f13.net

An almighty WTF? (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19312) via EvilAvatar


true/false/still-unverifiable?

They got to be kidding. WTF? They pay you to get this game, right?

As to in-game adds, they are 127.0.0.1-able, right?

Depnds on where the ads are coming from. If I was EA, I'd have them served/proxied from/through the auth/auth servers so you couldn't just host file block them like you can with some other in-game ad systems *cough*Massive*cough.

Still I don't think EA wants to deal with all negative-PR bundling with spyware will generate. I can understand trying to hide this somewhere in EULA, but outright admitting it?

Looks like it's true. (http://www.totalbf2142.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4814)

Some other thread also said the DVD version of the game has to be patched before it will play.  Then they say the patch either is not available or the downloader estimates it will take days.  Sounds like typical DICE quality.  I'm glad I skipped this one.

Edit: And how the hell do they call your ip address "anonymous information", that is your full legal name as far as the internet is concerned.

A lot of people still have dynamic IP addresses.

And people wonder why I don't buy EA games.

SOE and other companies were doing this long before EA did.

SOE was watching my browsing habits? That's new information to me.

Woohoo! I can't wait to get a screenshot of hentai tentacle rape in an EA game :P

Where does it say on that sheet of paper that EA is tracking your browsing habits?

Can someone post what exactly is written on that paper and what exactly they are collecting? My IP address they will know anyways, since I have to log-in to play multiplayer. As to my browsing habbits - what they are looking at and using what? Cookies? Sites I visit? Keylogger?

I just spent some time reading up on IGA. I won't be buying 2142 unless there is a 100% block to that bullshit. Even then, maybe not. I have a deep and abiding hatred of advertising. Even if they aren't tracking browsing, I don't play games with ingame ads.

IGA claims 70% of gamers think ingame ads make the game more immersive, whereas I would go out of my way to avoid any product ruining immersion like Deuce Bigalow in PS or Motley Crue in Anarchy Online.

Ah, well. I've said for years you should enjoy technology while you can because some money-grubbing douchebags will show up to ruin it eventually. See also: HDCP, tiered Internet, DRM, etc. Fucking Mickey Mouse.

I read a post suggesting that you can opt-out of this tracking by clicking "disagree" at install and still play BF 2.25

Just removed 2142 from my Amazon list and emailed family/friends to take it off my xmas list (they know I like BF).

This makes me feel even better about my decision not to buy 2142.

KICKED BY PUNKBUSTER - Unable to contact advertisement server

Is this your guess or tried and true fact?

Okay you whiz kids out there. Someone figure out the nitty gritty of what they are doing and if we can block them. Maybe fake cookies and stuff to throw them off?

How do you block them?

DON'T BUY THE GAME. Otherwise, you're probably fucked. Or if you buy it, you're committing a DMCA violation like the filthy pirate you are and must pay.

Wouldn't it be nice to find the chucklefuck that greenlit this idea and give him the old "A Clockwork Orange" treatment with some IGAs? I think a steady diet of lemonparty, goatse, Tubgirl, and few other choices would be a nice start.

The worst part about the whole thing is how LAZY it seems like these guys are about the program. An in-game advert program does not have to be connected to the Net at all times. It doesn't have to have its own connection. Shit, build it so that the program either grabs new ads on every patch, or since it's an online game (mostly), every time you connect to the game servers, it checks the central ad server to see if there are new ads to serve and send them down in a tiny patch (since the ads really shouldn't be larger in KB than an ad banner unless they really suck). If you have to track something like clicks, you can grab that information when the click happens at the server end. And if you really have to track idiotic metrics like "time spent looking at ad" you can just grab that information when they connect to the game servers. Shit, give the players incentives in-game for subjecting themselves to ads. Like if you click 30 ads, give them a free gun, or larger ammo clips. Something.

Advertisement doesn't have to be intrusive to be effective. It just requires thought, and not being a douchebag. But this is EA we're talking about here.

SOE has spyware?? which game plz

yes, I can't remember the last EA game I bought.  Wonder what this will mean for people like Mythic, since I won't be going near them either if that stuff gets built in.

I want my Sword of Doom +2, brought to you by Coke™, Enjoy Coke™ while slaying your foes.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3719&Itemid=2

This is why the terrorists hate us.

Another choice titbit:
This guy blew all the credibility he had with me (because I'm so important to be credible with!) for making Sacrifice, a great game.

PlanetSide uses the Massive in-game ad technology.

It's probably possible to selectively block the ads if they use a connection on a different port than the game uses to connect to servers and the master server.

What you'd have to do is watch all outgoing network activity for the BF2142 process. See if it connects to certain IPs or tries to resolve certain domains that seem dedicated to advertising, and see what ports it uses for the game client itself. If they're different, you may be able to use an outbound firewall to block BF2142 from sending any data back and/or receiving any ads. If it looks to resolve certain domains to grab the ads, you may be able to modify your hosts file to blackhole that domain or set of domains.

