Putting this in perspective, everything the CTRA has been created to be has been specifically to benefit the community. Revenue from ads would simply reinforce and extend on that driving principle. Sod the anti-ad "principle", that's just plain small/narrow-minded. With revenue, we can start doing cool things like giving prizes etc. And yes, that's specifically why we'd like this.
Anyway, I set out my stall here. As has been said before, what will be will be. I'm out.. abuse at will
@Sean, I dunno what you're on about. If you want to make a system like X-System, go for it.
[edit] Neither you nor Ian know diddly shit about my personal circumstances. If I want you to know them, I'll tell you them. I don't, and I damn well don't need to justify any of my circumstances to the likes of you.
Then why bother? That all but cancels out your point below about immersion.
Then let the users skin them themselves, rather than some server admin thinking he knows best as to what we (users / racers) want to see. We can make the billboards as immersive as we want then, no ifs, no buts, and no stupidly "misplaced" (unrelated) ads.
Then I'm sure you'll go upwards and me downwards when our days are over
And ads on a server will be shown directly to my screen, regardless how many racers are connected to the server at that point in time... just like ads on web sites.
Awww.. ah, ah... oh no, I thought I could almost feel my heart bleeding then
Maybe he should get a job instead, like the rest of us instead of thinking the world owes him a favour.
I doubt I'm too honest.. I'm no angel, there's just way too much advertising in the world already.. why do some want even more in something that should just be some recreational fun other than that they're either too lazy or lack the IQ to get a real job.
Not really. I know that real-life drivers don't get to grab some paintbrushes and put their own ads on the track banners. I also have more important things to be doing than making my own ads for LFS. I don't think real life drivers stop to stare at ads on the track, yet without them it wouldn't feel like a proper track.
I personally don't care how UKCT pays for CTRA. But I know it's probably LFS' most popular and fun league, and if this keeps it going, what's the problem? What have you got against CTRA?
But a sign for "Castrol" is different from "Cheap warez! Cheap viagra! Go 100% longer!" etc. coming into my inbox. They have sent that maliciously, by looking for my info. If a server has ads in LFS, they haven't been looking for my info to send it to me. When I join I see the ads. There is a difference...
That makes next to no sense. Why should good people like Sam have devoted countless hours to programming and maintaining the CTRA, and also constantly pour in their own cash, just for people like you to come along? I don't see you managing, paying for, and programming LFS' most popular servers, and on top of that not asking for anything in return
Hmm...so the owners and managers of big advertising companies are too lazy and have a low IQ? Even though they make more money a year than you will probably earn in your entire life? Right...
As silverarrows said, well done for being a cold, emotionless bastard. We salute you. :rolleyes:
I am quoting this AGAIN emphasize this:
While you people go "aaagggh no advertising! that is meeeaaannn" you forget people are PAYING (and playing bloody well! - 80€/month ) to provide servers for YOU to play in.
Now this is IMPORTANT, so read up:
If the billboards are skinnable, they can be SOLD. That means MONEY.
Money in the game server = more servers, more quality servers, more development on the gameserver side.
Money in the GAME (since Scawen COULD sell some non-skinnable bilboards, or get royalties since they are well.. using HIS game), means more money can be put into LFS. Which means more goodies.
They no1 thing you WANT on your multiplayer game is... MONEY. if you can get the REAL MONEY makers into the game, it is GOOD.
So what if you get to see a "Vodaphone" or a "BP petrol" or a "Coca-Cola" or a "Disney" add on a bilboard? HOW is that ANY different from a CocaCola car, or a Disney car, or a Vodaphone car, or a Ubuntu car (all of which I've seen on-track). The ONLY difference (and its a GOOD difference) is that in this case, the publicity is PAID, and its not a copywrite infringment.
Sometimes I get the feeling some marketing dudes get into games that allow skins and "seed" the comunity with skins from their own company.
In fact, I've been talking to a local computer store to place an add of theirs on my car-skins. The current arrangement is: if they get someone to buy SOMETHING and then check the "where did you hear of us" in the "from a computer game" section, then Ill get credit in the store (they cant (yet) gimme money directly) AND the first guy to do that, Ill get whatever he buys.
