They came with ads, and I said nothing...

by yakaman, Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 06:58 (4207 days ago) @ RaichuKFM

Wait, what? The anti-console thing I get, although I don't agree with, but tell me I'm misinterpreting you. The way I'm reading this, you're complaining the game is tracking your information to provide ads. Where the heck did that come from? Again, correct me if I'm wrong; this seems out of nowhere. It's just, last time I played a game, I didn't get any commercials doing it. Heck, the extent of the data mining of the Dash is it gives me ads I actually care about. Well, about games I care about; I don't really ever click ads.

This is our new reality. We do not rely entirely on applications to filter, we learn to filter ourselves. When ads first started appearing they bugged the hell out of me because they kept grabbing my attention. Now, they're nothing but background noise. I have never clicked on an ad purposefully.

I've always hated this; You don't have to oppose something that is mildly annoying just because it could lead to something worse. Accepting something doesn't make you implicit in them taking it overboard. And what exactly are they doing that is overboard? Because I highly doubt they are tying your face to ads; if they are, I'd stand against that. But can we wait to actually hear some facts before arranging a boycott? There are certainly data mining and ad practices that are despicable, but just tailoring ads to what you've played is really not that big a deal. You should be able to disable that, but it isn't worth a boycott. Of course, I'm fairly certain you're looking for reasons to dislike this thing, but that's fine by me. Just to clarify, if they ARE doing despicable things, I'm out and consider this retracted. I just doubt they are because of how monumentally stupid it would be to do most of these things.

Manipulation of us is bad, but has been going on for a long time. TV is a horrible manipulator, but so are magazine advertisements and even signage coloring. Why is the M on a McDonald's yellowy-orange? Because that color makes humans think food. I find all of it a bit slimy, but it is our reality.