Alcapwn"War is the science of destruction" - John AbbotJoin Date: 2003-06-21Member: 17590Members
<!--quoteo(post=1569757:date=Oct 12 2006, 11:55 AM:name=Shockwave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shockwave @ Oct 12 2006, 11:55 AM) [snapback]1569757[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> It was all about the G36E anyway.
Perhaps Quanaut is right, and EA just missed a decimal place. It isn't BF 2142. It's BF 2.142 <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Tried BF2, but just didn't find myself that interested. I guess the sci-fi aspect of 2142 sold me, so I have it on preorder. I get the impression it'll take the backseat to console gaming for awhile though, since I'll be getting Gears of War and XB Live.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->When you open the box, a big slip of paper falls out first, preceeding any discs or manuals. The slip of paper says, essentially, that 2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records "anonymous" information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other "computing habits" in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
Aaaand.... By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
- Shockwave <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ingame Ads based on your internetular activities? Can't wait for the day i play BF2142 on a friends computer; turning 'round a corner, guns ablaze, only to be met by a large billboard with the words "YU LOOKIN FOR HAwT NAKID STUDS WITH LARGE CORK!?" printed in capital letters - with an accompanying graphic illustration.
<!--quoteo(post=1570294:date=Oct 17 2006, 07:15 AM:name=Abra)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Abra @ Oct 17 2006, 07:15 AM) [snapback]1570294[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Ingame Ads based on your internetular activities? Can't wait for the day i play BF2142 on a friends computer; turning 'round a corner, guns ablaze, only to be met by a large billboard with the words "YU LOOKIN FOR HAwT NAKID STUDS WITH LARGE CORK!?" printed in capital letters - with an accompanying graphic illustration.
Talk about awkward silence after that one. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Aaaand.... By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
- Shockwave <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I was buying the game.
Then I saw this on Digg yesterday and decided, "Maybe Not."
<!--quoteo(post=1570329:date=Oct 17 2006, 02:09 PM:name=Quaunaut)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Quaunaut @ Oct 17 2006, 02:09 PM) [snapback]1570329[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I was buying the game.
Then I saw this on Digg yesterday and decided, "Maybe Not." <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wonder if Anti-spyware proggies can take this down or can do it manually. I already have my pre-order in, but seeing this wants me to find a way to cancel it. EBgames.
<!--quoteo(post=1570346:date=Oct 17 2006, 01:36 PM:name=Paranoia2MB)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Paranoia2MB @ Oct 17 2006, 01:36 PM) [snapback]1570346[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Wonder if Anti-spyware proggies can take this down or can do it manually. I already have my pre-order in, but seeing this wants me to find a way to cancel it. EBgames. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
EA games might do something that checks if they're getting 'info' from you, if they're not, they won't let you play on official ranked servers possibly?
<!--QuoteBegin-Electronic Arts statement (unedited)+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Electronic Arts statement (unedited))</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--> The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.
BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses.
Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Might not be quite as bad as everyone's making it out to be.
Re-re-reported from Joystiq: <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/</a>
Scythe, I have absolutely, utterly, ZERO faith in EA for this to be accurate, given their history for either incompetence, duplicity or anything else. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they weren't even sure.
Incidentally, I'll presume all the people <b>outside</b> of the United States can expect interesting advertisements then, as we've previously seen (through their ranking system) that they are currently unable to accurately gauge a given players' country of residence.
Private_ColemanPhD in Video GamesJoin Date: 2002-11-07Member: 7510Members
edited October 2006
<!--quoteo(post=1570388:date=Oct 18 2006, 03:23 AM:name=Scythe)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Scythe @ Oct 18 2006, 03:23 AM) [snapback]1570388[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Might not be quite as bad as everyone's making it out to be.
Re-re-reported from Joystiq: <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/</a>
--Scythe-- <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's what they say. Can you really trust EA? Can you trust IGA?
<!--quoteo(post=1570389:date=Oct 18 2006, 03:28 AM:name=Shockwave)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Shockwave @ Oct 18 2006, 03:28 AM) [snapback]1570389[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Shameless crosslink from playZen.
{image}
Scythe, I have absolutely, utterly, ZERO faith in EA for this to be accurate, given their history for either incompetence, duplicity or anything else. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they weren't even sure.
Incidentally, I'll presume all the people <b>outside</b> of the United States can expect interesting advertisements then, as we've previously seen (through their ranking system) that they are currently unable to accurately gauge a given players' country of residence. <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>"PLEASE DO NOT PLAY THIS ONLINE GAME ON ANY COMPUTER CONNTECTED TO THE INTERNET IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE GAME, THANK YOU!"</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
ShockehIf a packet drops on the web and nobody's near to see it...Join Date: 2002-11-19Member: 9336NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, Constellation
edited October 2006
Excuse me while I potentially break forum rules.
