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Original CommentSo. In the latest CGW podcast, they received retail boxed copies of BF 2142.
When you open the box, a big slip of paper falls out first, preceeding any discs or manuals. The slip of paper says, essentially, that 2142 includes monitoring software which runs while your computer is online, and records "anonymous" information like your IP address, surfing habits (probably via cookie scans), and other "computing habits" in order to report this information back to ad companies and ad servers, which generates in-game ads.
Now, I can live with certain in-game ads (though apparently there will be Dodge truck and Neon ads in the bleak, futuristic world of 2142), but including a lengthy description - outside of even the Eula - seems to indicate even EA knows that this is some shady borderline spyware shit. I don't support it and won't be buying 2142 (for a host of other reasons, too).
I especially like the last sentence, "If you do not want to be spied on, do not play this online game online."
Duh. 
I know development costs for games are going up, but this game is just really a mod, and I doubt gamers will be understanding about this spyware shit. This game with ads should seriously be very cheap or free.
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The advertising program in Battlefield 2142 does not access any files which are not directly related to the game. It does not capture personal data such as cookies, account login detail, or surfing history.BF 2142 delivers ads by region. The advertising system uses a player's IP address to determine the region of the player, assisting to serve the appropriate ads by region and language. For instance, a player in Paris might be presented with ads in French. The information collected will not be repurposed for other uses.
Battlefield 2142 also tracks "impression data" related to in-game advertisements: location of a billboard in the game, brand advertised, duration of advertisement impression, etc. This information is used to help advertisers qualify the reach of a given advertisement.
They're just watching you so they can give you better ads. Sounds much better.
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
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Blindy. had this to say about the Spice Girls:
See, I thought the reason to avoid this game is that the battle field series sucks and hasn't had an origional development addition since BF1942 that was worth more than the cd it was stored on.
Which Battlefields have you played? Or are you just threadshitting?
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Noxhil2's got nothing.Which Battlefields have you played? Or are you just threadshitting?
1942, vietnam, and 2.
At every god damn lan party my friends throw.
And i hate every god damn minute of it.
Let me run for 5 minutes across the battle field because all the AI's snatched the vehicles and promptly flew them into the wall so I can get sniped by an AI running in circles against a wall without any warning and do it all over again.
The games suck. People are lenient with the franchise because they remember how much fun multiplayer 1942 was back in... oh... 2001, but let's face facts.
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Blindy. attempted to be funny by writing:
Blah blah AI blah blah blah sucks blah blah AI
That's why you think it sucks, you're using bots. The game is quite enjoyable with many real people online.
Fuck the AI bots, they're dumb as shit.
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Check out the big brains on Falaanla Marr:
That's why you think it sucks, you're using bots. The game is quite enjoyable with many real people online.Fuck the AI bots, they're dumb as shit.
if by quite enjoyable, you mean buggy as shit, taking 10 hours to load, and having some shitty ass net code, then you win a cookie.
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When the babel fish was in place, it was apparent Blindy. said:
The games suck. People are lenient with the franchise because they remember how much fun multiplayer 1942 was back in... oh... 2001, but let's face facts.
There are no facts. You're entitltled to your opinion, but more people disagree with you then agree with you, so you can hardly consider your opinion to be a fact, because the concensus is against your opinion.
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Noxhil2's complete misunderstanding of life manifested itself when they said:
There are no facts. You're entitltled to your opinion, but more people disagree with you then agree with you, so you can hardly consider your opinion to be a fact, because the concensus is against your opinion.
DICE rapes little kids.
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How.... Blindy..... uughhhhhh:
DICE rapes little kids.
If by "DICE" you mean EA, then I wholeheartedly agree.
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I bet you never expected Noxhil2 to say:
If by "DICE" you mean EA, then I wholeheartedly agree.
EA just holds the little kids down.
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Maradon! said:
So how do they justify having any advertising at all in a full-priced retail game?
"We like money."
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Mortious booooze lime pole over bench lick:
"We like money."
That only stands to reason if they believe thier target demographic will stand for that kind of shit.
I know I won't be 
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A sleep deprived Maradon! stammered:
That only stands to reason if they believe thier target demographic will stand for that kind of shit.I know I won't be
I think you highly overestimate their target market
Most people probably won't even notice.
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Check out the big brain on Maradon!!
That only stands to reason if they believe thier target demographic will stand for that kind of shit.I know I won't be
AER YUO A COMMUNIST??!?!
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Maradon!'s got nothing.So how do they justify having any advertising at all in a full-priced retail game?
If you asked them, I'm sure they'd say something like "If we were to sell this at the price it cost us to make it, it would be $48,000 per box! Advertising is what lets us sell this at the $50 cost!"
Since, you know, creating new maps and models for the characters costs so god damn much, and thats why mods are always so expensive.
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`Doc's momma would never want to hear them say:
As someone who hasn't played any of the Battlefield series, I'm wondering if they charge a monthly fee. If not, there's their excuse. Otherwise... did anyone bring a plunger & cables? It's so much more satisfying than a little red button.
How is that an excuse?
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Ninety-nine bottles of Blindy. on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of Blindy....
How is that an excuse?
Monthly cost of server upkeep. 
quote:I recall BF1942 having servers where hundreds/thousands of people logged on at once, playing against each other in massive battles. For that sort of thing, server cost is server cost. Small-scale data storage (your character has these 20 stats, these 57 items, this much money & xp, and has met these 143 goals) isn't the expensive part.
Greenlit needs to hitch a ride with a Vogon constructor fleet.
Battlefield games are not MMOGs. EA only began running official ranked servers for them with Battlefield 2, and even then they charged people an obscene rental fee if they wanted to run a ranked server.
However, I will not attempt to justify them charging someone a fee for attempting to reduce the company's workload and/or overhead. At that point, it's all politics and profit mongering.
Valve, for example, does not operate tens of thousands of Counter-Strike servers at their own cost.
Battlefield is an FPS like Counterstrike or Doom. Taeldian fucked around with this message on 10-19-2006 at 03:18 PM.
To play devil's advocate, EA does have continual cost with the master server (necessary) and the EA servers (almost, but not entirely necessary). There are upkeep costs associated with this, especially because they store player stats. For a big name game, like BF2142, the costs probably aren't cheap.
That said, gaming companies have been running and paying for their master servers perfectly fine on box/engine sales since Id was put up their own master servers for Quake. I don't see why EA, a company which certainly isn't cash starved, suddenly needs the ad revenue to pay for their master server. Considering Valve isn't doing that yet, despite the fact that Valve hosts the master server for a title that has more servers/players for every other online FPS combined, EA has no excuse other than wanting to pad their pockets with more money because they know they can get away with it.
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
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Maradon! stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:
and no jetpacks
God, I miss Tribes and Jetpacks 
"Don't want to sound like a fanboy, but I am with you. I'll buy it for sure, it's just a matter of for how long I will be playing it..."
- Silvast, Battle.net forums
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Falaanla Marr was naked while typing this:
I miss Tribes and Jetpacks
Me too.
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Maradon! wrote this stupid crap:
throw vengance on the heap with MoO3
Vengeance wasn't HORRIBLE. It was more "pretty bad" because the maps were too damn small. Not on the MOO3 levels, though.
What made Tribes so incredible were the huge sprawling maps and bases. Where Vehicles were needed and such.
Tribes 2 terrain
Tribes 1 bases
Tribes 1's bases fucking rocked.
