Moving picture ads added to the 360 dash

[DivideBYZero]

Just playing Devils Advocate here, but if you pay for the service, shouldn't you forgo the need for the service to use ads? Even if it only takes a second to skip, you still have to skip it. It would piss me off after they had taken my money. I understand the counter point that games themselves have ads in them, but they are in the game. I am being entertained. In the console menus, wow, that really sucks.

/flame suit on

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
Just playing Devils Advocate here, but if you pay for the service, shouldn't you forgo the need for the service to use ads? Even if it only takes a second to skip, you still have to skip it. It would piss me off after they had taken my money. I understand the counter point that games themselves have ads in them, but they are in the game. I am being entertained. In the console menus, wow, that really sucks.

/flame suit on

Cable/satellite TV, satellite radio
Public transportation
Sporting events, concerts, etc
Newspapers and magazines
DVD movies; movies in movie theaters

All things that you pay for which also have ads. This is nothing new or out of the ordinary.

 

[purbeast0]

the people who keep complaining about the cost of xbox live amuse me. it is always people who have never had live who complain about the price of live. it's never any of the 10+ million subscribers complaining about it.

it's kind of like non-smokers complaining about the price of cigarettes.

i'm sorry for those of you who have video gaming habits where approximately $3/mo (and that is the high end of LIVE price for people who know where to find deals) really burdens you. i mean i spend more than that in 1 days on sodas at work.

and MS charging $120 for a 120GB HDD? sure it's ridiculous, but you know what? dont buy it, no one is forcing you to buy it. i've had a 20GB HDD since launch and will not upgrade cause it's not necessary.

FWIW, I have both 360 and PS3, and the online gaming between the 2 is not even comparable. 360 is better ten fold. I also feel bad for those of you who always try to bash one or the other to justify why you only own one or the other. there really are great games on both consoles and i wouldn't want to miss any of the great exclusives on ps3, or online play of xbox360.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
Just playing Devils Advocate here, but if you pay for the service, shouldn't you forgo the need for the service to use ads? Even if it only takes a second to skip, you still have to skip it. It would piss me off after they had taken my money. I understand the counter point that games themselves have ads in them, but they are in the game. I am being entertained. In the console menus, wow, that really sucks.

/flame suit on

Cable/satellite TV, satellite radio
Public transportation
Sporting events, concerts, etc
Newspapers and magazines
DVD movies; movies in movie theaters

All things that you pay for which also have ads. This is nothing new or out of the ordinary.

Not really comparable IMHO. With satellite TV you pay your subscription to the provider for access. To be analogous with LIVE you would have to get ads within the Satellite providers planner menu. That doesn't happen on my subscription, why should it happen on my games system?

Public transportation is part funded by Govt. or state, so you are being subsidized by ads, but you pay for LIVE. It should not require further funding.

Sporting events you pay to enter, but the ads are mostly for TV audiences, not those attending the ground.

Newspapers would have to hike the price, again, it's a subsidy.

Essentially, unless you are getting a significant increase in value for LIVE, offset by ads, then it's not acceptable.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Not really comparable IMHO. With satellite TV you pay your subscription to the provider for access. To be analogous with LIVE you would have to get ads within the Satellite providers planner menu. That doesn't happen on my subscription, why should it happen on my games system?

A portion of the fees you pay to the provider goes straight to the cable networks. Each network has a per-subscriber fee that they charge the cable provider based on their ratings. So they get fees from you and make money off showing you ads.

Additionally, cable programs have blank spots in their ad blocks for local advertisements. The cable provider sells those ad spots and inserts the ads. So again the company you're paying is also making money off showing you ads.

Public transportation is part funded by Govt. or state, so you are being subsidized by ads, but you pay for LIVE. It should not require further funding.

Around here you pay for public transportation. And you see ads (inside buses and subways, not just on the outside)

Sporting events you pay to enter, but the ads are mostly for TV audiences, not those attending the ground.

Arenas have advertising all over concourse which is never on TV.

Newspapers would have to hike the price, again, it's a subsidy.

How is that any different from Xbox Live?

Essentially, unless you are getting a significant increase in value for LIVE, offset by ads, then it's not acceptable.