If you're unlucky, it may prevent you from playing if it can't connect to the ad servers. At that point, you need to do something more complex, essentially akin to cracking the binary, but bypassing the advertising checks instead of copy-protection checks. This will probably prevent you from playing since you'll be using modified binaries. If you're really lucky and they're really stupid, the ad technology might be in a separate DLL; if this is true, you may be able to step through BF2142 in a good debugger, watch for calls into that DLL and examine the contents of the stack and registers after it returns, then modify that DLL's exports to set up a valid stack/register state without actually going out to the ad servers.

Me, I'm going to go the simpler route and simply not buy it, like I do for almost all EA games.

Massive's technology was written by a simpleton and can be blocked by merely editing your hosts file. Details (http://nationalcheeseemporium.org/), as they apply to SWAT4. Probably similar for Planetside.

They're not looking to do a traditional wide-spectrum ad-dump.  They're looking to target ads directly towards you and whatever your browsing habits are.

Yeah, this is insidious, and instead of trying to block it everyone just needs to not buy the damned game.

But they don't need to do it this way even if that is the case. There are about 3 or 4 better ways to do targeted ads than this that don't require being an intrusive prick. Being intrusive is lazy.

I think insidious is the right word to be using.

Everyone please listen to the man.  The only input acknowledged by corporations is cash.  If they don't get any sales, they know this is a bad idea.  They don't give a shit about anything else as long as you fork over the cash.  Naturally.

I was going to say more or less the same thing Yegolev said.

Gamers should go picket outside EA's main office, and they should carry witty, gamer-themed slogans which the general public won't understand.

On second thought, since the douchebag who came up with this idea is probably a suit, said slogans would go to waste.

Why picket? Waste of time. Play better games with a higher production value by companies that aren't run by dirtbags.

I was going to buy this. Fuck you EA.

Well said, schild.

Another option: Develop a BF2 mod that's set in the futher, with frickin' laser beams and mechs. The key would be for it to be just different enough from BF2142 that EA couldn't stamp it out.

Quake Wars (http://www.enemyterritory.com/) is coming soon, ID will hopefully crush EA/DICE.  Short video (I don't think the "coming in 2006" is still true). (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ro8mXMnwtaE)

Even though EA has been doing some stuff recently that I didn't like, I admittedly haven't let that stop me from buying an EA game that was a decent one. This changes that, I'll vote with my wallet this time. And this was a title I was on the fence with, then tried the demo and had enough fun with it that I decided I was going to buy it. I'm just amazed that people won't find this out until after they have broken the seal on the box. Ah well, another reason I don't preorder games nowadays.

This looks good, I hope they don't fag out and make it PS3 or Xbox360 title.

I never really liked the controls of the BF games...Quake/UT is much more my style.

Huh?

Every PC FPS is basically the same. WASD. 1-10 weapon cycling. Spacebar Jumping.

I mean the general aiming and movement physics of the game. I have the same problem with Counterstrike, though the stupid hitboxes in that game piss me off to no end.

Bunnyhoptarded rocketjumper!

 :-P

Actually I feel the franchise is going too far in the action/quake/ut direction. 1942 was much slower paced. I've mentioned this before with my wish for a WWI BF. Mustard gas those bunnyhoppers that are camping the airstrip for biplanes!

I tend to agree that they don't get better from the days of CS. For example in BF2 sniper rifle bullet does not follow gravity arc or you can shoot machine gun nearly point blank and miss all of your shots.

This shit happens in CS, constantly.


No, I don't do any of that crap. What I mean is, my shots actually go where I aim at, not like that crap in CS where my reticle simply get's bigger to indicate lowered accuracy. I understand that rapid fire kills my accuracy - just make my actual reticle move then, so I can at least compensate.

You would actually prefer the reticle to jump around? /boggle

The expanded reticule is actually pretty realistic- when shooting full auto, even an expert can only place shots in a certain area. There is just no way to control the gun unless you have some way to completely dampen the recoil.

Learn to shoot in bursts, noobler  :evil:

I thought the expanding reticle in FarCry was pretty nice.  I could gauge the spread, unlike with, say, a jiggly reticle.  Also: shoot in bursts, Count Noobula.

I am talking about bursts; Of course I don't expect to be able to compensate for the amount of jump I would see in the reticle when going full auto - that's what tracer rounds are for.

But what I mean by the expanding reticle is that the more expands, the crazier your shots get. Hell, I'm fairly sure I could aim better than the in-game avatars IRL sometimes...I wouldn't be firing at the ceiling or adjacent walls. Or when the gun is kicking up, I wouldn't be hitting the floor...I just don't find it to be intuitive.

Spray should not be random like its in BF2 - one bullet hits too high followed by another hitting too low. I shouldn't be able to side step someone with auto weapon and pistol them to death while they are trying to shoot at me.

Day of Defeat actually had a real recoil system back in beta 2 (I think....).  Your gun actually jumped up with each shot.  How much drastically depended on the caliber of the gun and weather you were standing/crouching/laying when you shot.  I really liked it.  It had a steep learning curve cause it was really hard to shoot people, but once you got a feel for the guns you could actully get pretty good with them.  It felt realistic and took actuall skill to hit people.  But then they patched it into the standard "growing or shrinking hitbox" system that most everyody else uses, and now I can empty my tommy gun into somebody almost point blank and not kill them sometimes :(.  Ah well, Day of Defeat is still probably my favorite online shooter, though I liked the old recoil system better.

