BF2142 InGame Advertising

[Stealth3 0]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/centipedes/battlefield-2142-with-a-dash-of-spyware-207955.php

It seems the retail BF2142 comes with spyware which send information to add companies. Is EA using the customers like tools to generate more money?

Have your say. I'm strongly thinking of not buying the game after I found this out.

Quote[/b] ]The Software may incorporate technology developed by IGA Worldwide Inc. ("IGA") (the "Advertising Technology"). The purpose of the Advertising TEchnology is to deliver in-game advertisements to you when you use the Software while connected to the Internet. When you use the Software while connected ot the Internet, the Advertising Technlogy may record your IP address and other anonymouse information ("Advertising Data"). The Advertising Data is temporarily used by IGA to enable the presentation and measurement of in-game advertisements and other in-game objects which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and changed during online game play. The Advertising Technology does not collect any personally identifiable information about you, and EA will ont provide IGA with any of your personally identifiable information. The servers used by the Advertising Technology may, from time to time, be located outside your country of residence. If you are located within the European Union, the servers may be located outside the EU.

By installing and using the Software, you agree to: (i) the transfer of the Advertising Data to servers located outside your country of residence and, if applicable, outside the European Union; (ii)the collection and use of the Advertising Data as described in this Section; and (iii) the delivery of advertising and marketing content by the Advertising Technology. IF YOU DO NOT WANT IGA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, OR TRANSMIT THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, DO NOT INSTALL OR PLAY THE SOFTWARE ON ANY PLATFORM THAT IS USED TO CONNECT TO THE INTERNET.

[Messiah 2]

its not quite spyware in terms of it being malicious... it simply allows bill boards etc ingame to display up-to-date real world advertising... another way to make money of course.

they did a survey at my university about ingame advertising, and i was one of the guinea pigs hooked to one of the machines that monitors where your eyes are looking on the screen, and also a quick questionaire as to what brands you saw advertised... I'll confess that i was too busy playing to notice any of the brands.

you're blowing the system out of proportion, this isnt installing pop up viagra adverts onto your web browser, and nor is it stealing your identity or credit details - at most it will be checking our age and sex and applying adverts into the game that are aimed at your sector... essentially it checks who's playing, if they're male, if they're female, how old they are, where you're from, what language you speak and advertises accordingly... it wouldn't be prudent for it to advertise alcohol to a minor, or an 18 rated game to someone who's 15 or more importantly a product that isnt available where you are from.... if it weren't hooked up to this system, the later would happen AND the advertising would be outdated.

you dont like it, you dont install it... it'll be part of the EULA and you're stuck with it till a crack is found to remove it. I think its quite clever, and it was a step that was bound to happen sooner rather than later... it just took a publisher with some balls (or in the case of EA a huge ego and customer base) to put it out there first.

[j w 0]

Just a theoretical question;

In racing games (such as F1-games, MotoGP-games etc), is the commercial on the cars/motorbikes beacause the companies payed for it, or is it beacause the game-maker wan't it to be so graphicly realistic as possible?

Just qurious about your real thought...

JW

[Messiah 2]

I'm not entirely sure to be honest... alot of games use 'cleverly' concoted alter ego's for brands and the such (very evident in GTA games) and these are a result at poking fun at the particular brand, or the inability to secure the right to put the brand name/logo in the computer game.

i remember an article a year or so ago where a free addon maker, very much like the guys on here, made a daytona racing car for some racing game. He added all the exact sponsorship etc onto the vehicle and released it as a free addon. The sponsors (if i recall) got hold of this and forced him to pull the addon due to copyright infringement, even though it seems madness given it was being shown in a bad light, and was in essence free advertising.

at the moment, I think that the 'advertising' in such games is there by agreement from both parties. The game makers see it as a way of making it realistic, and the companies see it as free advertising at the 'expense' of allowing the game developers to use their branding etc.

that was before the new era we're dawning in where these companies and the developers/publishers are seeing the possibilities of ingame advertising (with the advent of broadband and the pernamently connected pc) and I'd say that from now the likelihood is that more and more of the branding has been paid to be put in by the companies.

by real thoughts though... i'm likely to be very wrong. I guess it depends on the game. If the advertising doesnt need to be there, need meaning would things look out of place if it wasnt there i.e racing games, then I'd hazard a guess that its paid advertising, where as if its a game where the advertising is something one would associate it with (racing) then it may be a mutual agreement... but obviously its likely that this will cease, and publishers begin asking for money to place these brands in (imagine FIFA with rolling advertising boards with current brands and products)

its just moving on from the film industry (remember the truman show mocking advertising in films/tv) where more and more you see the same brand being used througout the film, a couple of examples MI:2 everyone drives a ford (or at least the extras do) and SWAT where they have a distinct taste for Dr Pepper and leaving the logo perfectly square onto the camera.

