Football Manager to get in-game ads

[Falkirk]

I hope that whatever ingame/pitch style ads the game may have, don't distract the eye from the action on the pitch.

Like blinking ads, turning billboards, etc etc.

I don't want to be distracted while I am trying to watch and see why my defense fell apart, or midfielders keep giving the ball away etc etc.

[Synergy6]

Originally posted by Falkirk:

I hope that whatever ingame/pitch style ads the game may have, don't distract the eye from the action on the pitch.

Surely if an advert didn't "distract the eye", it wouldn't be much of an advert...

[T-Bag]

I read another article on the FM/IGA link last night (apologies but I can't find the link to this now) which was saying things like competitions would be sponsored by the adverts.

So instead of the "English League Cup" could we end up with things like "The Burger King Cup" ? I'm not sure of the accuracy of the article as it had a few other mistakes in it relating to the description of FM.

[Miles Jacobson]

T-Bag - I'd be interested in the link for that article because, for FM, that is simply not true. For FML, it would make sense.

[Mountain Man]

Going off at a slight tangent, although it's more of a commercial / business side of things, I think choosing a sponsorship package might not necessarily be a bad thing.

Years ago, I remember playing "Premier Manager" on the Amiga (must have been around 1992) and one of the key elements was choosing sponsorship deals for the pitchside boards. They were all fictional ads or adverts for games by "Gremlin Graphics".

Enough nostalgia. My tuppen'eth for what it's worth (not much lol)

[Falkirk]

Originally posted by Synergy6:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Falkirk:

I hope that whatever ingame/pitch style ads the game may have, don't distract the eye from the action on the pitch.

Surely if an advert didn't "distract the eye", it wouldn't be much of an advert... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

True enough. Haha.

Then again, I thought the white on 08 made it entirely unplayable for me.

I have been playing 2007 instead, even with the added skins.

My love affair with the game in not waning, I just wasn't pleased with 08, and I hope 09 is an improvement and not just more hard on the eyes crapola.

[Drunk Beware]

I am actually in favour of "in-game ads", for one it will make the future of FM more secure with obviously more revenue coming in. Think about what it will do for for the series, more money means more money for Football Manager which in turn means better games for everyone out there.

As previously mentioned in this thread there are many ways in which advertisement can benefit many games and Miles has said it won't slow the game down at all.

Personally i think hats off for the team (whoever makes these decisions) for doing a great piece of buisness. All of the people who have said FM are just exploiting large sales, surely that is good for every person who buys FM!

[Sanctimonius]

Hah, I remember that Premier Manager, I had it for the Megadrive.

Will there be a control on who gets to advertise in the game? I for one would like to see at least some adverts, if they have to be there, from charities and aid organisations. It`s great that the world class teams of Barca, Real Madrid and...er...Aston Villa have chosen to sponser a charity instead of grasping for more money. It would be nice to see SI take that step too and give a platform to some other charities.

[phnompenhandy]

Hah, you're so NOT your username

Very good point - SI already support WARCHILD - I'd have no objection at all to promoting causes like that since it wouldn't be part of any crass subversive commercialism.

[Sparx]

Crikey! I thought I'd just catch up with news but I got the wather with some of the vitriol being spat out on here!!

I really don't see what the fuss is all about? Providing it's done tastefully (and Miles suggests it will be) I wouldn't mind seeing billboards around the pitch.

Even going so far as making the pitch bigger allows more advert space and therefore more funds etc.

I remember those villains at EA having the sides of the rink full of adverts in the NHL games, to be honest I thought that was a great addition, especially as I could then download the true adverts if need be!

My only real concern us one of flashing, those rolling video billboards do my head in at Footy and can distract your attention, I know as I'm a Derby fan and I'm convinced it's the pretty video's that have distracted our defence in the Prem all last season LOL!!

Come on guys, SI do listen to their fans and while FM08 was apparently unplayable to some out of the box, to be honest I've been less succesful since the 8.0.2 patch but the fact we have had patches and communication with Miles, Ter et al during the process suggests we have nothing to worry about!

[Ascanius]

I don't see what the big hoo-har is about. Miles suggests it will be done within reason not to disrupt the game, who are we to doubt him.

[JumbledSausage]

I'm the same - shocked that this is such a surprise. Miles has done his best to explain that the ads will not interrupt gameplay so I don't see what the problem is.

[Mojby]

Originally posted by Nomis07:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Miles Jacobson:

But, from an FM level, it won't slow the game down,

I'm the same Mike7077, I couldn't care less as long as it doesn't affect the actual gaming and according to Miles it won't. This thread seems like a storm in a teacup to me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>.

I agree with the above - For gods sake guys wait until the game comes out before you become Judge, jury and executioner.

