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Holy hell! Don't give them ideas!

Tell me, do you gvg? In GvG 30 ms in ping difference in a game can win it or lose it for a team. During the mAT our ranger had good ping so he could dshot WoH and wipe [sup] which got us a shot at silver. If we would've had worse ping that wouldn't have happened. If I could get my ping reduced by 30 ms I would tolerate ads.

I don't think the lag has anything to do with cost. The lag started when they migrated Guild Wars over to NCsofts Servers.

I do GvG, and I rarely have any issues with lag. And rarely is as good as I expect from any online game. No matter how fast game servers are, you will always run the risk of seeing lag. It is a function of playing in an online environment.

This.

ANet already advertises in game at the character select screen: they link their in game store there.

Which skill becomes Oxyclean?

Restore Condition

All cutscenes should be like this.

Haha, so you were not done why I reply.

Sounds like a good Idea as long as those ads don't come with virus, or stupid mini movie that lag your game even more.

and If have advertisement means the game can be come better and stays as a non-subscription fees, non-micro-transaction mmorpg, then why not.

I wouldn't mind at all if they had advertisements on the logging screen or loading screen. Wouldn't ruin immersion at all for me.

or they advertised currenty ncsoft games, I occasionally play Dungeon runners, they have ads for games like Tabula Rasa.

I don't mind if it's done in a tasteful manner.

If they swapped the Ghostly Hero with Ronald McDonald and introduced a shout called, "I'm lovin' it!" then I'd have an issue. Log-in screen and loading screen ads wouldn't be so bad.

Pre-searing Ascalon should definitely have a Starbucks and Kodash Bazaar needs a KFC though.

No please. The lag, frame skipping, game crashing and not to meantion mood killing and longer load times. ads need to stay away. You know those really bad ads the internet has? The ones you laugh at, at first but soon grow tired of? Those would be what we see while loading into uw or fow.

The food and soda ads are nothing compared to.

Meet sexy singles tonight and contract that std you always wanted!
Is your credit report bad? Find out now!
What career do you want to enter, click this stupid icon and find out!
Are you smarter than george bush? Take this IQ test and find out!
Tired of the itching, burning and odor? Try vagisil!
Do you suffer from insomnia, depression, erectile dysfunction, anal leakage or chronic headaches? Participate in our clinic trials!

No freaking thank you! Need money? Release another expansion or additional content so we can have something new to do. Get a better business plan. Shut the game down. But no stinking ads!

Adverts during loading screens is fine by me. I'll do what I normally do when an advert comes one - I ignore it.

If it were to actually affect gameplay though, I would have severe issues with it. 'Pepsi armour'. Ugh.

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Pretty much sums it up. This is a game that you don't play in a browser window; keep the ads away from it. I don't care if it'll reduce lag, I don't want to see ads. It's like when you buy a DVD and get 10 minutes worth of ads - I paid for the movie, not to see what other movies are coming out (which they usually show stupid ones anyway), and the latest ones you can't even push menu, you have to physicall fast forward like it's a VHS. I paid for the Guild Wars game, not ads. If it were RuneScape I can see why ads are up at the top of the browser window, since it's played in the browser. Keep ads away from Guild Wars. I agree, release new content or a new expansion (Utopia haha) if they need the money that bad. And please release Guild Wars 2 before 2011...

Ugh. While I hate having advertising forced on me (ie. those ads on guru and the unofficial wiki which have audio, now you have to scramble around to get em to stfu, then you accidentally hit the link... which forces me to close the browser and mutter expletives and causes my blood pressure to rise...) I realize that they are a necessary evil and bills have to get paid. The only way they'd be acceptable is if they were done "properly" (from my selfish perspective ofc), but c'mon now, this is Anet we're talking about. How quick are they to fix their own discrepancies, much less those being handled by an advertising bot?

As not to disrupt MY gaming experience, the only way I could see an implementation would be perhaps thru one or two vehicles:

The Trade District
You have a separate island/town/bazaar/trade district/auction house/whatever where there are billboards and npc jackasses and what-have-you, in the background silently pushing their wares. You could click on the npc Dicko the Pizzaboy, hit accept on his dialog, and be sent to whateverpizza.com via a browser popup and order your shit separately. You wouldn't see these npcs or signs in any other town, only in the trade district. That's their home. They're all trade district residents. They live there only. (Free their/they're/there lesson kids.) It'd be just like going to the mall. You ignore the things you don't care about, get your business done, then gtfo (at least that's how I handle going to the mall, ofc I haven't been to the mall in years thanks to amazon).

PvP Sponsorship
You could have "stadiums" or arenas which have corporate sponsorship. Tournaments themselves could also be sponsored by advertisers. Just look at any professional sport and see how they do it. You could also have the sponsors contribute to the monthly awards as a further incentive to draw attention to pvp. This path, however, could have dire consequences, depending on whether or not it's handled carefully. Also, you'd have to figure out how to... well, there's probably several threads worth of discussions that'd have to take place to cover all the things that'd need to be addressed to handle this aspect properly.