[Stealth3 0]

Well the thing is that they aren't just textures. They are dynamic adds that change all the time. That requires resources.

Also they are making money off you using you. Without any benefits to you at all.

And third is that the retail version crashes if you have one of the MS updates installed. To fix that you need to remove it which opens other problems.

The main problem is that it opens a backdoor to your PC. And you are forced to watch adds in between the matches. Like in the demo, only it shows you screenshots about the demo. Instead of that you will get adds.

[crashdome 3]

In regards to racing and other games that use cars/objects with adverts on them as they are depicted in the real world:

The software companies license the use of the vehicle AND any livery - this includes the advertisers. You can tell by looking at the credits. Sometimes, only a few of the adverts are displayed on a vehicle because perhaps one company wasn't specific about their logo on graphical depictions. For example, a pic of the Marlboro car might be used in a Marlboro ad... in which case you may not see any other sponsors on the car other than Marlboro because the other sponsors didn't pay for that level of advertising OR have declined the use of their logo in relation to that ad. You may see some of the other companies logos because according to sponsor contract "any graphical depictions of the vehicle.. blah blah" must include the logos as specified even if it is a Shell logo in a Marlboro ad.

Sometimes it's also a grey line. In the interest of software realism, some ads may be displayed regardless of contract to promote realism. The company in question usually does not care since it is advertising they get for free! However, there might be cases of the reverse happening.

Usually, there is in-depth contract jargon which dictates how a car AND it's logos are used in a racing sim. So it's not necessarily up to just the texture artist to get as real as possible.

In the mod world (non commercial) it is usually open season until someone gets unhappy.

I have heard of textures and models of military vehicles (mostly aircraft) being declined to be included into software simply because the manufacturer hasn't approved of it (fictional example: like Lockheed refusing to allow use of F117 in a modern flight sim because they want $$$ for use of it's "likeness")

In regards to streaming ads in-games, I think it's crappy not because it is "spyware" but because it is utilizing not only their, but MY bandwidth to display it's ads to me. I realize it's an alternate form of revenue for entertainment software, but that is the problem with all forms of entertainment. Once ads start to get into it, the process is usually the degradation of artistic creativity. You can say it gives more money and therefore more freedom to software devs, but IMO that's a copout excuse for becoming a sellout. Fixed ads are fine when done tastefully, streaming ads (even tastefully) are just excessive.

I work in an ad printing company and the amount of product that goes out this door for the ROI is rediculous. There is an average of 1-2% return on those bind-in cards inside magazines. While a few new subscriptions have paid for the millions of cards and the extra subs are added revenue, the system is just excessive physically. Better target management and more direct methods can produce far more ROI than simple mass market saturation of advertising.

[Messiah 2]

@ Stealth - I was merely making an quick example, and am fully aware that they can also entail dynamic ads. The benefits are there, it depends entirely on your perception of ads in video games. If i was wondering if a certain product was available, and it came up whilst i was in a lobby screen etc, then wahey I know the answer... it can be useful, if done tasetfully, although i share your concerns with how its going be done.

the crashing will undoutably be fixed in a quick patch. They'd be idiotic to assume everyones going to unistall an MS update for the sake of playing this game.

its only opening a backdoor to your pc to the one server. These companies are paid to research these methods and to get them right. Steam opens a back door to your pc as well, but have you ever heard of anyone getting fucked through steam? The safeguards are there to stop people exploiting this system. They'd have to hack the server itself to gain any access surely? Then, yes, they could upload anything to your pc, but the same can be said for steam, and it hasnt happened.

@ Crashdome - cheers for the explanation - I was merely working of my own thoughts on the subject. I very much agree that if done well, in game advertising is fine, as it can always be made to fit with the situation. Lobby screen advertising, or 'death lobby' advertising is fine with me too... who cares, you're not losing out by watching it.

I do totally agree that if its done badly then it will detract from the ewxperience of the game. I guess we have to trust developers/publishers to not go overboard in the interest of making money.

bandwidth this day and age is becomming a non issue... with broadband speeds getting faster and faster the amount of bandwidth this advertising would take woud be minute, and odds are that it will merely update your 'advertising cache' as you load up the game, and then display that cache during the game.

[edit] scratch that, from reading that article it would only be putting these adverts in during online gameplay, so perhaps streaming will be used - it would also allow to account for time of day and when it may display more adult orientated media (i.e. the 9pm watershed in the UK)[/edit]

we'll see I guess... this was inevitable in the grand scheme of things... there will be a teething period where they get it wrong, but people will grow accustomed to it and odd are that its here to stay.

