By way of the crappy monopoly known as Google, of course. Here's a thread about the situation:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_...

You gamers should join there, reply to this thread and support EJ's cause. Otherwise you should get ready to have Google Ad-whatever pushing ads for camo cargo pants every time you pop in your copy of Halo.

Not really new. BF2142 has ads in the environment. Of course, they made it obvious what addresses they were using to download the ads, so a lot of people just blocked it via firewall or hosts files.

Good times!

TECH-NO-LOGICAL ROMANCE!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

Google was 'wake-up call,' Microsoft says

I'm not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn't need an interpreter.

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Sure it's nice that people with some experience can block the ads, but

WHY SHOULD THEY HAVE TO BLOCK ADS IN THE FIRST PLACE?

THEY'RE PLAYING A *GAME* FOR CRAP'S SAKE!

I wasn't shouting there, just using caps for emphasis. Are me and EJ the only ones who see that this needs to end?

I get more indignant about stuff like bigotry, human rights abuses, etc.

Hard to get really ticked off about ads in video games. It's a minor annoyance.

TECH-NO-LOGICAL ROMANCE!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

Yeah. A minor annoyance in a sea of other annoyances. I guess most people would rather defend against stuff that doesn't need to be than stop it in the first place.

What do you mean by bigotry and human rights abuses? And what does that have to do with my topic?

I mean people hating other people because of their ethnicity, religion, culture, sexual orientation. I mean people torturing, persecuting, or killing other people for the same reasons.

And it has to do with this topic because you asked why people aren't freaking out about ads in video games. It's not a topic worth getting upset about when you think of life's big picture.

TECH-NO-LOGICAL ROMANCE!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

And yet, if you do look at the big picture you realise that even those problems aren't getting any better, they're getting worse. Everything starts off small, and ends up snowballing into something big. Sure... In-game advertisement may seem like such a small insignificant thing to complain about on first inspection and without any real thought going into.

If you do think about it though; and using BF2142 as an example:

1. EA put a slip of paper in the game box. It wasn't on the outside of the box, it wasn't anywhere you could see it prior to purchasing (assuming you didn't buy it online). You only discovered about the ads after you'd bought the game. A lot of stores wouldn't give you a refund on the basis that it wasn't what you were expecting just because it had ads in it.

If you weren't aware of the situation (ie you didn't use forums or read up on the games via the net prior to buying it), you would be completely oblivious to what you were buying until after you'd bought it. Granted this wouldn't happen much but I do know quite a few people who just buy games if they like the look of them, without first reading up on them. If I know quite a few people like that imagine how many in the world there are.

2. The ad collected information on the player. Okay so it wasn't much, and supposedly no personally identifiable info was sent, but the fact remains it was collecting info on your viewing habits and sending it to a server. Today viewing habits, tomorrow the applications stored on your computer, the browser cookies you have in your browser, your favourite website links... All perfectly legal provided you install the game and agree to whatever EULA they put in the install agreement which no-one ever reads.

3. No opt-out was provided. if you didn't want the ads in the game, you simply didn't have to install it. This is fair enough, just don't buy the game you say. Well that'd be fine if like previously said they'd had it written on the box or something in big noticeable letters "Contains in-game advertisement". It would also help a great deal if the retailers actually did something to aid the situation, but they just want to make money, same as EA, so no, they didn't mention it all. Ea was banking on people buying the game, then after installing it finding out it had ads inside, and hoping these people simply said "I can't be bothered, I've installed it now so that's that." And carry on regardless. To a certain degree it worked.

Ultimately, in-game advertisement isn't intrusive enough yet to be worth worrying badly about but it has the potential to snowball rapidly if enough people who couldn't give a damn and are more interested in the big things in life, pretending to themselves they might make a difference, when in reality they have as much chance of stopping such things as they do a 40 ton train with no brakes.

Given time in-game advertisement can only get worse. Much like how no one kicked up about paying for satellite or Cable subscription television services and still getting advertisements on the channels they got. Now what do they have to look forward to? Adverts every five or ten minutes on a service they pay a premium for that has very little decent programming on that isn't already on the free terrestrial television services.

Imagine a time where you buy a game for 50+ dollars and much of the intro sequence, cut scenes, and various other elements have nothing but product placements and adverts all over it and the actual gameplay is nothing but high definition graphics with very short and limited lifespans. That time is almost here, and in-game advertisement is only going to make it happen faster. All you, the consumer, has to do is what you always do. Sit back and let the corporations walk all over you.

