Monitoring Software with 2142 [Archive]

dement

17th October 2006, 02:40 PM

"So. In the latest CGW podcast, they received retail boxed copies of BF 2142.

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.

Now, I can live with certain in-game ads (though apparently there will be Dodge truck and Neon ads in the bleak, futuristic world of 2142), but including a lengthy description - outside of even the Eula - seems to indicate even EA knows that this is some shady borderline spyware shit. I don't support it and won't be buying 2142 (for a host of other reasons, too)."

http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=13049860

KiLL3r

17th October 2006, 02:43 PM

thats bs rumour sum cock made up. EA have said themselves there is no spyware or crap its just the program that runs in the background that updates the ingame ads.

this is old news

Equity

17th October 2006, 02:44 PM

woah thats abit intrusive....wonder how much the add companies are paying for this...

dirtyape

17th October 2006, 02:44 PM

spyware in games? the dirty feckers!

does sound a bit unbelievable though, they'd lose a lot of customers through this.

dement

17th October 2006, 02:48 PM

Found it on digg today, heh.

http://digg.com/gaming_news/BattleField_2142_spyware_included

"Spyware: It's In the Game."

GhostOfGallipoli

17th October 2006, 02:48 PM

whoa....that does not sound good

dement

17th October 2006, 02:51 PM

Are there in-game ads for BF2? Sounds a bit rude to have ads for a game you pay for...

KiLL3r

17th October 2006, 02:52 PM

CKMC']The information that is gathered is specifically related to the ingame ads themselves and not anything personally related to you.

There is no additional spy ware software installed secretly to your machine.

CKMC]Data will only be gathered from in game. Web browsing and other profiling data is not being gathered.

Squib has essentially nailed it. The purpose of the gathering is to determine if an ad is viewed by players.

CKMC]As I have mentioned before (in other threads/interviews) there will be no adverse affects on players from the advertising aspect. It will not impact gameplay at all. You most definitely will not receive any emails or other forms of solicitation due to this.

I will add that if any of you do receive negative solicitation related to anything Battlefield please let me know.

CKMC is the 2142 head honcho so as you can see it is just a rumour made by a "EA ruined my battlefield" sorta guy so you can all take off your tinfoil hats now :sunnies:

Equity

17th October 2006, 02:54 PM

they do it in movies dement, so it was only a matter of time before they started doing it in games as well....

dement

17th October 2006, 02:56 PM

We'll see once the game is released, someone should be able to identify the "additional software for in-game ads" a bit more. But yeah, sounds crazy.

GhostOfGallipoli

17th October 2006, 02:57 PM

Are there in-game ads for BF2? Sounds a bit rude to have ads for a game you pay for...

i wouldn't call it paying for ads...i consider it the same as product placement in movies....if done well it can be quite clever...if done poorly (as the guy mentions, billboards for the "new" 2007 dodge caliber) it's going to blow hard

KiLL3r

17th October 2006, 02:58 PM

they do it in movies dement, so it was only a matter of time before they started doing it in games as well....

EA arnt the first to do it. SWAT4 had advertising everywhere.

You can add Valve's shooter Counter-Strike to the list of games that have gotten in-game advertising. This press release announces the launch of a new in-game ad provide called Engage that has already worked a deal with Subway restaurants to put in in-game ads for specific cities like San Francisco, Las Vegas and Sacramento. While the press release only states that the ads appeared in "the most popular online action game played among men 18 to 34", Gamecloud confirmed with an Engage spokesperson over the phone that the ads appeared in Counter-Strike game sessions.

even CSS is gonna have ads

http://media.arstechnica.com/articles/culture/subway-cs.media/subway.jpg

Zing!

17th October 2006, 04:54 PM

It's a shame they didn't knock a few extra dollars of the shelf price.

Spigalau

17th October 2006, 04:56 PM

It's a shame they didn't knock a few extra dollars of the shelf price.

They will, you (Zing!) just need to wait till 01/04/2007 and visit your local Warehouse.. shall be in the $10 bin

Zing!

