AtariAge + Atari Q&A

[+Living Room Arcade]

It seems like there are multiple conversations going on here at once in this thread.  I have created a separate thread where guys can - if interested - join me in some focused discussion on the following two pertinent discussion points:  

 

1) Should Atari employees be identified as such under their avatars each time they post here in the forums?

2) Has the Atari Privacy Policy been released yet?  If yes, let's read it and discuss it together.  If not, let's ask Atari to please release it now.  

 

Anyone interested in discussing these two points with me, follow this link and I'll see you over there!  

Edited June 4 by Living Room Arcade

[roots.genoa]

6 hours ago, bent_pin said:

What's his username here on AA?

Not sure. I think it's either "Creamhoven" or "johannesmutlu". 🙂

[Lord Mushroom]

Does anyone know what kind of revenue ads would bring to AA?

[Zoyous]

Why would there be ads now that the site is owned by a company with its own revenue streams? If there had to be ads, they should just be Atari's own ads. Otherwise, IMO ad platforms are too unpredictable with the content they serve (you can only specify very general categories to allow/disallow) and they just make an ugly mess of the pages they're embedded in.

[Lord Mushroom]

16 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

Why would there be ads now that the site is owned by a company with its own revenue streams?

If Atari thinks it would benefit them overall. I just think it would be interesting to know how much money they forego (directly) by not having ads.

 

19 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

If there had to be ads, they should just be Atari's own ads.

Yes, AA should be an ideal place for Atari ads, although people here are already quite informed about what they have to offer.

[Giles N]

18 hours ago, Zoyous said:

just make an ugly mess of the pages they're embedded in.

word

[Giles N]

Even though I have no way of (back-)tracking this, I believe there are several major platforms that I ended up using less, - almost nothing by now - in part to overt inclusion and focus on advertisement.

 

It felt as if - in order not to spend money - I had to use most of my energy, dodging advertisements. I gave them up more and more until it all was left behind and forgotten.

 

Other times I just had had it, and shut the door and left.

 

Some lesser things, apps and sites, looks so bad now, I just delete, hoping I never need to come back. 
 

Some of these use it deliberately to create a paywall.

 

«Pay! Or we’ll torture the aesthetical sensesory structures in your brain»

 

So, - whats enthusiam and goodfeel worth in money?

 

What’s the loss of that -  over time -, worth in money…?

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[Giles N]

18 hours ago, Lord Mushroom said:

If Atari thinks it would benefit them overall.

Short-term gratification-money or long term ‘get back to being someone in the video-game world again-benefits…?

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[Giles N]

I’m not against it in some absolute sense, but it must be meaningful and not make a bloody mess of the page.

 

Namco Bandai could get a continually ongoing news-and-update window in a neat-looking miniscreen - in return for Atari and AA getting to use certain older IP in an artistically free way for tiny fee.

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[Lord Mushroom]

4 hours ago, Giles N said:

Short-term gratification-money or long term ‘get back to being someone in the video-game world again-benefits…?

A long term stream of money. If the extra income is higher than the decreased value of the brand, it would make sense.

[Giles N]

51 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

A long term stream of money. If the extra income is higher than the decreased value of the brand, it would make sense.

Yes, from a purely financial viewpoint, I can see that point.

 

But how would you measure those categories, prior to implementing changes that could, if pulled off in a very poor manner, potentially ruin the AA-site and/or get Atari nowhere or throw the Brand further into the background, into obscurity or even make it become a laughing stock (the type stocks you don’t want too many of) for who-knows-how-long?

 

How to test and find out ‘what works’, before going about just making changes, some of which could be considered big and risky (estranging/alienating the core of Atari fans/reducing the Brand reputation)?

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[Lord Mushroom]

14 minutes ago, Giles N said:

But how would you measure those categories,

You would have to look at the past experiences of other companies/websites doing similar things, and estimate the financial loss from a weaker brand based on what they plan to do with the brand. They won´t be able to get exact figures, but they can make educated guesses.

 

And if the ads don´t work out, they can go back to ad-free, and limit the losses.

[phoenixdownita]

5 minutes ago, Lord Mushroom said:

You would have to look at the past experiences of other companies/websites doing similar things, and estimate the financial loss from a weaker brand based on what they plan to do with the brand. They won´t be able to get exact figures, but they can make educated guesses.

 

And if the ads don´t work out, they can go back to ad-free, and limit the losses.

