[konidias]

The banner ads were taken out when P2P came out... If I remember correctly... p2p server didn't have popup ads, and then classic still had them... then when it all moved to p2p, all ads were removed. Although I could be wrong, and all ads were just removed as soon as 2k1 was released.

They removed them and went p2p because, like said above, advertising through banners just isn't very profitable now. They switched to players paying for service, thus p2p.