[Guden Oden]

What am I talking about? Spyware-ish stuff in Battlefield 2142, that's what.

Alright alright. Maybe the stuff this thing collects is pretty harmless, and maybe the company doesn't further use or sell on the stuff they collect. Maybe I'm just screaming about what's essentially not a very big deal at all.

The thing is however, we actually [edit: don't] know what the fuck they collect, or what they use it for, because they refuse to tell us. Instead of being up-front about it and defusing the whole thing without creating a lot of internet hubbub and controversy (and offering a clearly labelled "OFF" button), they hide it away in the thick and near-inpenetratable jungle that is the fine-print legalese EULA which almost nobody has the patience or really the ability to make much sense of, and don't really disclose a whole lot of stuff about what they're doing, or why. Thus, we're left at making guesses, and as history has taught us, it's best to guess for the worst case possible really, because that sort of turns out to be what's going on in the background.

I may be far off the mark here, but if it's specifically mentioned that if I worry about my privacy I should pull out the ethernet jack from the back of my PC each time I want to fire up their game... Well... Draw your own conclusions is all I'm gonna say!


What we need is a community project dedicated towards creating a firewall that's specifically targetted towards games using in-game data collection and realtime advertising. What it should do is block these programs from phoning home with our private ("anonymous") information, as well as stop them from contacting any adservers to download ad-shit to our PCs.

[Skrying]

Welp, I was already avoiding 2142 because its a buggy mess of a game, this just provides further reason to say hell no to EA.

[John Reynolds]

Spyware-ish component to the game, no widescreen resolution support, CDs in the box rather than DVDs, etc. Yep, screw EA.

[Gnerma]

Well just to play devils advocate a bit DICE has been open about live in game advertising being in Battlefield 2142 for a number of months. And it can be assumed that if they're going to have such a thing in their game, they will also be tracking how many views the ads get and such. Its not much more intrusive than what you see on every commercial website on the internet.

Of course, none of that makes it ok. I'm just as sick of marketers trying to stick ads wherever they possibly can as anybody. I haven't even been to a movie theater for a solid 4 years because of the ads they're trying to shovel on you beforehand. EA needs to provide an opt out at the very least. These are things you're paying for after all. But as we all know, although your typical Beyond3D user might be livid about such a thing, we're truly the games target audience. Heck we've all seen how most people prefer having ads in games because it makes them more "authentic"

[Skrying]

The spyware-ish part is not the in game ads. Its the fact that the program that places those ads is sending YOUR information back home. It also doesnt clearly state what information it is sending back home, it could your playing habits all the way up to your browsing habits and etc. I personally hate the idea that I'm being watched, that is not right and I'll continue to not buy the product.

[Gnerma]

Originally Posted by Skrying

... I'll continue to not buy the product.

I think that, and John's post sums it up nicely. This is just #492 on the list of reasons not to buy EA games.

[Sobek]

Quite honestly, anyone who plays and/or PAYS for 2142 deserves this kind of crap.

[poopypoo]

Originally Posted by Sobek

Quite honestly, anyone who plays and/or PAYS for 2142 deserves this kind of crap.

wow, i completely disagree. I guess you're just making a jab at EA fans, but, damnit, they make half the fricking major PC releases on the planet. Also, it's the whole reason that we PAY for these games that this revolts me so much. As was mentioned about movies, I don't go to theaters in the US for the same reason (luckily they didn't do this in Shanghai at the places I went). I don't think most people like this; I think most people are convinced that life (in this regard at least) will always suck, and that if they just lube their poopchutes, it'll all hurt a lot less when they get corporately raped.

[Dersaidin]

I've never thought any of the BF series was particularly good.

Annoying and retarded engine, average to poor gameplay, and imo vehicles sort of ruin FPS.

[Sobek]

Originally Posted by poopypoo

wow, i completely disagree. I guess you're just making a jab at EA fans, but, damnit, they make half the fricking major PC releases on the planet. Also, it's the whole reason that we PAY for these games that this revolts me so much. As was mentioned about movies, I don't go to theaters in the US for the same reason (luckily they didn't do this in Shanghai at the places I went). I don't think most people like this; I think most people are convinced that life (in this regard at least) will always suck, and that if they just lube their poopchutes, it'll all hurt a lot less when they get corporately raped.

Nicely put

I was a bit harsh before. I'd actually just woken up, and the last thing anyone wants to see when they wake up is more shenanigarian (word?) crap on behalf of EA. It's just joke after bug after failure again and again and again. They may release half the major games, but they're 90% re-hash and been-there titles.

2142 is, at its core, BF2 with floating glitch-barges and new models. Hell..look at the way the 'hover' tanks drive, you can clearly see it's the same old tank, same physics, same everything, just with a new model. It reacts to ground geometry EXACTLY the same way as the old tank.