Slim Vision

Jesus and perverts and war crimes, great. Thank you.

Moving on. I can't imagine anyone who plays games really not caring about in-game advertising. And I can't imagine any gamer seriously looking forward to it.

When all this starts happening everyone is going to complain. Some gamers will only be annoyed. Some will write four page rants. Some gamers will have intelligent things to say about corporations not caring about the consumers and others will joke about hiring ninja to carry out assassinations.

I'm pretty sure that at some point someone will mention the world nearing the time when, like in that episode of Futurama, ads are literally EVERYWHERE and corporations beam commercials right into your dreams and subconscious.

But IGA doesn't have to happen. We could just stop it right now.

I'm glad that Slim Vision sees what I was seeing when I started this thread. Slim, you see the big picture like I do and EJ did and you know things I wasn't aware of, like the information gathering. Since you're obviously an intelligent guy will you put that brain to good use and help stop this here and now?

Or will you do nothing and wait until maybe a year from now when there are ads (commercials) and maybe even paper ads in every single game being released? And then just curse and glare at the screen along with everyone else who didn't have the gumption to do anything about it?

Like I said, everyone is going to complain. But by the time people start complaining it will be too late.

I wish I was better at writing than this but what can ya do...

"When all this starts happening everyone is going to complain. Some gamers will only be annoyed. Some will write four page rants. Some gamers will have intelligent things to say about corporations not caring about the consumers and others will joke about hiring ninja to carry out assassinations."

Some like me just choose to not buy games with advertising. Far less time consuming, and lower sales usually sends a message. :-)

TECH-NO-LOGICAL ROMANCE!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

I don't even know why there is so much advertising, it might work better if there wasn't so much of it. Now people just get pissed off.

-CG

Alright, alright, nobody cares or thinks this is serious. I'll shut up about it now.

But do me a favor and give the link I gave to your gamer buddies or direct them to this page. If you are a member of a game forum then post links to this page there. There are millions of gamers so at least a few hundred must hate the prospect of in-game advertising.

If those hundreds see this thread or EJ's post we could all team up and make some changes.

Bottom line is if the game is good enough for the money, people will buy the game, ads or no ads.

Here's another way to get ads out of games besides not buying games with ads -

Boycott products that are in ads in video games! Companies don't pay for advertising that isn't effective in selling their products.

You do realize however that these ads might help game prices to be lower though, right?

TECH-NO-LOGICAL ROMANCE!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs12.html

You do realize however that these ads might help game prices to be lower though, right?

That's a possibility, but one that the corporations won't give a f--- about, putting it bluntly. Especially not EA or VU Games, both of which seem to be on the brink of a gaming devolution. Battlefield 2142 was released with a RRP of $49.99. Not that you'd pay that in most good shops but even so that just proves EA had no intention of using the additional revenue they gained from the adverts to lower the price tag on the product.

Since you're obviously an intelligent guy will you put that brain to good use and help stop this here and now?

Or will you do nothing and wait until maybe a year from now when there are ads (commercials) and maybe even paper ads in every single game being released? And then just curse and glare at the screen along with everyone else who didn't have the gumption to do anything about it?

I won't do nothing. But as someone else here stated, I feel that boycotting is a good way of going about it to begin with. Let's face it, there's not a lot we can do at this point in time. Without money, or large organisations backing our beliefs, we simply wouldn't be able to make a difference. But at least if we simply don't buy the products eventually something will click in the fat cat's board room when they realise revenue's gone down more than they earned from the advertisement. The thing is getting the word out to people... And those people have to want to help the cause.

It's just a shame there's so many people in this world that could make a difference if they banded together, but don't because of one reason or another. But that's the way of Humanity, it seems.

Slim Vision

"Not that you'd pay that in most good shops but even so that just proves EA had no intention of using the additional revenue they gained from the adverts to lower the price tag on the product."

Except that game prices for PC's haven't gone significantly up in several years. True cost adjusted for inflation for a video game in 2006 costing $50 would be $42.70 in 2000. Although I can't remember for sure, I believe BF1942 at release was $50. It could be argued therefore that its real cost has gone down. However, it's not clear that's the reason why.

"Enough, enough bowing down to disillusion!
Hats off & applause to rogues & evolution!
The ripple effect is too good not to mention.
If you’re not affected, you’re not paying attention!"