Rewarded Ads (A Break Down for the 4.9 Update)

Official News
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Hello Adventurers,

We thought we should let you know about an upcoming feature in the Gems of War 4.9 Update. We have decided to introduce Rewarded Ads into the mobile versions of the game. What are Rewarded Ads I hear you all ask? Let’s go through them in point form:

  • Rewarded Ads are short ~30 second video advertisements for other games and applications.
  • Players can watch them at their convenience if they wish (or not, it’s up to you), they are not a pop up ad, you can access them from the World Map menu.
  • After watching an ad, you will receive a small reward, equivalent to about half of what you’d earn in 30 seconds of PvP.
  • You can watch one of these ads every 8 hours (though we may change that timing in the future).
  • They will only be available on mobile, as unfortunately there are no ad systems on console or pc.

So, why are we adding them?

  • Quite simply, they are an extra source of income for us.
  • So if you’d like to support Gems of War, but can’t afford to, or maybe there is nothing you need in the Store, now you can simply watch some ads (if you are a mobile player), and every ad watched will help us out.

We’ve anticipated a few of your questions, and answered them below.

Q: I’m a pc player. Isn’t it unfair that mobiles players get to watch these ads and I don’t?

A: If there were a good solution for showing ads on pc, we would have loved to implement it. For now, if you want to take advantage of Rewarded Ads, you can link your mobile device to your pc account.

Q: Will I have to watch any ads? Will an option to watch them appear at the end of a match?

A: Not at all, we hate games that force you to watch ads too. They are entirely optional and you can watch them at your convenience from the World Map screen.

Q: What kind of Rewards will I get?

A: Small amounts of resources (such as Gold Souls, Glory, with a small chance of Gems). As your level increases, your rewards will increase too. We want to stress that these rewards are small though, you will earn resources more efficiently by playing other game modes.

Q: Are there any plans to add them to PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch?

A: Currently there isn’t any option to do so, so consoles will not be affected by this change, but if one becomes available in the future we may consider it.

22 Likes
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Sounds fair to me, and the fact they are optional is good.

8 Likes
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Server clock or device clock?
Oh and thanks for finally implementing something like this. Rational folks (like myself occasionally) totally understand why this is necessary.
To combat those who criticize the inclusion of ads (even though they will be easy to skip). Please strongly consider cutting the cost of epic tasks in half.
Considering the extra revenue stream, it should take pressure off the in game resource economy.
Not to mention acts of good will towards the player will generate other players asking those (even if they don’t need the resources) to still watch the ads. Because surely the amount of viewers will be tracked.

7 Likes
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I always wondered why we didnt have these.

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Just like everything else around here, they will make these “optional” for now. Then 5.0 the publisher will strong arm them into making them mandatory for some trash material and we will be told about such value.

This game is reaching the event horizon very rapidly. Look it up if you do not understand the reference.

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Or they don’t… And then your hypothetical situation doesn’t happen. If they wanted to make them mandatory… They’d do it right now.

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@Saltypatra do we have a timetable for when 4.9 will be released?

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30 seconds of cpvp or rpvp?

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Btw… Every “free to play” game generates most of their money from either ads or microtransactions. More ads = micros. More micros = less ads.

Either way the servers don’t run for free.

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Thank you for this feature! This rewards both players and the developers!

My gratitude is unironic and I hope this revenue stream can help adjust world events, etc. to be more fair to players.

I know no one will agree with me on this, but I’ve wanted ads in the game, such as on loading screens, since I began playing for a free way to support the game. Add a real dollar purchase to remove them, etc.

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In patch 5.0 can I finally get my player name or guild name sponsored by a company?
Let’s Nascar the Frank out of GoW. :grinning:

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I actually agree with you 100%

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I’d prefer set limit per day (3) rather than once per 8 hours… another game I played let you watch 5 per day.

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Jonesing for AW Rootbeer money?

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I don’t have any clients in mind yet. But get paid to play sounds pretty nice.

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This is tolerable. I’d rather it get broken early like this than be a surprise.

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IMO, this is not acceptable. The ad button has to be hidden inside another menu such as the settings on a second tab. No mobile player should ever accidently be able to start an ad because people on strict data caps will arbitrarily hit overage fees, I think that any player being forced to pay overage fees because of buttdial or grabbing your phone in the wrong way is unacceptable. Just a button with a confirmation is not enough. I’m putting this comment in the open before it happens to anyone.

On a second note I would also push caution on this for the next time a gem sink in the game where the math is, “If you watched the ads twice a day you would have enough gems to play this event”. It’s really easy for a company to make people watch ads through resource gaiting and it certainly does ruin the gaming experience. This may well not happen, but for many mobile games, it has. This really needs to be a “please help us out by watching some ads or buying some items” rather than a “it’s optional if you want to keep pace with the crowd”.

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This “feature” does not sound like something that will have anything to do with fixing the various broken parts of the game, therefore it is probably a massive waste of dev time by comparison.

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I’m really only stating this in a harsh way because all of this is avoidable if it’s done with care. It’s just usually since ads don’t generate much revenue per person & game companies always underestimate how it breaks the immersions of the game that ads leads to a great downfall in player experience, even if it is optional.

People do things don’t mean people enjoy things, balancing everything needs to be taken with a lot of care… Often this path is taken because it’s the easy way out instead of selling cosmetics.

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Nope, nope, and nope

I hope they never start putting ads on loading screens or spamming them all over the place. Personally, I can’t stand looking at ads. So, I think the currently planned implementation is fair. If someone wants to watch ads to get some extra resources, they can push a button to find them. Otherwise, it isn’t littering the screen for people that aren’t interested.

13 Likes