Has anyone overcame their Napster/I2hub/whatever indignant rage for long enough to actually tell us about the gameplay? 

It could be robot jesus and I still wouldn't buy it.

My buddy at work bought it, and didn't give a shit about the spyware installed, despite being a paranoid motherfucker. He played it past midnight last night, which is strange for him, because he's usually in bed by 11 p.m. at the absolute latest on work nights.

Cool, all I need to know.  Merely being on the Internet and buying things on it results in the exact same data being collected, so I don't care.

That's all you need to know?  That some guy you don't know stayed up an hour past his bedtime?  I see you put as much thought into your video game purchases as you do political affiliations.   :-P

On a more serious note the main forum for bf2142 (http://www.totalbf2142.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11) has the following threads in general discussion.  These are stickied threads in what should be a fanboy forum...

Sticky: If you are still experiencing Disconnect problems
Sticky: "2142 Sucks" - Consider before Posting
Sticky: Will you be patching your game? If so, *READ THIS*
Sticky: For those who can't log in...
Sticky: NO MORE adware/spyware threads - I refer you to...
Sticky: Demo Bugs
Sticky: 2142, Spyware and You.

It is a shitty game, full of bugs with the added bonus of in-game dynamic advertising and spyware.  I think you can download a demo if you still want to try it.

Damage Control, report to the engine room!

Must sleep....must sleep...

Holy shit, I pre-ordered it and got my veteran name reserver and since I bought it from EB I got an instance rank up (do both before installing the game).  DvD installed pretty quick, small patch to down load from EA (I don't use the EA downloaders so I have to go to the site and down load and install it).  Took about a hour to get the hang of it...and damn my sleep is screwed up!  I work nights anyway...come home at 0730 and played till 1100...then sleep till 1430 and get the kid and go do stuff.  Heck both my 10 year old and I have had a blast playing it.

You could have just said it's an EA DICE game and that'd handle all your descriptors.

WTS a BS review, cheap. WTB bank stick [1 charge].

BTW, since 2142 is out of the question, what shooters are you guys playing atm?

I'm not even playing any shooters ATM...back to playing my good old stand-by MU*.

I was thinking of firing up Far Cry again.

I'm not in any way taking a "pro" position on this tech or it's use, but didn't anyone else ever say "damn that would be cool" when they saw the focused advertising in that damned Tom Cruise movie, uhh, can't remember it atm.

While of course collecting the data is going to be considered by some to be intrusive no matter how it's done, advertising in and of itself isn't a bad thing in my opinion....I actually do want to know about products that may interest me, and if I have to take advertising in any way, I'd much rather it be about things I'm interested in.

There's enough advertising in the world as it is. I don't need to be reminded of products. Especially in games. That I pay for.

Relying solely on google finding the testimony of 'random people on the internet', this appears to be just unecessarily wide legal ass-covering language. I gather the 'spyware' just takes a guess at what region you live in, and records when you play BF2142, then sends that information to the ad server so that you get ads in the right language. Naturally 'random guy on the internet' is not an unimpeachable source.

Has anyone found any actual analysis of what the software does?


Random people on the internet say it is good.

Damn, I forgot I have the whole HL2 shebang on this computer. I should give DoD another go sometime.

Buggy? Unfinished? What? From Dice/EA? I can't believe it!

Seek help, because that squicked me out more than the eyeball removal scene did.

That scene wasn't supposed to make you go "wow, cool" it was supposed to depict the very real possibility that advertising will get that aggressive, invasive and hyper-annoying.  I can't imagine what kind of head-space you are coming from that you would think that was cool.

Siding with Big Gulp here.  Not cool and in fact very un-cool.  My wife and I probably aged to retirement after viewing that scene, decrying the rapid decline of our wonderful way of life.  "Shit, Johnny, I remember the Good Old Days when God-damn billboards didn't creep ya the fuck out by calling out yer fuckin' name and pushin' shitty products on ya based on how yer God-damn last medical exam came out."

In the future, old people will have incredibly foul mouths.

I've been kicking some UT2k4 Onslaught during lunch at work lately. I'll occasionally play at night, but I'm mostly engrossed in FIFA 07 on the X-Box at home.

Obviously the film was demonstrating that anything in volume is bad. Look at nuclear power--we all hate the bomb, but in the environmental thread over in politics it seems that even the lefties appear to believe that nuclear power is our overall safest solution.

What I was getting with the "hmm, that's cool" mindset wasn't the exact implementation, but the concept behind the scene: utilizing technology to make the whole advertisement scenario better for all involved parties.

Who here would, given that they -have- to watch commercials to watch their football/baseball/whatever game, want to be able to sign up in advance for the types of products they want to see commercials for, instead of being spammed with the various things that have NO interest to you whatsoever?

(http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/3741/20061020wd2.jpg)

Too bad really. Even if it was buggy I kinda dug how it looked and felt.

OK, I'll hand that to you.  I can be interested in the technical details of something I don't care for.  I might have figured that out if I hadn't been up way too late.

