Thread: LOTRO as bad as WOW

Hold up before you go on a rip, this is about advertising.

I have been long past being fed with all the WOW adds, I see them everywhere, in the margins of a lot of sites and forums, popups on some sites, that stupid dancing goblin.

Well reading the news this AM it looks like LOTRO has started this same add campaign. Now I am seeing LOTRO adds everywhere, in all the site/forum margins, and in popups. The problem is two fold, over saturation of the market {people will get as sick of seeing the LOTRO adds as they are the WOW adds} , and most of the sites I see the adds on I wouldn't click on a link if my life depended on it; yes I watch my TV shows on those underground hosting sites where if the add isn't for some adult porn site it;s for WOW, and now LOTRO. I even got burnt once clicking a link on that news site, so you can't trust links no matter how much you may trust the site.

edit to add: part of my point is does LOTRO marketing really want to be associated with underground hosting sites and porn?

If I can get it to post here is what I saw this AM while trying to read my news

So, you'ed prefer they wouldn't advertise and watch the game die from nobody knowing about it ... ?

It is called marketing. They use it to get more players into the game and more money.

Also keep in mind that adds are often targeted, so the more you visits sites like this forum or the official LotrO page (or any MMO-page for that matter) the more adds you will see. ^^

I've been editing while others were posting so let me make a couple of points clear.

Over saturating the market with adds just causes people to get sick to death of them and start feeling animosity to the game. As in so sick of the adds they avoid the game.

And As I said, does LOTRO marketing really want to be associated with underground and porn sites?

I never see these ads any more because I use Ghostery. Ghostery blocks almost all ads. There are plenty of programs out there that will block ads if you don't want to see them.

Throwing a blanket over a pile of dirty clothes doesn't stop it from being a pile of dirty clothes.
Blinding yourself to an issue does not stop it from being an issue.
My issue isn't seeing the adds, it's how often and where.

What a weird complaint. I mean, really. Really?

You're not afraid of the crowd it may attract are you? I mean... you're part of that crowd... so.... just saying...

Hey there's an idea, ingame Brothel's and underground porn. but cerally, sort understand the OP's thinking, But i don't see lotro going to length's blizzard has to go, to draw in new player's. As alot gamer's already know about WoW awesome gaming experince .
But turbine needs to do what turbine needs to do, we like and want thing's well they seriuos about finding the cash to do it.

Don't know where these ads are appearing as I've never seen them. But then I use Adblock Plus on Firefox and never see any ads.

I do believe the ads you see on website you browse are based on what searches or things you do with your computer. I too have noticed an overload of LOTRO ads on the many news sites I troll. I once looked up some information on the TEAS Test and now the majority of the ads I see are for help with the TEAS Test. I was told if you regularly clear your cache this will not happen. If you like to play this game then stop complaining. Without the ads, the game would fizzle and be put on the back shelf. I for one am glad to see LOTRO ads and not porn or ads to cartoon myself.

Originally Posted by manstan

Over saturating the market with adds just causes people to get sick to death of them and start feeling animosity to the game. As in so sick of the adds they avoid the game.

At what point can you call it over saturating?

I have never seen adds for Lotro before but I neither have for a lot of other games. And if I did then I never notice them because I mostly block adds with some trained selective vision. It might enter by subconscious but hey, it is still there and I cannot remember it consciously.

I get much more annoyed by adds on TV for your favorite beer, car, detergent, you name it every 10-20 minutes.

I actually might notice Lotro much more than any other game ad simply because it is the game I play and am used to see the logo and would recognize it easily.
Maybe that is also why you would call it over saturating?

But ads for other games like Skyrim, Assasin's Creed or WoW I likely would not notice much.

The ads are targeted to you. Most people will never get the Lotro ad.

Secondly, the wierd thing is not Lotro asking to be put on the suspicious sites (they did not), it is the mainstream ad companies putting ads on these sites. So many many major companies (ex. Netflix) end up on semi-legal sites. This is just the way Net advertising is right now. It is not just Turbine. Turbine just signed up with a major Net Ad company and then this happens. I see Lotro ads everywhere too. Especially on the sexy gnome cosplay sites I look at (that was a joke, yes).

