ArsGeek

Ads are becoming more pervasives these days. They’re everywhere and continues to infiltrate our lives.

I recently bought a game, Trackmania United, and it has in-game ads that are downloaded from their servers. The ads are local, I’m seeing ads from sympatico, a Canadian ISP. I’m wondering currently if it should be considered a [[clean thing]] that game companies do to put in-game ads in the games we buy. I can understand that the previous game, Trackmania Nations, which was free, had ads in it, but why are they forcing us to look at ads in a game we bought?

I’d like to have your input on that matter. What do you think about that? Do you think it’s acceptable from those companies to put ads in bought games? If you’re into that business, drop us some words on your views on that matter, it would be nice.

Personally, I think that it’s a bit hypocritic. They could give us the game or sell it at a real discount price, as they will continue to earn money from ads. They don’t even host the servers on which we play, so it is not that much a relief for them. Anyway, my views could change if someday I’m into this kind of business, but currently, seeing it could be a trend that continues to evolve, I want to take a stance: Don’t!, please don’t put ads in-game, where there souldn’t be. An acceptable case would be a billboard that does not change in a modern city. This would be okay to me, as it is unconceivable to see a city without these today.

Anyway, I wanted to add that even then, the game’s awesome! Trackmania Nations and Trackmania United are fun “racing” games, you have to get to the finish line as fast as possible. Try Nations risk-free, it’s free, as in beer. I will try to review Trackmania United soon.

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