If you are playing the home game, note that I don't read things in Politics.  However, I suppose the local lefties are much smarter than the average hippie and can appreciate nuclear power.  It's my understanding that the biggest concern there is thermal pollution, but it's not something I spend any time thinking about.  If we are comparing advertisment to waste as a byproduct of something we want, I'll take the most inoccuous version I can get.

As for targeting, I find it strange to advertise to someone that is probably already using your product, but I don't know anything about advertising from the "top" or "uke" position.

It's cheaper to retain customers than make new ones. Better Return on Investment. It's also cheaper to pick up new customers who are already buying similar products that aren't yours than it is customers who buy nothing close to what you sell. I.e. it's easier to sell a woman on Massengail douche who has been using Summer's Eve douche than it is to sell a man some either kind of douche.

I reject your -given-. On sunday, we watch two games and switch off when there's a commercial, with much bitching if we get caught in a commercialchasm, when both stations are on commercial breaks. I just gave up watching the last set of shows (Office/Earl) in real time, now I DVR everything but NFL.

I pretty much refuse to watch commercials, I pay out my poor aching anus for programming and devices to watch it on, I don't want to sit and watch fucking ads, even if they're kitties nestled between giant bosoms with plasma screens attached. Think of how much less I want to see them in a game I paid for, over an internet connection I paid for, on equipment I fucking paid for.

Fucking capitalists, just don't know when to stop grabbing, the motherraping cockgoblins.

Err, anyway. BF2142. I was reading some stuff about how it's geo-targeting, so the US doesn't get UK ads, etc.

Fine. I DON'T WANT ANY ADS IN MY FUCKING GAME. Period. I don't want to be playing 2142 and see a Deuce fucking Bigalow ad.

What is wrong with people? Oh, that's right. Last sentence of my last post.

edit: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=11300
edit2: Please tell me this is not real.
(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/we3/Resize_of_BF2142adds_1_.jpg)
Also, funny sig image:
(http://img420.imageshack.us/img420/8867/poetag2wg0.jpg)

Ok, looking at that it can't be real, the google looks faked in at least. Can someone who has installed this adware put up a couple screenshots of the ads?

The ads aren't in yet but that screenshot is accurate in that there are a huge number of placeholders and billboards set up already.

No wonder why the rest of the game is so bland and gray.

I mind adds because they are information pollution and it takes effort to completely ignore them. Adds *designed* to be interruptive, to catch your attention and to be hard to ignore. I don't see how can anyone play and enjoy a game that, looking at the picture, resembles an acid trip due to all visual field polution.

See, I would believe him if he didn't work for EA. But he does. These fuckers have the spent BILLIONS of dollars making sure the only goddamn football game I can play for the next 15 motherfucking cockjockeying years is fucking Madden, an inferior football game. The publisher buys up dev houses like it's fucking candy. Ads in-game are not about making money, they are about making MORE MONEY. I don't have a problem with ads in games in principle, I do have a problem with executive douchebags from a company built on douchebaggery telling me its necessary.

Now THAT is funny.

Actually, he has a point. They've had to lay out a LOT of cash to restrict your choices. Now you'll pay for it. (Or not, I haven't bought a football game since the last Sega one).

This sort of thing also appeared in SWAT4 as well.  

I think that if you want to make these sort of games seem more real you have to include some sort of advertising.  You go out in the street and there are coke ads and car ads all over the place.  The you go and play a game and it has no ads or it has ads for blamo beer instead and it detracts from the sensation overall, because its less real.  And being real is very important in these games...

Overal prognosis for this is some small few upset at this initially and then it becomes generally accepted practice you no longer care or think about.  Look at how people think about ads before movies in the theatre these days.  

They make me want to stab Wall Street in the face.

This only holds if the ads are appropriate to and blend well with the game envoronment.  Seeing recogniozable logos, etc in a modern racing game or in something like Def Jam or whatever is fine, and as you say, can add to (or at least not break) 'realism/immersion'.  Seeing 'period-correct' ads in a historical shooter wouldn't bother me either, though if I'm storming Berlin, those ads better be in German.  Same for futuristic games - the context and presentation should be correct for the environment you've created.

Seeing modern-era ads (which in all likelihood will be invulnerable to the ravages of war, no less) in a game like 2142 would be fucking retarded and would tell your customers that you're much less interested in delivering an immersive experience than you are in whoring them out to marketers.

It also detracts from realism that when I shoot at you in the game and you don't fall over, spraying blood all over your brand new uniform, shitting your pants in process and screaming that you don't want to die and then dying in agony few minutes later never *ever* to be seen again and instead proceed to respawn few seconds later to try to shoot at me again.

Some realizm is good and other, like polluting my leisure time with invasive advertising, is not.

What puzzles me is how much effort EA spent in PR trying to make this shameless money grab seem OK - 'plants' coming out of woodworks all over place. Its not even FANBOI, I don't think EA has any left, its clear cases of paid-to-post BS plants.

Heh.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying 'MORE ADZ PLZ!  IT MAEKS IT REALER!!' and would prefer that gaming remain ad-free, but I don't think this sort of thing is going to go away no matter how much you'd like it to.  I'm just saying that if you're going to do it, at least take some care in doing it and have some shred of respect for your customers.