Originally Posted by Cindir

The ads are targeted to you. Most people will never get the Lotro ad.

This.

This is called targetted advertising, and somewhere on your computer, is a cookie which stores where you've browsed, and what types of searches you've performed. That cookie then goes to an advertising agency which uses the information gathered to direct "advertisements of interest" (my phrase) to you.

Don't believe me? Try an easy test. Use google, or bing, or whatever your favorite search engine is, and do some searches for something that is completely outside your remotest realm of interest. For me, I would probably try "mountain biking", or any sports related search. You'll soon seen an influx of similar advertisements.

targeted ads are hilarious!

i actually like them, as they only show stuff ive already bought! ths way, im effectivly "left alone" by advertising.


took 6 months for the engagement rings and diamond advert to stop after i got engaged. i only did like one search about them too.


better these types of ads than them finding something NEW i might be interested in and actually fulfilling their function!

Originally Posted by manstan

Over saturating the market with adds just causes people to get sick to death of them and start feeling animosity to the game. As in so sick of the adds they avoid the game.

Maybe you don't realize this because you're a relatively new player (just assuming from your join date), but the veteran regular forum reader has to sit back and laugh at this. For years, people have complained that Turbine doesn't advertise enough, and now because you've seen a recent spate of ads, you say they advertise too much, even to the point of "oversaturation." The irony of it is just staggering.

If whoever is in charge of the marketing saw this, they'd have to just throw up their hands and give up.




Edit: I see even Fox News is happily engaged in the usual news media practice of dramatizing the news. "Egads, what will this shooting mean for society?! Humankind is dooooomed! Stay right here for more coverage!"


Rip

Originally Posted by Cindir

The ads are targeted to you. Most people will never get the Lotro ad.

Secondly, the wierd thing is not Lotro asking to be put on the suspicious sites (they did not), it is the mainstream ad companies putting ads on these sites. So many many major companies (ex. Netflix) end up on semi-legal sites. This is just the way Net advertising is right now. It is not just Turbine. Turbine just signed up with a major Net Ad company and then this happens. I see Lotro ads everywhere too. Especially on the sexy gnome cosplay sites I look at (that was a joke, yes).

That is about what I figured. Personally I'd want more control over my advertising, as in this case where the adverts are on sites Turbine may not want to be associated with.

I run addblock+ on firefox, have yet to see it stop anything, least of all popups. Yes it's up to date, yes it's on, yes I gave up on it doing anything.

I also have my browser set to delete cookies on closing, and clean my comp every night before bed. More over for those underground sites I browse anonymously, so they can't possibly get any info to tailor any adds to me.

My example is over saturation, two adds on the same page. That news site is the first site I open in the AM, with no cookies and not having logged in here or any place else. So those adds weren't tailored for me; I'm not registered there so don't log in or have any personal info there.

Targeting an audience I can understand. Those sites I watch my TV shows on are underground, not easy to find so probably has a prominently "geek" audience, and geeks play MMOs

None the less I just don't want to get as sick of seeing LOTRO adds as I am the WOW ones.

I do get where you are coming from - it is easy to get sick of seeing Lotro ads everywhere. I see a lot of them.

Originally Posted by manstan

I've been editing while others were posting so let me make a couple of points clear.

Over saturating the market with adds just causes people to get sick to death of them and start feeling animosity to the game. As in so sick of the adds they avoid the game.

And As I said, does LOTRO marketing really want to be associated with underground and porn sites?

My solution would be to stop visiting underground and porn sites, then you won't be oversaturated with LOTRO ads.

Originally Posted by Roberto_the_First

My solution would be to stop visiting underground and porn sites, then you won't be oversaturated with LOTRO ads.

So the Merrevail in the Mines of Moria are a no-no?

