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Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

forever.sega.com

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Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#81

Post by ClassyJacket »

ohyes wrote: post #18
tdiggity wrote: post #10

The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.

Is this a joke? It seriously sounds like an onion article, that's how absurd it is.

No, this is quite common. They have ads now which are just webviews that open an HTML\JavaScript version of a small slice of a game, often Game of War or similar generic RTS\tower defense mobile trash. Apple actually does allow this app-within-an-app method of code downloading if it's just a webview. They actually force you to not just watch but actually play and progress in the game for about 20/30 seconds (i.e. add play one short round of tower defense or drop a few units on the ground and fire at enemies) before going back to the app.

I'm trying to find an example of a game with it so you can see for yourself (I would assume many Android games have the same thing), but it seems I've uninstalled them all out of frustration.

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#83

Post by asadlionpk »

edgartaor wrote: post #69
gambiting wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not without rooting it isn't. I don't think even Android 7.0 has an option to disable internet access on per-app basis - you can disable most permissions, but accessing the internet does not require a special permission(there used to be an INTERNET permission but it has been removed by Google)

There's a way. A firewall, that work as a local VPN. You don't need to root your Android. I use NetGuard. https://www.netguard.me It's open source.

I wonder if this local vpn trick would work on iOS.

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#84

Post by richmarr »

chc wrote: post #67
Majestic121 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, they need to make money somehow and I actually don't have any issue with the way Sega is doing it (ads if you don't want to pay money, or 2€ if you don't want to pay with ads). What I object to is mainly assimilating not paying money and being free : it's not free if there are ads, you're paying with time, mind share (because there would not be that much money in ads if it was not at least a little bit effec…

You may as well say that a game is not free if it poses a challenge, since then you pay in frustration. When we're talking about prices, "free" refers to money. You're certainly right that there are other interesting axes you could examine games on, but I don't see how they belong on the game's price tag.

To pay in frustration the company would need to have a revenue model that could make money from your frustration.

As things stand, they have ads, which require your attention not your frustration. That means time paying attention to the ads in addition to the time spent playing the actual game.

And you keep referring to the price tag, but as everyone in software knows there are different meanings of 'free'. Not all of them refer to money, but all of them are important to understand.

In this case the argument is clearly about things like child-appropriate content; at which point there is a clearly valid need to distinguish between ad-supported and non-ad-supported apps. You can argue about what to call them if you like, but 'free' and 'ad-funded' wouldn't seem far from the mark.

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#85

Post by ObeyTheGuts »

apapli wrote: post #29

Having a 4 year old son I am the first person to put my hand up and say I absolutely HATE ads and general in-app purchases for games that he likes to play on my iPhone. In some cases the way these are implemented it is almost akin to being in a casino which is not a skill I really want my son picking up (watch this ad to see what prize you can WIN etc). I welcome Sega's announcement and will be delighted to hand over…

Protecting ur kid from reality will make him loser! You should not be alowed custody of your son!

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#86

Post by lucasverra »

tdiggity wrote: post #10

The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.

How does this "gameplay" react with ad blocking dns ?

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#87

Post by patrec »

beefsack wrote: post #19
tdiggity wrote: post #10

The Sonic game uses the most vile type of in-app ad. The ad requires you to play Game of War for some indeterminate amount of time. You are made to play it after every stage. I hope Sega changes this, it basically makes their game unplayable.

I'm starting to get to the point where I wish people weren't allowed to call advertising supported products "free." I don't know what other term would be better, but I feel like users are paying some non-monetary cost.

Users are (on average) clearly paying some monetary cost as well, otherwise the business model would not make sense. So rather than paying X to get a product, you now pay some Y >> X, plus the additional annoyance and wasted time.

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#88

Post by apapli »

huhtenberg wrote: post #64
apapli wrote: post #29

Having a 4 year old son I am the first person to put my hand up and say I absolutely HATE ads and general in-app purchases for games that he likes to play on my iPhone. In some cases the way these are implemented it is almost akin to being in a casino which is not a skill I really want my son picking up (watch this ad to see what prize you can WIN etc). I welcome Sega's announcement and will be delighted to hand over…

Set up a DNS proxy, point your son's iPad at it, tail the log and then blacklist domains that serve these ads. Bonus, this can also be used to remove YouTube and other kinds of ads as well as all the phone-home "analytics" if that's your thing. -- Edit -- Some options: http://www.thekelleys.org.uk/dnsmasq/doc.html + ToDo's via Google https://github.com/apankrat/dnswhisperer or more generally https://github.com/search…

Wow, thanks!

Re: Sega releasing every console game for free with ads on mobile

#90

Post by phatak-dev »

psibi wrote: post #71
gambiting wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not without rooting it isn't. I don't think even Android 7.0 has an option to disable internet access on per-app basis - you can disable most permissions, but accessing the internet does not require a special permission(there used to be an INTERNET permission but it has been removed by Google)

Haven't tried if it works but my android version (6.0.1) seems to have an option for disabling internet for specific apps. Note that I haven't rooted (yet). Going to Settings -> Data Usage -> Settings will show me a list of apps and I can chose between following four options Allow, Forbidden, Wi-Fi only and Data only.

It works.
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