<b><i>"Here's an idea EA. How about, you give me the CHOICE whether my 'ADVERTISING DATA' gets harvested for you little scheme, in an Opt-in, no, not that, that's Opt-out, try again, good, there we go, and maybe your software won't suck. Oh wait, you won't do that, because your little cash machine wouldn't look half so attractive to advertisers if they couldn't be sure how many people were being spammed by them."</b></i>
You've become spammers EA. You harvest data through a carrot, then spam them appropriately. It's absolutely no different to a mailing list with a pretty graphical front end. Congratulations. You total bunch of cockbiscuits.
Overreaction ftw. All it tracks is game data and your IP address (so they can show French ads in French, etc). It's not collecting anything that a game doesn't already know.
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--quoteo(post=1570428:date=Oct 18 2006, 10:00 AM:name=Sonic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sonic @ Oct 18 2006, 10:00 AM) [snapback]1570428[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> You see, that's where it starts. What's to stop them going further than that if people keep on buying their games? <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Exactly. And according to the law, because of the warning they provide, they could access whatever the hell they want on my PC. Just because I look at ###### occasionally doesn't mean I want ads of "MAKE YOUR ###### BIGGAR ZOMGL@WL!"
I'm okay with ingame ads. I am. If all they were doing was IP addresses, I'd be okay with that, too.
...but their statement is so vague, they could also figuratively "track my keypresses to try and cater to my gameplay, and computer usage style", and take whatever they like from me.
If it was more specific, it'd be easier for me to buy.
"don't install this game if you don't like ingame ads" + "opened games can't be refunded" = Please, make EULA's available prior to purchase. It's not like I have anything to hide, but I've always hated EA's methods and this is just beyond me. You buy games to play them. It's not freeware where the funding comes with ads, it's something you pay a hefty sum of money, and give quite a bit more
<!--quoteo(post=1570430:date=Oct 18 2006, 07:11 PM:name=Quaunaut)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Quaunaut @ Oct 18 2006, 07:11 PM) [snapback]1570430[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> [...]Just because I look at ###### occasionally doesn't mean I want ads of "MAKE YOUR ###### BIGGAR ZOMGL@WL!"[...] <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I had a great remark here, but the forums censored it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--quoteo(post=1570443:date=Oct 18 2006, 11:49 AM:name=lolfighter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lolfighter @ Oct 18 2006, 11:49 AM) [snapback]1570443[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I had a great remark here, but the forums censored it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I personnaly won't buy BF2142 nor will try the demo.
1) ever since patch 1.12, my BF2 has a graphic problems where whenever I get heavily hurt, my graphic freezes and I get Icon ghost trails. After the delay where you can be revived by a medic, has expired, everything comes back to normal. Even if I don't die, I just become a siting duck (can't see anything to shoot at so everyone can just shoot me). I have opened up several tickets with EA support since Nov-2005 and I have to say, their support sucks. They asked me 10 times to do the same things all over, after a one week or so, can't update my ticket so I have to create another one. Every times a support staff replied, he didn't bothered reading all posts in it and even if I mentioned everything I had already done, they didn't pay attention and kept asking me the same things all over again. I suspect what the problem is : my AMD VIa chipsets vs my ATI card. I even opened up a ticket on ATI about it and still no news. I asked to escalate my ticket but I didn't get any feedback. I sent them all my specs 4 times.
2) WIth all those news about EA closing down offices (related to BF2 patches), I get the feeling they are stoping all work on BF2 and only working on BF2142.
3) BF2142 is most likely using the same graphic engine as BF2 so it is very unlikly that they have fixed my bug in it.
4) I am more exited about ET:QW then BF2142.
5) with the recent news about ads in BF2142 and the technology behind it checking our usages, well that's just an additional reason why I won't get it.
Overall, I am very disapointed into EA and do not think they will every (or even willing to) fix my problem. I had posted on PQ battlefield forums about my problems and others are having the same thing. I have no money to invest into a new motherboard (I would have to change my CPU and memory and perhaps video card). Therefore, I almost nevery play BF2 anymore. I almost always play NS (never stopped playing since 2002).
