I find the ads in the game to be hugely annoying and unsightly, and would very much like for there to be a way to remove them. In cloud view I often need to rotate the map so I can jump to a beacon, and chat messages are covered making them hard (and sometimes impossible http://i51.tinypic.com/24ycol4.jpg) to read.

While I know they're necessary to support the game, I'm sure there are a number of people like me who have no intention of ever clicking an ad. I feel particularly bad for those who have spent a significant amount of money of potions, and still have to suffer through them.

There's a few possibilities for way to remove them:

1) An in-app purchase to remove ads.
The simplest option, I can't think of a reason not to have this.

2) Remove ads for people who have made purchases.
I guess the problem here is the people who make purchases are the ones the advertisers are targeting, but they are also the ones who most deserve to have the ads removed.

3) A paid version of the game.
This seems unnecessary as it would require a separate version of the game with no other differences. There is also the naming issue, having pro/lite or something similar in the title may put people off trying it.

4) Remove ads and depend solely on potion purchases.
I'm not sure this is feasible, and I don't think I would want it to happen anyway as it could create an unbalanced game where purchasing potions is a requirement.

Also worth mentioning is that not everyone sees the adverts, quite a few people were actually confused when I mentioned them in-game.

I believe people have been grandfathered in to no-adverts. My oldest two accounts, Gabriel and ArthurHolden, see no ads other than maybe the occasional fullscreen one at campaign end. My new accounts see ads everywhere. That does seem to be the consistent thread: everyone who made an account before ads were part of gameplay doesn't have to see them, a little reward for the long-time players.

+1, my oldest beacon is inaccessible until I haphazardly click the small "x". I'd be willing to pay anywhere from $0.99-2.99 to get rid of that damn banner, no mana bonus necessary.

EDIT: Of course, if we're walking towards the $2.99 price range, some other incentive would be nice...

Edited by BabelMatrix (Oct. 25, 2011 20:24:17)

The latest update, 1.4.0, is still lacking a way to remove advertisements. Very disappointing.