It wouldn't bother me too much to drive by a Best Buy or something like that in a street-racing game.  It would bother me to see an indestructible shiny-new Coke sign in something like 2142 or have to sit through commercials in my loading screens (like all those 'The way it's meant to be played' ads that nVidia pays PC game makers for, apparently).

Holy fuck people, just don't buy the game then.

Right, that's why the movie industry is currently experiencing a new Renaissance in revenue causing even their mediocre films to make oodles of money.  Or possibly watching commericials before the movie is just one more thing making people stay home?

I time my arrival to the theatre to compensate for the ads, so I miss 90% of them. I fucking HATE HATE HATE paying for something and STILL getting force-fed advertisements.

Hurray for Netflix.

Hear hear. I refuse to patronize any theater that shows ads. I once left a previously-untested theater during the ads and demanded my money back from the manager on hand. Fortunately, I have a lot of theater selections in my area, so I can still see mainstream flicks that I actually want to see at a handful of the adless second-run or ultrapremium theaters.

I have the same attitude towards ads in games, and I've yet to come across a title that I've been unable to pass up that has integrated advertising - but then, BF2142/SWAT4/Splinter Cell aren't up my $50 alley. The fact that the major singleplayer titles with this technology come from EA - moneygrubbingest of moneygrubbers - doesn't surprise me in the least. EA actively seeks out new lows in seeing how far it can push consumers, it seems.

I'm so with you. I go out of my way to see movies in a theatre that don't show me adds, just reviews - AMC. Can you belive, last time I went to Cineplex they had 17 (seventeen) minutes of adds! That after paying $20+ for 2 tickets.

Generally, when I go with friends, we burn ad time by talking. And heck, I actually like some of the trailers for upcoming movies, because I don't pay too much attention to movies.

I like ads. However, you don't get to have your cake and eat it too. If I pay $50 for your shitty game I don't want ads. If you give me the game for free you can show me ads all day long and I don't care. Additionally, you don't get to track my browsing habits to form your bullshit profile of what I might like. If the game is free you can give me check boxes where I can say what topic of ads I want to see. If the game is pay you can shove the ads up your ass. And if that means the game won't get made then you can fuck off, die, and go out of business. I won't miss you or your game.

This double dipping bullshit is the same thing telcos want to do with internet access.

Product placement in movies can be immersive or it can be intrusive.  If someone is drinking a Dasani, that's fine.  That's in the realm of possibility.  When I start seeing Dasani bottles lined up conspicuously in the background, it's distracting.  It's not even funny when Mike Myers does it, but then he's been doing that shit since Wayne's World.  Same limit applies to games.  Not sure I trust EA to not go overboard.  I get the impression that the execs beat up homeless for pocket change.

Only example of a billboard I could find in the reviews is this...

(http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/7676/bf214210zz3.jpg)

Judging from the review pictures, it doesn't seem *that* intrusive.

Picture from...
http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=37972&mode=thread&order=0

Confirmed.  That's my exact position on the topic.  I have no beef with ad-supported games, so long as the player gets a piece of the pie in a lower price, no monthly fee, etc.  When you pay the same price and get the same crap game AND get ads shoved in your face, that equals no-buy.

That is place holder that has weather and wear and tear effects on it to blend and designed not to be intrusive  - notice no sharp contrasts, loud neon colours, moving things or supersized sales pitches that you can't help but read. Real adds will be a lot more intrusive. If you are wondering how bad it will get - just think about 'punch the monkey'.

By the way: http://www.ftc.gov/

I encourage people to file complaints about the fact that by the time the customer has opened the box and discovered that the game is spyware, it can't be returned for a refund.  EA deserves a spanking from the feds on the lack of an opt-out and the fact that the spyware aspect isn't clearly displayed on the box.  Here's EA's corporate info to enter into the complaint form:

209 Redwood Shores Pkwy.
Redwood City, CA 94065
(650) 628-1500

There is also a second billboard in that one shot, the RA thing below the crosshairs.

I dl'd the demo and played it a bit.

I see no reason to play this game over any other just based on my experience with the gameplay.  Seemed ordinary.

Vuckan what?

Ok, I changed my mind.  I looked up last night and it was 2 am and I had to be up at 6.  I'll be picking this up when i get a chance.

How are the other maps?

The trailers are not the ads that bother me. Trailers are a part of the movie-going experience I look forward to, even though they are ads for other movies. It's the HEY BUY COKE! and retreads of TV commercials that piss me off. It's one reason I only pay matinee price for movies. I figure what revenue they lose from my refusing to pay the $8 price tag for movies gets made up for with all the shit shit shitty ads I get shoved down my gullet.

And theater ads don't bug me, because I stopped going to the theater years ago. But product placement that's glaringly obvious bothers the hell out of me. I start yelling "HOLY SHIT I SUDDENLY HAVE AN OVERWHELMING URGE FOR A COKE!" and doing a monkey dance. So it's probably good I don't go to the movie theater anymore.

I don't know - do you know anyone that has the game? I don't know about you, but for some reason I am feeling weak today and I may just buy it...

