I think there is a great deal of value in my skipping any game with in-game ads altogether...it'll save me alot of money I think...especially when I won't have to keep buying $400 video cards every 2 years to keep up.

I can play the old-school non-ad games to my heart's content. :) And I actually might have a life now away from the computer. THANKS advertisers for doing me such a favor.

With Google, this move might actually make sense. They've already got a large software and accounting infrastructure for targeting and distributing ads to non-Google sites, and paying out revenue cuts to the site owners according to traffic levels.

All they need to do now is integrate the former Adscape's distribution tools and customer base into the system they've alread got.

I have no problem with it so long as its 'realistic'. So far, ads in games have not been intrusive. Once you're playing UT2k9 with the 'Pepsi Rocket Launcher' and the 'Gillette Razor Shooter' then theres an issue. But if you're in Rainbow 6: Vegas and there is a billboard for Dodge, thats no intrusive because walking down the street in Vegas, you're likely to actually see a billboard for Dodge.

First time one of these 'virtual billboard' things gets hacked and starts displaying porn ads in the Sims, I'm gonna laugh my ass off.

If the big game companies invested as much time and money into making games fun rather than making them displays of technical prowess, we'd have more Wii-like systems they wouldn't need to recoup astronomical development costs. Remember when a guy in a basement could use a level editor to make 100 levels of a game, and we'd all be playing it for years? It's no secret that one of the most elegant laws of science and religion is that simple is best.