Here come the ads

[hazeleyes]

@Wali

All of reddit is more or less having orgasmic seizures over 5 free ICE.

Honestly, I can’t stand the VG sub on Reddit. The fanboy-ism there is ridiculous.

@Wali

Then someone pointed out participating was perhaps not all that voluntary, since the advertisements get downloaded whether you click on the ads or not.
'checked the unity-ads folder myself, and sure enough, ~20MB of data. Even though I never opted in in any way.

This actually annoys the hell out of me. On iOS, at least, there’s a way to block VG from using cellular data, which I’ve just gone ahead and done. Not sure about Android.

@Wali

The only other critical post mentioned that our value to advertisement companies doesn’t lie in our capacity to watch ads, but in their access to our data. It’s those profiles that are of worth, because they allow for selective (and potentially predictive) advertising.
And what do you know? 'looks like “participation” is not voluntary in that regard, either. The privacy policy seems to be missing the standard clause of “if you do not agree, do not use this part of the service” they use elsewhere. (According to the redditor posting.)

I’d love to see an explanation as to how our data is being used, but I bet we won’t get one. I didn’t see a new GDPR consent form when they added the ads … isn’t that supposed to happen?

[Tamaticon]

@hazeleyes

I’d love to see an explanation as to how our data is being used, but I bet we won’t get one. I didn’t see a new GDPR consent form when they added the ads … isn’t that supposed to happen?

they have to do this. maybe its already in their updated privacy policy.

edit: its in there.

Vainglory | The no-compromise cross-platform MOBA.

[hazeleyes]

Ah ok. So they must have added it the last time they changed their privacy policy, I guess. (In May, when GDPR went into effect, maybe?)

The more I think about it, the less I like the idea of ads in VG. I don’t want to argue the economics behind the decision – it’s obvious they are trying to increase revenue basically any way they can. But to me, the ads make the game feel sleazy. Maybe it’s the sort of ads I’ve seen so far: ads for Facebook games, etc. They’re low quality and intentionally annoying (move your finger HERE). It’s very jarring when juxtaposed with VG’s graphic excellence.

I don’t want the game to fail – I’ve invested huge amounts of time (and large amounts of money) into it. But all the signs point to a game in decline. Unless SEMC are fools (and although they’ve made some poor decisions with VG in my opinion, I don’t believe they are), they see this too and are trying to prop it up as long as possible so they can pivot as many resources as possible to a new game before VG dies.

I hope it’s at least as good as VG once was!

[thace]

The game hasn’t let me watch ads since they were announced, it shows me that I’ve completed them all (I have never watched an ad) with no rewards. When I refresh the page occasionally it comes up with the normal “watch ad” button but when I click it doesn’t do anything. Maybe you know something about it? No one I know has any idea.

I know it’s more of a bug report thing but I’m already here…

[hazeleyes]

I just posted your message as a bug report in the SEMC Slack …

[dream]

So, this is the Vainglory I’m missing?