Ads? I call those notifications! (Gaming)

by MacAddictXIV , Seattle WA, Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 07:51 (1353 days ago) @ Vortech

As does everywhere else...

No Ads on Switch.

No Ads on PS4 or PS3 dashboard.

No Ads when I open a game from GOG. You can even set Steam to never display popups and go straight to your library.

The Xbox is the only place where you have to see Ads. Unless you count the product placement in Death Stranding :-p

I'm only half joking. I honestly don't think of them as ads at all. Ads to me are annoying things that pop up telling me I should get male enhancement or a new set of clogs while surfing the internet. If I'm on my Xbox to play games and the xbox tells me there is a weekend sale on a game and it shows me what game it is? That's amazing to me. I never would have known otherwise and I have played games that I normally never would have bought and played otherwise.

These sort of notifications (or "ads") I lump up with every other notification that Xbox tells me about. Game finished downloading? Thanks Xbox. Movie clip finishing uploading? Thanks Xbox. A favorited friend is online? Thanks Xbox!

Ads to me are unwanted and usually random companies telling me that I should buy their product for no reason other than my heart is beating. Xbox is a gaming platform that is telling you there are cheap games or brand new games to be bought if you want them.

But I guess you are a purest so everything that I just said doesn't mean anything to you. So, carry on your merry way.

Something does not cease to be an ad because you personally find it interesting, and that way lies the defense of every modern tech company that takes your privacy away and sells it to the highest bidder while claiming they are doing you a favor by making ads "more relevant."

Yeah, but there are a heck of a lot advertisements out in the world and I'm not even talking about the electronic or billboard version. People are walking advertisements, and I don't even mean what is on their clothing, I mean how they wear their clothing is advertising their body. That is just one example. Advertisements don't have to be something that sells you something. If I could "ad block" half the women on the street with their *** hanging out I would. Is that a violation of my privacy? No, I chose to walk outside. Yeah, yeah, I know independent people vs corporations.

I guess to get off my tangent, I treat everything on a scale because nothing is black and white in the world. Ads either help me or annoy me, that is my personally opinion. I choose to label "ads" as things that annoy me. I was specifically talking to Cody to say that there are many "ads" on the Xbox, but most of the time, personally, they are notifications to me because I am glad that Xbox told me there is a sale on or a game just came out.

"Stealing privacy" is another bag of worms we could get into but that's a larger issue that wasn't my original point.