Just so long as advertising stayed out of the story line (including watching bs ads during load screens, I just don't want to see em) then perhaps in-game advertising might work. I don't want to see ads for hemorrhoid ointment while loading maps between zones. I don't want to see a flashing billboard for "buy gw gold at deeznuts.com" (like we see on guru and the wiki at times) in the towns/outposts. I certainly don't want to hear some audio from some npc/ad that I can't turn off. That sort of shit is a non-starter for me.

And product placement should probably best be left alone. If Rurik were to pick up a pint of Guinness, I'd probably run to fill mine up or grab one if I didn't have one already. However, if he were to pick up a Budweiser, I'd probably wince and get a sour taste in my mouth and question whether I can continue supporting an organization who obviously has no taste.

Advertising in the storyline is not the way to go. The two routes I mentioned might work, but there are a zillion factors to consider, and given Anet's shortcomings, I find it hard to believe that any in-game advertising would work or be handled smoothly.

I just couldn't help but picture a new NPC named Bill Mae. He'd stand around in each major Town trying to sell random products.

"Bill Mae here with another fantastic product..."

No.

Instead encourage more people to play by offering a free, no-time-limits PvP demo on separate servers with core skills and professions only, no trading, limited customization, no Zquests, and ads on loading screens/the login screen. Then any full game purchased would move the demo account to the main servers and unlock access to whatever the player's just bought. This'd mean:

- Ad revenue allows for better/more servers for the full games.

- Incentive for people to buy the full game with total immersion - e.g "Upgrade now to get rid of all ads, unlock a whole team-based adventure, play with hundreds of new skills and interact with thousands of players around the world...", etc.

- More people will get into GW and see how fun it can be (and so might buy the full game) -> Money for ArenaNet -> Revival in player numbers to bridge the gap to GW2 (and probably beyond - even a free version would offer lots of playability).

- Anet might be able to fund more employees on the live team, improving the experience for everyone

- The ability to open links from within GW is already in place.

- There could even be more extensive and experimental testing of skills on the demo servers, so that they get properly play-tested by anyone (and it would be a large number of people) before the main game gets them. The large number of people effectivley play-testing the game for Anet would uncover many bugs with new changes and lower QQing. And the argument that "top guilds would exploit this by preparing builds before the changes go live" doesn't really apply - the skill changes could happen at any time, be reverted, and only to core skills. Plus, the balancing of core skills is much needed and affects everyone who owns a full GW account.

- Testing of new features could be done. Just as Red Hat's Fedora Linux is the free, "unstable" version compared to the corporate and paid-for version, a similar thing could take place here. After all, the free players aren't owed anything by Anet.

Billy Mays should be the 7th gw god. God of trade.

RIP Billy.

Well while playing RSV2 last month, I saw a poster for Quantum of Solace in the theater level, which I thought was pretty cool. I don't really know how ANET would be able to implement that in a fantasy game, but I'm sure they would be able to come up with something that wouldn't kill the mood of the game. Not sure how I would react if I saw a movie poster for "G Force" or something while killing wardens in arborstone.

Now that would be awesome, oxy clean ftw.

The quality of play has significantly declined over the years. There was actually a time when I did not experience lag, nor heard about it from anyone. Ridiculous Ping times was also unknown, at least for me. In fact, I think the first time I experienced lag and massive Ping times was during the second Wintersday festival, if memory serves.

In my opinion, no first hand facts to back it up in this case, what we are experiencing is either the company rolling back its resources, failing to provide proper server maintenance, not scaling the resources to meet the demand over time, or likely a combination of all these factors.

I do not understand the mentality that thinks it should be OK to find new revenue sources for a company to honor its obligations. I also do not understand the element out there that feels its OK to receive poor service because its 'free to play!!!'. Its nice that GW did not charge a monthly fee. That was their selling point to me. That, and the content they offered, was what made me their customer. If they choose to shut down GW because they can no longer afford to support it, then so be it. Mis-management of major corporations seems to be all the rage these days.

I bought all the chapters and expansions. I did it for multiple accounts. It was unfortunate that by linking my accounts I actually received less product. I thought that was a poor business decision (on both our parts). I suspect many people have bought multiple accounts over time. And not just for XTH rep points. But I bet very few use all their accounts simultaneously. Extra revenue for A-Net, with little impact on network resources. The company has made millions of dollars off this game. And I expect them to maintain the same quality of service that I have ALREADY PAID FOR until the sad but inevitable day that they flip the switch. People should focus on the fact that the company has MADE MILLIONS of dollars from this game and should be able to fully support it.

People who clamor for the advent of monthly subscriptions or other revenue sources, because they have been indoctrinated by other games that it is OK and necessary, should go play those games and leave GW alone. I also wonder how often Game Company personnel secretly post ideas on fan forums to move people in a certain agreeable direction for company objectives. No proof, just wondering and observing, ever vigilant.

In case I was unclear - /Absolutely NOT signed

Nike Air billboard in Beacon's Perch.