I abhorr ads and advertising with every fibre of my being. I realize it's an uphill battle, but still. If it has ads, I will go out of my way to block them. If I can't, I'll find an alternative bit of software.
If it stands out as blatant advertising, if it interrupts my session in any way, it will be to the detriment of your game and the thing being advertised.
But that doesn't make for a productive discussion, does it?
If I buy a product, there is an unspoken understanding that you've gotten paid your due and trying to mooch off more cash is bad form.
So if you want to base your revenue on ads, a good start is to make it free to play.
And it can work, or so it seems, with all the cosmetic item shops, etc. Not sure about their profits, but I think Path of Exile
gets a decent money stream by advertising its in-game merch and cosmetics.
There's also the pay to win route, but the less said about it, the better.
I think the point is in breaking immerision and interrupting the game. Self-advertising is the lesser of two evils,
seeing missing content with direct links to store always irks me. I can stand these things in the launcher, somewhere in the main menu perhaps,
but the "in-game" should be sacrosanct, untarnished by the filth of real-world currency. Sure, it's probably more effective,
consumer-oriented and leads to impulse buys, and whatever bullshit terms you want to paint it with.
In full realization of the slippery slope, here's what I would find tolerable:
Product placement. If it's a car game, it makes sense to have licensed stuff. If it has guns, let's have a glock instead of klock or whatever.
If it's a hunter simulation, makes sense to have products by real world companies. If you're riding bikes, let's have real ones.
These doesn't bother me, and might even add to the game. Guess I've fallen prey to the subliminal jude-hexen.
If it's set in the real world, it's probably going to have billboards and whatnots, as long as they're sorta there in the background.
Sure, I'll roll my eyes if I'd ever see a coca cola or snickers poster in-game, but if it is reasonably integrated, preferably tongue-in-cheek,
I might live with that.
So this is the real world and sims. How about fantasy stuff? The genre is immediately worse off because pretty much everything from real life will (or should) stand out,
unless you're aiming for a zany, tongue-in-cheek, theme park experience. A way out would be to become part of an IP, warhammer, D&D, Magic the Gathering,
Marvel,etc.. Unfortunately, the reality is these franchises will want you to pay for the dubious privilege of doing their advertising for them and will most likely enforce
some guidelines to, uh, channel your creative energies the right way.
It's a bit of a paradox, who is really advertising who, but from the developer's standpoint, if it nets your game some extra exposure, that's a win.
If you actually enjoy the franchise, another win.
Another angle is to have your own merchandising, setup a store and let people buy shit connected to your game - miniatures, mugs, t-shirts, jewelerry, boardgames, cardgames.
For a bit more blatant advertising, you might link in-game challenges to redeemable vouchers. So you defeated Sarevok huh? How about a 5% discount on the guy's funko pop in our store.
As long as supplies last.
Yeah, I feel all dirty just typing it up. Still, that's basically setting up a separate business with its own production lines, so I'm not sure a small studio will have the resources (or stomach) for it.