Private_ColemanPhD in Video GamesJoin Date: 2002-11-07Member: 7510Members
edited October 2006
LONG POST WATCHOUT
Sonic IMO is on the ball. I'm too lazy to retype my opinion so I'm going to copy from my post in the CAD forum. I know the first post isn't structured well nor do some points have anything to do with others; but I was pretty much dying due to grease overload from pizza hut. I guess that happens if you quit fast food for a while and all of a sudden throw toxic rot-out-your-guts stuff down your throat. Without further ado:
<!--QuoteBegin-Me+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Me)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I can see a lot of people dancing around the issue I'm most worried about, but not actually directly mentioning it. My "main beef" with the IGA corporations and EA is that this is very quickly becoming a trend that developers are taking to get the most profit into their pocket. During the larger portion of the gaming era, games were meant to be about escapism; being able to get away from the pressures of our modern media saturated society. What's happening here is, and I quote the IGA website: Quote: <i>This planet is oversaturated with traditional advertising, so we went and found you entire new worlds.</i>
This is but the first steps of In-game advertising. It's all good to just look at what this means for *now*, but what's more important is looking at what this leads to. If we take a look at television, movies and entertainment as a whole, we can see that corporations have applied their power into saturating the entire entertainment industry with advertising. For example, smoking. Smoking in movies and television shows has been used as propaganda for the tobacco industry for a long time, and you can bet it got a lot of people to jump on the bandwagon. Although today we as consumers are now aware of the health problems involved with smoking, the after affect of this push is still strong in our society today, with kids starting to smoke because it's "cool".
Right now in Japan corporations are putting the pressure on trying to add short advertisements into television shows where the protagonist stops and starts talking about their products. It's already in testing. And you can bet that's not just going to be isolated to Japan.
When you get down to it, advertising is becoming more and more obtrusive. As Tim states: Quote: <i>Advertising is part of our culture. You're going to stop watching tv or playing games because of ads? Why? Do you not have the higher brain function that allows the rest of us to just ignore it? Is your IQ so low that any and all advertisements directed at you are automatically absorbed and bought into? If that's the case, then I can see why you'd be upset about advertising.</i> This may be the case, but should it be part of our culture? No. This "culture" is what they have given us. In essence the western world has no culture. Do these people with "a lower IQ" (AKA the majority of people) deserve this? Certainly not. Is this the direction we want our society to go? ... I'll leave that one. Some people seem to think we're on the right track and we're heading towards world peace through globalisation. Why, I don't know.
EA is not an ethical corporation. This is a given; we've talked about this a dozen times over so I'm not going to go over it here. Another obvious truth is that advertising works. Otherwise they wouldn't be throwing millions of dollars into it. You can't get away from that fact. The way they have set up in game advertising in this situation is making it seem like not a big deal by labelling the outside of the box, yet not going to the extreme of hiding it in the EULA. This is because they are attempting to make IGA seem like a normal business practice, without going too far and invoking the wrath of hundreds of thousands of gamers across the globe. In addition, how many people would you expect who have never heard of IGA before would purchase the game, see the included letter, then return it (if possible)? Unfortunately, not many; which was exactly what they planned. This is not an ethical business model nor a sustainable one.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is to think about what this means for the future, rather than what it means for today. What comes after this once we're all used to it? You can be sure corporations are not going to stop with this, as they are all just after the leverage that can only be acheived through the almighty dollar. Sure, for the moment we can block the ads using ports, but how long will it be until the game ceases to load unless it can connect to the adserver? And after we get used to that, what next? That's what we should be afraid of. Without looking at the big picture it just seems like something not worth worrying about, you know what I mean? You throw a frog into a pot of hot water and it will jump out. If you heat the water slowly it will cook and die.
There are most likely a lot of mistakes in this post but I don't have the time to read over it, sorry.
EDIT: Hi, I'm new <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Icarium+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Icarium)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><i>My "main beef" with the IGA corporations and EA is that this is very quickly becoming a trend that developers are taking to get the most profit into their pocket.</i>
News flash. Making a profit is what they do. As long as they gain more in advertising revenue than they lose is sales, they'll consider it worth the risk.
Advertising can be annoying, but but on the other end of the scale it also heavily subsidises most forms of entertainment today. Newspapers cost almost nothing because of advertising. Ditto magazines and TV. If advertising really bugs you that much, then you may as well stop watching sports as well, since most sports teams and individuals are heavily sponsored, and that sponsorship is just advertising.
Advertising in games is not an issue in and of itself to me. It's when the advertising becomes intrusive (ie: does not 'fit' into the game world) or requires 'additional' software that I start to take offense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-me+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(me)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <i>News flash. Making a profit is what they do. As long as they gain more in advertising revenue than they lose is sales, they'll consider it worth the risk.</i>
I address that after the first paragraph.