[Specter82 1]

I seen today that Battlefield 2142 is to have dynamic in game advertising that targets the individual by age and geographic location. I have bought all the BF games prior to BF2142 . But even before the news of in game advertising I had no intention of buying BF2142 cause of my dislike of it. But my question as it concerns ARMED ASSAULT is this will you guys use in game advertising now or in the future in your games. Because as far as EA is concerned I will not buy any of there games with in game advertising in it . And have started a movement to BOYCOTT them. And even though having in game advertisements in ARMED ASSAULT would bring Bohemia Interactive additional revenue I would not purchase the game if it had in game dynamic advertisements. Though I don't think you guys will lower yourselves to EA standard since you guys are close to your fan base.

Thanks Respectfully,

Derrick Beck

PS. Boycott in game dynamic advertisements

[XCess 0]

Personally I don't see any problem with in game advertising. It has no ill effect on the players' in game experience, and if implemented well can even enhance the sense of realism in game, as you will see billboards and brands seen in real life.

Of course, it would have to be done subtly, without in your face "brought to you by McDonald's" type splash screens, but rather objects in game that would be covered in franhise logos as in real life.

[Uziyahu--IDF 0]

Mecca Cola!

[smellyjelly 0]

Of course, it would have to be done subtly, without in your face "brought to you by McDonald's" type splash screens, but rather objects in game that would be covered in franhise logos as in real life.

Like litter and trash?

The problem with BF2142 is that EA is also adding in spyware, that will track your computers information.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming....955.php

[EddiePrice 16]

Does it matter? Does it really influence you that much that you have to protest against it?

[meyamoti 0]

This person makes a good point but they don't mean something like posters on a wall. What bf2 has in it is this little box for info,it tells you when patches are out and whatnot as well as ea's latest battlfield game and such. So when you sign in and go online you see a box with an image pop up.

Battlfield2142 Out now,buy now!

Its not really subtle at all like a poser in a corridor but always in your face.

[aussie dave 0]

Well i won't be buying anything that has this Spy/Malware in it.

This is out of the box of BF2142, i believe...

XGN

here the post from XGN

[DarkOmen 0]

I never intended to buy it. I just hope others don't stoop this low.

Unless they were actually USEFUL ads, such as links to fansites or game gear, I would hate it.

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

I must say that I have to disagree in the case of a game you pay for. I do not own BF2142 but since it is only a retail game and you pay for having a game to play, I don't think that ads should be there, because no matter however you look at it, any ad takes up resources, no matter how minimal, and some people appreciate every bit of resources they have at their disposal, thus shouldn't be forced to have ads.

If on the other hand the game would be a free-to-download and free-to-play game, payed for by the advertisers, then by all means, please do so. But in the case of where you've already payed the company that brings you the game, I don't think it's fair that they should make more money out of you just because they force you to have ads in it.

[Dwarden 1125]

u can see http://www.massiveincorporated.com/site_network/partners.htm

it's used by quite big names in industry not just EA in BF2142 ...

this firm is also owned or controller by Microsoft ... so it's approx same secure as theirs OSes

question remains what all it collect , how, what's impact it have on users computer, security risk (yay another vector for attacks) ...

[meyamoti 0]

Indeed,when somebody gets to the server list and clicks to join a game and finds the message saying you have an older version. "Oh there must be a patch out.." Let the people find ou theirself I say.

[Rg 0]

This is going to be such a disappointing trend in games soon. It does appall me that ads are invading games now.

Hell, one reason I don't watch any tv is because I can't stand the ads they throw at you, not to mention most of the stuff on tv is crap. There's a few programs I watch, but I just get it off the internet commercial free.

Anyways, I sincerely hope BIS will never put ads in their future games (I know ArmA will be clear of them, at least I'm assuming ).

Seriously though, if games include ads, the game should either be FREE (think of mainstream tv) or insanely cheap.

[Call911-AGE- 0]

Bf2142....not.

[bozo_t_clown 0]

Yes,

Though I am a veteran of BF 1942 and BF 2...

(And Op Flashpoint and Delta Force and ....)

I am done with EA games because of this (and other reasons).

Don't need an "verification/update buddy" to run every time I boot and "look over my shoulder".

Big company arrogance... F' them.

I am pulling for BIS to remain "pure".

[450R 1]

Does it matter? Does it really influence you that much that you have to protest against it?

Yes. I don't want to see this become standard behavior. How can you not be upset about it?

[CouchMonkey 0]

[smellyjelly 0]

Is that... real?

[Rg 0]

Is that... real?

Are you kidding?