Ads in Wolvden?

Ads in Wolvden?
Posted 2022-04-15 10:28:25 #724349 Hi all, I just wanted to gauge the community's reaction and feelings on the Wolvden staff team implementing advertisements on the site. I personally wouldn't mind small, unobtrusive, static (as in not animated), sidebar ads that could send a little revenue towards the admins and owners of the site. Perhaps it could even be toggle-able in your profile, like dark mode, with a little check box that says "Help support Wolvden by displaying ads?" And you could choose to disable them at any time. If anyone is worried about NSFW things sneaking in, ads could be automatically disabled for anyone under 18. Why ads? Yes, it's really nice to have a ad-free browsing experience. It's especially nice when I am on mobile to not have anything extra loading and hogging my data. But also that means the only revenue the site gets is through GC sales. I can't help but feel like that might not be enough. I of course can't speak for what's happening behind the scenes, but the recent update schedule and quality make me feel as though the small staff team is overwhelmed and scrambling to deliver promised updates on time. I don't remember a single lunar event that wasn't bugged at least a little bit - from new decor being messed up on certain poses, new eye applicators being invalid when attempting to apply them, or new bases and feature sets absent from the anthro wardrobe entirely. At least the staff team is quick to address these bugs... mostly. There are some that have been around for a literal year, or actual impossible quests being looked at, a fix attempted, but not actually fixed. I am sure the staff are trying their best, and I really appreciate everything they do. But I can't imagine it's very satisfying to put out work that you know isn't your best. I used to have a job like that - we were understaffed and it was incredibly stressful to get things done before the deadline, and we rushed and pushed out sub-par products that were defective in some way, which just ended up causing more problems down the road. And these were mostly discrete, separate instances that we just had to go and redo - I can't imagine a shaky code base that bogs you down forever and doesn't go away when that project is over. If Wolvden made more money through ads, they could perhaps hire more testers who would catch the bugs before the users, more artists to design or recolor marks, or perhaps even a social media specialist who could post teasers and small updates about what's to come. I personally found out about wolvden through tumblr - they were so active while the site was in development, but have been extremely silent ever since. I would definitely appreciate more communication between staff and users, but if they are spending so much time on making a functional game, I can't really blame them for not spending time on "extra" things. But this creates a vicious cycle of staff not investing much in Wolvden --> People don't play Wolvden as much ---> Wolvden doesn't generate much income --> staff don't invest in Wolvden ---> players get bored and don't play wolvden as much ---> etc etc etc. Now ads won't solve every problem, and there are probably reasons why they haven't tried to implement them yet. But I am hoping they could give Wolvden a little jumpstart so it can turn into the game we all want it to be. But I want to see the community's reaction to the suggestion, and if other people are as open to the idea as I am.	Zea #27549

Posted 2022-04-15 10:28:25

#724349

Hi all,

I just wanted to gauge the community's reaction and feelings on the Wolvden staff team implementing advertisements on the site.

I personally wouldn't mind small, unobtrusive, static (as in not animated), sidebar ads that could send a little revenue towards the admins and owners of the site. Perhaps it could even be toggle-able in your profile, like dark mode, with a little check box that says "Help support Wolvden by displaying ads?" And you could choose to disable them at any time. If anyone is worried about NSFW things sneaking in, ads could be automatically disabled for anyone under 18.

Why ads?

Yes, it's really nice to have a ad-free browsing experience. It's especially nice when I am on mobile to not have anything extra loading and hogging my data. But also that means the only revenue the site gets is through GC sales. I can't help but feel like that might not be enough. I of course can't speak for what's happening behind the scenes, but the recent update schedule and quality make me feel as though the small staff team is overwhelmed and scrambling to deliver promised updates on time. I don't remember a single lunar event that wasn't bugged at least a little bit - from new decor being messed up on certain poses, new eye applicators being invalid when attempting to apply them, or new bases and feature sets absent from the anthro wardrobe entirely.

At least the staff team is quick to address these bugs... mostly. There are some that have been around for a literal year, or actual impossible quests being looked at, a fix attempted, but not actually fixed.

I am sure the staff are trying their best, and I really appreciate everything they do. But I can't imagine it's very satisfying to put out work that you know isn't your best. I used to have a job like that - we were understaffed and it was incredibly stressful to get things done before the deadline, and we rushed and pushed out sub-par products that were defective in some way, which just ended up causing more problems down the road. And these were mostly discrete, separate instances that we just had to go and redo - I can't imagine a shaky code base that bogs you down forever and doesn't go away when that project is over.

If Wolvden made more money through ads, they could perhaps hire more testers who would catch the bugs before the users, more artists to design or recolor marks, or perhaps even a social media specialist who could post teasers and small updates about what's to come. I personally found out about wolvden through tumblr - they were so active while the site was in development, but have been extremely silent ever since. I would definitely appreciate more communication between staff and users, but if they are spending so much time on making a functional game, I can't really blame them for not spending time on "extra" things.

But this creates a vicious cycle of staff not investing much in Wolvden --> People don't play Wolvden as much ---> Wolvden doesn't generate much income --> staff don't invest in Wolvden ---> players get bored and don't play wolvden as much ---> etc etc etc.

Now ads won't solve every problem, and there are probably reasons why they haven't tried to implement them yet. But I am hoping they could give Wolvden a little jumpstart so it can turn into the game we all want it to be. But I want to see the community's reaction to the suggestion, and if other people are as open to the idea as I am.

Zea
#27549

Posted 2022-04-15 10:33:15

#724352

Support! I often get the vibe that Wolvden staff are overworked/stressed/tired, especially because they're splitting their efforts between Lioden and here. If they could get more site revenue to hire more staff to help out, it would be great!

