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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

#71

Post by tempoponet »

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…

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.

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

#72

Post by perryizgr8 »

nindalf wrote: post #22
philipswood wrote: post #2

Is it just me? I would rather just pay for stuff and be done with it rather than have my attention and sensorium sold to the highest bidder.

It’s not just you, but you are a tiny minority. You’ve expressed a sentiment that’s very popular on HN, but not among the general population. Take YouTube - a popular ad supported service with a premium tier. How many people are willing to pay to remove ads? Less than 1%. Even on HN I don’t think that number would be more than 10%.

> How many people are willing to pay to remove ads?

For me, I'd rather not watch Youtube at all if I have to pay to use it. I have found that it is an incredible time-waster and really adds very little value to my life. If I had the self control I would stop using it on my own.

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

#73

Post by tomjen3 »

paulcole wrote: post #9
philipswood wrote: post #2

Is it just me? I would rather just pay for stuff and be done with it rather than have my attention and sensorium sold to the highest bidder.

Personally, I don’t mind ads. I like buying things and like seeing things I don’t know about that I might want to buy.

I too like to buy things, but interrupting me to offer me things I might like is really wasteful. Allow me to submit things I want to buy and then let companies suggest things based on that.

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

#74

Post by recursive »

silicon2401 wrote: post #68
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 understand the dislike of ads, but not so much the complaint. Companies are free to insert ads if they want to, and we're free to choose what media we consume. I hate ads and would be glad to see them outlawed like billboards in Vermont, but I don't stress about it. I accept it as a tradeoff for playing certain games, or I do ad-free things like reading old books or exercising.

I'm not against companies doing it. I'm just against me consuming it. This is why I subscribed to netflix instead of hulu.

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

#75

Post by jonplackett »

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 become. Please can we emulate the Nintendo model and encourage quality games you pay up front for.

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

#76

Post by recursive »

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…

I'm at least 10 hours in on beat saber, and I feel like I'm just getting started.

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

#77

Post by tomjen3 »

mbank wrote: post #15

The saddest thing about these VR companies (or any other hyped yet insubstantial new thing for that matter) to me is the fact that they got acquired too quickly that one cannot short them on the stock exchange...

Even if you could, you won't make money shorting on the stock exchange because you think stocks are more expensive than they should be. You can only make money shorting things on the stock exchange when you guess that other investors will think the price is too high relatively soon.

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

#78

Post by Folcon »

nindalf wrote: post #22
philipswood wrote: post #2

Is it just me? I would rather just pay for stuff and be done with it rather than have my attention and sensorium sold to the highest bidder.

It’s not just you, but you are a tiny minority. You’ve expressed a sentiment that’s very popular on HN, but not among the general population. Take YouTube - a popular ad supported service with a premium tier. How many people are willing to pay to remove ads? Less than 1%. Even on HN I don’t think that number would be more than 10%.

My biggest bugbear with youtube premium is that there's very little way to control your youtube recommendations other than being in incognito / a new browser session.

I constantly find that youtube's algorithm just recommends me less interesting stuff over time. If I could have some decent controls on it, paying for an ad free experience would be worthwhile.

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

#79

Post by MereInterest »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #57
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.

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.

Blame isn't a finite thing, and blaming facebook doesn't reduce the blame that can be giving to the developers. Blame is like the tension in a rope, equal along the length from cause to effect.

Yes, facebook deserves blame. Yes, the game developers deserve blame. These can both be true at the same time.

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

#80

Post by Duralias »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #67
scrollaway wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling VR insubstantial is absurd. Just because VR helmets won't be as popular as mobile phones doesn't make them so. It's like calling an Xbox insubstantial. What VR lacks in game variety, it makes up for in how unique the experience is. VR consoles will be able to get new games and apps, while "regular" consoles won't get more unique without releasing new models. Gaming in VR is also a lot more beginner friendly.…

> Console Controllers are not intuitive, whereas VR controls almost always are. Almost all console controllers follow a similar control scheme for decades (minus the front buttons like "share" or the touchpads). I don't see them as unintuitive.

They are for someone who hasn't ever played a game, easier to get them to learn how to do stuff with vr controllers than with a console controller, vr incorporates far more normal movements that everyone already knows how to do, like picking stuff up or aiming a gun/bow, shooting is easy it is aiming it that is hard.
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