Im just waiting for their website to get completed (and hoping for a mega-computer buy from someone when I place the add)
Now, imagine the above case on a SERVER.
OR on Scawen's bank account.
No. No one has forgotten that money buys stuff. (EDIT: except the LFS team, who are continually (mis?)quoted as saying that no amount of extra money will speed development). So stop acting like an over-enthusiastic puppy.
i vote +1
it would be cool, to advertise upcoming events etc, but then:
upload to lfsw or so, and that it shows the same on all servers, but it switches, each day or week or so
but that is going to be hard :s
I agree with you here but I think any relevant banner advertising should be managed and retained by the LFS team and any revenue derived goes to them. This would be the greatest benefit to the community and would somehow feed back to the users through non-price change for S2 or some other way. Valve have ingame advertising for their older games as does NADEO. Where NADEO differs is that they have their basic adverts but any other "extra adverts" can be added by the track maker.
To me it's simple. LFS developers should manage and control any advert revenue.
i don't know a server admin who would put this up on his server... sure some kiddos server maybe, but do you go to such servers? I think the majority of people go to well known public servers or league servers... And I seriously doubt that you will ever see one of these ads on these servers...
I have to point something out here. I surf with an add blocker because while there are responsible advertisers it is NOT the norm.
I am sure CTRA and the like will be responsible but this is not always the case. This system needs to be controlled from client side or blockers will be made, not like the forum is short of people involved in writing software lol.
I do hope that those who want to be able to force adverts don't want advert protection and excrytion systems (call it DRM) added to LFS to make sure the adverts are seen?
I wouldn't. I don't use skins. I have skin downloading switched off, partly because skins cause an fps hit on my old PC, and partly because the skins distract my eyes from the racing.
Sure, running a good server costs money. Then charge for using it. Ask Scawen to create a system for transferring money from the LFS accounts to the server operators. If you want to bring in the economy, then do it for real: give users a choice between racing on free + ad-filled servers and paid-for + ad-free servers.
.. then you'd have racing like it was in the 1960s and before. Pure, un-stickered racing. Yay!
Correct, and guess where that MONEY comes from. From the RACERS that visit the server. Because if the ads can be sold, that means that they work. And if an ad works, it means that the people who see it will buy stuff -- things that they wouldn't have bought otherwise.
In short: if you fill your server with ads, you are extracting money from your visitors. It would be the same as when you charge directly for the racing, except that
- the racers don't know how much they pay, so
- they can't choose the server that offers the most value-for-money, and
- the stream of money is indirect, so there is more overhead cost, and the racers will pay more for their racing.
And finally, as Woz pointed out, non-optional display of ads quickly leads to an arms race like we have seen on web pages: ad blockers, encrypted ads, DRM, animated ads, popups, etc.
Either you are special, or you are ignorant about advertising. The effects of ads have been researched to death. If it was so easy to ignore ads, and not be influenced by them, then advertising wouldn't be the multi-billion dollar business that it is.
Perhaps your buying behavior is not influenced much. But that won't be true for the guy next to you on the starting grid. On average, the ads work. And if they happen not to work in simracing, then the companies won't pay much to get them displayed, so the server admin still needs to find other funding.
I have used to drink Pepsi, and no advertisement would change me to buy Coca-Cola. I also don't like the taste of Red Bull, so no advertisement would make me to like it. I also don't pick car brand by some advertisement. So what if it has nice big billboard? What about other features beside of that appearance I can see? IBM? Never bought an IBM.
But "supporting" something is different. When I see an advertisement on something I think "Okay, those wanted to support this event. Nicely done". For example, lets take a skiing competition for child. It is really nice that (For example) a bank wanted to sponsor the event.
I remember from my childhood a skiining competition sponsored by KOP (A bank. KOP merged to SYP, then changed the name to Merita and after that Nordea). They funded the prizes (But still, it wasn't "KOP skiining competition").
(and hoping for a mega-computer buy from someone when I place the add) 
