At first the news was shocking, horrible even!  But after much thought and quite a bit of reading, I've come to discover that the worst the City of Heroes and Villians announcement last week could bring, is a downward slide.  But we can't really blame NCSoft for other companies not sticking to their design documents, world presentation, and player communities!

There was a press release that stated ads are now coming to both worlds, in a tasteful and completely opt-outable way.

“City of Heroes is a key property for NCsoft and we take great care to grow and nurture our player community,” said Brian Clayton, General Manager of NCsoft’s Northern California studio. “We are pleased to work with Double Fusion on City of Heroes, as they have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of our community and fundamentally understand how advertising can bring value to the players when executed gracefully, and in the appropriate context. In addition to allowing any of our players to opt-out if they so choose, their flexible technology will not only allow us to bring brand messages into the game but also provide a fun, new platform for displaying player-created materials.”

There's also a message from NCsoft NorCal Studio General Manager, Brian Clayton, on the CoH website.

So, how far do we plan to take these optional in-game ads? Initially, we are limiting ads to the exact same fictitious billboard placements that are already in the game. To get a better idea of this, check out these screenshot examples.

There are a whole lot of really fun ideas to consider, but the core game development of City of Heroes is by far our highest priority. Another interesting opportunity that the optional in-game advertising technology presents us is dynamically displaying other billboard content. We can swap in new signs that we create much more easily, and we can even display player-created content! This provides a cool new area for community contests, recognizing great player art, etc. In fact, we are inviting any interested players to submit their own advertising materials in our defined horizontal, vertical and square sizes (see all of the specific requirements here). We will use some of these to test the new optional ads on the Training Room (test servers).

Let's all remember this world already has fake advertising. So offering the ability to completely opt out and never be bothered with it again, while adding player made content and recognition is a huge step for COX, and I hope it goes well for the players!