The original thread was a public awareness announcement about the devs most likely selling your location data for those of you who watch ads. I wasn’t able to gain enough conclusive data to find that to be 100% factual. So everything stated below is based on perception and experience.
The bed time story starts…last week a player named Firrian figured out that you could skip ads and still get the “rewards” despite it clearly saying “skip ads and you cannot receive the reward”. Firrian spread this knowledge to some other members. Potentially 100 other members depending on who bothers reading his advice. A few days later Firrian had zero ads available… On any of his 7 Gems of War accounts. Despite the patch notes saying “one ad available every 8 hours”. So potentially 3 ads in 24 hours. Interesting enough, only when Firrian used his accounts at his physical locations were the ads blocked from his viewing. Others in different states or countries could log into his account and have ads available to them.
To be fair Firrian was able to watch 2-3 ads between his 7 accounts during a 4 day period. So if not a complete IP block, definitely a tremendous throttle?
Let’s assume that no one ratted on poor Firrian. And therefore ruined such knowledge like that from being spread out again. Instead assume that the rewards to ad time ratio at Firrian’s location was tracked and raised a red flag in the matrix.
And perhaps it’s not poor Firrian since what he did could be considered an exploit. Though I hardly see gaining a 100 gold every 8 hours and saving 28 seconds of your life from ads being an exploit. I would call it “Tivoing”. But that’s semantics… And still not the point. Once the devs returned to their lair. The very next day. Firrian had his 3 ads back again each day on all 7 of his accounts. But the option to skip ads is nowcompletely removed, at least for him.
Based on Firrian’s personal experience with ads. I’m at least 100% certain that my location data, and whatever else from my soul I signed away with the Terms and Conditions is for sale every time I watch an ad. I believe…that data is worth a lot more than 100 gold and the tiny chance I’ll get 30 times more gold or 10 gems from viewing the ad. So though the ability to skip ads and get rewards is most likely an exploit that’s been “patched”. The devs are currently exploiting your data by giving you digital pennies while they receive real dollars. In my opinion.
TL:DR - Value yourself and your data. Don’t bother watching ads until more than just 90 seconds of your daily life is compensated for. Instead decide what is your data worth to 3rd party companies. It should be way more than 100 gold.
Ads are location based… surprise surprise. And since you are in Iowa, they just assume you are already going to buy Farm Simulator , so no need to advertise.
Do you get a lot of Toothpaste ads on Xbox?
Oh wait… You don’t get any ads… So you’re chiming in on a subject that doesn’t concern you. Shocker.
Just keep in mind anyone can play the stereotype game. So it’s best not to play it at all.
P.S. - I think farming simulator is free for me on Gamepass or Xcloud… Can’t remember which. But thanks I guess for reminding me that there’s a 20th edition of a Farming simulator.
One thread about lack of ads was a bug report. Currently under investigation.
Second thread. Wasn’t a bug report (and was changed to this) but was…a conversation for PC/Mobile players according to the category.
They aren’t though. Which you don’t know. Because you don’t get ads from GoW. You just have an overly inflated sense of knowledge for things that are GoW based. Despite your lack of any experience with the ads in gems of war.
Ahh, but I do. My wife plays gems on steam, and I do occasionally play that account. I also subscribe to a not cheap VPN, so I can IP spoof any where in the world. Which I might do just to see how varied these ads are.
The company I work for does mobile and social media advertising to sell stuff, and I hear in meetings all about marketing campaigns, targeted keywords, targeted ads, google analytics. So I actually do know a few things about this
Ads aren’t on Steam. All you’re doing is showing your ignorance on the matter more and more.
That’s wonderful. But unless the company is I+2, 505 Games, or any of the games/products advertising on GoW. Then it has nothing to do with the original issue that I was sharing.
I can’t watch every episode on Mad Man and tell professionals how advertising works.
Nor can you tell me how advertising works in Gems of War when you don’t work for the companies nor even watched a single ad in the game.
But I was right, Farming Simulator 17 is on Project Xcloud. And since I’m on the beta on it, and have been a beta tester in GoW. Based on your logic…I get to have an opinion on every single beta test done in regards to software.
It’s enough to know how advertising works in general. By playing an add on your machine you not only disclose your ip address (which identifies your location), you also agree to allow the add company to maintain an extensive tracking profile (adds you’ve watched, how you reacted to them). Some countries have laws that require you to opt in to that agreement, others assume implicit consent just by opening the add.
It’s really pretty much common sense it works this way, otherwise most of the adds you are seeing would be in a random language you don’t understand any word of.
I don’t think it’s “common sense” by any means.
But I don’t disagree with you. I’m sure everything has been consented by us. You’re quoting me out of context. My overall point was that the ads aren’t specific to my location. I realize that ads can be. These ones aren’t. But if you aren’t playing on mobile, then you wouldn’t know that. Nor does the individual I was speaking to.
I haven’t watched ads in weeks. I play on phone at night or when I’m not at a computer basically, but even then, I never bother to click on an ad. In fact, I could click the ad, set the phone down, and do something else… but it just seems like a hassle. The reward is so worthless, I don’t even want to waste my time clicking. And yet here I am typing about it, gee, I could have made 100 gold while the ad played!
Obviously ads are location based, otherwise there is no money in it for anyone. That’s a known fact for all mobile game advertising. So I don’t understand the outrage.
I’m still really pissed off about the fact that I can’t get rid of the stupid ad button on mobile. I still think they should make it possible to just mute the entire ad crap if you achieve a certain VIP level. Say 6 for instance.
All the ads are played regardless of your location.
Could they be different languages? Maybe. But the same game advertised in the US will be advertised in different locations.
Whether it was “common sense” of me or not.
I didn’t think they were selling my data based on my location. I figured they were just saying money off pure advertising. Not data sharing.
So not so much outrage as “Hey community. For 100 gold you’re giving me away your personal data that’s worth a lot more.”
So if anything, it’s the stingyness on the devs side that’s alarming.
No one said anything about anyone related to GoW selling your data.
The companies that run the ads, ie the 1s that gems have a contract with, will collect data about the ads. Like length watched, any clicks, location, mobile phone used, etc. This is all collected, to better show targeted ads. Same as Facebook collecting your data to show more targeted ads.
Im not saying Gems knows your actual physical address btw, so dont run out and buy all the tin foil, but so far nothing in this thread is new information, or at least shouldnt be.
And before you go on your “you dont play on mobile you dont get a say” I do play on mobile.
That’s what I’m saying. Do you need tinfoil hats to know about IP addresses?
You mean to the one player on the thread who plays on Xbox and Steam and never mobile? Yeah it was really unfair of me to point out that he has zero FIRST HAND experience with the mobile ads in gems of war.
No one didn’t say they weren’t either. I’m alleging that they do. And simply aren’t watching ads anymore because of it. At least as long as that data is only worth 100 gold to them. You have zero proof to show that they aren’t selling the data. While others on the thread are saying “it’s common sense” to know that they are selling players data.
