I'm no fan of advertisements, but they seem to be a necessary evil in today's modern digital age.  I use Google's AdSense ads here on PTB to keep everything running, for example.  For the most part Google's ads have been fairly unobtrusive, and now the company is allegedly exploring the possibility of taking AdSense ads into the gaming world.

There have been rumors that Google was casting a covetous eye on videogames at least since Google bought Adscape back in February. Now the picture is getting a little less murky, it seems, as Google heads out to make contact with videogame developers, publishers, and trade organizations.

If anyone can do this whole advertising-in-games thing right, I think it's Google.  The best ads (now there's an oxymoron) are the ads that don't steal focus from the content they support.  They keep quiet, stay out of the way, and don't require punching a monkey or voting in some asinine opinion poll.  Can that sort of advertising work in video games?  Sure.  Will advertisers want to spend money on advertisements that don't push their brands or messages in a hardcore in-your-face manner to the gaming demographic?  That remains to be seen.  Keep the ads out of the way and we'll probably learn to live with them.  However, as I've said in the past, the moment the ads impede the gaming experience is the moment I turn the game off and find other activities on which to spend my time and money.

(via Download Squad)