BF2142 ships with spyware?

also, a question. does anyone have screenshots of these ads? are they on a loading screen, or are they actually stuck out in the battlefield?
 
Haha, EA Games just dug their own grave.

I think this whole AD issue is going to come back and bite them in the ass.
 
dR.Jester said:
Haha, EA Games just dug their own grave.

I think this whole AD issue is going to come back and bite them in the ass.
Click to expand...

Only if they see sales take an extremely sharp dive.

Or see lots of chargebacks from vendors.

(hint hint)
 
Martyr said:
also, a question. does anyone have screenshots of these ads? are they on a loading screen, or are they actually stuck out in the battlefield?
Click to expand...

I wondered this too, perhaps they are enjoying the game too much to notice.

BF2142_ad_campaign_01.jpg


Or perhaps they don't want you to see the ads they are seeing ;) I'm another that will be avoiding this game until they remove this viral advertising shit.
 
I really feel for all the people who pre-ordered and had no idea about any of this.
 
There are two contracts that take place with most games. One for the purchase of the CD/DVD, box, and manual, and one for the acceptance of the EULA. The contract for the purchase of the box et. al. is between you and the store that you purchased from. They are not involved with the EULA so they do not have to refund your money if you don't want the game.

The EULA is the contract between you and the publisher, and is the more restrictive contract by far. The EULA can not be enforced unless you accept them or it is written on the outside of the box in full when you purchase the product. This is why so many games have EULA splash-screens during install these days. If you do not accept the EULA and do not wish to own the game then the publisher is legally obligated to give you back your money for the purchase.

However, most publishers (all of them really) do not have a process for dealing with such returns.... No website to fill out a form on, no contact information for this specific purpose provided in the EULA itself, etc. So you basically have to contact them on your own, find someone at the company willing to deal with the situation, and get it handled entirely on your own. This is of course a lawsuit waiting to happen, but the number of people and $'s involved to this point is too small to matter, so no suit will ever happen.

The best way to get back at EA is to have everyone buy a copy, open the box, don't install the game, and then start calling for refunds by the 10's of thousands..... But that's not likely to happen either.
 
Holy crap guys, look at this post on Gamespot :eek: :eek: :eek:
Here

Some players are SUPPORTING EA FOR THEIR SPYWARE! They just said they "got nothing to hide"...... WOW JUST WOW THESE GUYS SHOULD BE SHOT!
 
TheNuker said:
Holy crap guys, look at this post on Gamespot :eek: :eek: :eek:
Here

Some players are SUPPORTING EA FOR THEIR SPYWARE! They just said they "got nothing to hide"...... WOW JUST WOW THESE GUYS SHOULD BE SHOT!
Click to expand...

Na, thats their choice and thats fine. Most people want the right to some privacy though.
 
If you're willing to sacrifice a little liberty for a little security, you will get neither, nor shall you deserve it.
 
TheNuker said:
Holy crap guys, look at this post on Gamespot :eek: :eek: :eek:
Here

Some players are SUPPORTING EA FOR THEIR SPYWARE! They just said they "got nothing to hide"...... WOW JUST WOW THESE GUYS SHOULD BE SHOT!
Click to expand...

Chill...It's probably an EA employee running cheap damage control.
 
Mysterae said:
I wondered this too, perhaps they are enjoying the game too much to notice.

BF2142_ad_campaign_01.jpg


Or perhaps they don't want you to see the ads they are seeing ;) I'm another that will be avoiding this game until they remove this viral advertising shit.
Click to expand...

waffles
 
TheNuker said:
Holy crap guys, look at this post on Gamespot :eek: :eek: :eek:
Here

Some players are SUPPORTING EA FOR THEIR SPYWARE! They just said they "got nothing to hide"...... WOW JUST WOW THESE GUYS SHOULD BE SHOT!
Click to expand...

And?

OMG! Spyware!!!! We're all going to freakin' die!!!!!

Whatever.

I applaud anyone who choses to take a stand on this issue because I believe in taking a stand on things that are important to you..... But that doesn't mean you should encourage physical harm to those who take the opposite view. It's not like they are threatening to shoot you after all.

This "spyware" is very mild as spyware goes, they are going out of their way to make sure you are aware it is there, which no other "spyware" does, and the information is going to a massive database where it will be anonymized along with all the other data they collect. Not exactly a big deal. Plus as others have said it's not like it's hard to stop this from happening (127.0.0.0, just like anything else on the internet you don't like), so who really cares.