[jedclough]

Originally posted by Dreaded Walrus:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jedclough:

Does this mean that regen facepaks will be shown eating a 'delicious' subway and the 2d pitch will be flanked by ads for London Pride. You could have penalty missers hitting the Hut as news items.

Of course not. As has been stated before, it is in situ ads. As has also been stated already, ads have been in the game for more than one iteration now, but because they are so well implemented, noone really complains about having a hyperlink to BBC Sport or Fourfourtwo in news items.

Likewise, noone would really complain if these new ads allow the likes of kit and stadium sponsorship.

Until we see the product for ourselves, we should trust that the developers are not outight lying to us when they say they handled it sensitively, you know?

Also, FWIW Chopper99, I agree with absolutely everything you say, apart from the bit about bugs. Just because a game has bugs that are not noticed by most until one person spots them does not mean those bugs are excusable. Indeed, as I'm sure you're aware, it is exactly that kind of bug that tends to get past dedicated QA testers at both developer and publisher (and Microsoft, on the 360). I too didn't patch my SI management games up until FM05, as before then I didn't even have the net, and you're right, I didn't spot the inadequacies, but I was likely still affected by them (as you say, when these things are pointed out, people often say "oh yeah I get that" and the like).

I would also agree with a few other users that 8.0.0 had lots of major issues affecting it, and the subsequent patches fixed many of those, as well as quite a few issues that had annoyed me for quite a few iterations of the game. Indeed, 8.0.2 was one of the most enjoyable versions of FM I've played, personally.

But now I'm just going off on a tangent. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Did sarcasm bypass your family?

[Dreaded Walrus]

Originally posted by jedclough:

Did sarcasm bypass your family?

No.

[Elohir]

There's no point in people getting their knickers in a twist until it's demo'd. Advertising in-game isn't a terrible thing but it's very situational. I think the original motive will dictate whether it's successful or not. If it's been done to increase realism in the game, it'll be implemented with that primarily in mind and probably will be a nice cosmetic plus. If however it's been done for the cash, well, I think we'll see a very large market for add-blocker mods.

[Miles Jacobson]

Sanctimonius - we already give a donation to Warchild for every game that we sell, as well as being recognised as one of the first (and most active) companies regarding the workplace giving charity iniative (now known as Geared for Giving), as well as a bunch of other charity work that we do individually (for example, I'm a trustee of one charity, am in the process of setting up another one in conjunction with a further charity, and do work for 3 others, on top of the donations and personal donations), alongside various other initiatives and promotion that we've done for various charities over the years.

We just don't tend to talk about it, as we don't do it for the purposes of getting PR.

[Nomis07]

Miles isn't going to go into specifics and quite rightly so. basically none of us know what way it is going to be done or how much uit is going to affect the game until we try the demo. For all we know it could be tiny adverts rather than hints popping up as the game processes, all I know is that I really don't care as long as it doens't adversely affect the game.

This is all a bit of a storm in a teacup and to actually get 2 pages worth of forum space out of a topic none of us know anything about just goes to prove how much waffle a lot of people on these forums talk.

We just don't tend to talk about it, as we don't do it for the purposes of getting PR.

I think it's quite sad that this has been brought up, personally i'd rather not know which charities SI choose to donate to etc, because given this topic it wouldn't be long before it would turn into a discussion on the merits of each charity and which deserves what.

[Pangaea]

Originally posted by Miles Jacobson:

For those who say that they won't buy the game if it has advertising in it, there has been advertising in our games for years.

If you play in the English league, for example, many of the news items are branded with local and national newspapers, with hyperlinks.

Manager man's jacket has been branded in the past in different countries.

Sponsors names have been used on shirts for teams where we have licenses, and the licensor has requested it.

The same for tournaments too, such as the Coca Cola Championship.

True, and some of those annoy me also. The links doesn't bother me too much as it's quite rare and I don't pay much attention to the press anyway. The shirt stuff doesn't bother me too much either, as I'll have to look for them. But the Coca Cola Championship is terrible!!!! Just call the thing the Championship, like everywhere else.

The difference with introduction of ads is that it is utterly impossible to not notice them. They will be visible for every single match, and perhaps for other events also (we don't know yet).

Looking at comments, this looks set to be in the game. Will it be possible to remove them, either by options or skinning?

I suppose this could be a good thing, as I can spend more of my time on other things.

[Nomis07]

Originally posted by Pangaea:

Looking at comments, this looks set to be in the game. Will it be possible to remove them, either by options or skinning?

I mentioned this topic on another FM Forum, and it didn't get a bad response at all. Most people said it wouldn't bother them, because no doubt someone will have worked out a way to get rid of them within a couple of weeks (as with certain features atm). Probably not what Miles wants to hear, but i'm sure he knows it goes on.