I’ve been thinking some more about the whole in-game advertising thing, and think there might be a second way to deal with it. Certainly boycotting games with adverts in will force the advertisers to give up and walk away, but will also have the unfortunate side effect of leaving a dead shattered carcass of a game behind, with not enough players to warrant its continued existence.

That would be a shame, because before some high-flying media psychologist even noticed us, we were, on the whole, fairly happy with the games we’d chosen. The fact that in this case, it’s Planetside is a bit of a red herring; this isn’t about that title, but all our MMOs, and we all like at least one of them, and this affects us all.

So perhaps an ultra-harsh firebrand approach might not be the most elegant solution to the problem, which let’s face it, was somewhat naive wishful thinking anyway. So the second solution is not based on a sacrifice that most really obsessed gamers are probably incapable of making, but self-discipline.

Bring your adverts, fill every available surface with them, stuff my inbox with your offers, I don’t care, because I am stronger than you. I will not ignore your adverts; I will pay them all close attention, each and every one, make a mental list, and then specifically go out of my way to not buy your junk! Slap a Coca Cola sticker on my gun, and I'll play, then log off and go buy a Pepsi, laughing at you as I do.

The other way to make the Ad People go away is if they can look at sales figures, and see that the amount of extra money from new customers over the period, is far less than the amount of money they spent pushing the adverts in the first place. So if no-one who plays Planetside goes to see Duece Biggalo 2, this effect will have been achieved, and yet, Planetside itself won’t be killed in the process.

(Thinking about it, I can’t think of an online game where players are less focused on the scenery anyway. I don’t imagine many products were sold through French billboards campaigns in Normandy during the 1944 landings either. If you’re going to do it, do it in Everquest, where you have a captive audience!)

It’s less optimal than the Sacrifice Solution, because there needs to be a fair period of visual junk to be ignored before they realise it isn’t actually working and give up, and we need to be on guard for subliminal effects, but on the whole this strategy is more likely to be achieved than boycotting what is for many gamers, an experience akin to heroin addiction.

Still if many gamers are at all like me, it’s quite rare that they leave the house to go to the shops, let alone plan a serious session of ‘Retail Therapy’, so the above outcome might end up sorting itself out anyway, purely on the basis of our own apathy. If i'm anything to go by, online gamers don't make for very good consumers really. We’ll stare non-plussed at the new billboards, make a few wise-ass comments about them on zone chat, then move on and get on with our usual camping and grinding. The only people who lose are the people who foolishly game the game devs a briefcase full of cash in the first place. I might not be ecstatic about that, but it sounds an acceptable compromise.

Remember; Deuce Biggalo 2 – just say no! Now, to get on with some camping and grinding…