The thing with over-saturation of advertising...everyone does it. You may not like it. But I bet if your old enough you know the Big Mac song. Or Meow Mix. Or Wendys. Built Ford Tough. Need I go on? Advertising is designed to over-saturate. Its designed to make you associate a product with something. The jingles might be aggravating, but you remember it. For years. Its a proven formula, and Warner Bro/Time Warner are experts. Get used to seeing it. Hell, SWTOR had bloody billboards in my city. WOW still doesnt have that.

Originally Posted by Tanthilan

The thing with over-saturation of advertising...everyone does it. You may not like it. But I bet if your old enough you know the Big Mac song.

Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.

You deserve a break today. So get up and get away. To McDonalds!

Sadly, those are from memory and not Googling for them.... but thanks to AdBlock+ I would not see the McDonalds ads those searches would cause!

No, it'll never be as bad as WoW was, that was saturation!

Well if you're a liberal seeing Lotro advertising on Drudge Report it shouldn't make you quit Lotro - maybe quit going to Drudge! It's like a song they play to much on the radio, first you like it, then you love it, then you're tired of it - then you simply hate to hear it.

1st world problems... I mean, c'mon dude - really?

I hope you are familliar with how Google AdSense chooses what adds to show....where you see adds for MMOs other see....toys or clothes. Its based on your browsing habbits. And in this moment if you are not on AdSense you do not exist as brand. So when you are bombarded with adds for MMOs people who dont really play games will bump into such an add by mistake.

And marketing brings in customers. Customers makes the game alive. And they bring money. Money brings more content. Moe content is good

Originally Posted by Roberto_the_First

My solution would be to stop visiting underground and porn sites, then you won't be oversaturated with LOTRO ads.

You do see my screen cap is from one of the top 3 news sites online right?

The underground sites are simply because I am a big bang theory fan and it's the only place I can find the entire series online; for free :P As well as a few other shows that I am not setting up a schedule to watch when broad cast; I watch them when I am of a mind to, not when I am told I have to.

And I'm not in to porn, that was an example of what the LOTRO adds are next to, just another popup or add mixed with the porn sites and dating service adds. For me it puts them in the same category, add spam. And for many they will do the same and blow it off. What good is advertising people ignore out of habit? And what good is it doing Turbine if people put porn sites, dating service sites and LOTRO in the same category?

And I personally free google and chrome are two of the biggest pieces of sanctioned spyware on line. If you use chrome you might as well just print out your browser history and post it to facebook. I do my best to avoid this ship.

http://www.switched.com/2010/09/18/h...d-ads-a-guide/

Opting out doesn't make the ads go away, they are just random or based on the site.

Originally Posted by Dwarendele

1st world problems... I mean, c'mon dude - really?

Wow that made me laugh pretty hard. So true, so sad.

To the OP yea those are targeted ads. The only people that see those ads are people who go to lotro sites.

With that fact in mind I find it odd that you dislike ads about the same sites you always visit.

But with my browser is clean, no cookies, how could they possibly know what sites I log in to? Like I said I don't use chrome.
More over, most of the adds I see have nothing to do with the sites I visit.

Many website send stuff directly to google for adsense. Doesnt matter what browser you use. Just check the bar where it says connecting. Youll see how you first connect to all sorts of history connecting websites.

As for LOTRO being on porn/illegal download sites or not, its not LOTRO per se, there is the Google AdSense casette which gets filled with what you would be attracted to. As i said in a post above this. Turbine just pays being on AdSense. Rest is managed by the algorithms of the app.

I say GOOD!!!

I can't be the only person who has tried a game due to seeing it advertised, am I? I found EVE online and also Asheron's Call

I have seen the LotRO adds on my local news site and a couple other places, if they are targeted at me, that's silly since I already play. Now if they allow ads on things like New York City MetroCards and LotRO winds up there, you might have a point.

Personally, I find ads like videos for auto dealerships more annoying, nothing drives me crazy like opening a news story and suddenly I hear this blasted elevator music with a voice saying, "Take a look at this .... Ford .... Focus at (Your Local) Auto," and I can't find the darn video to turn it off!

Or when some link opens another window you don't notice to some chat thing and you keep hearing, "Bloomp!" from some woman waiting to chat with you but you don't know what is making the darn noise because it is behind the one you are using!