Lionel
#34199

Posted 2022-04-15 10:50:09

#724360

I definitely support the implementation of ads as a concept. Wolvden has been suffering from sporadic updates that are inevitably quite severely bugged upon release; I can't think of any recent updates that haven't had major issues from the outset. I miss the energy and enthusiasm the developers seemed to have when the game was first released, and agree with everything Websteak said. Relying on GC alone is just not going to generate enough revenue for a game like this to stay good in the long term, especially when the developers have to split their time between this and Lioden. I'd love to see some unobtrusive ads introduced to allow the site to get more income to pay their staff and improve the game.

Spontaneite
#2993

Posted 2022-04-15 19:07:44

#724711

I'll support anything that would support the wolvden/lioden teams. I was just thinking earlier about how much work the must have now that they're running two sites. Ads definitely wouldn't be a huge deal. They can definitely be placed and set up in a way that wouldn't ruin the look or function of the site :>

Remmie
#8429

Posted 2022-04-16 00:00:14

#724825

I would support ads but on the condition that they are static, silent, and aren't pop-ups. I don't know about the rest of you but I use an adblocker for a reason and a lot of websites are terrible at implementing their ads and make their content downright inaccessible because of them. If the ads were flashing on the screen, playing obnoxious music or videos, or creating pop-up windows on the website, I would stick to my adblocker and if that failed to work, I'd quit the site as I have others before it.

Ads are well and good as long as they don't interfere with the functionality of the game. Clicking someone's avatar shouldn't automatically open three tabs leading to different products or something.

It's really not difficult to make room for unobtrusive ads though, since Wolvden as a game is very... narrow, for lack of better wording. There are fixed widths on everything no matter the size of your screen, therefore there are plenty of ways to stick ads in without causing problems in doing so. I'm all for the team finding ways to earn more, there's no harm in that.

I would access the site less on my phone if there were ads because data isn't free/infinite but hey, that's the joy of having computers, I can just play the game there instead.

Flower
#3196

Posted 2022-04-16 02:44:45

#724846

I'm fine with ads as long as they don't bother with UX, especially taking caution regarding how ads appear with the site loading, expecting no tendency to missclick an ad.

Dżanek
#24018

Posted 2022-04-16 08:01:11

#724906

Huge support, I was just thinking about this the other day. I absolutely wouldn't mind sidebar or quiet banner ads, they are used frequently in other browser games and don't bother me at all, in fact, I barely notice them!

❈ Lavender | T3 Breeder ❈
#1819

Posted 2022-04-16 09:36:39

#724951

It's not often that website users ask for ads to be implemented. But as this is a great game (and the developers/staff are amazing), I believe they deserve revenue from advertisements existing in Wolvden. I wouldn't like video ads as they can be super laggy/annoying. But banners every so often would be great! And I totally support more of a social media presence for this game. It would bring in more players (aka MORE MONEY) for the game staff :D

Vixpine🌲
#60856

Posted 2022-04-16 09:39:26 (edited)

#724954

I'd support this if, and only if, there's a no guilt toggle you can use to turn off the ads. I'm all for the team being able to make money and people supporting the site financially, but I hate being advertised to constantly. I really feel like it's one of the worst things about our current society - constant images telling you to buy, buy, buy, and trying to influence how you think and what you do (and don't @ me - I work in marketing and ad design lmao).

Especially because most ad spaces nowadays use tracking cookies to best advertise to you, it also feels like a gross breach of privacy. That's also something wolvden would have to think about- how they'd deal with cookies and the regulations around them. If they didn't use cookies they'd make less money from selling the ad spaces, so there's a trade off with that.

It's all frankly evil, in my opinion (yes I hate my job), and I love that wolvden is free of that. It's one of the few reprieves from ads online right now, and that's really special to me. The only thing wolvden is trying to sell you is a good time playing a fun wolf game. I support the site via buying GC, and I think people should be able to choose if and when they're being advertised to.

As a side note, a website I used to frequent would sell ad spaces exclusively to its users. People would pay a good amount of money to say silly things on the banner ad, or advertise their small business. I think that might be a cute option that would still keep wolvden unique and friendly, and keep it feeling like a warm community instead of like constant Amazon ads. There'd have to be an approval process for the ads so people don't go too wild, but honestly I'd be happier about that than anything else.

Edit: Of course, this is all based on the presumption that the website is struggling financially in some way, and that they're not putting out their best work, which I feel is a little unfair. No matter how well tested software is, there are always going to be bugs and errors, which staff is generally quick to fix. If they were struggling to keep things afloat we wouldn't have gotten the recent coigsreach event, which was a huge increase in workload, or the addition of groups. More money and resources can never hurt, which is why I didn't address this initially, but what you said does feel a little unfair to staff. The number of active players daily has steadily increased since I joined, so I don't think people are losing interest.

In addition (*puts on my marketing hat*), if the site was struggling financially, it would make the most sense to add more Grove exclusive items (poses, etc) than jump to ads, which don't offer a decent amount of return for a small website like this. Websites make the most money when people actually click on the ads, which frankly I don't see happening very often here. In terms of just views, not clicks, in general advertisers pay ~$5 per 1000 views for static ads. That's barely anything for a site this small.

I still like my idea though - it would be worthwhile because people would pay a decent amount, too! c:

Ghost
#49933

Posted 2022-04-16 09:43:23

#724956

@Ghost I think it would be very cute and charming if players could make ads that appear in Wolvden as banners. It would be like an expensive and outstanding way to advertise instead of being buried in the sales chat haha.

Vixpine🌲
#60856

Ads in Wolvden?

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