Windows Battlefield: Now with spyware! - EA's infinite wisdom

Apprently the latest Battlefield game, 2142 also come bundled with spyware. The lucky people who buy this game will be informed - by means of a slip of paper in the box - that when they install the game, a third party program will be installed that will monitor your system (keylogging, websites visited, music listened too etc etc) and provide you with usefull information on in-game advert billboards while playing the game... Awesome! Now when your playing Battlefield 2142 you can be informed of more great products from the people at EA! The sims 2: we want more money expansion pack anyone?

Unfortunately my computer has another program that conflicts with the spywear so I don't think I'll be installing anything.

The single most important bit of that line is "There is no additional spy ware software installed".... They don't even try and call it something else...

Thoughts, opinions, violent spews of rage, love? anyone?

 

bit pointless IMO in a game like BF2142 you wouldnt really be looking at bill boards, is this even allowed??

 

Spywear is legal if it is included in documentation clearly and informs you that your going to be installing it.

I wouldn't even say its pointless.... Its actually a very good idea! Why not have adverts in a game that are specifically aimed at the user. Thing is, thats only from a purely buisness point of view.

From everyone elses point of view, its an invasion of privacy.

I can see EA getting a lot of abuse over this. I would be supprised if they wern't already.

 

In game ads would be a good idea if it caused the the price of the game to drop. However, this isnt the case, so instead of cutting the consumer a break and still make a pants load of mony EA screws the consumer and will be makeing 1.5 pants loads of money!

 

I read this this morning.......i cant belive how much of a **** EA are being.

Lets start off....

Closed beta for those who are fileplanet members : Let people use cheat in that "to test what kinds of cheats people are using". Right so their brand new games NOT going to be patched, that lets u use all teh BF2 cheats in it....GREAT!

Release the demo to use all : We ahve to put up with bloody adverts for teh game mid level change.....THEN at the end of the game when you close it down.

Now we find out that they are going to install spyware on your machine so they can update ingame adverts!!!! WTF!!!!! EA we have paid for the game, Here in the UK weve normaly paid WAY over the odds for our games. I dont want spyware on my machine so u can earn a few extra million pounds.

Besides they will make EVEN more money when they release BF2142 : evil toasters attack AND BF2142 : ZOMG!!! Phat pipe : spikes of lagg! expansion packs.

Okey ive got passed all that...ive given my hard earned cash to the games folk and got my lovely BF2142.....ive installed it and played it for a few months TILL EA try to patch the thing......OOOOHHHH, now it doesnt work, if formated, re-installed, tried 8 diffrent video drivers, stood on my head and said the special BF2 mantra.......WHY WONT YOU WORK.....WHYYYYYY, FOR TEH LOVE OF GOD WORK!!!!

no effect....

So thanks to my clairvoyant skill, you to dear reader will know what to expect from EA's BF2142........

 

I think the whole BF2 experience was summed up for me perfectly when i first got the game a while after it was releaced. I rang a friend who had been crazy about it for ages and asked why it kept stalled at certain points when loading. He knew the exact percentage that it happened at.

Surely, if everyones game stalles while loading at the same point this would indicate a bug...

Now we just have to wait for spywear to load as well. hehe.

 

EA's infinite wisdom

On a peculiar note, even though the world is ending in 2142, it appears that advertising will still be around. Battlefield 2142 features in-game ads, though we didn't get to see them firsthand during our testing. Still, there is a printed disclaimer that comes with the game telling you that Battlefield 2142 will analyze certain "advertising data" on your machine to determine what ads to display to you. Ironically, EA says that if you don't want your data shared with its advertising partner then "do not install or play the software on any platform that is used to connect to the Internet." But that would pretty much defeat the purpose of playing Battlefield 2142, wouldn't it? Of course, you could always play single-player against the artificial intelligence, though the AI won't be mistaken for human opponents any time soon, and the single-player is still limited to 16-player maps. Still, this is an example of things to come, as we begin to see dynamic in-game ads appear in more and more games.

That, from Gamespot's review of BF2142. I don't care about ingame advertising, but about the game sending back info about my machine to their advertising agency is actually quite grilling. As is EA's solution to appeasing people who don't want info shared with advertisers.

 

thats a real shame ... the desire to advertise is constantly reaching new lows.