Seems to me like most Gold subscribers value Live pretty highly. 😉

I'm not trying to convince you to like the ads or to think they're a great thing. I just don't see why people are making such a big deal about them. They're nothing out of the ordinary, and they're unobtrusive. Well, it does seem like the ads are overwhelmingly disliked by people who dislike the Xbox 360, so that does explain some of the complaints.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
I don't care, but there shouldn't be ads for gold members. I paid for your service so why am I still being bombarded by ads?

$$$$$

/thread

 

[biggestmuff]

Wow. The people complaining about this either don't own a 360 or don't understand what exactly it is or how it's being displayed. It's really a non-issue.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: biggestmuff
Wow. The people complaining about this either don't own a 360 or don't understand what exactly it is or how it's being displayed. It's really a non-issue.

yea i turned on my friends 360 last night to stream something to it, and i was trying to find these ads people are talking about and i couldn't even find them when looking for them lol.

 

[LittleNemoNES]

Originally posted by: gersson
I can't believe you guys are willing to put up with this.

You know those corporate types.
If a game has long loading: "Hey, why not make a little money off of it? After all looking at an ad is more entertaining than watching "now loading", M I RITE?"

"MORE PLZ!"

Holy crap -- sony took me up on this.
My post almost seems prophetic. That's messed up -- like being a prophet of some $hi7 religion nobody wants to be a part of 🙁

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: gersson
I can't believe you guys are willing to put up with this.

You know those corporate types.
If a game has long loading: "Hey, why not make a little money off of it? After all looking at an ad is more entertaining than watching "now loading", M I RITE?"

"MORE PLZ!"

Holy crap -- sony took me up on this.
My post almost seems prophetic. That's messed up -- like being a prophet of some $hi7 religion nobody wants to be a part of 🙁

Preach the good word oh prophet!

Write down the words inspired by the gaming Gods!

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: gersson

Originally posted by: gersson
I can't believe you guys are willing to put up with this.

You know those corporate types.
If a game has long loading: "Hey, why not make a little money off of it? After all looking at an ad is more entertaining than watching "now loading", M I RITE?"

"MORE PLZ!"

Holy crap -- sony took me up on this.
My post almost seems prophetic. That's messed up -- like being a prophet of some $hi7 religion nobody wants to be a part of 🙁

Except that nobody was willing to put up with it and Sony had to pull the ads because of the uproar...

 

[Glitchny]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: oznerol

But the 360 hardware sucks, they charge $50 a year for Live, $120 for a 120GB HD, it doesn't have Blu-Ray, and all of these things are relevant to the topic at hand.

And despite all of those things, people keep buying the darned things and signing up for Live. We must be missing something...

No we just realize Live + Better games > Blu-Ray

 

[RedRooster]

I look at ads as extra information I wouldn't otherwise know about. Maybe not the lame Telus one currently on there that I've seen on TV 100 times, but if they put game commercials or movie trailers or anything else it won't bother me one bit. I'm a sucker for information overload, using my internet bandwidth that I'm paying for, and making the whole interface look a little more interactive.

 

[BenSkywalker]

This is the type of thing that kind of has me dreading a PS3 price drop. That it will bring in the type of consumer that will tollerate these types of 'services'.

the people who keep complaining about the cost of xbox live amuse me. it is always people who have never had live who complain about the price of live. it's never any of the 10+ million subscribers complaining about it.

How about the ~20million people who aren't allowed to play online because of it? What about those people? What exactly are you paying for with Live! Gold? A ton of excess BS intergrated into your gaming experience? Annoying pop ups constantly while in game because your friends came on line(yes, you can shut that off)? Invites popping in while you are content already playing a game? These things are worth paying money for? This is a great user experience worth a $150 premium? People constantly, and I mean constantly, bash the price of the PS3 over the 360. The fact that going the cheapest route possible to get online for 5 years and a small HD the 360 costs more(and still comes up well short on features) makes it a very viable point. Does it really make much of a difference? Of course not, but I don't see why the extra $200 for the PS3 makes much of a difference either.

and MS charging $120 for a 120GB HDD? sure it's ridiculous, but you know what? dont buy it, no one is forcing you to buy it. i've had a 20GB HDD since launch and will not upgrade cause it's not necessary.

Not big into XBLA games and demos? I was having to uninstall constantly within a couple of months of getting my 20GB.

FWIW, I have both 360 and PS3, and the online gaming between the 2 is not even comparable. 360 is better ten fold.

Really, how so? Seems that SF4 has a decent amount better latency on the 360 then the PS3, that's about the only time I've seen anything resembling a decisive edge for the 360 over the PS3 in terms of online gaming. Overall I would say the 360 online experience is shockingly worse then the PS3, but I'm not big into listenting to a bunch of 11 years olds yell n*gger for hours at a time- a word I can honestly say I have never heard uttered on my PS3(which is how it should be).

