Spyware Being Integrated In Pc Games

[woah]

It seems spyware has finally penetrated PC Gaming. The newly released Battlefield 2142 (not to say that any of you are interested in it. I am surely not) contains tracking software:

 

From Gametab:

 

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.

 

http://www.gametab.com/news/711252/

[SneaksieDave]

I just hope the buyers we have out here representing us have the nuts to stand up to this kind of crap.

 

Stop feeding the machine, don't buy it. In fact, never buy anything from a company that slips this way even once; they can no longer be trusted, and should be bankrupt.

[woah]

The worst part is this is not labeled on the outside of the box. You don't know there is spyware until you've boughten it and the little slip of paper slides out.

[sparhawk]

No problem. You can still bring it back ang get your money back.

[SneaksieDave]

That's something I almost want to try. When the store tells me "sorry sir, we can't accept opened returns," I'll go off on them, and take it as high as I must or they require. People actually should do exactly that en masse, in order to inspire some kind of reform in the laws; either make it so they have to accept returns (with all the anti piracy software out there, it's not a problem anymore, right? ), or they have to print such disclaimers on the outside of the box. Law really has to start to get up to speed with technology.

 

In fact, maybe I will do just that. >

[d3mot]

Dosn't sound suprisinging considering most of DICE's games that are published by EA already contain ingame advertising and pop up boxes. Hope people don't fall for this crap and buy the games.

[sparhawk]

They will buy it. They bought HL2 with Steam, and they will buy games with advertisments.

[OrbWeaver]

That's something I almost want to try. When the store tells me "sorry sir, we can't accept opened returns," I'll go off on them, and take it as high as I must or they require. People actually should do exactly that en masse, in order to inspire some kind of reform in the laws; either make it so they have to accept returns (with all the anti piracy software out there, it's not a problem anymore, right? ), or they have to print such disclaimers on the outside of the box. Law really has to start to get up to speed with technology.

 

In the UK we have such laws - if something is not "fit for purpose" then the seller is legally obliged to provide a refund. If you purchased a computer game which took over your PC (and was not described as doing so on the box) then you could make a good argument that it was not fit for purpose.

[oDDity]

Listen, even if a game auotpaused and showed a full screen advert for Wheaty Flakes every 15 mintues like TV, people would still buy the game.

[Order of the Hammer Bureaucrat]

There's an unplanned effort and waste of time involved in going to the store to return something. The returner should be compensated for that.

[Domarius]

Well I'm hanging out for this game. I have a friend who was raving about it - saying it was more like BF1942 style fun, since BF 2 was crap.

 

And there's an awesome mode called Titan where you have to somehow get into the huge mothership in the sky, go through the corridors on foot, battle your way through and place a bomb on the main reactor.

 

And there is a conquest mode that works differently in that each structure you capture, instead of just giving you tickets, gives you control of a certain missile launcher, and when you have control of all of them, you are able to take down the shields of the main base and then start your raid on it to plant a bomb inside.

 

And lots of other awesome shit. I can't wait.

[Crispy]

Aren't there laws against this kind of crap? If not, there should be.

 

Sad thing is, people will still buy it and not care.

[Unstoppable]

This is some BS it should be labeled outside of the box.

[sparhawk]

Listen, even if a game auotpaused and showed a full screen advert for Wheaty Flakes every 15 mintues like TV, people would still buy the game.

 

That's the sad of it. Generate enough hype and people will buy it, no matter how much they are abused.

[oDDity]

Yes, domarius is a good example., He's a grown man, but already jumping up and down with excitment, slobbers dripping out of his mouth at the prospect of playing it.

Now imagine if you're a 14 year old boy, you're not going to give a shit what kind of crap comes with it, yoiu just want the game your friends are all playing. ANd of course, he's not going to show hs parents the piece of paper abotut he spyware that he's installing on their computer. The vast majority of homes have only one family computer.

Hell, even the promo movie of icewind dale that they force you to watch after you have installed baldur's gate annoys the hell out of me and makes me want to punch someone. You can use task manager to close it now, but it wasn't so easy wiht windows 98.

[sparhawk]

Yes, domarius is a good example., He's a grown man, but already jumping up and down with excitment, slobbers dripping out of his mouth at the prospect of playing it.

 

Yeah. I ghtough the same when I read his posting.

 

Now imagine if you're a 14 year old boy, you're not going to give a shit what kind of crap comes with it, yoiu just want the game your friends are all playing. ANd of course, he's not going to show hs parents the piece of paper abotut he spyware that he's installing on their computer. The vast majority of homes have only one family computer.

 

Fortunately it's not so easy in our family and this is one reason why I usually don't let my kids play at my computer, and definitely don't let them install something on my machine. My wife complains a lot how they screwed up her computer, and I always tell her that they have their own and they must share it, but she always gets weak when one comes asking and allows it again.

 

Hell, even the promo movie of icewind dale that they force you to watch after you have installed baldur's gate annoys the hell out of me and makes me want to punch someone. You can use task manager to close it now, but it wasn't so easy wiht windows 98.

 

Yeah. I also didn't like that, but at least it was only after install.

[oDDity]

The point is they should ask if you want to watch it, not force you to watch it.

That was a deliberate decision someone made to do it that way, the same type of person who thinks including spyware with BF 2142 is a good idea.

[Crispy]

I agree with you completely there, but I'm curious; what do you think of those nag screens that pop up in unregistered shareware games, and sometimes commercial demos? The ones that typically appear when you exit the game, and sometimes before you start playing as well. Are they just as annoying as this BF2142 stunt? What about that Icewind Dale promo movie you mentioned?

 

I'm just wondering whether there's a scale of annoyance or if you hate them all equally...

[Mr Mike]

I don't think having to sit through a 5 second paused image advertising their final product from within a demo can even be compared to basically forcing you to agree to their demand of searching your internet history and details so they can force feed you details of products you've made no attempt to show you're interested in.

[Komag]

Having recently installed the BG games I know about being forced to watch the movie. The thing is, I had already watched it on my own, voluntarily, being curious to watch an old retro game trailer, and then I was forced to watch it again!!! That did indeed suck

[SneaksieDave]

Aren't there laws against this kind of crap? If not, there should be.

It sure doesn't seem like it. I think we need some nice juicy class action lawsuits to establish good precedent.

[oDDity]

I agree with you completely there, but I'm curious; what do you think of those nag screens that pop up in unregistered shareware games, and sometimes commercial demos? The ones that typically appear when you exit the game, and sometimes before you start playing as well. Are they just as annoying as this BF2142 stunt? What about that Icewind Dale promo movie you mentioned?

 

I'm just wondering whether there's a scale of annoyance or if you hate them all equally...

I've no problem with ads in shareware products, since you get them for free. Adverts belong in free products. They work on the basis that if you pay for the product, the ads go away.

I have a big problem with spending money on a commercial product and still having an advert forced down my throat.

[Vadrosaul]

[woah]

I'm sure some sort of third party patch will eventually come out that will disable the advertising and privacy intrusion "features", but until then I'm not buying into this.

[SneaksieDave]

Why even buy it then? It will only put money in EA's pocket. Message delivered to EA: Mission successful, the customers have accepted it! Hell, people probably shouldn't even steal it. They should bury it and forget it existed. Talk to EA in the only way they understand: money.

 

Heh I wish I had a little boycott EA banner, now that starforce has been smacked down (for the moment at least).