 

read that this is going to be in the new nfs game too, at least in a racing game billboards make sense but why cant they be static. why hack into your pc and spy on what you are doing

 

So cracking groups get an even greater role in video games then. They get not just to destroy the copy protection but also to remove the adverts, so the people who download cracked versions of games will get superior products. EA don't care though, they'll just keep on with the anti-piracy crusade like they're not to blame in the slightest.

Don't buy EA games folks, they're scum and they're systematically removing all that is good from video games.

 

I know alot of people arent too fussed about this, but im pissed off!! I think it's well out of order, i'll pay my £35 for the game why should I have to put up with billboard ads in game?! Its blatent money grabbing!

Now for games like fifa and other sports sims its fine, as you'd expect to see that sort of thing if you really turned up at a stadium. But do I really need to see car ads or ads for websites in a game set more than a 100 years in the future? I think not

 

My rant from Football Manager 2007 Thread-

"So this Friday when most of the PC forum will be picking up BF 2142 from gaming stores nationwide, you won't see me there. Being a First Sergeant on BF2 I always thought that I would get the next version however many times Dice and EA messed up on the patches. But I got sick of the bugs and now can't be bothered to part with cash for a game that won't be fixed until next year.

Instead I will be getting Football Manager 2007, now probably like the previous versions it will have a minor patch, but it will also have a massive data update after the January transfer window, which if EA were the publishers would be in the form of a booster pack. Sega now own the makers of Football Manager but at least they continue to provide a quality game, not out to make further money from unnecessary booster packs."

EA are out to make money, not caring about the community or their thoughts. Maybe someday a fan backlash might catch up with them. Until then, they are free to do what they like with big names like Battlefield and big movie tie-ins.

Next EA will be sending Pop-Up Ads just when you are about to fire that AA missle at a fully loaded Blackhawk.

 

I wonder if you can program your firewall to block theit "calls home". Either that, or else someone will put out replacement ads like the stickers people put on their cigarette packs.

 

I guess I can just download this game off of Demonoid or The Pirate Bay and my costs will be covered, right? I mean, they already get paid by their advertisers to stick these ads in my face so why should I even buy the game?

It's not even the ingame ads that bug me. It's the keylogging, websites visited, music listened too etc etc part.

I'm flying around in a hover copter shooting EMP missiles at a giant walking battle mech 150 years into the future and I see an add on a billboard for the latest Muse album...

Thanks EA. Thank's for ruining the game industry the same way big record labels are ruining the music industry.

I guess we're just supposed to TRUST EA with our personal information, passwords, credit card info, etc. Yeah, right. If they can keylog what we type, then they have the power to own you. **** EA and **** BF2142. They can keep their ****ing money and stick it up their ****ing asses.

I'll give the cracking community 3 weeks to find a way to crack and remove the spy ware from 2142 completely.

 

Indeed, we are no longer the customer. We are the commodity, the advertisers are the customers now. Funny that TV exists for free because we watch ads, yet we're still expected to see games with in game ads.

 

Wild stab in the dark here, but are they by anychance doing this with FIFA07? All those ad boards around the pitch, its tailor made for it.

 

One more reason not to buy crap from EA as far as I'm concerned. Isn't BF2 still really buggy?

I just wonder how return policy figures into this. Because I sure as heck wouldn't install something knowing it'll put spyware on my system. I suppose that'll be an interesting question... do people even CARE that there's spyware? As if in-game advertising wasn't bad enough... this really takes the crown.




If you find this idea disagreeable, DON'T BUY THE GAME! Fight capitalism with capitalism; don't give companies your money if they're going to treat you like property. It's practically 21st century slavery, albeit with slightly less backbreaking labor.

 

Well that'll only work if the game doesn't check the ads every time it launches. I remember it working for a few games I've played in the past with ads in them, but it'll only work if EA aren't making sure it doesn't, and I'm quite sure if EA are prepared to load spyware onto peoples systems they're prepared to have users systems check advert files for authenticity. Be quite easy to block EA's IP's, and PeerGuardian2 would automatically block anything incoming from a big name like EA if users had it. However, I would be surprised if EA don't route the advert stuff, the user spyware info gathering, and the servers, through the same IP's so that to use the servers, the user has to let the spyware do what it pleases.

 

Apparently EA has come out and said that the spy ware only activates when you run the game, and only sends info back based on what ads you look at in the game. Great, all I need is more lag from the spy ware using net traffic to simultaneously track what 64 people are looking at.

 

This is down right un-American! And un-whatever if you dont live in the US of A. We have the right to not stand for crap like this