17th October 2006, 05:01 PM

yer but then I'll be paying $150 for 2142BC, Pre-Jesus special edition complete with retinal identification.

Menial

17th October 2006, 06:32 PM

stolen from nzbf

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/1970/7d3841b0a3350f6a85fb40ccc945c18d6017ecf8nm2.jpg

"advertising data" fairly broad term

KiLL3r

17th October 2006, 06:38 PM

people getting worked up over nothing. doesnt harm your computer and it doesnt collect personal information. so what are you worrying about. if you dont like it dont buy it.

mastercho

17th October 2006, 06:42 PM

kinda suck how if ya dont want the advert shit you cant install the game without it.. not that im gonna be buying it anyway

dement

17th October 2006, 06:55 PM

dement

17th October 2006, 06:58 PM

Didn't Sony do something similar to this?

Simon_NZ

17th October 2006, 07:01 PM

Didn't Sony do something similar to this?

yes

dement

17th October 2006, 07:03 PM

yes

thank you

spliffted

17th October 2006, 07:13 PM

Hazard

17th October 2006, 07:18 PM

They legally have to advice you if there is software that gathers any form of information.

This isn't anything new, and like it or not we will start seeing this more and more with they way the game industry is going.

There will be nothing harmful about this, I guess it's just a piece of mind thing.
All it will do is gather info to provide more "targetted" in game ads.

While I'm not saying it's fine, I don't see it as being a major issue.

Fubar

17th October 2006, 07:21 PM

if there was nothing suspicious or harmful about the software they wouldn't have to warn you about it.

And isn't it funny how EA waits until you've paid for the game and open the box to notify you of something so important.

Also I would have thought that they can't reveal that information in the box after it has been sold...........you would need to be notified before hand.

Might be a way for some of you guys that have preordered and now don;t want it to get a refund :)

Also it states it wont take info to identify or given to any other party. If someone turned up to your property because you had pirated software detected by this program it cant be used in court

Simon_NZ

17th October 2006, 07:29 PM

im thinking of a refund to be honest

Fubar

17th October 2006, 07:34 PM

Just another thing that is not a NZ package, every country has different laws on this type of thing. If they have inserted this in to every copy for every country they might run in to some real legal problems.

Also in the Sony case they put software in to your PC WITHOUT telling you. Hence why they got whacked

infide

17th October 2006, 08:23 PM

They advertise in every way they can these days, its nothing new.

Black Heart

17th October 2006, 09:03 PM

advertising is meant to help pay for development cost (which face it, theres fuck all of with 2142) so why is it still a regular full priced game?

GREED.

I now really hope this game is a flop. it'll send a clear message to publishers who are considering this path in the future.http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/1970/7d3841b0a3350f6a85fb40ccc945c18d6017ecf8nm2.jpg
(stolen from konev)

GhostOfGallipoli

17th October 2006, 09:18 PM

well....let them know how you feel;

http://www.ingameadvertising.com/

BerG

17th October 2006, 09:31 PM

if you dont like it dont buy it.

Copy that.

RunningTarget

17th October 2006, 09:53 PM

ok don't know what those red things on the desk are and its really beginning to bug me. My conclusion atm is he took the photo on a wood cutting table or something, but why

BerG

17th October 2006, 10:02 PM

Perhaps some kind of conspiracy.

Simon_NZ

17th October 2006, 10:05 PM

ok don't know what those red things on the desk are and its really beginning to bug me. My conclusion atm is he took the photo on a wood cutting table or something, but why

nipple clamps

Arnifix

17th October 2006, 10:25 PM

The way that's written it surely can't be legal. I mean, you can't return the software, because you could have copied it, but you can't play it, because it's got this horrid spyware on it!

MrBenis

18th October 2006, 02:58 AM

people getting worked up over nothing. doesnt harm your computer and it doesnt collect personal information. so what are you worrying about. if you dont like it dont buy it.

Killer I hate to point this out, but with the ways people have been talking on forums, and in the demo...

Summary: a lot of people aren't going to buy this game.

Question is: will it be the ingame ads that end up as the ultimate cause?