It would be nice if they included an opt-out option though.
 
TheNuker said:
Holy crap guys, look at this post on Gamespot :eek: :eek: :eek:
Here

Some players are SUPPORTING EA FOR THEIR SPYWARE! They just said they "got nothing to hide"...... WOW JUST WOW THESE GUYS SHOULD BE SHOT!
Click to expand...

Dont worry they are not really players its just EA employees pumping up their game and trying to do damage control like someone else said. If you or me can goto a forum and make 5-10 accounts and post in a couple mins... a company of EAs size can do that with ease... espically when they are paying people to do it. The gamespot review on BF2142 gave a warm review in EAs favor (maybe the reviewers their are payed off by EA.)
 
If they are including advertising in this game wether we like it or not then why is this game full priced. They better be releasing an arseload of additional content for free if they are gonna include this crap.
 
nullzero said:
Dont worry they are not really players its just EA employees pumping up their game and trying to do damage control like someone else said. If you or me can goto a forum and make 5-10 accounts and post in a couple mins... a company of EAs size can do that with ease... espically when they are paying people to do it. The gamespot review on BF2142 gave a warm review in EAs favor (maybe the reviewers their are payed off by EA.)
Click to expand...

I second that.
The true scope of how many people are opposed to it will become clear later.
 
Gibby82 said:
http://www.totalbf2142.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4893

If the spyware thing got you hot this will surely fan the flames. I haven't seen this confirmed yet though.
Click to expand...

" Players who have the Windows security update KB917422 installed may suffer from an application error when running Battlefield 2142. This error can be solved by uninstalling the KB917422 update. "

Did everyone just ignore this? The quote is in the patch read me.
 
Gibby82 said:
" Players who have the Windows security update KB917422 installed may suffer from an application error when running Battlefield 2142. This error can be solved by uninstalling the KB917422 update. "

Did everyone just ignore this? The quote is in the patch read me.
Click to expand...
Microsoft said:
MS06-051: Vulnerability in the Windows kernel could result in remote code execution
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917422
Click to expand...
a hint this maybe be worse than it seems.

anyone wanna tear apart the bf2142 executable and see what its actually doing?



also, the demo. did it install this "monitoring" software?
 
thats inexcusable!

the patch title is
"Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Could Result in Remote Code Execution (917422)"
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS06-051.mspx

Are they using an exploit to get Kernel level access??

edit:
forgot to add this bit
"An attacker who successfully exploited the most severe of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights."
 
Installed BF2142 on a clean XP install on my brand new HP Laptop DV9000.

Nvidia 7600Go
Turion 1.6Ghz
1GB DDR2

Crashes on startup. I tried removing MS patch. Deleting user profile. Restarted three times already.

Here's a screenshot: ftp://akujin.mine.nu/bf2142.jpg

I'm glad I didn't actually buy it cause I'd be pissed if I did.

GG EA on another quality fuck up. ;)
 
lol this is getting better and better. EA doesnt care about you, they care more about the money you spend on this POS games they make..
 
It wouldn't be so bad if they want to put generic ads ingame, but they don't want to stop there. EA wants to know you personally, so then they can guarantee to advertisers that such and such a number of gamers will be interested in their ads they will pay EA for.

EA is using their snoopy backdoor into your PC for their benefit. I hope the hell eveyone passes the word not to buy this shit.

Also what did the demo have in it? Any of this spyshit?
 
It's a shame that threads like this will never make it to front pages of websites *hint*hint*nudge*nudge* where it might actually make a difference. ;)
 
*starts to cry

I was all set to buy this game but now....I just can't. And I really was looking forward to it. I will not pay for advertising. I just won't.
 
Well damn, I am going to have to stop myself from buying EA sports game, this definetly crosses the boundary when it comes to what software should do and violates my privacy.

At least they put it on a piece of paper first, and someone did not find out later. I guess they only did that though so someone wouldn't sure their asses off
 
I'm really glad I found this out now rather than after I bought. I figure it woudl be BF 2142 or quake wars - the in game ads are enough to push me away. Amazing they would try to pull that sort of crap.
 
Martyr said:
a hint this maybe be worse than it seems.

anyone wanna tear apart the bf2142 executable and see what its actually doing?
Click to expand...

It certainly would not hurt to see what filemon and regmon spit out when installing/ starting the game.
 
drizzt81 said:
It certainly would not hurt to see what filemon and regmon spit out when installing/ starting the game.
Click to expand...

and hope they havent already got kernel access through an exploit to hide what they are doing!
 