<i>Advertising can be annoying, but but on the other end of the scale it also heavily subsidises most forms of entertainment today. Newspapers cost almost nothing because of advertising. Ditto magazines and TV. If advertising really bugs you that much, then you may as well stop watching sports as well, since most sports teams and individuals are heavily sponsored, and that sponsorship is just advertising.</i>
I don't watch sports, buy magazines or read newspapers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> Not because of the advertising, I just don't care for it. If I wanted to do those things; sure, I would. All I'm saying is that it's wrong for the corps to do this, and we should do what we can to change the future. I don't have all the answers so I'm not going to go into any solutions, because I'll just get shot down since I'm not very good at expressing myself nor have I thought any solutions through yet. What I do know is that there are many ways in which to entertain oneself without having to face media or advertising. Playing sports yourself being one of them.
I've recently started avoiding doing anything to do with advertising, media, et cetera by removing the television from my house, placing branded clothes in the attic, keeping adblock on firefox with the times and the like; and have found it very helpful in discovering self and reducing pressure without any influence from corporates. I'm not one who would go out and buy product based upon commercials (Although can anybody actually make a claim like that? Does advertising effect us on a very base subconcious level? That's when things start getting complicated), but all the same I have noticed a significant increase in calmness and mental strength; and with mental strength comes the ability to better control yourself and thus improve your life in general. I know it sounds hokey but that's the way it is <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nobody questioned my post again after that. Am I wrong, internet, or is this just people not wanting to face the truth? (that's not a rhetorical question) :-/
If not, what will come next after we're all used to this? Will they start taking our email addresses and reselling them? They could quite easily get away with that. You consent through the EULA without knowing, and all of a sudden even that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Next thing you know you're being sued for messing with their game, turning the ads off. "That's lost profit. They agreed by installing to let us have their info. They violated the agreement."
In addition, I've been hearing a lot of "oh they'll use that money they make from ads to release new patches". Do you really think that's where the money will go? *rolleyes* They'll just release another rehash of a battlefield game or more sims expansion packs.
You said you addressed the whole "companies exist to make money" thing but I didn't see it satisfactorily resolved (I sort of skimmed). I don't see what's wrong with in-game advertising. TV and movies have product placement, I think I can deal with real-life billboards instead of fake-product billboards. I know you say it's just the first step or whatever, but if I don't like any of the subsequent steps then I won't buy any of the games that go down that route, whatever it may be. I'm still doubtful in-game ads will ever evolve to the point where they annoy me, though.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->2) WIth all those news about EA closing down offices (related to BF2 patches), I get the feeling they are stoping all work on BF2 and only working on BF2142.
3) BF2142 is most likely using the same graphic engine as BF2 so it is very unlikly that they have fixed my bug in it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They'll just release another rehash of a battlefield game or more sims expansion packs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ahh the wonders of 'expansion/booster packs' and 'sequels' released by EA games. Heh, EA sports games have been released yearly, and they provide an online server for a little less than one year from the sports game's release. Once they release the newer version of the sports game, they take down the online server and force people to buy it. That strategy works perfectly.
@First quote: It's probably true, now that the <b>people have already bought</b> BF2 and they know if they release a <b>'sequel'</b>, the people who wanted to buy BF2, will buy BF2142 instead, and the people who have BF2, will probably buy BF2142 also.
Since now they've got the money from BF2, and they know that it will sell much-much-much less now that BF2142 will be released, they can just ditch BF2 and they won't lose any profit at all.
When new fans hear "EA games stops patching BF2", they won't buy BF2(<i>*for maybe $20 right?</i>) and instead will buy BF2142(<i>*For $60 dollars, release price?</i>), so not patching BF2 will actually make them more money as newer fans will instead buy the more expensive BF2142.
Of course there will be those <b>few</b>(<i>I've seen/read countless people say they'll probably buy BF2142 instead of BF2 since it's a 'sequel' coming out and supposely better</i>) people who prefer to save money and just buy BF2.
*Those prices are just examples, I'm pretty sure the current BF2 in retail stores is going to be much cheaper than BF2142
@Second Quote: Yeah, they'll just release an expansion pack that gives players overpowered weapons that they can use against non-expansion users, then they'll release booster packs that includes 4 NEW MAPS, for more buck. Then about 3 months after they release the final booster/expansion pack, they'll release information about a new 'sequel' Battle Starfield which will be BF2 in space! With GREEN(<i>From yellowish/realisticish looking, and from blue</i>) muzzle flashes, as in the future the weapons will produce colorful effects that can provide entertainment for the whole family.
Though, said countless times already, EA games is a profit company, and they're willing to do anything to make maxium profit, unlike other companies which just care if they make profit at all. They know that they can make a lot of profit while getting away with being crappy to the customers, so that's why they do it, what's stopping them at all?
