Adware in the installer -- EXTREMELY unclassy

Has anyone else noticed this during the KAG install?


Is this really necessary? I normally cancel install and forget about games that include this kind of crap. KAG is an awesome game and I figured the developer would be above this.

 

Well think about it, they are making this game for free and maybe 1/10 people pay to have a gold account. If including this in the installer nets them 1 dollar per install and you HAVE the option to opt out then I say its fine. These are the compromises you have to make when you go F2P.

 

True Utahraptor, but this is a compromise I hope indie devs do not resort to. I'm okay with premium accounts, or other ways to get the developer money within the game, but adware in an installer is a completely different beast. No one in their right mind would install something like that, so it preys on the uninformed or those who just click 'accept' on everything without reading. It's underhanded.

 

If someone doesn't have the sense to opt out of these kinds of things then eventually they will install it, no matter where its coming from, they shouldn't have to cater to those kind of people. also, worst case he gets some coupons and saves money =w=. But seriously, I think you are being a little harsh, indie devs have hard enough time and if they have to additional means of income I am ok with it. Its not like they are trying to trick people into installing it, its very straight forward and as long as you are reading you can avoid it.

 

It's just an offer. You don't have to install it.

Now, if it forced you to install, I'd call that unclassy.

 

Meh,

Give the devs a break. This is their job. They need to make money from it. It's a screen you can ignore.

It's all very well saying "I don't mind them saying buy the game premium but I don't accept this" but if gold members don't get them the money they need to live reasonably comfortably i'd say it's not worth whinging about an ad that makes their life a little easier and updates come regularly.

 

I hate too when a program tries to trick us into installing questionable software (specially when the default option is "I agree"). However, it is completely understandable, as we are given the game for free. The community is still too small to rely on gold accounts.

 

Its a bit unpleasant to have this stuff come at you, but as long as its not forcing you to do anything against your will just to access something entirely different, its ok.

It also warns you before doing so and it seems it set to "off" by default, so you would install it by accident if you keep hitting "next" without paying any attention, so thats even better. Besides, I've seen much worse examples of this crap on other software.

 

Nexters

Nexters your days are numbered!

I'm so glad there's none of this in the linux client :)

To respond to OP, yeah it's not classy, but MM's been doing this since the Middle Soldat days (2004? version 1.2.x? can't recall)

 

If you ask me you're overreacting. Chances are MM doesn't even know what sort of ads actually come up there, or he has a rough idea but doesn't know the exact program, he's just agreed to have some ads in his installer. So long as it's set default no, you can literally miss this ad for an installed program by clicking next and nothing harmful will go onto your pc. Literally you can just completely skip the text without even being aware of the ad itself.

How does a donation system not lend itself to an ads system? If someone wants to donate, they can, and if someone happens to actually be interested in the ad, fairplay to them, MM will get money that way as well. If you're oblivious to this sort of thing, I don't think that's any excuse.

I also don't see how it's unclassy considering literally every single setup from any website i've used has some form of ad or addon program they offer you. It's common practice. Why are we still complaining about these things?

If it was set default yes, however, that would be a different story.

 

Hey I know this is a small point but this feeds Geti as well. Just saying.

 

A lot of decent games i've installed have had ads in the setup. Plus a lot of common use programs (such as instant messengers) firewalls, antivirus software, etc all have these ads.

I'm sure you've seen before in a setup "would you like to install mcaffee antivirus?", so i'm really struggling to understand you when you say all the ads are spyware, they're simply not.

I don't see how anyone can be considered a decent person when they have the attitude that someone updating and distributing an entirely free game is moneygrabbing, whether or not they include ads (which may not even be spyware) and premium addons. That's just business, it's completely obvious.

 

Sorry Geti, I do generally say "MM and Geti" a lot, it's just sometimes I miss out your name in the middle of writing because i'm trying to get the point out there.