Buying BF-Adds-in-Space game will mean all games will have adds in the future. Show a backbone.

If that was true all games would have pacman in them today.

That's cute. Here's a hint. All games by "major" publishers are going to have them in the future ANYWAY. If it makes you feel better not buying from EA, and buying from EA always makes me feel bad even when there's no other choices for the type of game I want (FIFA 07 and Wii Madden), then don't buy it. But boycotting BF2142 won't change it, because there will be enough people who don't give a shit to make up for you.

Nah, couldn't be more wrong.

All it's going to take is for one game that was supposed to be huge to monumentally flop. It will be a lot easier to take the advertisers out of the gaming arena than it will to keep the companies from allowing folks to put ads in their games. Though, it could work out the latter way. UBISoft isn't using Starforce anymore...

On another note, Splinter Cell does advertisements goddamn delicately. It has real phones in the game, real office equipment (some, here and there). Real billboards from real places. It's exactly how it should be. I can honestly say, not that I've seen it with ads - I'm glad they're there. It's not going to change my shopping choicesa and result in a shopping cart full of Nivea for Men merchandise, but it does ADD to the immersion.

All the major publishers WILL have them. They may not be as clumsy and intrusive as the lazy fucks at EA insist on, but they will be there. If gamers are lucky, they'll be subtle like your Splinter Cell example or billboards in racing games, or they'll be annoying but unintrusive to gameplay like the Nvidia "The Way" ads. But they will be there, because it's too big a revenue stream for publishers to ignore. And there are way too many ad execs who are salivating over the captive audiences of video gamers, especially online gamers.

But not buying BF2142? Won't matter, because this is EA. These fuckers eat gamer's dreams for lunch and shit out games. They don't fucking care. It would have to sell 0 copies to matter to them.

The ads are far and few in between. In fact I haven't actually noticed any in the game though I'm sure they are there. The maps are big enough that you'd have to be pretty close up and most likely purposefully looking for the ad to actually see it.

As for the game itself, it is fun as hell. The whole unlocks and pins/ribbons/medals system is just awesome. It gives your play experience a little more depth than the round-by-round number of kills in every other shooter I've played. Also, your score in each round is not solely determined by kills. You get points for a lot of different thing like defending a silo/capture point, successfully assaulting a point, reparing vehicles (you have to do quite a it of reparing to get a point though), following orders (IE killing people near where you commander has told you to assault), etc. You also do get points for kills and like half a point (not sure) for kill assists. At the end of the round your points are tallied up, along with any extra points for pins/ribbons/medals won during the round and it's added to your Career advancement, which is sort of like levelling in a MMO.

All in all I'm having a lot of fun. I do have to agree with someone earlier who mentioned the aiming system for guns which I'm not too fond of. It feels way too random. I've played CS way more than other shooters and I much prefer the feel of it. That said, I have been slowly adjusting to it and increasing my accuracy some.

Also just to assuage any fanboy concerns, I hate EA. I'm judging the game based on it's merits. I used to play Earth and Beyond and EA destroyed my dreams, so I'm none too fond of them. But I'm not about to pass up a good game, especially in my time of need where nothing else is appealing to me.

No, they're not in yet, that's why you haven't noticed them.

I suppose that would be why I haven't seen any then. Here's hoping it's not too bad, or that the negative publicity dissuades them.

I guess they are hacking into the game and have found a way to place their own ads on the billboards. (http://micolous.id.au/projects/bf2142/)  This image is what would happen if McDonald's started advertising.  In other games these could also be animated and have sound, could happen in bf2142 too.  I imagine McDonald's might be around in 2142 though, what would piss me off are movie advertisements in my future sim.

(http://img427.imageshack.us/img427/9585/screen023da1.jpg)

Really the main reason I'm not playing 2142 is because bf2 is better, the only tempting thing is all the new maps.

The advancement system DOES intrigue me. Wish they could retro-fit it to BF2. I have 14k points before I can get the last 2 unlocks, and i am pretty sure I left 2 of the best guns in the game (SCAR-L and L9A31 or whatever the sniper rifle is) for last. Bugger.

I am a BF/EA/DICE whore I am :D

I went and pre-ordered from EB and got an unlock right after install along with reserving my name with the veterans status (basically reserves a name you want to use, nuthing special), there is another gun skin that you could get by buying the pre-order from best buy I think, but I would rather have an unlock than a gun skin.  linkage: http://battlefield.ea.com/battlefield/bf2142/landing.aspx?lang=us

The game is fun for me, I enjoy FPS more than any other genre of games, and team based games are even more my cup of tea.  Right now, they have two types of games with BF 2142: Conquest and Titan.  Conquest is pretty much capture and hold or capture the flag.  Titan games involve having two big motherships in the air and your goal is to blow it up.  All the standard BF system is there with some improvements, the squad functions seems less clunky, the voice over internet seems a little better, and the rewards system is a lot nicer.  They did reduce the classes to 4, made air power easier to fly, made AA wicked :D , and seemed to strive for a balance between vehicles, air craft, and grunts.  As far as the four classes, I'm mainly played support so I can't give a good feel on the rest of the classes.

