In game ads: Hellgate

I plan on surveying current attitudes/buzz regarding in-game ads, and I'm starting with Hellgate:London.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/21/1623205&from=rss
http://hellgatepalladium.blogspot.com/2007/11/new-hellgate-london-ingame-ads.html

I'll start by saying that I don't like in-game ads, but I don't hate them either. A lot of people seem to get up in arms about advertising and any sort of "spying" done to target ads. More precisely, these alarmists are the loud ones and few people stand up in support of ads or moderated rhetoric. One common complaint is that the consumer is still paying $50 or so to look at ads. You get a taste of this point of view in the Slashdot comments in the link above. The other issue is that some people perceive advertising as distracting or as ruining their experience. Luckily I have not played a game where it was the case that the ads were overly obtrusive. As someone points out, also on Slashdot, the ads are in the form of posters left up in the post-apocalyptic subway stations. They feel right and are even preferable to simply having bare wall.

The second link is a sort of follow-up to the whole in-game ad issue. The developers of the game are now using the poster space to occasionally celebrate the achievements of certain players (richest, highest level, etc). I think this is an example of a company doing something cool for players. Interestingly, it's also the only thing anyone has mentioned lately regarding the ads.