As long as it doesn't interrupt gameplay, I say It lets games be free and ads aren't crowded in your face. Having it on an in-game billboard is not only more convenient, but kind of cool too...
In a way I feel like a sucker if it's a game you paid a full price on and you have ads in it, that already feels like greed and not an attempt to cover costs, but I don't mind them in free games as long as they don't come in the way of gameplay.
Something I dislike is those Flash games that take a few seconds break in the middle of the game to stick in another ad that you can't skip.
I don't like real advertising, but I love what games like GTA and Saints Row does to adverts. Replacing them with real ones would remove the humour and I wouldn't be too much for that.
I've not seen a game where real advertising would be a good idea™
It's better if the ads are part of the game. for instance, driving past a billboard or in a football game where ads are displayed around the pitch anyway.
I wouldn't like to see it in a fantasy based game. Thats one thing i didn't like about some old codemasters games, shameless self promotion.
For years, I've always thought that the perfect way to fund the servers and such for a mid level MMO would be like a 30 second ad playing whilst the game loads up for the first time that day. Nothing actually In-Game mind you.
As long as it's done correctly, there's no problem. Sports games have been doing in game advertising for years, and it feels totally natural within those confines. Product placement in games would be a neat way of doing it, again as long as it's done right.
If something in-game manages to take me out of the game, then I'd be irritated.
I don't think unobtrusive advertising is a problem.
So long as you don't have to sit through it more than once, even very blatant advertising can be ok - like the old guy in "secret of monkey island" who tells you to go buy "loom" (another lucasarts adventure). Once you know he has nothing helpful to say you just don't talk to him again.
However, I also don't see you getting anyone to pay for advertising space in a click game, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.
For me, the best use of advertising space would be to credit people who have made the game possible (eg. Daily Click / Clickteam logos) or to promote your own games, or to promote good causes (eg. a Charity).
I like subtle ads. Like in movies, where the hero uses a certain type of car, phone, internet service provider Heck, I'd welcome ads if they'd lower a game price! You pay $2 for a multi-million dollar movie, but $20 for a poor game? Ridiculous. Ads are a win-win solution, like what it's done for TV today
Just no pop-ups or spam plz. I don't know what idiot invented pop-up ads or spam.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
Basically all of my games contain ads of some sort, usually their intention is to drive traffic to my website, or in case of shareware games, obviously to increase sales of the full version. From player/consumer point of view, I find many ads very useful when they are presented in correct time, place and context. Of course as we all know this doesn't always go like this and that's when it becomes more irritating than beneficial.
Btw, selling ad space in click games is totally possible, as long as you have a superb hit game in your hands (which is of course very rarely the case..). Best small freeware games can be downloaded and tried out by even 1 million players. That's already quite a nice audience and many advertisers would be more than willing to pay some significant amounts for getting their ad to the title screen of the game, as long as their product and the average player profile match in some sensible way. Of course it's not just about general awareness but rather about what type of a game it is and what sort of a target player group it has. For example, a "gardening" game would have a relatively small audience but very homogenous in its characteristics, so even a 'niche' game like that could be very interesting for some advertisers when its theme matches well with company's customers and products. Whereas some generic "kill 'em all" game played by a trillion of 10-15 year old boys without any purchasing power at all doesn't provide too much business potential for advertisers.
In the old tony hawk games advertising worked pretty good with billboards for Mountain Dew and stuff. It wasn't in your face, it kind of made the game more realistic.
Eegra.com bribed me to put adspace to their website on the title screen of my game as well as in the Projects section for it
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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Edited by AndyUK
Heck, I'd welcome ads if they'd lower a game price! You pay $2 for a multi-million dollar movie, but $20 for a poor game? Ridiculous. Ads are a win-win solution, like what it's done for TV today 