Spacemonkey

18th October 2006, 09:17 AM

It's not spyware, it's just a program that will update the billboards and stuff in bf2142, lots of games have advertising, racing games have it all over the track and painted on the cars, it makes it more realistic.

Arnifix

18th October 2006, 11:18 AM

Spigalau

18th October 2006, 11:31 AM

====================================
V. KNOWN ISSUES AND TROUBLESHOOTING
====================================

EA performs a server maintenance every week on Tuesdays at 09:00 till 11:00 GMT (that's 9pm to 11pm every Tuesday night NZ Time) as a result you will be unable to log into Battlefield 2142 during this period.

==================
VII. PATCH 1.01
==================
BUG FIXES
- Fixed Client Side Crash on Titan Mode.

Black Heart

18th October 2006, 11:48 AM

well....let them know how you feel;

http://www.ingameadvertising.com/
at first i thought yea, i will.

then i thought nah fuck it. i wont purchase any games with it. if the rest of gamers don't care, or are too stupid to notice or stop buying games with this technology then thats not my problem.

ie star force whose using that now ? and i tried to communicate with them and all they do is fob you off to the developer.

Why waste my time?

Once the 'technology' starts fucking up as they usually do then you can complain about it, afterall by buying the game your already agreeing to use it.

Spacemonkey

18th October 2006, 12:04 PM

It is spyware. It tracks your data and sends this "anonymous" data to some company, which then targets advertising at you.

If it did what you said SM, all it would do is check for new ads every time you connect and download them.

It's not spyware, read that sheet of paper, the data it sends is for the presentation and measurement of in-game advisements.

What that means it the program will measure things like how many times your player character will look at the ads in bf2, and will use that information to figure out where to place the ads in the game.

It doesn't track your web surfing or anything like that, and it looks like it will only run while the game is being played.

Black Heart

18th October 2006, 12:08 PM

These would be the questions to ask if your not already put off.

When does it use your bandwidth? (ie midgame, all you need is more lag)
How secure is it?

what ports does it use? (so i have the option to block it if i so chose)

dement

18th October 2006, 12:20 PM

I wonder what will happen if you can block it?

"Error: you can not play the game unless we have access to your advertisement habbits!"

Spigalau

18th October 2006, 12:39 PM

What gets me is that there is actually no need for the feedback software (aka Spyware) to be there in the 1st place. Sure have your ingame billboards which have server-side placed advertising, but why do they need to know that Berg has topped up his Viagra script using his vodafone pre-pray phone ?

The fact that they need data from the users 'viewing habits' is bad... it does not need to be there.

spliffted

18th October 2006, 01:01 PM

it makes it more realistic...

lol maybe so but not in the case of BF2142. They're going to have huge ads of crap like a 2006 model Dodge car and god knows what else ridiculous ads :chuckle:

Imagine walking past a huge Burger King billboard in your futuristic battle mech in the post apocalyptic ice age world of 2142 where the world is at war over food and resources...... you're gonna be like wtf - and unless you're stupid it will bring you out of the immersion of the game and make it seem silly.

spliffted

18th October 2006, 01:05 PM

From IGA's front page of their website:

"This planet is oversaturated with traditional advertising, so we went and found you entire new worlds!"

Oh yipeee!!!! They make it sound as if we are benefitting from having their crappy ads in our games. :disappoin

BruTaL-ReaLiTy

18th October 2006, 01:15 PM

This shit works the same way as xfire. Most of you have no idea what kind of information is shared on the network.
Ads in the game are Ok be me, but heh I gotta say LoL, EA is really messing shit up for itself.
Another reason to forget about 2142 I say.
I just don't trust their policy, protectors of the laws are keen to go as far as possible so using this kind of shit against you wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if in the next few months, EA or someone would release a table of all illegal games or something being used now days hahahah or something similar to that.
This ain't cool at all. Same shit goes for Windows Vista, it's crap.

KiLL3r

18th October 2006, 01:31 PM

Spigalau

18th October 2006, 01:43 PM

wrong we are gmt +13

current gmt time is 11.30pm

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/

Which is why the time in greenwich is currently 12.50am Wed Oct 18... BST mate BST.