EA games knows they're one of the most hated publishers/companies because of their methods to make maxium profit, but the thing is it's still working and they will continue to do stuff like this until it stops making them profit. <b>We really can't blame EA games right?</b> If there are good companies who are honest with their customers<i>(VALVe)</i>, the universe must balance it out and have a 'bad' company(<i>EA games</i>) who are dishonest and are crap to their customers while getting away with much profit and success.
<!--quoteo(post=1570481:date=Oct 18 2006, 07:34 PM:name=Sonic)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sonic @ Oct 18 2006, 07:34 PM) [snapback]1570481[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> Way to let them win and get away with it o/ <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Oh no! They're getting away with advertising! Those dirty, dirty EA executives. They're like communists. True American capitalists would never - wait - look, it's a company, they're looking to make money, I don't care, if they ever do something I don't like, then I'll get mad. Until then, I'm not desperate enough to be mad at EA that I'll grasp at perfectly legitimate actions as heralds of doom or evidence of their inherent facism.
Comments
It was all about the G36E anyway.
Perhaps Quanaut is right, and EA just missed a decimal place. It isn't BF 2142. It's BF 2.142
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Har har
Engineer ftw.
Aaaand....
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->When you open the box, a big slip of paper falls out first, preceeding any discs or manuals. The slip of paper says, essentially, that 2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records "anonymous" information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other "computing habits" in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
- Shockwave
<a href="http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/centipedes/battlefield-2142-with-a-dash-of-spyware-207955.php" target="_blank">Link</a>
Aaaand....
By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
- Shockwave
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ingame Ads based on your internetular activities?
Can't wait for the day i play BF2142 on a friends computer; turning 'round a corner, guns ablaze, only to be met by a large billboard with the words "YU LOOKIN FOR HAwT NAKID STUDS WITH LARGE CORK!?" printed in capital letters - with an accompanying graphic illustration.
Talk about awkward silence after that one.
Ingame Ads based on your internetular activities?
Can't wait for the day i play BF2142 on a friends computer; turning 'round a corner, guns ablaze, only to be met by a large billboard with the words "YU LOOKIN FOR HAwT NAKID STUDS WITH LARGE CORK!?" printed in capital letters - with an accompanying graphic illustration.
Talk about awkward silence after that one.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ROFL.
I was just thinking the same thing.
DIE <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/asrifle.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::asrifle::" border="0" alt="asrifle.gif" /> Hot nakie <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/skulk.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="::skulk::" border="0" alt="skulk.gif" /> s!
.....
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
*clicks* lol <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<a href="http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/centipedes/battlefield-2142-with-a-dash-of-spyware-207955.php" target="_blank">Link</a>
Aaaand....
By the day, my venom for EA grows. Congratulations EA, to all intents and purposes, you are no different to the developers of Banzai Buddy, or the original KaZaa. The advertising annoyed me more than a little. (I resent the idea of me paying to be advertised to.) I resent far more my habits being harvested for their little advertising. Really, go directly to hell.
- Shockwave
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I was buying the game.
Then I saw this on Digg yesterday and decided, "Maybe Not."
I was buying the game.
Then I saw this on Digg yesterday and decided, "Maybe Not."
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Wonder if Anti-spyware proggies can take this down or can do it manually.
I already have my pre-order in, but seeing this wants me to find a way to cancel it. EBgames.
Wonder if Anti-spyware proggies can take this down or can do it manually.
I already have my pre-order in, but seeing this wants me to find a way to cancel it. EBgames.
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EA games might do something that checks if they're getting 'info' from you, if they're not, they won't let you play on official ranked servers possibly?
The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.
BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses.
Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement.
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Might not be quite as bad as everyone's making it out to be.
Re-re-reported from Joystiq: <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/</a>
--Scythe--
<img src="http://www.wayne2k.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/82432.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
Scythe, I have absolutely, utterly, ZERO faith in EA for this to be accurate, given their history for either incompetence, duplicity or anything else. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they weren't even sure.
Incidentally, I'll presume all the people <b>outside</b> of the United States can expect interesting advertisements then, as we've previously seen (through their ranking system) that they are currently unable to accurately gauge a given players' country of residence.
Might not be quite as bad as everyone's making it out to be.
Re-re-reported from Joystiq: <a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/" target="_blank">http://www.joystiq.com/2006/10/18/ea-clarifies-iga-spyware/</a>
--Scythe--
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That's what they say. Can you really trust EA? Can you trust IGA?
Shameless crosslink from playZen.
{image}
Scythe, I have absolutely, utterly, ZERO faith in EA for this to be accurate, given their history for either incompetence, duplicity or anything else. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they weren't even sure.
