I just read an interesting article about a new system for placing advertisements in our video games. You can see it at the following link:

http://nationalcheeseemporium.org/

This new system, which the author of the article found in the 1.1 patch of SWAT 4, places a specific set of ads in semi-random locations, and sends information back to the advertiser on what ads were shown, which ones were looked out, how long they were viewed, and from what angle/distance.

It also includes a 'gamerID' system, in which every client is tracked individually, across servers, similar to the way PunkBuster tracks client ID numbers for global banning purposes.

I find this whole thing incredibly annoying for several reaons, the chief among them is that I hate invasive advertising in any media. I don't watch TV because I hate my shows being interrupted every 8 minutes. I dislike the radio because there's a fifteen minute stretch of car ads after every ten songs or so. I cannot drive down the road without giant billboards blocking the beautiful scenery I have out here. Invasive advertising ruins a lot of simple pleasures for me, and I don't like it.

The other major issue I have is that this system is spyware in every sense of the word. It tracks you, relaying information on how long you play these games, which ads you saw, , how many times you saw them, and for what length of time. It'll be a cold day in hell before I willingly install spyware on my computer.

Pass the bucket.

Ignoring it does make it go away for you :]
Ofcourse, that only works when there's nothing important you're missing because of it. When it comes to TV, hell, you can just stop watching TV without ever missing anything worthwhile.
With games however.. it might be a different story.. ;]

I think the same principle as with e-mail spam applies. Nobody on the planet can be found who will ever admit to liking or wanting e-mail spam. Anyone who mistakenly considers it to be useful input will quickly realize their mistake as the amount that pours in increases.

Ofcourse, that first time that some clueless reader clicks a link, buys a penile enlargement device is exactly where the problem lies. Some (read: 1 out of, say, every 6 million) of the people running adblock are only running it because prudent system administrators like you and me installed it, and may care about the product which is now blasting itself into their face because of a new Javascript trick.
All this adds up and makes those 0.00001% of the targeted viewers worth the advertisers' while. If e-mail would cost one $c per message, we probably wouldn't be seeing any spam.

If I cannot control an application in the sense that it uses my internet connection to receive or send stuff I do not want to waste my bandwidth, I will boycott it, that's for sure.

part of the problem is that some people keep themselves in a job by thinking up new ways to get you ti see thier ads. they don't care whats right or wrong, they were 'just following instructions' how many times have we heard that?

I can just imagine one of these folks at thier yearly apprasal: 'I invented a new way to get our product to the attention of millions of people - wether they want it or not'

This won't go away - people will just get used to it, and except it as the norm. Thats whats so frightening. it will become the norm. then only 'radical nutters' will want to get rid of it.

Just like the volume in TV ads being much higher than the volume in TV programs. people just except it as normal.

I may be a pagan hippy, but as far as I can see, this will only get worse.  

i  normally video anything if i need to watch it, then run it back and fastforward the ads. In fact I realize now I havent watched telly for weeks. just star trek next gen series one on dvd.