(This message will soon have a LotRO ad in it to pay for your reading.)

Originally Posted by manstan

You do see my screen cap is from one of the top 3 news sites online right?

I did see your screen cap, yes, but forum rules prevent me from making comments about that particular site.

I imagine the ads will die down after RoR is released.

It was a banner ad advertizing the open beta that got me in the game. I'm very grateful for that.

Originally Posted by manstan

Now I am seeing LOTRO adds everywhere, in all the site/forum margins, and in popups.

As someone who stopped allowing javascript and remote images once advertisers went from inobtrusive banner ads to IN YOUR FACE COVERING THE PAGE CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME animated junk, I have no idea what you're talking about. I havn't seen an ad in over 10 years.

Marketers seem to feel that ethics and manners have no place in their business, and that any behaviour is acceptable as long as it makes their job a little easier or might result in a 1/1000000 chance of a sale. The only possible response to that is to shut them down completely.

I'll make some comments about the site. Any one old enough to remember when news media political bias was subtle? We're talking sludge hammer here lol
But it's not like there are that many news sites online. My other is BBC news, at least there I can get away from the USA political rhetoric.

As far as game adverts, I have never went to, downloaded, or played any games based on them. In fact after I see games advertised on those sites I tend to avoid them; I mean I wouldn't trust a game I saw in the side column of an underground site between an add for a porn site and some male enhancement drug. Of the dozens I have seen, WOW and LOTRO are the only ones I have played and that had nothing to do with those adds.

Originally Posted by Ameranth

Marketers seem to feel that ethics and manners have no place in their business, and that any behaviour is acceptable as long as it makes their job a little easier or might result in a 1/1000000 chance of a sale. The only possible response to that is to shut them down completely.

I guess you also seem to feel that the websites you visit pay for their domain and web space with money from a magical cash generating bag. If you really wish that all advertisers would be shut down, then I'm betting you would have no qualms in all web sites being VIP access only. As in you're paying them so the site itself also doesn't get shutdown.

Everyone would do well to remember that when you see banner ads, you were the ones who went to the place that had them. It's not as if they're being invasive like telemarketers calling your house at all odd hours of the night.


I don't understand why people complain about advertisers or really even cash shops anymore if it means they get to use said websites and/or game services at no cost to themselves. If you really don't want to look like an overly-entitled fellow, then I suggest you pay for premium services which not only removes website advertisement, but ultimately supports the people supplying you with a service.

Lest you look like a freeloader, of course. But, even still. These ads are nowhere near as rabid as they could be from most other free games out there. Take them as a sign that the free to play business model is working swimmingly with LoTRO and DDO as well, and that neither games are showing any signs of aging.

"then I suggest you pay for premium services which not only removes website advertisement"

Subscribing to hulu does not stop the commercials, just grants you access to more shows.

This thread is about on par for what I'd expect from somebody that obtains their news from Fox.

I can't believe a company wants to advertise their product! Oh the humanity.

The fact that you care, even remotely about an ad on a site blows my mind. Now excuse, I'm going to go sit on my porch, in my rocking chair and yell " Get off my lawn".

Originally Posted by manstan

Over saturating the market with adds just causes people to get sick to death of them and start feeling animosity to the game. As in so sick of the adds they avoid the game.
And As I said, does LOTRO marketing really want to be associated with underground and porn sites?

I think you are overreacting a bit there. First of all i dont think anyone, not even Turbine, is going to be very worried about an ad of them showing up on any kind of site.. be it porn, weapon selling or otherwise, because its all about beeing visible... even a pornstar or porn viewer might be interested in playing a game.

These days i think a very big chunk of the world economy floats on advertising and you better get used to it... its the world you live in... period.

Secondly you are going to have a very hard time associating Middle-Earth with porn... or other 'bad' stuff. That is, if one has but the slightest insight on what the Middle-Earth is about, your brain will drop any association with the ad's surroundings.


Edit: Also... i think there is no such thing as 'oversaturating' when it comes to advertising