Hi, I have been seeing that the CONCORD billboards routinely puts out the same advertisements which go on repeating and I personally feel are boring. I myself have not spent a cent on this game yet, even though I have been playing some time now, so I would like to give my two cents (metaphorically) which is that it might be a good idea to allow player-sponsored advertisements on the CONCORD billboards instead. The advertisements would be paid for in ISK, and would be a good way of removing ISK from the system to help control inflation. I understand some form of vetting must exist, but if the advertising fee is high, not many people can afford to put adverts, hence limiting the number of videos to vet.
I think it’s an interesting idea on some levels, but it does have it’s share of problems.
If players can place adverts, you do presumably need a level of organisation to check on these adverts and make sure that there’s nothing that truly breaks the 12 rating of the game.
Who is going to do this? How? It will take time and energy to do this.
Assuming that we get around the issue of the content meeting certain criteria and not being utterly offensive, etc, you have the issue of airtime.
On some levels the gameis currently dominated by mega-corporations and alliances - the goons, CODE, etc, etc, et al. Do players really want to be subjected to a whole bunch of advertising coming from the ‘elite’? (hint: I’m not sure that I do)
Whilst there might be pros to this, there are most definitely cons.
Having said all this, if you wanted a positive spin for the scheme, here’s an idea.
Some years ago there was a fundraiser for breast cancer whereby you could buy special skins for your mining ship - Rosada Dawn Pink Skins. These remain my all-time favourite ship skins. Pretty and for a good cause too, what’s not to like?
If the proceeds of advertising was going to go to a charity, I would happily sit through one, and maybe even more, adverts eulogising Jimbo as the saviour of distressed nebulae, high-security space, black holes, whatever.
Been there, done that, glad they’re gone. Many of the player created adds were little more than strobe lights - annoying at best, potentially dangerous for anyone susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy. If CCP does bring them back, hopefully they will give up a setting to turn off the animation.
Are you suggesting then that billboard fees be made out in PLEX rather than in ISK? since that is a way that real world value of a donation can be estimated.
Or better still, they could give a setting to turn off everything on the CONCORD billboard. Since such advertisements are meant to for the purpose of fun, because CCP doesn’t derive any revenue from ads, players should have the option of turning off the in-game ads, whether they be epilepsy-inducing or bragging done by a megacorp. At least this way though, players have the option to see the content on the billboard. Whether they choose to see it is up to them.
Let me add on to that: your ship has to remain in a 5 km radius in order to continuously show your alliance logo on the billboard. If you get bumped out or destroyed, the logo stops showing.