I think that the extent to which consumers are inflicted with advertising is out of control. When I was a kid, a 30 minute TV show had about 21-22 minutes of show and 8-9 minutes of commercials. These days, it feels like there is much less show and many more commercials happening. Not only that, now we have to put up with advertising in all of the corners of the screen during the programs. I find that unacceptable.

Now, even going to the movies (which used to be a commercial free experience, except fot the trailers, of course), you have to sit through 3 to 5 minutes of the same fucking commercials you see at home. Only now, you can't change the channel or mute the sound. You just have to sit through it and suffer.

I have almost gotten used to banner ads all over the internet, to the point where I don't even notice them anymore. Not only that, but my cookies, cache, and history clears automatically on every reboot (thank you tweakui!), so I end up seeing all the same ads all the time...the default ads for people without a lengthy surfing cache.

Ads in video games? I'll be the first to admit that it sounds offensive at first, but it could be beneficial. What if you got coupon codes emailed to you for seeing (or interacting with) certain ads, or other kinds of benefits? I think there are ways it could work, but I don' t think we'll see it for a while now. Product placement would be cool....Coca-Cola cans or NY Times newspapers littering the ground. It could be cool, if only for the novelty aspect.

But then, what if you could interact with the product placement? Use it the way the real product is used? What if the in-game NY Times was the real deal you could pick up and look through, or the Coke can had coca-cola in it that had some benefit in the game (stamina, HP, whatever)? It would be cool but, again, not likely to happen.

To sum up, it could be cool (even USEFUL), but I think EA is going to fuck it up for everyone. The suberfuge of not telling users about it before-hand is really low, even for EA.

They should be ashamed of themselves, for not putting the notice on the outside of the box or, fuck,even TELLING the IGN or GameSpot people about it before the game came out would have been the right thing.

It's a shame, because I really wanted to play this game, but now I shan't be buying it.

-Mark.
 
dR.Jester said:
Haha, EA Games just dug their own grave.

I think this whole AD issue is going to come back and bite them in the ass.
Click to expand...

I hope it does, and to some extent I believe it will hurt them. As far as digging a grave you have to take into account just how massive EA is, even if the PC gamer crowd shuns them into oblivian they still dominate in console games. Even if the dynamic adverts bleeds over into the console games, the majority of console gamers won't give a shit. Even if they did, who's gonna kill EA Sports? Nobody. Who's gonna kill The Sims? Nobody. An advert won't stop a Madden fan from buying, and it definitely won't stop a kid that wants to play The Sims.

Here are 3 wild scenarios:

1. They sell 2142 as expected, and don't really give a shit what people think, the crowd that bitched and complained and refused to purchase 2142 didn't dent sales.

2. It sells like shit or they actually get an overwhelming response and they decide to do something very un-EA (listen to the customer), they learn their lesson, they remove the ads.

3. It sells like crap, they let this dynamic ad scheme go into other PC game franchises (MOH, NFS), we don't buy, they drop PC games completely, and help drive a stake into the heart of PC gaming. Hate EA all day long, you lose EA games, we could all lose, think about this.

No EA games-> we lose PC gamers, we lose a variety of PC games, companies don't sell hardware, prices go up, hardware companies go out of business, other gaming companies follow suit and look at PC gaming as a dead trend (which individuals already claim daily), we end up paying more retail for hardware to play less games, and eventually we're playing on consoles, because the hardware isn't available or there's no competition because the hardware is too expensive to produce, so you get socked into today's equivelant of a 7600GT for like $400.

The 3rd scenario is a crazy theory, unlikely to say the least, but sometimes I enjoy taking a trip to crazy town. EA games is a fricken empire, anything they do affects the gaming biz.

Compare the net income of these companies.
AMD: $165.483 million
UbiSoft: $50.53 million
nVidia: $302.5 Million
ATi: $16.93 Million
Activision: $138.3 million
Atari: $68.986 million
EA Games: $236.00 million

EA has the second biggest penis on this block.
 
to Mark_Warner

rofl.
nice post, but pssst, dont give them ideas to propagate this further.

My issue is privacy.
How many programs do you trust to have kernel access and be able to monitor and send out data about your habits?
We dont even allow our security software to do that!
By having a program that can potentially do what it likes on your PC and has internet access, a world of hell could be opened.

Just about everything has exploitable flaws or makes use of other code which can be exploited, I cant see this being any different.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top