KiLL3r

18th October 2006, 01:55 PM

Which is why the time in greenwich is currently 12.50am Wed Oct 18... BST mate BST.

oh please point out where in the readme it says BST time otherwise stop trying manipulate things to your own means.......

-CowwieStyle-

18th October 2006, 01:56 PM

Are there in-game ads for BF2? Sounds a bit rude to have ads for a game you pay for...

Rude as, you could at least get something back in return for choosing to put up with their intrusion.

It sucks, games are my sanctuary where i expect to not have more bs advertising crap shoved down my throat(one of the main things that turns me off tv and onto games).

I wonder if the game will run with out it or does it check to see if its been disabled then prevent the game from running(maybe pb will even be asked to make sure its always running else you will be kicked off any ranked server)

i guess people could haxs it so it shows pron instead woot!(tho peoples k/d could suffer ;) ).

Fubar

18th October 2006, 04:17 PM

stolen from nzbf

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/1970/7d3841b0a3350f6a85fb40ccc945c18d6017ecf8nm2.jpg

"advertising data" fairly broad term

Also stolen from NZBF........Sydog had no flyer in his about the spyware.

http://syphe.net/pics/2142/Image007.jpg

P0stman_bob

18th October 2006, 04:38 PM

Advertising sceme's like this are because of the piracy in the gaming community are they not? So i'm sure each and every one of us here is to blame a little, atleast i know i am. o_0

Black Heart

18th October 2006, 05:12 PM

Advertising sceme's like this are because of the piracy in the gaming community are they not? So i'm sure each and every one of us here is to blame a little, atleast i know i am. o_0
No. advertising is not related to piracy. television has ads, radio has ads. I don't beleive they suffer much from piracy.

advertising schemes like this are a result of increasing cost to develop games. (LOL in this case) especially online games with things like stats and unlocks (and funnily enough monitored advertising!). because EA have to maintain the system for the life of the game.

Which will only be to christmas with any luck. or maybe just the end of teacup.

KiLL3r

18th October 2006, 05:20 PM

Also stolen from NZBF........Sydog had no flyer in his about the spyware.

thats because its only in the european version

RunningTarget

18th October 2006, 08:57 PM

dude thats kinda limp 'piracy is to blame' is like saying 'the price of cds is so high because of piracy', the price of cds was at that point before piracy (relative to inflation), and this too has nothing to do with piracy, its a nice scapgoat though

MrBenis

19th October 2006, 12:23 AM

No. advertising is not related to piracy. television has ads, radio has ads. I don't beleive they suffer much from piracy.

advertising schemes like this are a result of increasing cost to develop games. (LOL in this case) especially online games with things like stats and unlocks (and funnily enough monitored advertising!). because EA have to maintain the system for the life of the game.

Which will only be to christmas with any luck. or maybe just the end of teacup.

If thats the case, then why the fuck do I have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to run a ranked server?

I think they're already getting all the money they need from the server system they run. This advertising ingame is too much.

RunningTarget

19th October 2006, 12:49 AM

If thats the case, then why the fuck do I have to pay hundreds of dollars a month to run a ranked server?

I think they're already getting all the money they need from the server system they run. This advertising ingame is too much.

I would love to know who is charging you hundreds of dollars, u can pick up 2142 ranked servers for like 60 a month

P0stman_bob

19th October 2006, 02:00 AM

TV and radio have ad's because you don't pay to view them, like you do a game. when you buy a TV or radio the money doesn't goto music artists or TV show creators.

Broadcasting companys pay hundreds if not thousands? to buy the rights to air shows and make their money by showing adverts during the shows theyve purchased for our viewing,
where as a game makes no money if you pirate it so the advertising being there does help the developers some atleast in relation to piracy, i'm not saying it's to blame for everything it probaly does have to little to do with it, but it's still a factor of it i know that if i brought all teh games i have that someone somewhere would be a few thousand dollars richer :|

Spacemonkey

19th October 2006, 08:55 AM

Actually this advertising could end up as a good for thing, just like tv, games could become free.