Edit- Figured I should add, I no longer allow my kids to play on Live!(their subs are gone) because of how shockingly bad the behaviour is on the service and the seeming indifferent MS about doing anything about it. Even if I'm sitting right there with them, way too many disgusting racial slurs constantly to allow it. OTOH, I have no issue letting them play on line on PSN, we have seen none of the behaviour that runs rampant on Live!(not saying it doesn't exist by any means, but it is clearly much, much less common- likely at least partly owed to lack of headsets- nevertheless, a profoundly better experience).

 

[Glitchny]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
This is the type of thing that kind of has me dreading a PS3 price drop. That it will bring in the type of consumer that will tollerate these types of 'services'.

the people who keep complaining about the cost of xbox live amuse me. it is always people who have never had live who complain about the price of live. it's never any of the 10+ million subscribers complaining about it.

How about the ~20million people who aren't allowed to play online because of it? What about those people? What exactly are you paying for with Live! Gold? A ton of excess BS intergrated into your gaming experience? Annoying pop ups constantly while in game because your friends came on line(yes, you can shut that off)? Invites popping in while you are content already playing a game? These things are worth paying money for? This is a great user experience worth a $150 premium? People constantly, and I mean constantly, bash the price of the PS3 over the 360. The fact that going the cheapest route possible to get online for 5 years and a small HD the 360 costs more(and still comes up well short on features) makes it a very viable point. Does it really make much of a difference? Of course not, but I don't see why the extra $200 for the PS3 makes much of a difference either.

I really don't find them that annoying at all. They are small and at the bottom of the screen... I actually think they are handy if I want to play with some people i know and didn't know they were online. I do agree there are plenty of idiots on Xbox Live due to everyone having a mic, however it is possible to mute them, solves the problem pretty easily.

In the end it comes down to games, and the PS3 has nowhere near the amount of quality games that interest me. MGS4 was as boring as the others, LBP was fun for about five minutes, and since FF is no longer exclusive I see no reason in having a PS3 except having a blu-ray player and a fanatical devotion to all things Sony. And I still have not seen a game on PS3 that looks/plays better than it's counterpart on 360. And the funny thing is both my friends who have PS3's noticed that the 360 versions seemed better when we played as well.

The best thing about this argument is that it is all about personal preference and opinion. If I want to tolerate the 'services' of easily ignorable ads why the hell do you care? Fanboys are always attacking one system or another for no reason. I play what I like and you can just have a coke and a 🙂 and stfu.

 

[BenSkywalker]

MGS4 was as boring as the others, LBP was fun for about five minutes, and since FF is no longer exclusive I see no reason in having a PS3 except having a blu-ray player and a fanatical devotion to all things Sony.

Last good MetalGear game was on the original NES, the last good FF was on the PS1, the last great FF was on the SNES- LBP is cool if you are into platformers, and that's about it. If you are looking for exclusive content line up MS's best against Sony's- Halo, Gears of War and Forza against Unchartered, God of War and GT(Ratchet&Clank would fall under that category, but I assume you wouldn't be interested in that either since it is still heavy on platforming elements).

If I want to tolerate the 'services' of easily ignorable ads why the hell do you care?

It's a LCD issue. With standards as low as you have, it may come over to infect the other platforms as well. So far, the backlash was fairly brutal when Sony attempted something comparable and they pulled it down quickly. Once the price drops on the PS3 and the platform gets more popular with the, what's a polite way to say it.... less discerning perhaps, crowd then I don't want to see the same sort of revenue pushing that MS is doing with their platform on the systems I still actively play.

I play what I like and you can just have a coke and a and stfu.

I play what I like also, I also actually have had all the systems in my house for a long time now- the PS3 was the last system I picked up. I felt as a platform the XBox utterly demolished the PS2 last gen so I didn't have a lot of faith in Sony this round(obviously the PS2 dominated the games market so of course it was required to own). This gen it seems like MS took a lot of pages out of Sony's old playbook- utter garbage hardware quality with huge failure rates, regression in storage capacity and a lack of listening to their customers. Meanwhile Sony pulled a MS this gen, trying to give the consumers everything they asked for(with Nin out in their own liitle sphere of innovation). A whole lot of people thought the PS2 was by far the best console last gen, I saw it as a POS which I had to own as there were exclusives I wasn't going to miss out on(a ton of them too). This gen, it is the 360 we grudgingly keep in the house for the exclusives, although honestly at this point the only one that has really interested me that much has been Geometry Wars(which does rock btw).