ID:2148296
 
Applies to:Webclient
Status: Open

Issue hasn't been assigned a status value.
Any way we could have a way to disable these for games using BYOND's subscription/credit system?
Also on the list for the future (allowing developers to pay for [x] amount of loads without the ad playing), but changes like this are secondary to software development itself.

Disabling them for all games using subscriptions would pretty much invalidate one of the main reasons people buy memberships though, now if the game was actually generating a certain level of steady income I could see it, but not simply by having subscriptions enabled.
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
(allowing developers to pay for [x] amount of loads without the ad playing)

This sounds more complicated than it needs to be to me, since there's only a handful of games on BYOND who generate revenue.

Ads are also a bit more of a nuisance in our case since it's against the policy of many browser game portals for developers to have their own playing... Which means as it is the webclient can't really be used there. Lummox may even want to temporarily disable ads entirely for the webclient to encourage more use.

Said games generating revenue are the only ones we'd want disabling ads for non-members, that's the point. If a game isn't generating any revenue, disabling the ads for anyone but members is not going to happen, there has to be a way to make up for the loss in revenue on BYOND's end. It's the same reason BYOND standalone games require approval, because the bypass the ads and need to be giving something back to BYOND to make it feasible.

The options for disabling ads have been discussed before and it was decided on that allowing developers to pay for ad-free loads was the best way to make sure that BYOND continues getting a cut, as if the revenue dries up, the developer will have to allow ads again. This option would also open up the possibility of a free-to-use standalone that plays an ad unless the developer has paid to disable them (or the person is a Member).

But yeah, the idea of being able to disable them has been brought up and talked about various times, and removing them outright was never really an option, requiring a steady incoming income stream would be the only way -- whether it be by the developer paying per load, a lump sum for time without ads, or by actually playing the ads.
I also wanted to add, that when discussing the idea of allowing developers to pay for ad-free loads we talked about things like automatically having a percentage of subscription revenue generated by the game go towards removing ads (set by the developer) and even having a percentage of the percentage BYOND already takes siphoned away to build up towards ad free time.
The plans I have in the words for ad-free loads allow for a fixed number of ads, or a timed period. And that can be done for an entire hub entry or just for a specific server. I'd like to get back to work on that fairly soon and do some trial runs with the SS13 people to see what numbers I get.