Today is a special day for the Flash game development community, as it is the day that MochiAds throws open its doors to everyone. Previously an invitation-only closed beta, anyone with a Flash game and a dream can now sign-up to begin earning ad revenue through MochiAds.
You have probably seen MochiAds at work (and in play!) before when viewing any one of thousands of Flash games that use them already. They are the short image ads that are displayed while a game is loading, or sometimes that appear in between levels of a game.
Adding MochiAds to your game is very easy, and it's FREE. There is absolutely no cost to use the service. You can even use MochiAds to host your game, too! Also free. No, there are no strings attached at all.
Here are a few highlights of the program:- Absolutely free
- Simple to use
- No contracts, no exclusivity required
- Host your games with MochiAds at no charge
- Turn ads on or off any time you wish, even per domain. For example: Don't want to display ads on your own site, but do want to show ads when your game is hosted elsewhere? No problem.
- By joining the MochiAds network, you will benefit also from its distribution partners that can serve to extend your reach and increase exposure for your work.
- Here's a sample of what the MochiAds dashboard looks like
Yes, it's a very special day for Flash game developers. Head on over to MochiAds and get signed up today. :)
MochiAds is from the good people at Mochi Media, friends of the Flash game development community and the same people responsible for MochiBot, a simple to use script that you can add to your Flash games for free tracking and statistics.
This is great. Its just what I've been looking for--particularly the distribution option.
i hate ads, so i use firefox and adblock extension where the mochiads screen is shown but not the image on it and that's good
Lovely.
I block these, but the unskippable 10 second delays are still irritating.
I'm afraid you'll have to forgive me for not standing up and cheering the arrival of this "very special day", as you call it. I dislike MochiAds for one simple reason: They're obnoxious.
Very few advertisements manage to be annoying the first time you see them. The problem comes with repetition. By showing me the same ad again and not allowing me to ignore or even skip it, you either bore or anger me, depending on the quality of the ad and how many times I've seen it. I've seen almost all of them several times already.
MochiAds at the very start of a flash cause the same problems as introduction animations. They stand between me and the game. Later, if I leave the game and come back, or if I switch to another game, they're in the way again. [On a side note, I will give the competition UI this: it doesn't replay the intro as long as I stay in it and switch. However, most of the time I'm looking for one particular game next, and the fastest way to get that is to return to the main site and pick the game, which puts the intro up again.]
MochiAds during the game are worse. They break the flow of the game. I've had several games that I just stopped playing when I realized that I was going to get interrupted every N attempts by an ad. 10s may not seem like a lot, but when added to the frustration (however small) you're feeling from trying to do the level *again*, it can be too much.
Google taught us how to do ads correctly. The best ads are relevant and unobtrusive. Throwing one of the same set of generic banner ads (the worst being the animated ones) at me a) increases the chance that I've seen it before and b) makes it almost impossible to ignore it. It's a perfect recipe for frustration, which would be why I use AdBlock.
Unfortunately, even Google has forgotten their own lesson. Which would be why my AdBlock rules no longer have an exception for AdSense.
So, given that MochiAds are yet another example of the *wrong* way to do advertisements, I really can't say that I'm pleased to hear that everyone can use them now. This means they're going to become more commonplace, which just makes me wonder if playing flash games is worth it.
It will be a very special day when CF2 comes out, if it does.
I'll try not to turn this into an argument.
Put yourself into the shoes of a developer who wants to get their game out there and make a bit of money for their hard work and artistic talent.
In the somewhat volatile flash community, it is way too easy for a website to pick up someone else's flash game, put it on their website and make money with their own ads. In this scenario the developer doesn't see a dime.
Mochiads was the answer to this issue. I will not argue that Mochiads doesn't have it's downsides, but I think it has more to do with the responsibility of the developer and not the Mochiads service itself.
If you do not like the way a developer plugged extra stuff into their game, then don't play their game. If enough people don't play their game, then support for that developer suffers.
Now it's easy enough for me to say, 'don't like it, don't play it'. The simple fact is that people feel like there shouldn't be anything between them and a game they want to play. Do not be confused though, you do not always deserve everything for free. The internet just made you think that you do. If this is the case, then you have been spoiled and I feel sorry for you.
Thanks everyone for the honest and open feedback! FunnyMan, you have some very valid points and these help us to improve the product. We're testing new ad formats and ways to avoid bad user experiences, but with any product it takes time to evolve. It's always a fine balance between keeping the game player happy and also ensuring that the game developers get the most value from their hard work.
Sometimes people don't realize how much work goes into making these games so we should all thank the developers from time to time for sharing their efforts.
breach: I never said that advertisement per se was bad. If you'll read what I said, you'll note that I provided specific criticisms and an example of what I perceive as a better method.
Jameson Hsu: Thank *you*. It's an unfortunately rare experience to find a company that not only tolerates but listens to criticism. I am very glad to hear you are working to improve things. I'll keep an eye out on how things develop.
FunnyMan:
I know you weren't arguing against ads in general, I never said you were. I thought I managed to put the point across that normal ads don't work when people steal your work and put it on their own website.
Breach and Funnyman, it seems you're both arguing the same point just from slightly different slants.
Yeah, intro ads seem to delay the start of playtime. (Do they really though? Someone with much more technical knowledge can answer that one.) Sometimes they really interrupt the flow of the game just when you're getting into the "zone". And ads in general are an annoyance.
But then there's the fact that I ENJOY playing many of these games and I want to see the developer get paid for their efforts. Look at how much insane money gets thrown at Hollywood stars for giving me two hours of entertainment at the theater. How many hours have I spent playing "Stranded" from CGDC4 or any of the Bloons games? Sure many programmers have their own websites and you can donate directly to them there but how many people actually take the time to do that??
Perhaps this Mochiads system will keep me from playing my desired game for another few seconds, maybe it'll bug me between level 7 and 8, and quite probably I'll get really sick and tired of seeing some stupid ad for something I'll never have any interest in. But in the big scheme of things I'm happy the game's creator is getting a little change tossed his or her way. Dammitall they deserve it.
If only more people thought the way you do, Aaronzdad, it would be a better world to live in. :)
I keep trying to tell everybody that Jay....
:)
I don't mind the mochi loading adds at all however the ones between game levels, retrys etc can get very annoying but wont stop me from playing a game. What i would prefer to a screen between levels would be a banner on like a pause screen or something like that as long as it doesn't interfere with the game play. Oh and on a sidenote jay love the j.i.g.c.g.d.c. mochiad.
In game ads only slow down the game if its very large or the movieclips in the game weren't placed using actionscript. That is to say the developer dragged and dropped all of the resources to the flash screen and doesn't use actionscript to place things. I made a game named project midnight that is less than 500k and the game loads while your seeing the ad and your thrown right into it from there. So your basically seeing about the same amount of time it would take to initialize the game anyways.
MochiAds VS GameJact here www.lorenzgames.com/blog/MochiAds_or_GameJacket_-_Which_one_gives_more_money
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