Incidentally, I'll presume all the people <b>outside</b> of the United States can expect interesting advertisements then, as we've previously seen (through their ranking system) that they are currently unable to accurately gauge a given players' country of residence.
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WTH o_O
<a href="http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=82432lolbf2142gf0.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/6329/82432lolbf2142gf0.th.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" /></a>
(text highlighted for hilarity)
<!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><b>"PLEASE DO NOT PLAY THIS ONLINE GAME ON ANY COMPUTER CONNTECTED TO THE INTERNET IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO SEE ADVERTISEMENTS IN THE GAME, THANK YOU!"</b><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<b><i>"Here's an idea EA. How about, you give me the CHOICE whether my 'ADVERTISING DATA' gets harvested for you little scheme, in an Opt-in, no, not that, that's Opt-out, try again, good, there we go, and maybe your software won't suck. Oh wait, you won't do that, because your little cash machine wouldn't look half so attractive to advertisers if they couldn't be sure how many people were being spammed by them."</b></i>
You've become spammers EA. You harvest data through a carrot, then spam them appropriately. It's absolutely no different to a mailing list with a pretty graphical front end. Congratulations. You total bunch of cockbiscuits.
- Shockwave
You see, that's where it starts. What's to stop them going further than that if people keep on buying their games?
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Exactly. And according to the law, because of the warning they provide, they could access whatever the hell they want on my PC. Just because I look at ###### occasionally doesn't mean I want ads of "MAKE YOUR ###### BIGGAR ZOMGL@WL!"
I'm okay with ingame ads. I am. If all they were doing was IP addresses, I'd be okay with that, too.
...but their statement is so vague, they could also figuratively "track my keypresses to try and cater to my gameplay, and computer usage style", and take whatever they like from me.
If it was more specific, it'd be easier for me to buy.
It's not like I have anything to hide, but I've always hated EA's methods and this is just beyond me. You buy games to play them. It's not freeware where the funding comes with ads, it's something you pay a hefty sum of money, and give quite a bit more
[...]Just because I look at ###### occasionally doesn't mean I want ads of "MAKE YOUR ###### BIGGAR ZOMGL@WL!"[...]
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I had a great remark here, but the forums censored it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
I had a great remark here, but the forums censored it. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
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Note: I said pr0n, just spelled correctly.
1) ever since patch 1.12, my BF2 has a graphic problems where whenever I get heavily hurt, my graphic freezes and I get Icon ghost trails. After the delay where you can be revived by a medic, has expired, everything comes back to normal. Even if I don't die, I just become a siting duck (can't see anything to shoot at so everyone can just shoot me). I have opened up several tickets with EA support since Nov-2005 and I have to say, their support sucks. They asked me 10 times to do the same things all over, after a one week or so, can't update my ticket so I have to create another one. Every times a support staff replied, he didn't bothered reading all posts in it and even if I mentioned everything I had already done, they didn't pay attention and kept asking me the same things all over again. I suspect what the problem is : my AMD VIa chipsets vs my ATI card. I even opened up a ticket on ATI about it and still no news. I asked to escalate my ticket but I didn't get any feedback. I sent them all my specs 4 times.
2) WIth all those news about EA closing down offices (related to BF2 patches), I get the feeling they are stoping all work on BF2 and only working on BF2142.
3) BF2142 is most likely using the same graphic engine as BF2 so it is very unlikly that they have fixed my bug in it.
4) I am more exited about ET:QW then BF2142.
5) with the recent news about ads in BF2142 and the technology behind it checking our usages, well that's just an additional reason why I won't get it.
Overall, I am very disapointed into EA and do not think they will every (or even willing to) fix my problem. I had posted on PQ battlefield forums about my problems and others are having the same thing. I have no money to invest into a new motherboard (I would have to change my CPU and memory and perhaps video card). Therefore, I almost nevery play BF2 anymore. I almost always play NS (never stopped playing since 2002).
