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In game advertising

Discussion in 'Release 7 Feedback' started by Gubbles, Jul 5, 2014.

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  1. Gubbles

    Gubbles Avatar

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    I happened upon this in Owl's Head. I find it a bit distracting... I realize everyone wants to make their mark, and guilds want to recruit, but I hope walking around in SotA doesn't become the equivalent of browsing the million dollar homepage.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. dp_dropout

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    Stuff like that shouldn't be possible in the finished game.
    Also things like those mazes. They completely destroy any immersion. Imagine having that on a neighbouring lot...
     
  3. Gubbles

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    Oddly enough, I'm OK with the mazes, and other crazy house decorations, since to me it still feels like its part of my in-game experience. I can understand though why others might feel otherwise. For me though, anything in-game that suggests / directs me to do something that is outside of the boundary of the game definitely hurts immersion.
     
  4. prospereau

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    Not crazy about this either, I think it's especially destructive in alpha where we're hopefully all trying to help Portalarium make SotA the best that it can be rather than directing people to other places. On the upside there has to be an almost grudging admiration for someone with the patience to lay out all those apples. If only we could get them to put that level of effort into supporting the community!

    I think this is a EULA issue though, it should just be a contravention of the user agreement to advertise anything outside of game in game.

    DF.
     
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  5. Duke Olahorand

    Duke Olahorand Localization Team

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    Rarely I fully agreed with something you, Tarsin, said in these forums in the past, but this time - yes!
     
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  6. Gubbles

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    Haha.. well at least we have this brief moment of common ground :)
     
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  7. Asclepius

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    I'm not terribly bothered by it.
    One, it's in alpha and it (almost) certainly won't persist into the game.
    Two, I've been to his website and had a bit of (indirect) interaction - he seems a pretty genuine and nice guy, and on his website you will see SotA fairly prominently promoted. So at worst it's a bit of cross-promotion. He's actually an Ultima fan from way back.
    I do however acknowledge and respect those who didn't care for it much; have to agree that it would have taken a lot of work!!
     
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  8. Gubbles

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    @Asclepius, yeah, the workmanship placing all those apples is quite impressive :) I didn't mean to make this personal, and I hope its not taken that way, although I suppose its hard given the screenshot I posted. I've got nothing against him -- seeing the URL there immediately got me thinking about advertisements in game, and I thought it was worthwhile to mention. Hopefully, you are correct and this kind of stuff won't persist after the official release.

    On a side note, I wouldn't mind seeing URLs in-game if it was in a controlled way... perhaps written on a plaque in the house that'd I'd have to double click on, or written in a "All about this Property" book or something similar.
     
  9. majoria70

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    I also don't take offense to it in general. Very amazing. It shows a lot of creativity, which is what this game has said it will have the ability to provide for it's players. I would be careful about trying to set limits on what other players can or cannot do. If done correctly, we should all have more opportunity for this than in most games. I get a little dismayed when I hear so many comments about others players breaking immersion for someone by their yard deco or clothing choices. One of the reasons I was attracted to this game was for the sense of freedom it portrayed to do what many other games will not allow, like dropping items, interactive furniture, and items. So if done correctly we don't rain on someone's parade. Move to a new neighborhood or gossip or shun them about their lack of morals in their dress, isn't that what humans do? lol ;)
     
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  10. prospereau

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    I'm all for creativity...build an enormous model of a badger out of tea-cups if you want...I will probably be both entertained and appalled in equal measure. However I don't think this is really a thread about whether or not creativity should be stifled in the name of immersion, I think it's more about whether or not advertising should be tolerated in game. Now personally I wouldn't have had any problem with the apples in the OPs screenshot spelling out "Buy Granny Morton's traditional poisoned apples, a great gift for that princess in hiding in *your* life." I do have a problem with someone spelling out in their yard "Want to buy SoTA gold...come to "Chinesesweatshop.com"" I'm hoping that if this isn't covered by the EULA already, it will be.

    DF.
     
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  11. majoria70

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    I'm not talking about possible gold selling issues or advocating that kind of thing of course, just putting a caution in about how we ask for things. ROM had to be the worst I've seen for gold selling, it was a pain in the butt. :)
     
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  12. Floors

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    The maze was actually fun. A little quirky but fun.

    What Tarsin posted is a problem, a big immersion problem.

    At least with the mazes I can just say "That person is a crazy person".

    With the websites lawn text it's kind of an immersion breaker.
     
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  13. majoria70

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    LOL I still don't see how someone else's fun has to be an immersion breaker for anyone. You are walking through a dang town doing your own thing, having fun with the game or role play, oh well just my thought. I will go back to not and not be a dictator or judge, I just want to have fun. So back to the fun.;)
     
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  14. Joviex

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    But this is the behavior that is invited with a sandbox style setup.

    You cant have it both ways.

    The immediate way to resolve it is with a bunch of "MODS" running around enforcing rules , which is resource draining.

    Granted, this example is not a good one because it is promotional to the game; however, wait about 9 months and I will welcome you to the virtual child of Second Life and Ultima.
     
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  15. Gubbles

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    I don't think we need mods running around enforcing rules -- at least not in a proactive way. I might suggest an algorithm based approach, where players mark locations as 'interesting' and with enough marks by multiple players in a given radius and time frame, then GMs are notified to take a look; it could even be a screenshot at that point. Its much more reactive this way, and less time consuming. This could be used for a variety of circumstances. It could encompass the "Buy Viagra Today!" messages, as well as offensive / racially charged messages.
     
  16. prospereau

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    Right you are...it's a good thing that my idea of fun is 50 ft. high "Hello Kitty" figures then, no chance of that being an immersion breaker! ;)

    DF.
     
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  17. Floors

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    Why not ? it's like that around the forums.

    I imagine the game will also require some heavy hands from time to time.
     
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  18. Ristra

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    Terms of Service could easily make this something that is actionable. For example, this little snippet from the Blizzard Entertainment Terms of Use agreement.

     
  19. Joviex

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    Its never a question of "actionable" there are tons of real world laws that are broken and actionable all the time.

    Its about feasibility of enforcement.

    Someone mentioned having the community send "hey look here" reports.

    That is fine, but also leads to griefing. This is evident in just about every single forum that uses upvotes. You game the system by enlisting "mob" mentality to vote on things you, as a collective, dislike.

    It has even been a problem right here in the forums.

    The long and short is simply an investment of time, by a real human, to investigate, no matter the means of bubbling up the "problem" areas perceived in the game.

    Sandbox == welcome to the freedom for people to do what they want and all its accoutremon!
     
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  20. smack

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    This is no different than trying to decorate a TTP design using apples. As Joviex pointed out, given the freedom of decoration in a sandbox world, you can't technically stop this. The TOS will set the rules, and mods/GMs will simply have to enforce them, be they spam or TTP. One idea floated around on the forums was the ability to turn off decorations on a per-lot basis. Don't like what you see? Just double click their lot and choose to turn it off, similar to an ignore chat filter.
     
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