Re: monetising BNT
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2014 05:07 UTC
I should preface this with a very clear statement that the following comments I'm making are *mine* and mine alone, not the opinion of "The BNT Development team", not that we really issue comments as a group generally. But just to be clear: My opinion follows..
However, that doesn't mean it is "something great for your players". For players, an Ad is a company interrupting what you wanted to do so that they can try to sell you something. That is almost never a good thing for the player. But much worse is to put product placement INTO the game (your example of Cable TV on Planets links in game) beyond a standard ad.
It disrupts the story of the game, and injects a message that literally doesn't fit into the theme or story of the game. Its like playing blackjack, but one of the cards coming up as an ad for a used car shop instead of a face card.
It is frankly slimy, and in every way I would rather you turn off the BNT game (if it costs so much that you must resort to these efforts to pay for it), and by doing so not sully the reputation of the game with those ads.
There is no legal remedy to bad taste, but I hope that you will take this opinion into account. We've worked damned hard for A DECADE, and to see it used as a shell for selling cable TV? Disgusting.
There are ways to reduce the costs (you can get free domains from .tk, you can get free hosting lots of places, etc), but I'll agree with you that in some cases admins might like to earn money from their game. Generally, that is accomplished by Ads. Unfortunately, because our game is open-source, we don't get a say in which Ads admins run on their games.coolmates wrote:here is a fantastic way to monetise your game whilst adding something great for your players: add your own brand tv network to your planet(s) and enable your players to do the same.
However, that doesn't mean it is "something great for your players". For players, an Ad is a company interrupting what you wanted to do so that they can try to sell you something. That is almost never a good thing for the player. But much worse is to put product placement INTO the game (your example of Cable TV on Planets links in game) beyond a standard ad.
It disrupts the story of the game, and injects a message that literally doesn't fit into the theme or story of the game. Its like playing blackjack, but one of the cards coming up as an ad for a used car shop instead of a face card.
It is frankly slimy, and in every way I would rather you turn off the BNT game (if it costs so much that you must resort to these efforts to pay for it), and by doing so not sully the reputation of the game with those ads.
There is no legal remedy to bad taste, but I hope that you will take this opinion into account. We've worked damned hard for A DECADE, and to see it used as a shell for selling cable TV? Disgusting.