Sonic IMO is on the ball. I'm too lazy to retype my opinion so I'm going to copy from my post in the CAD forum. I know the first post isn't structured well nor do some points have anything to do with others; but I was pretty much dying due to grease overload from pizza hut. I guess that happens if you quit fast food for a while and all of a sudden throw toxic rot-out-your-guts stuff down your throat. Without further ado:
<!--QuoteBegin-Me+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Me)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I can see a lot of people dancing around the issue I'm most worried about, but not actually directly mentioning it. My "main beef" with the IGA corporations and EA is that this is very quickly becoming a trend that developers are taking to get the most profit into their pocket. During the larger portion of the gaming era, games were meant to be about escapism; being able to get away from the pressures of our modern media saturated society. What's happening here is, and I quote the IGA website:
Quote:
<i>This planet is oversaturated with traditional advertising, so we went and found you entire new worlds.</i>
This is but the first steps of In-game advertising. It's all good to just look at what this means for *now*, but what's more important is looking at what this leads to. If we take a look at television, movies and entertainment as a whole, we can see that corporations have applied their power into saturating the entire entertainment industry with advertising. For example, smoking. Smoking in movies and television shows has been used as propaganda for the tobacco industry for a long time, and you can bet it got a lot of people to jump on the bandwagon. Although today we as consumers are now aware of the health problems involved with smoking, the after affect of this push is still strong in our society today, with kids starting to smoke because it's "cool".
Right now in Japan corporations are putting the pressure on trying to add short advertisements into television shows where the protagonist stops and starts talking about their products. It's already in testing. And you can bet that's not just going to be isolated to Japan.
When you get down to it, advertising is becoming more and more obtrusive. As Tim states:
Quote:
<i>Advertising is part of our culture. You're going to stop watching tv or playing games because of ads? Why? Do you not have the higher brain function that allows the rest of us to just ignore it? Is your IQ so low that any and all advertisements directed at you are automatically absorbed and bought into? If that's the case, then I can see why you'd be upset about advertising.</i>
This may be the case, but should it be part of our culture? No. This "culture" is what they have given us. In essence the western world has no culture. Do these people with "a lower IQ" (AKA the majority of people) deserve this? Certainly not. Is this the direction we want our society to go? ... I'll leave that one. Some people seem to think we're on the right track and we're heading towards world peace through globalisation. Why, I don't know.
EA is not an ethical corporation. This is a given; we've talked about this a dozen times over so I'm not going to go over it here. Another obvious truth is that advertising works. Otherwise they wouldn't be throwing millions of dollars into it. You can't get away from that fact. The way they have set up in game advertising in this situation is making it seem like not a big deal by labelling the outside of the box, yet not going to the extreme of hiding it in the EULA. This is because they are attempting to make IGA seem like a normal business practice, without going too far and invoking the wrath of hundreds of thousands of gamers across the globe. In addition, how many people would you expect who have never heard of IGA before would purchase the game, see the included letter, then return it (if possible)? Unfortunately, not many; which was exactly what they planned. This is not an ethical business model nor a sustainable one.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is to think about what this means for the future, rather than what it means for today. What comes after this once we're all used to it? You can be sure corporations are not going to stop with this, as they are all just after the leverage that can only be acheived through the almighty dollar. Sure, for the moment we can block the ads using ports, but how long will it be until the game ceases to load unless it can connect to the adserver? And after we get used to that, what next? That's what we should be afraid of. Without looking at the big picture it just seems like something not worth worrying about, you know what I mean? You throw a frog into a pot of hot water and it will jump out. If you heat the water slowly it will cook and die.
There are most likely a lot of mistakes in this post but I don't have the time to read over it, sorry.
EDIT: Hi, I'm new <!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-Icarium+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Icarium)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><i>My "main beef" with the IGA corporations and EA is that this is very quickly becoming a trend that developers are taking to get the most profit into their pocket.</i>
News flash. Making a profit is what they do. As long as they gain more in advertising revenue than they lose is sales, they'll consider it worth the risk.
Advertising can be annoying, but but on the other end of the scale it also heavily subsidises most forms of entertainment today. Newspapers cost almost nothing because of advertising. Ditto magazines and TV. If advertising really bugs you that much, then you may as well stop watching sports as well, since most sports teams and individuals are heavily sponsored, and that sponsorship is just advertising.
Advertising in games is not an issue in and of itself to me. It's when the advertising becomes intrusive (ie: does not 'fit' into the game world) or requires 'additional' software that I start to take offense.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-me+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(me)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
<i>News flash. Making a profit is what they do. As long as they gain more in advertising revenue than they lose is sales, they'll consider it worth the risk.</i>
I address that after the first paragraph.
<i>Advertising can be annoying, but but on the other end of the scale it also heavily subsidises most forms of entertainment today. Newspapers cost almost nothing because of advertising. Ditto magazines and TV. If advertising really bugs you that much, then you may as well stop watching sports as well, since most sports teams and individuals are heavily sponsored, and that sponsorship is just advertising.</i>
I don't watch sports, buy magazines or read newspapers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> Not because of the advertising, I just don't care for it. If I wanted to do those things; sure, I would. All I'm saying is that it's wrong for the corps to do this, and we should do what we can to change the future. I don't have all the answers so I'm not going to go into any solutions, because I'll just get shot down since I'm not very good at expressing myself nor have I thought any solutions through yet. What I do know is that there are many ways in which to entertain oneself without having to face media or advertising. Playing sports yourself being one of them.