Arnifix

19th October 2006, 08:58 AM

Actually this advertising could end up as a good for thing, just like tv, games could become free.
ROFL! Sorry SM but that is a load of crap. What will happen is that this will end up like the movies. You'll be paying $100 and then watching five minutes of ads before you can play the game.

Spigalau

19th October 2006, 09:25 AM

http://nationalcheeseemporium.org/ - an interesting read on what an earlier version of the Ad Spyware (from SWAT4) was doing...

Temp

19th October 2006, 10:43 AM

.

The following announcement may be distributed at will.

Greetings,

We would like to provide more information on in-game advertising in Battlefield 2142. To try and help everyone better understand it, here is how it works.

The in-game advertisement is respectful of players' privacy: it never accesses files not directly related to the game, and it does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, gameplay behaviour or surfing history. As it is an integrated part of Battlefield 2142 and not a separate program, it only runs when the game is running.

Because BF2142 delivers ads by region, the IP address of the player is used to determine the region of the player and helps serve ads by region and language; for instance, a player in Paris will be presented with ads in French. Note that this IP address is not stored on the advertisement server and is not repurposed for other uses.

A unique ID number is anonymously assigned the first time the player joins a Battlefield 2142 online game. It is stored locally on the PC but is not linked to any personal details.

The in-game advertisement gathers what we call “impression data”, such as location of the billboard in the game or duration of advertisement impression. It helps see how many people have seen an ad – but not who has seen it.

We are also conscious that the advertisement shouldn’t distract the player from the overall gaming experience, so all ads fit in the unique environment of each level in the game. The content of the ads is also controlled to ensure that no offensive content is displayed in Battlefield 2142.

We all hope that this explanation will address recent concerns on the advertisement in Battlefield 2142.

See you on the Battlefield.

-Your Dice Live Team

Spacemonkey

19th October 2006, 10:59 AM

Thanks Templar

KiLL3r

19th October 2006, 11:18 AM

nice find temp

Fubar

19th October 2006, 11:26 AM

Sounds reasonable.

Although EA should have explained it better earlier before people became hysterical about it

Spacemonkey

19th October 2006, 11:40 AM

Although EA should have explained it better earlier before people became hysterical about it

People just started assuming and speculating on internet forums, then other people just believed them without checking the facts.

HyperBlade

19th October 2006, 05:17 PM

From a server Admin,

One more piece of anecdotal info. One of my clan installed the game and started receiving mysterious popups. He's quite computer savvy. He tried all manner of spyware removal, to no avail. He uninstalled 2142 and the popups disappeared. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

What Ea have done is legally let them do what ever they want, a good company would never ever exploit that, but we are talking about EA here, they are only after the $$.

KiLL3r

19th October 2006, 05:29 PM

From a server Admin,

What Ea have done is legally let them do what ever they want, a good company would never ever exploit that, but we are talking about EA here, they are only after the $$.

sounds like typical ea hater bullshit to me

might even end up on penn and teller bullshit!

thats a great show

HyperBlade

19th October 2006, 05:49 PM

sounds like typical ea hater bullshit to me

This is from a guy who runs his own ranked server.

Maybe you need to open your eyes and see the real world.

We all know you love the game, that doesn't mean you have to defend every stupid decesion EA makes, let other players make up there own minds on the game. And stop being a stuckup EA fanboy.

In a couple of months ill create a thread just for you called "I told you so" then we can have a nice debate what i predicted and what happened. And maybe you guys will finally see the wood for the trees.

KiLL3r

19th October 2006, 05:51 PM

This is from a guy who runs his own ranked server.

Maybe you need to open your eyes and see the real world.

We all know you love the game, that doesn't mean you have to defend every stupid decesion EA makes, let other players make up there own minds on the game. And stop being a stuckup EA fanboy.

In a couple of months ill create a thread just for you called "I told you so" then we can have a nice debate what i predicted and what happened. And maybe you guys will finally see the wood for the trees.

meh do what you like its a forum. but if you want to post something saying the game is full of popups at least post a link or tell us the name of this source. makes it sound a bit more legit