I don't notice the adds, seems to be more on the 48 player maps playing titan mode, noticed a lot less on the 64 player maps, but that may just because those maps are bigger.

About the only bitch I have is that the support class seems a bit wimpy, the unlock heavy machine gun doesn't have enough umph on it, the crappy shot pattern with it means that I'm missing a shit load with it (even doing the wiggle the site all over the place), and I've noticed most of us use the standard support gun instead of the heavy or the unlock of the heavy shot gun (not bad, but too slow to reload and not enough damage again).  I notice a ton of assult, engineer, and recon players, and I've goofed around with the standard assult weapon which seems a bit better on shot placement and power.

I'm enjoying the game, oh BTW, the Australian version doesn't have the dynamic adds because of some law that they have... http://en.wiped.org/wiki/Battlefield_2142  Maybe the US ought to adopt the law that they have.

Wrong, if putting intrusive adds into game decreases sales its no longer simple matter of increasing revenu and in a way will be a check on whole thing. Not buying games with adds might not completely stop all adds in the future title but it WILL put checks in place. So if BF5 has ‘punch the monkey’ adds, as opposed to subtle and thematically appropriate adds we have fucks like you that went and bought BF2142 to thank for it.

Fixed it for you.

Since they don't have the ads turned on yet, I justified my purchase that I could later complain to the FTC.

Not sure I like the unlock system. (Have to unlock 4 minor items to get to each weapon upgrade). Granted some of the unlocks along the way are nice. (claymore is still an instakill).

I really like the pin system (Think merit badges). You do something like get 5 kills in a row and you get 10 extra points, everything is worth points. Kill streaks, defense, it's great. I'm just not sure there is a class I will "fit".

I'm going to make a new character tonight to see how much I like stealth.

Claymore should maim. Then you could limp around for a while. Screams would be a nice ambient touch.

It's not about them. If more ads go into games, I play less games. That's ok, too. I've got a lot of songs to learn.

Wow, yay for Australia and not putting up with that kind of bullshit.  Anyone getting the game should get it imported from there; I think it might send a bit of a message if 90% of the game's sales came from Australia...

Hate to tell you this, but I'm not buying BF2142. Or BF2 or BF1942. I have yet to buy a DICE game because on release, they are all buggy in ways they shouldn't be, and by the time they get unbuggy, most of the world has moved on and I'm not bothered to buy them. The closest I've ever gotten was playing the BF2 demo. I wasn't planning on buying it before the ads thing, I'm not planning on buying it now.

What I am telling you is that you are an insignificant microbe to EA. They give not a fuck about you, or any of the fuckers who won't buy the game because of ads. Unless there are ABSOLUTELY ZERO, NIL, THE NULL SET sales of the game, it won't dissuade EA, because they don't give a fuck about making good games, they give a fuck about making their investors happy and keeping the stock price high.

You really need to buy BF2 (should be cheap now) and come shoot people in the face with us.

BUT TEH ADS!!!! TEH SPYWURE!!!!

I'm been obsessed with FIFA 07 for the X-Box lately, which is worlds better than the World Cup game EA did this summer in every way. Oh, and saving up for a Wii.

You should upgrade to the latest Way, getting little pins and points as pavlovian feedback for maiming and being a good soldier make 2142 a better game then BF2.

You need to use smacktard philosophy. When 2142 comes out, all the people that were fagging up BF2 special forces are playing that instead. Goddamned people and their 'skill' and 'map knowledge'. Makes it tough for old grandpas like me. Now it should be fun again :)

The world moving on isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's just how I like it, dernit.

I have not seen a single bunnyhopping tard in 2142 yet... I think they are all still in Special Forces.

No ads or spyware in Bf2, n00bler. At least not in game. At least that I have noticed.  :roll:

I have heard good things about FiFA 07. I am anxiously awaiting WE 10 for my next fix.


NO!

I am getting my last 2 unlocks in BF2 even if I have to play on the last server standing, goddamn it! 13k+ points to go.

I tried WE9, played two games and sent it back. I just couldn't get into it, either because I don't have enough knowledge of soccer to know what the fuck I'm doing wrong, or because I've gotten addicted to the EA flash. It didn't help that Liverpool was called Merseyside Red; I mean, they could afford the licenses for the players, but not the clubs?

FIFA 07, though, is really really good. YMMV

Yeah, the team name thing sucked. The rest of it is fanfuckingtastic, however. So many options, and the actual controls are so complex (but really damned cool when you learn to use them!!).

 Write up a FIFA 07 review for me so I can decide if it is worth checking out  :evil:

Somewhat on-topic: The demo instantly crashes on my system. Apparently, it did not like my "non-standard" drivers.

you mean Omega's?  fug

Correct sir. The .exe crashed because it could not find a very particular DX file or something. Gogo EA and telling me how to run my own damn system.

There was some notes in the beta download that said you had best have the very very latest DX9, which has the .dll file required. Try that before uninstalling the omega drivers.

Two of my buddies had the same problem.  DX 9.0c is needed I believe.

I do have 9.0c. No big deal. I'm certainly not going to mess with my drivers to play a demo of a game that I have zero intention of actually buying.