I've recently started avoiding doing anything to do with advertising, media, et cetera by removing the television from my house, placing branded clothes in the attic, keeping adblock on firefox with the times and the like; and have found it very helpful in discovering self and reducing pressure without any influence from corporates. I'm not one who would go out and buy product based upon commercials (Although can anybody actually make a claim like that? Does advertising effect us on a very base subconcious level? That's when things start getting complicated), but all the same I have noticed a significant increase in calmness and mental strength; and with mental strength comes the ability to better control yourself and thus improve your life in general. I know it sounds hokey but that's the way it is <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Nobody questioned my post again after that. Am I wrong, internet, or is this just people not wanting to face the truth? (that's not a rhetorical question) :-/
If not, what will come next after we're all used to this? Will they start taking our email addresses and reselling them? They could quite easily get away with that. You consent through the EULA without knowing, and all of a sudden even that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Next thing you know you're being sued for messing with their game, turning the ads off. "That's lost profit. They agreed by installing to let us have their info. They violated the agreement."
In addition, I've been hearing a lot of "oh they'll use that money they make from ads to release new patches". Do you really think that's where the money will go? *rolleyes* They'll just release another rehash of a battlefield game or more sims expansion packs.
3) BF2142 is most likely using the same graphic engine as BF2 so it is very unlikly that they have fixed my bug in it.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->They'll just release another rehash of a battlefield game or more sims expansion packs.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Ahh the wonders of 'expansion/booster packs' and 'sequels' released by EA games. Heh, EA sports games have been released yearly, and they provide an online server for a little less than one year from the sports game's release. Once they release the newer version of the sports game, they take down the online server and force people to buy it. That strategy works perfectly.
@First quote: It's probably true, now that the <b>people have already bought</b> BF2 and they know if they release a <b>'sequel'</b>, the people who wanted to buy BF2, will buy BF2142 instead, and the people who have BF2, will probably buy BF2142 also.
Since now they've got the money from BF2, and they know that it will sell much-much-much less now that BF2142 will be released, they can just ditch BF2 and they won't lose any profit at all.
When new fans hear "EA games stops patching BF2", they won't buy BF2(<i>*for maybe $20 right?</i>) and instead will buy BF2142(<i>*For $60 dollars, release price?</i>), so not patching BF2 will actually make them more money as newer fans will instead buy the more expensive BF2142.
Of course there will be those <b>few</b>(<i>I've seen/read countless people say they'll probably buy BF2142 instead of BF2 since it's a 'sequel' coming out and supposely better</i>) people who prefer to save money and just buy BF2.
*Those prices are just examples, I'm pretty sure the current BF2 in retail stores is going to be much cheaper than BF2142
@Second Quote: Yeah, they'll just release an expansion pack that gives players overpowered weapons that they can use against non-expansion users, then they'll release booster packs that includes 4 NEW MAPS, for more buck. Then about 3 months after they release the final booster/expansion pack, they'll release information about a new 'sequel' Battle Starfield which will be BF2 in space! With GREEN(<i>From yellowish/realisticish looking, and from blue</i>) muzzle flashes, as in the future the weapons will produce colorful effects that can provide entertainment for the whole family.
Though, said countless times already, EA games is a profit company, and they're willing to do anything to make maxium profit, unlike other companies which just care if they make profit at all. They know that they can make a lot of profit while getting away with being crappy to the customers, so that's why they do it, what's stopping them at all?
EA games knows they're one of the most hated publishers/companies because of their methods to make maxium profit, but the thing is it's still working and they will continue to do stuff like this until it stops making them profit. <b>We really can't blame EA games right?</b> If there are good companies who are honest with their customers<i>(VALVe)</i>, the universe must balance it out and have a 'bad' company(<i>EA games</i>) who are dishonest and are crap to their customers while getting away with much profit and success.
Way to let them win and get away with it o/
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Oh no! They're getting away with advertising! Those dirty, dirty EA executives. They're like communists. True American capitalists would never - wait - look, it's a company, they're looking to make money, I don't care, if they ever do something I don't like, then I'll get mad. Until then, I'm not desperate enough to be mad at EA that I'll grasp at perfectly legitimate actions as heralds of doom or evidence of their inherent facism.
This puppy:
<img src="http://scythe.gotdns.com:1337/bazmacro.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
All together now: AWWWWWWWW.
--Scythe--
<img src="http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/8659/upsidedowncatqa7.jpg" border="0" alt="IPB Image" />
PS: Not buying of course.