Or you setup an A/B testing in which a portion of the users sees the ads and the majority does not and then check the impact on that group.

 

Don’t worry if Atari isn’t sure how to proceed there’s plenty of Ad companies out there that can help gauging risks/rewards before throwing the baby out with the bath water. (I am pretty sure they already partner with one or more as it is)

Edited June 5 by phoenixdownita

[CPUWIZ]

5 hours ago, Giles N said:

I’m not against it in some absolute sense, but it must be meaningful and not make a bloody mess of the page.

 

Namco Bandai could get a continually ongoing news-and-update window in a neat-looking miniscreen - in return for Atari and AA getting to use certain older IP in an artistically free way for tiny fee.

 

I worked for Namco in the U.S. and Japan for 8 years, not a chance you will convince them (no idea how much Bandai really has control over the original IP's).  The guy who is now the president, was an associate producer BITD, I knew him well. 

 

TRIVIA: Namco, like most companies in Japan, is a place you don't leave and get to see your entire career play out, until you retire or die.

[Giles N]

Just now, Lord Mushroom said:

You would have to look at the past experiences of other companies/websites doing similar things, and estimate the financial loss from a weaker brand based on what they plan to do with the brand. They won´t be able to get exact figures, but they can make educated guesses.

 

And if the ads don´t work out, they can go back to ad-free, and limit the losses.

Ok, I can agree to that way to going about it.

 

I would also add (what-a-pun-there):

- start with something smaller and easier to go back on. 
If they get Ads to work nicely, [read: not becoming some dreadful ever-interfering thing causing irritability, distress, anger and possibly fits of uncontrollable digital device-throwing], they could slowly put in Ads where it would fit in more naturally, clearly visible, but in such manners as to not be a disturbance to the flow of information and communication, nor make entire AA interface look like a chaotic mess. With slower, incremental movements one could more easily evaluate what looked good/natural/in-place and more easily remove an Ad-implenting that was overall damaging.

- try to make it primarily attract advertisers that would be in the realm of video/games/sound/tech, if it’s possible. In that way, it would lessen the feeling of irritating distractions, or that ‘Atari is now doing anything for money’ or something in that direction. But I know too little of already in-use Ad-ware.

But m, if attempted, start small and focused, and evaluate from there.

[phoenixdownita]

6 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

I worked for Namco in the U.S. and Japan for 8 years, not a chance you will convince them (no idea how much Bandai really has control over the original IP's).  The guy who is now the president, was an associate producer BITD, I knew him well. 

 

TRIVIA: Namco, like most companies in Japan, is a place you don't leave and get to see your entire career play out, until you retire or die.

…but you made it out !!

(Btw so cool, Namco, Konami … that was royalty back then)

 

Any games we may have played that you worked on?

Including productions like Namco Museum going back to the PS1 time or maybe even PacLand and PacMania ports on Atari ST or Amiga?

Edited June 5 by phoenixdownita

[Giles N]

12 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

I worked for Namco in the U.S. and Japan for 8 years, not a chance you will convince them (no idea how much Bandai really has control over the original IP's).  The guy who is now the president, was an associate producer BITD, I knew him well. 

Ok, - so this^ (what you said), like as to convince them to do trade-off deals, or any deal that isn’t just cut down to ‘put the right amount on license-money on the table or nothing happens’?

 

I ask, because you word it in ways that makes it to sound as it either could be about personal or national/corporate etiquette of honor, or that they never give up having full control of things relating to them, or that they don’t strike trade-off deals: only pure money.

 

So, what’s into ‘not a chance’?

 

More accurately: why ‘no chance’?

 

It’s not like PacMan or other Namco IP ever haven’t been licensed or ported.

 

So, what’s going on here?

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[CPUWIZ]

4 minutes ago, phoenixdownita said:

…but you made it out !!

(Btw so cool, Namco, Konami … that was royalty back then)

 

Any games we may have played that you worked on?

Including productions like Namco Museum going back to the PS1 time or maybe even PacLand and PacMania ports on Atari ST or Amiga?

 

I never quit a job in my life, they closed the U.S. studio in 2 stages and I got hit first, because I was "2nd in command in R&D" at the time.

 

And no, not that way back, but Pac-Man World I & II are my babies forever.  The first one sold over 30 million copies by the end of the 90's.

