EA including spyware in it's games now?

[Ch3tan]

haha I loved uk2.net, it was ace for owning noobs

Yes, if you played on the newbie server (with Throd), but you get banned after 10 kills (Throd never got past 8 ). The other uk2 servers were mainly full of cheating *****, and not an admin in sight.

 

[Skyler]

Agreed - racing games have had static ads in for a long time, and being honest it makes it more realistic... ffs do we really see nothing but Namco ads when watching a GP? No - we see all sorts of ads....

Invading ads though... different matter and I don't like the sound of it

That is a fair point, there have been times I have thought that certain games would be perhaps more enjoyable to have real adverts on the side of the pitch/track instead of fake ones that didn't really get much effort put into them.

I don't think it's necessary however, my hope is that these things are either represented accurately or at least look the part even if they are not real brands.

Personally I don't feel that swayed by adverts, they have never made me go out and buy something just because of the advert. I think some have introduced me to something I had not previously known about, but I feel that's a case of alerting me to something I would end up seeing when I went shopping or browsing anyway.

What I dislike about EA's approach here is that it's a slip of paper within the box and I'm pretty sure the box gives absolutely no indication of this software hidden inside. With it being a PC game which of course means no refunds in almost all retailers what are people supposed to do if they don't want spyware on their machine? EA made the money and now they have to sit there unable to get a refund?

I'm almost tempted to go and purchase the game from Game and see if I can return it 1hour later after 'installing' it (when all I did was remove the shrink wrapping and open the box). Would they accept the reason when I show them the paper? I think some managers would but a majority probably wont.

Putting adverts in games where they are out of place, or in the built in server browser for example is pushing it a little too far I think.

I thought BF1942 was best anyway, don't find modern day war exciting at all, running around with American army kit against the evil arabs is not really fun.

 

[Athan]

The thing about that slip of paper is it's entirely too vague about what exactly the Advertising Data is. A post elsewhere, quoting an EA official, revealed that all they're actually passing along is your IP (as it says) and language setting. That's it, at least for now. The point being that they want to serve up French company ads in French to French players, but not to English players.

The only problem for EA is that vague wording, no doubt meant to leave them leeway to send a little more data in a later patch (like what? who knows, but they might suddenly find that they need extra data Y to reliably serve up worthwhile ads), but to the paranoid types it just sounds like "hahahah, we ownzor your computer and all its data and will send it all to our evil corporate spies!".

Of course it being EA this likely IS the first step to all the doom and gloom that has been outlined by others in this thread.

-Ath

 

[Athan]

And to back that up, here is a photograph of the 'offending' legalese, and this is the official response from EA which outlines exactly what the game is doing.

It's sending your IP to the ad servers for the sole purpose of making a best-effort guess at your geographical location. It's also sending a unique 'cookie' (but nothing to do with web browsers) so as to be able to track aggregates of "who looks at which ads".

EA are scum-suckers, but 2142 does *not* include spyware. This whole thing is an over-reaction to a misinterpretation of vague legalese on that insert.

-Ath, who still won't be buying 2142 anyway

 

[Draylor]

If being a sequel to a buggy pile of poo wasnt enough the fact that it includes advertising at all should be enough to put people off of paying for it.

 

[Aada]

If being a sequel to a buggy pile of poo wasnt enough the fact that it includes advertising at all should be enough to put people off of paying for it.

Sorry thousands of people have the game already because they are not going to get their knickers in a twist because the game has adverts in WHOODEEE FUCKING DO.

News flash newb it aint the first game to do this and it won't be the last.

And if you're not going to play a game because it has adverts in then i pity you.

 

[TdC]

And to back that up, here is a photograph of the 'offending' legalese, and this is the official response from EA which outlines exactly what the game is doing.

It's sending your IP to the ad servers for the sole purpose of making a best-effort guess at your geographical location. It's also sending a unique 'cookie' (but nothing to do with web browsers) so as to be able to track aggregates of "who looks at which ads".

EA are scum-suckers, but 2142 does *not* include spyware. This whole thing is an over-reaction to a misinterpretation of vague legalese on that insert.

-Ath, who still won't be buying 2142 anyway

I don't get it. They *already* have your IP because you have to log in to play the game. Why don't *they* send it to the ad-servers?

oh...wait...because that would be bad!

 

[Athan]

I don't get it. They *already* have your IP because you have to log in to play the game. Why don't *they* send it to the ad-servers?

oh...wait...because that would be bad!

That's exactly what you're agreeing to them doing according to that extra EULA in the box. Without you agreeing they'd be on shakey legal ground passing on such info to a 3rd party, certainly with the unique ID thrown in as well.

IP -> Client -> Game server. Not a problem, as you need that to play.

IP -> Client -> Game Server -> Ad Server. They're covering their asses by getting you to agree to it.

-Ath

 

[Skyler]

Why don't they just make you tell them your location on the installer?

A prompt inside the game saying "Please let us know of your country so we can best enhance your gaming experience". This could easily refer to server browsing optimisation among other things.

Even a message such as "We require you to provide us with your current geographical location in order to play this game online. We as a company recognise that most of the gaming world does not like spyware or anything resembling it and therefore instead implementing such a thing we chose to trust our customers and let them provide us their locations".

Personally I think something like that is better than what they have done which certainly creates a very bad vibe amongst many people.

I would have never bought the game anyway..

 

[TdC]

because my dear Skyler, then they wouldn't be able to do the *other stuff* they may have planned.


anyway, I look at today's penny-arcade comic and chuckle

 

[Athan]

And because the IP part of things is mostly a red herring. If you want to get worried at all it's about that unique ID per install (or per BF2142 account?).

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone's yet found where that's stored and how to change it to something random....

-Ath, who uses CookieCuller on Firefox so he only gets tracked per session at most.