I don’t know how many people have actually noticed, but ever since October 8, 2007, SOE has placed banner ads on the majority of their major websites, including Everquest2.com and EQ2players.com.
I understand why people put banner ads on a website (revenue), but come on! SOE is a major multi-million dollar operation, not to mention it’s a divison of the multi-billion dollar Sony Corporation. Are finances really that desperate that banner ads are necessary for revenue? What about my $14.99 a month I pay for my EQ2 subscription, and my $1-5 extra for the EQ2Players.com features, aren’t those sufficient to cover website operations?
Hell, one could buy a ton of web space from GoDaddy for that kind of money alone.
So just what is SOE advertising anyway?
Aside from the random Windows Live ad, CapitalOne ad, Best Buy ad, and random hotels, there’s a few other interesting things that pop up on the SOE websites.
Competing MMOs
LastChaos, a competing MMO. Although it’s free to play (I’m sure you have to pay money for some premium content), it’s a sad day to show advertising for your competition.
And speaking of competition, I found this on the forums. LOTRO anyone?
Spyware
Historyswatter, no doubt spyware in the form of a toolbar. Click here to see an image of the page that pops up (don’t worry, it’s just an image file, nothing more).
Popups
Free Laptop, anyone? I can’t remember if I clicked this to see what it is, or if it was a popup. Either way, these are annoying. I also saw a bona fide popup banner, the bane and cardinal sin of the web.
Flowers…?
I have no idea what the hell this is supposed to be. The link ended up being a completely blank page.
Merchandise
One of the least questionable banner ads I’ve seen on the Internet in years. Reminds me of CafePress, actually. Ah, the glory days of the Internet…
Ads by Google
One word…wonderful. So much for quality control. Next thing you know, there will be plat seller ads. And don’t think I’m not looking for plat seller ads!
Official Dev Response
I quote Gnorbin, the new community guy for the EQ2 forums:
The web team reviews the advertisements that you see on the station pages in question (it’s all of them across SOE, not just EQIIPlayers) to ensure there’s no foul-play. The adverts aren’t netted in, they’re permitted to be shown.
Uh huh, right.
It boggles the mind that they are letting some of those ads… or ads at all… clutter up the game sites. It isn’t just EQ2 that has them, though some of the sites, like SWG, MxO, and PotBS, seem to be off the hook.
I’ve seen a couple of other ads from companies you could classify as competitors. If the list of ads was actually, diligently, reviewed, somebody doesn’t understand the company for which they work.
Our VP of marketing would have a fit if somebody suggested running banner ads on our corporate web site. A site like EverQuest2.com is supposed to send a message to visitors.
With banner ads, it seems to be “We’re a nickel and dime operation.”
Comment by Wilhelm2451 — November 5, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
Google Ads are notoriously impossible to control. The spam sites just own far too many URLs and Google advertising accounts.
Comment by Heartless_ — November 5, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
I posted on the official forums about this issue and was given the ’sky if falling’ response.
I think the ads make SOE look cheap and not like a top tier gaming company.
Also, I protest the ads on parts of the website reserved for paying customers (eq2players.com for example.) Once I log in I DO NOT want to see ads. My monthly fee should, at the very least, buy me an ad free experience on the eq2 site.
Comment by bob — November 6, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
modulator says : I absolutely agree with this !
Comment by modulator — May 28, 2008 @ 5:25 am