As far as i'm concerned, and no offence to those that do, but it's people who buy this crap from EA that keep them in business. Most notably the sports games...what a crime.

[Angelcurio]

So right now we have to pay full price for a game, live with in game ads and deal with spyware in games?

Jee-suz Criiast.

[digitalwanderer]

You'll soon be paying for cheats too.

And people wonder why so many people pirate these games.

[John Reynolds]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

And people wonder why so many people pirate these games.

Well, in all fairness BF2142 is a bit of an anomaly.

[Guden Oden]

Originally Posted by digitalwanderer

You'll soon be paying for cheats too.

Yeah, I saw that at Ars the other day. Or I think it was Ars anyway. What a ripoff, and again EA of course. Seems they're the leader in the race towards the bottom, feh!

[poopypoo]

Originally Posted by Sobek

As far as i'm concerned, and no offence to those that do, but it's people who buy this crap from EA that keep them in business. Most notably the sports games...what a crime.

No, I think you're right. For the longest time, video games were above art, in a way, untouchable -- because they were simply fun, and interactive, there was no need to extract meaning -- but i think the time is now. Fuck shitty PC games. I'm not worried I'll "miss out" on the year's biggest game. I got more great games with a pile of mods i'll never get through in a thousand lifetimes -- games that may not have meaning, but they're FUN and haven't completely sold out -- so fuck EA. They're the leader in makiong this industry profitable -- which we're supposed to be thankful for, as gamers, because it opens the door for a whole new pile of graphical SHIT. Screw it, it's pretty but it sucks, I'm done with it. Except for Spore. ;_; damn you Maxis! ;_;

[bystander]

EA has clarified what the spyware does now:

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 or 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.

"Data will only be gathered from in game. Web browsing and other profiling data is not being gathered... The purpose of the gathering is to determine if an ad is viewed by players," the employee posted in the forums of fansite Total Battlefield 2142.

[Malo]

The MMO I play, Anarchy Online, uses a similar in-game advertising system where it also tracks the viewability etc of the ads by players. However, it only has ads for the free playing customers (or fr00bs) which don't have access to the expansions. It's a completely optional system for paying customers allowing us to toggle the system anytime. Having this kind of system in a game you PAY for is ridiculous.

[Skrying]

Originally Posted by John Reynolds

Well, in all fairness BF2142 is a bit of an anomaly.

Not from EA. Sure, most games dont care in the game advertising, but BF2142 is the same game as BF2 with the same bugs, and the same crap. EA just drops this crap on the market and people buy it right up, I'm not sure if its because people just like to roll around in crap or because the market is so barren.

BF2142 is a BF2 mod (a buggy one at that) with included ad software.

[RobertR1]

The fact that they could never get BF2 to run properly (glitch galore), never get around to adding widescreen suppot, I have 0 faith in their ability to do anything but milk the money out with 2142. I'll pass.

As for widescreen, I assume the 360 version runs at 720p which is widescreen (16:9) but it's somehow too much effort to translate that to the PC version. F that.

[Guden Oden]

Originally Posted by bystander

EA has clarified what the spyware does now:

Again I have to wonder why they didn't say this FROM THE START... Did they think they could sneak it in under the radar or something? They couldn't be that stupid could they?

I'm so annoyed Spore's going to end up as an EA title, that sucks! I remember well the good ol' days when EA wasn't the evil Galactic Empire and was known as EOA, or rather, Electronic Arts, which was its full name back then. Bard's Tale... Those were the days.

Long gone now.

[Skrying]

Maxis has long been apart of EA. Thankfully they are one of the few studios that have been allowed to stay seperate from the huge EA body, EA is more like a publisher than owner to Maxis. Though, I'm not sure if that'll protect it from EA, EA just seems to be ever more aggressive with pushing crap, ads, information stealing, etc.

[Gnerma]

Originally Posted by bystander

EA has clarified what the spyware does now:

That may be what the extra software does now, but the loose wording of the original statement is a blank check that could allow the game to collect whatever info it wants in the future. I'm not the paranoid type, but the people who wrote that original statement aren't stupid. They knew it would be less of a PR problem if the language was more specific. It makes one wonder.

[Mize]

Couldn't one creat a Kaspersky or ZoneAlarm rule to block all the binaries in the software from outbound internet access or to the adware servers? Or are they using the same servers for adware data collection that they're using for online play?

Nasty stuff IMHO.

[Ferret Boy]

Unfortunately, this is only a taste of things to come. More and more publishers will start using this model to generate added revenue for the little production resources it would take to implement them.
As we all remember, many people complained bitterly when adverts were placed at the start of movies. People bitched and moaned that they would never go to another movie again. After the initial storm it was clear the industry wasn't going to change. Eventually moviegoers got used to those annoying spots.
I agree that in-game advertising is a serious pain in the butt, I'm afraid that the genie is out of the bottle.

[Mummy]

http://www.ethereal.com/

install and check what it does?