EDIT: I don't need Grammar Snake bites.

Thats the spirit!

I found it annoying too - especially since it wasn't a "nice" error message to tell me to upgrade to 9.0c. All I know, is that when I downloaded the DirectX updater it updated a few files and the game worked fine after that.

I'm using the Omega drivers on my ATI card but didn't have any problems.

Review posted. Though it's a lot of words to say "Yumm, good."  :-D

I had the same problem and I searched for the dll it was bitching about. Found this page and I fixed my problem.

http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/d3dx_dlls.html

Cool! Gracias.

Found this interesting post on slashdot:


I also want to add following:

With advertising, you are the product. As a result you will not see any benefit from it or competition in the market. Suits will figure out a formula that will tell them exactly how much advertising most people will tolerate, they will apply it to maximize add exposure and will proceed to compete with other publishers by  lowering costs of placing adds . Lowering title price or reducing number, intrusiveness or amount of adds shown is not even part of the equation!

Have those ads gone live yet?

Pretty much all Intel ads at the moment.

For what it's worth, considering the environments you're fighting in in the game, they're pretty unintrusive. Much less so than the ones in PS.

And to second what Kitsune said, if you wish an ad-free version, buy from Australia. Apart from that, i think this might be the first BF game i've actually enjoyed. The physics are still gimmiky and the average intelligence level of my fellow players is somewhere between that of a stapler and a very agitated squirrel, but the gameplay is quite fun and improves dramatically if played with friends in a squad and whatnot.

Whats the deal with the Australian release (as in why)? I must have missed that.

I don't really know to be honest. It's a common enough thing though, i think the DRM verson of the second-last Splinter Cell got shipped here without the DRM. May have something to do with the Aus gaming lobby requiring this stuff be stripped from games published here.

I don't even notice the Intel stuff really. Sadly, the exec's will find this out, and future ad's will be garishly lit and colorful. But if they implement them in this non-intrusive way, then it won't be too bad.
I miss the free-fall phsics, and the ability to "fly" your parachute. It's pretty much all about falling straight down  now. Takes away some cool opportunities.

Haha yea, but my housemate killed a fully loaded transport helo by steering his landing drop-pod into it.

Sort of like "Rods from God"?

I'm sorry, but i'm not familiar with that expression. Went right over my head.  :-P

Wikipedia is your friend. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rods_from_god)

You know, I have yet to figure out how the hell to steer those things. NO matter if its a squad beacon or the APC, it goes up, and comes straight down. I wanted to use it to get the squad on top of buildings by placing the beacon right next to it so when they drop, they can steer to the roof. No luck so far.

I don't know about now but in beta you could steer the pods with ease and travel halfway across the map in seconds, the devs didn't like it because people were just jumping from silo to silo and it made the game too "hectic" so they nerfed them.  You can only really steer the pods if the opposing Titan is near by, otherwise they only go a few feet in the air and come right back down.

The beacon is for dropping your squad members back in at your position when they die.  It's very useful during operations away from a spawn point as it's only about 10 seconds from when they die to when they are back up and in the fight.  They are only marginally steerable but it's enough to land on a roof vs an alley if you want.

I haven't found a good use for the APC launch pods other than to bail out when the thing is going to blow.

I went out and bought myself a copy of this and I'm having a blast. Can't comment on the adds because I'm Australian and thus don't have them. :evil:

This is the first BF game I've played since loading up the first and shutting it down in disgust due to being thorougly sick of the WW1/WW2 themes (even then, and they still make 'em). At first I hated the vehicles being in the game, especially since I just don't like the missile launchers the engineers get. Since then I've been getting used to finding the right turrets, hiding like a little girl until they leave, and fighting fire with fire to deal with armor and they're not so bad anymore. Does the engineer's anti-armor rifle "Pilum H-AVR" work nicely? If so I might have to shoot for that for those times I need to take out mechs and vehicles.

The one thing that I still hate is dying because some chucklehead destroys the vehicle I'm spawning in right as I spawn, especially if said chucklehead is the driver.

My favourite kit right now is assault. I prefer the support's LMG more for shooting, but it's hard to go past med kits and the reviver. So far I've unlocked all the general unlocks up to but not including the 3rd grenade, as well as the first 2 medic unlocks for assault. My plan is to grab the top medic weapon (which I've heard is the best assault weapon) and then grab the rocket attachment for my rifle. Does that sound solid? After that I'm not so sure. Recon is out since I'm not a fan of sniping. Will probably unlock some support toys unless the engineer's Pilum is worth the trouble.

if the squad leader drops a beacon beside a building, just as the timer is about to hit zero for you to respawn, grab the mouse and move it sideways really quickly (ie as if you were making your character look around in a 360 circle). The pod when it launches now goes into a crazy spin and puts you about 10 metres away from the beacon position.

You could also try holding W or W+A down while you do this too.

Once your on the roof, if your a squad leader, you can try shooting out your beacon and dropping a new one on the roof, and huzzah!

squad vs. squad fights on roofs are really fun btw!

Hey! Don't I know you!?

Thanks for the tip... !!