[CPUWIZ]

2 minutes ago, Giles N said:

Ok, - as to convince them to do trade-off deal, or any deal that isn’t just cut to put the right amount on license-money on the table?

 

I ask, because you word it in ways that makes it to sound as it either could be about personal or national/corporate etiquette of honor, or that they never give up having full control of things relating to them, or that they don’t strike trade-off deals: only pure money.

 

So, what’s into ‘not a chance’?

 

More accurately: why ‘no chance’?

 

It’s not like PacMan or other Namco IP ever haven’t been licensed or ported.

 

So, what’s going on here?

 

Ads, for one, don't fit into the Atari eco-system and Namco isn't very interested in advertising in the U.S in the first place.

[Giles N]

31 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

Ads, for one, don't fit into the Atari eco-system and Namco isn't very interested in advertising in the U.S in the first place.

Hm, ok, - I consider AtariAge international, even though another thread here, showed a analytical program saying 50-55% of users are U.S.-people.

 

So, it’s about it being of just too little of value, too few take-aways for Namco to bother to consider such a prospect…? That the ‘no chance’ is like ‘nothing in it for them to make it conceivably realistic to happen’…?

 

—

 

BTW: saw a video(-segment) of PacMan World I right now; looked really neat and nice, like a PacLand 3D for the PS-era!) 

 

—

 

Of personal interest: if r & d = research and developement, could be interesting to hear some of the most important things you learned and worked with in that.

 

Did you research like what people wanted, pass it on to the game-designers, or research tech and software?

 

Developement: was it about how the more technical aspects of it all would fit together, or just being part of game-developement?

 

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[TrogdarRobusto]

There is a lot of discussion about ads here ... wow. Ads have not been part of the AA experience so introducing them would very much constitute a change. 

As we aren't look to change AA beyond adding more support for the community and site mission, ads have not been on the list of things we have considered, and I would not expect them to hit that list any time soon.

If Al felt strongly that we needed ads for some reason because it would ad value to the community we would have that discussion. But he has a lot of other development priorities so I don't see it happening. 

There are some text-based ads now on MobyGames at the top of the page  ... really no longer than an email subject line. Even that is just an experiment vs a source of monetization at the moment. 

Maybe if we learn something interesting about how those perform we can share that info ... 

At the end of the day advertising is not a primary revenue channel for us, and we are trying to really focus our limited resources on where we can be the most successful and carve out a position that is leading and/or differentiated. 

 

 

Edited June 5 by TrogdarRobusto

[phoenixdownita]

43 minutes ago, CPUWIZ said:

 

Ads, for one, don't fit into the Atari eco-system.

Erhh … personal opinion right?

 

PS: Official response above, came in as I was typing.

 

Feel free to clean/delete this post, my apologies.

Edited June 5 by phoenixdownita

[Albert]

1 minute ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

There are some text-based ads now on MobyGames at the top of the page  ... really no longer than an email subject line. Even that is just an experiment vs a source of monetization at the moment.

I would like to add (no pun intended?) that the ads being displayed on MobyGames are Atari ads to direct traffic to Atari.com.  There are no third-party ads that I've seen.  In fact, this is the only one I've seen so far, and if you refresh the page, about half the time it's an "ad" promoting something on MobyGames itself.  

 

 

Keep in mind that Atari has owned MobyGames for over two years now, and Atari invested resources to help MobyGames complete a significant database upgrade project that recently went live.  MobyGames is in the early stages of implementing a MobyPro subscription feature as a means of monetization, and like subscriptions here, it looks like it adds additional benefits beyond what one would normally have access to.

 

 ..Al

[Giles N]

21 minutes ago, Albert said:

like subscriptions here, it looks like it adds additional benefits beyond what one would normally have access to.

…I always forget about that one…

 

What are the additional benefits again…? 
Was this the thing that brought us up the concept of SpeakerPants and all that…😉 or do I get discounts on forthcoming AA-store games… 🤩??

Edited June 5 by Giles N

[+Fred_M]

32 minutes ago, TrogdarRobusto said:

There is a lot of discussion about ads here ... wow. Ads have not been part of the AA experience so introducing them would very much constitute a change. 

 

 

Please keep in mind that many AA-visitors never visit the "Atari General" forum. The people here, all with good intentions, do not represent the entire AA-community.

 

For example, I am mainly active in the Atari 8-bit forums. The vast majority of the people in that part of AA do not contribute to (or read) these topics here a lot.

Edited June 5 by Fred_M