ulanbato Posted September 26, 2015 Posted September 26, 2015 Hi all, I have just finished reading this article about the lengths freemium producers and their publishers will go to extract data from their userbase. I was rather disturbed, although not at all surprised, to find out they employed such tactics as befriending whales on facebook pretending to be attractive girls, lurking in the background to find out tastes and behaviour profiles so they could adjust the games IAP to appeal specifically to that whale. I was also a bit concerned by the fact that they claim to know your income level, where you work, when you go to work, and presumably other places you go and when you go there too. This extends far beyond play patterns and is of course as we all know shared with advertising networks. Have these games gone a step too far? Something not mentioned in the article, which states that we could prevent this by buying more premium (rather than freemium) content, is that certain apps still market all your data even though you bought the premium copy. For example "Talking Ben The Dog" by outfit 7, who have no qualms about continually marketing and pushing ads in the face of premium purchasers, treating them as whales. (Edit: It now seems theyve gone a step further, turning the paid app into a free app, reinstalling everyones paid apps as free with ads, with no way to get rid of the ads and IAP. Ugh, i'm glad i uninstalled that muck years ago) What are your own thoughts on these practices? Quote
Coly010 Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 They are a business, businesses need cash flow to stay afloat, they'll do it in the ways they see most profitable. Some may weigh up the ethics of it, some may not. More people will download a game that is free despite having ads in it than a game that is paid (unless it's a clear cut winner) Quote
SRB Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 They are a business, businesses need cash flow to stay afloat, they'll do it in the ways they see most profitable. Some may weigh up the ethics of it, some may not. More people will download a game that is free despite having ads in it than a game that is paid (unless it's a clear cut winner) Judging by the signature links, I think you may be talking to a bot Quote
Coly010 Posted October 4, 2015 Posted October 4, 2015 I don't even look at signatures normally.. Quote
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