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The main problem I have with ads in games now is
same as my issue with Pay TV. You're shelling out a lot of money for a product (new games being sold for upwards of $50.00 U.S.) and you're still getting ads. If developers are going to start flooding my entertainment with advertising, I'd like to see a significant drop in price of games.
The other big issue is that of spyware. Until now, spyware has been a hated part of existence. This malicious software digs its way into your system and collects information about you: your Internet surfing habits, contents of your hard drive(s) and even unblocked ports available on your computer. This has lead to necessity of loading a system with anti-spyware utilities to run alongside pop-up killers, anti-virus programs, firewalls, registry guards and whatever other protective measures a paranoid PC user has to implement. Now paradoxically, someone has had 'fantastic' idea of building spyware into software, and games in particular.
In future games that you've just paid such a high price for will sit there monitoring you in background, watching your every virtual move. Then they can target ads that are more likely to have an impact on you based on contents of your hard drive or your Internet surfing habits. The best part about it is that as soon as you click 'I Agree' and install software, it becomes legitimate and you've agreed for them to access information about you. Many software products already feature clauses in their license agreements that have user permitting developers to collect 'anonymous information in order to provide customer with a better experience'. The other part of this that irks me is fact that I'm going to have to have my computer connected to Internet and chew through my download limit just to play a single-player game.
In end, I suppose that there's no way to avoid advertising in our current world. Having it implemented into software and games was simply next logical step. I suspect that I will be looking to download inevitable 'Ad Blocker' cracks that I imagine will appear shortly after wholesale introduction of advertising into gaming industry, but I do believe that with appropriate tact and respect for privacy, advertising could turn out to be a positive addition to interactive experience.
Daniel Punch M6.Net http://www.m6.net
