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Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

reuters.com

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Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#121

Post by miej »

rychco wrote: post #36

I despise ads in all forms, and the absolute worst offenders are ads built into a platform just like this. Windows 10 shouldn’t be advertising on my desktop, PlayStation/Xbox shouldn’t be advertising on my dashboard, cars shouldn’t be advertising on the controls/display, and Facebook shouldn’t be advertising in my virtual reality headset.

I agree of course, but I dont think that merely stating ones dislike on an internet forum will be an effective way to effect change.

So I pose the question: What actions may we take in order to help ensure a future of non-implementation of "the user is the product" systems, with a specific focus on those actions that are most likely to be the most efficacious at accomplishing the stated goal in an expedient and lasting manner?

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#122

Post by freeflight »

jnwatson wrote: post #60
cj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't Oculus games typically $20-50? The price points for games always seemed very high to me. In an ideal world they'd offer a "no ads, full price" version and a "discount with ads" version. My guess is we'll probably just be left with "full price with ads" as the only option.

How is $20 high? I'm continually amazed how much fun a $20 game can provide. For the price of a movie ticket and a coke, you can get a dozen hours of entertainment. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. And the $60 are AAA games where you'd easily get 30-40 hours worth. These have budgets of ~$70 million; they have to make their money back somehow. One of the secondary reasons I've avoided Oculus is that it is a…

> For the price of a movie ticket and a coke, you can get a dozen hours of entertainment. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

Or maybe the movie ticket with overpriced coke is just a bad deal?

A lot of it is also pretty relative down to a personal level and preferences: Some people can entertain themselves with a deck of cards, not even worth $1, for a nearly unlimited amount of time.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#123

Post by vlunkr »

Humdeee wrote: post #58
vlunkr wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, in a worst case scenario, they will be free, with ads, and the ecosystem will turn into a trash fire like the mobile game market did.

The micro transaction and "pay to not wait" model is just an overall terrible experience. Mobile gaming has solidified itself as watching a series of software timers count down.

Yeah, it's sad. I would like to play mobile games, but every time I check it out it's the same thing. There's an initial cool gameplay idea that's fun for ~1 hour that is then stretched into eternity, which makes it ultimately unsatisfying.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#124

Post by freeflight »

wlesieutre wrote: post #111
tempoponet wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam sales aren't what they used to be. Once they added refunds the sales got watered down, because you could just refund and re-buy if the price got lower at a later date in the sale. There's also a ton of free/discounted games on the Epic store, 3rd party key resellers, and subscriptions like Xbox Gamepass. These are all possible because the PC remains an open, competitive platform - so that point stands.

They also took away gift inventories, so you can't buy extra copies and send them out later. Along with that they killed the four packs that used to be common for multiplayer games.

At least humblebundle still has the occasional good deals, but those also seem to get rarer.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#125

Post by sixothree »

vlunkr wrote: post #34
cj wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't Oculus games typically $20-50? The price points for games always seemed very high to me. In an ideal world they'd offer a "no ads, full price" version and a "discount with ads" version. My guess is we'll probably just be left with "full price with ads" as the only option.

Or, in a worst case scenario, they will be free, with ads, and the ecosystem will turn into a trash fire like the mobile game market did.

Seems inevitable.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#127

Post by tyfon »

jonplackett wrote: post #75
rychco wrote: post #36

I despise ads in all forms, and the absolute worst offenders are ads built into a platform just like this. Windows 10 shouldn’t be advertising on my desktop, PlayStation/Xbox shouldn’t be advertising on my dashboard, cars shouldn’t be advertising on the controls/display, and Facebook shouldn’t be advertising in my virtual reality headset.

Totally agree. I get the deal-with-the-devil that is the free-to-play game / website / email client / social network where I'm getting a service in return for my eyeballs. But I paid for my Oculus Quest, and then I just paid for a game. I do not therefore want my eyeballs rented out. Edit: I'd also much rather the Quest platform not become the cesspool that is the free-to-play ad-infested world the iOS AppStore has b…

You paid for only a part of the Quest, it is the reason I have avoided it.

It is vastly underpriced for the hardware it gives. Some is paid upfront and the rest is paid in data collection etc from facebook.

They have a "unconnected" version for sale for 800 USD and a service fee of 180 bucks. You can see how much you have not paid for in those prices when you go with the ad version.

If the Quest 2 was not associated with facebook I would have owned one a long time ago.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#128

Post by tyfon »

Duralias wrote: post #69
jnwatson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is $20 high? I'm continually amazed how much fun a $20 game can provide. For the price of a movie ticket and a coke, you can get a dozen hours of entertainment. That seems like a pretty good deal to me. And the $60 are AAA games where you'd easily get 30-40 hours worth. These have budgets of ~$70 million; they have to make their money back somehow. One of the secondary reasons I've avoided Oculus is that it is a…

A 20$ VR game is usually (if it is linear) about 3-6 hours long. "Superhot VR" (25$) 2-3 hours, if you are a completionist, about 6 hours. "Star wars: Tales from the galaxy's edge" (25$) 2-3 hours, if you are a completionist, about 4 hours. I think the longest single player VR game that exists now is "The Walking dead: saints & sinners" (40$) which is around 11-14 hours long, but it is barely linear, it is more like…

Skyrim VR could beat that 30 hours :) And I've probably played 2-300 hours of beat saber.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#129

Post by freeflight »

rychco wrote: post #43
nuclearcookie wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you consider a fair price for a game? Are you talking about games in general or just games on Oculus?

I’m definitely a minority in this regard, but I completely support increasing the price of games across the board. Development is more expensive & involves more people now. The cost of games has been $60 for what, 15 years? One additional problem is that everybody wants to cash in on subscriptions and micro transactions for continuous money, even when you’ve already paid “full” price.

> I’m definitely a minority in this regard, but I completely support increasing the price of games across the board. Development is more expensive & involves more people now.

But that’s only one half of the story. The other is how tools, assets, hardware, knowledge and training have become much more affordable, streamlined and widespread.

What used to be a somewhat niche industry with barely any formal entry ways, is now a massively formalized industry dwarfing even Hollywood.

Just the publishing side alone saw a massive falling of gates with the emergence of the indie scene. IMHO there are very real economies of scale effects to this.

Re: Virtual reality ads make their way to Facebook's Oculus headsets

#130

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

mattferderer wrote: post #64
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is getting the blame, but it’s actually game developers who are choosing to add these ads to their games. I’d be upset if these ads were on the Oculus hardware that I paid for in the games I bought, but if it’s just going into freemium games then it’s business as usual in the ad space. I haven’t even heard of the “Blaston” game the article cites as one of the first games to adopt the ads.

Out of curiosity, I'm assuming most of the ads are giant in your face ones. Do they do any subliminal product placement type ads too & if so are any of them dynamic based on user data? Might as well go all out & have a variety of props you can exchange based on user data. I seem to be able to avoid ads quite a bit through tools & life style choices. I therefore ask this as someone whose personal opinion does not like…

They are really giant in your face ads yet.

Imagine Billboards in the virtual worlds of your games for now. Image below if you want to see an example.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tXt80SaN80Qsg6MdMlC4fvbHcUA=...

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