a shoddy practice, but it wouldn't have prevented me from buying the game.

 

[NullPointer]

People are okay with ads on their Xbox dashboards although they're paying a monthly fee for the service. Actually, I'm surprised in-game ads haven't been pushed more this generation.

Not having a choice and being "OK" are two completely different things.

That said, plenty of people have a problem with dashboard ads.

 

[AEREC]

People are okay with ads on their Xbox dashboards although they're paying a monthly fee for the service. Actually, I'm surprised in-game ads haven't been pushed more this generation.

Im not really ok with it, but it has been that way since Ive been on xbox live, so I kinda knew thats what it was like when I started paying for it. Also it's not like the xbox dashboard is a story based RPG that I get immersed in..so while the ads on the dashboard are annoying they dont piss me too much and I just ignore them.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

People are okay with ads on their Xbox dashboards although they're paying a monthly fee for the service. Actually, I'm surprised in-game ads haven't been pushed more this generation.

Oh they have been pushed massively. A huge number of racing and sports games have dynamic ingame advertising on their billboards (where the advertising is changed over time), and there have been plenty of experiments in other games with ads on loading screens (Wipeout HD)

It's just that they're not usually as blatant, obtusive and offensive as this (especially since this is a story heavy RPG where ads don't really fit at all and actively break immersion. Plus they stealth patched it after release without telling anyone!)

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

Thats kinda stupid...thats like saying "I got this small rash on my balls, but it doesnt bother me too much...so Ill wait and see what happens." Before you know it you have full blown cock rot and you'll be wishing you would have taken care of it before it got worse.

Let's keep the ridiculous analogies out of this, shall we? If my opinion is that stupid it shouldn't be hard for you to demonstrate it with the information that's actually relevant to this discussion.

What I'm saying is that minimal advertising like this doesn't bother me because it doesn't affect my experience one way or the other. Some will say I have too high a tolerance for this thing, I'll say I have bigger things to worry about.

Like I said, the first time something like this happens and it actually affects the gameplay experience of a game I will be upset, but until then its business as usual. If I let everything this small bother me I would be dead by now.