Posted March 28, 2016
I was looking over the reviews for this game and came across this:
"The game EULA is terrible. It states that the game may serve ads to and collect information from the player. Also, for this game, GOG Galaxy is _required_ for multiplayer; it also requires linking one's GOG.com account to a wargaming.net account."
Is this actually in the EULA for this game?
Okay, I don't care much about the multiplayer account, as long as single player works without needing to deal with their servers I consider it DRM-Free and the registration is linked to a service rather than to the game. Direct LAN play would be nice, but my kids aren't really old enough to be into this kind of game yet, so it's not a deal-breaker.
What does bother me is the mention of "serve ads and collect information from the player" there.
I always disable information sharing, and even EA lets me do this, so that's another mark against it. Is this for the Wargaming.net account, like statistics based on your online gaming, or is it the game itself creeping on you?
As to the advertising...
Sure, some games have pulled advertising off in an interesting manner, like one game I bought that changes the billboards in game to current products and, since it is a modern setting, it seems almost beneficial to have real products (even though I loathe advertising) rather than some random fake item being sold. Other games tried this and, being Sci-Fi futuristic titles the ads for a Viso LCD HDTV look really out of place.
Can anyone comment on this? Am I going to be seeing ads for Viagra orbiting an alien planet? Will my loading screens be trying to sell me a Toyota? Things like this concern me because, even if they don't abuse it today, when people stop buying the game some folks try to keep siphoning money out of players.
If they gave it away I could see these provisions being included, I wouldn't use it but I could understand the reasoning behind serving ads in a game if they weren't making money from sales, but if you're paying retail prices for a game having them reserve the right to treat it like a "free" app at some point down the road isn't cool.
"The game EULA is terrible. It states that the game may serve ads to and collect information from the player. Also, for this game, GOG Galaxy is _required_ for multiplayer; it also requires linking one's GOG.com account to a wargaming.net account."
Is this actually in the EULA for this game?
Okay, I don't care much about the multiplayer account, as long as single player works without needing to deal with their servers I consider it DRM-Free and the registration is linked to a service rather than to the game. Direct LAN play would be nice, but my kids aren't really old enough to be into this kind of game yet, so it's not a deal-breaker.
What does bother me is the mention of "serve ads and collect information from the player" there.
I always disable information sharing, and even EA lets me do this, so that's another mark against it. Is this for the Wargaming.net account, like statistics based on your online gaming, or is it the game itself creeping on you?
As to the advertising...
Sure, some games have pulled advertising off in an interesting manner, like one game I bought that changes the billboards in game to current products and, since it is a modern setting, it seems almost beneficial to have real products (even though I loathe advertising) rather than some random fake item being sold. Other games tried this and, being Sci-Fi futuristic titles the ads for a Viso LCD HDTV look really out of place.
Can anyone comment on this? Am I going to be seeing ads for Viagra orbiting an alien planet? Will my loading screens be trying to sell me a Toyota? Things like this concern me because, even if they don't abuse it today, when people stop buying the game some folks try to keep siphoning money out of players.
If they gave it away I could see these provisions being included, I wouldn't use it but I could understand the reasoning behind serving ads in a game if they weren't making money from sales, but if you're paying retail prices for a game having them reserve the right to treat it like a "free" app at some point down the road isn't cool.
