May 29, 2023
621
OK, no. CoD is not a 'war simulator' and conceptually I'm offended at the idea that a company should not advertise/sell a given product because of what an individual may or may not see as 'appropriate' based on world events. It is entirely within your rights to purchase or not purchase something. It is entirely not within your rights to limit what media other people may or may not be exposed to based on your personal judgment of 'appropriateness'.
You're allowed to be offended. Again, your experience isn't being subsidized by advertisers. There's no need to concoct it beyond that.
 

The Gold Hawk

Member
Jan 30, 2019
4,594
Yorkshire
This didn't pop for me. Maybe it's an NA thing.

But...ya know.

Iasi8ut.png


The thing that is way more annoying is when I go and try and play the single player campaign of the latest £70 AAA Call of Duty game and immediately get shoved into a trailer for a fucking battle pass.

pwu8M8y.jpg

I know that's the screen after the trailer but I was hammering buttons to try and get out of the trailer.
 
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Odesu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,568
This didn't pop for me. Maybe it's an NA thing.

But...ya know.

Iasi8ut.png


The thing that is way more annoying is when I go and try and play the single player campaign of the latest £70 AAA Call of Duty game and immediately get shoved into a trailer for a fucking battle pass

pwu8M8y.jpg

It really must suck to have paid for something full price and then get an ad for something ELSE they want you to buy. That really IS way more annoying that paying for something and then getting an ad for something else they want you to buy.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,135
Ya know makes me wonder if the ad is targeting based on your play history then?
Great point. I've pretty much never played a Bethesda game until Starfield and didn't get that one. I hadn't played Forza since maybe the 2nd month of FH5 release. Didn't get that. I did boot up and play a few games of COD about a year or so ago, I believe. I did get the cod one.
 
May 29, 2023
621
Thanks for your permission to be offended, 'good faith' argument man.

Consoles are subsidized by advertisers, as well as other revenue sources outside of the initial console purchase.
Please don't misgender me.

I'm not interested in seeking excuses for why companies should advertise to me. That isn't my job as a consumer. It shouldn't be normalized nor should it be excused. Again, end users should have the right to avoid advertisements without concessions. Ease of discharge if irrelevant.
 

alexjimithing

Member
Aug 20, 2019
670
Please don't misgender me.

I'm not interested in seeking excuses for why companies should advertise to me. That isn't my job as a consumer. It shouldn't be normalized nor should it be excused. Again, end users should have the right to avoid advertisements without concessions. Ease of discharge if irrelevant.

Sorry for misgendering, wasn't my intention.

We don't need 'excuses' for why companies advertise, we know why. It's the same reason end users will never have the right to avoid ads without spending significant amounts of money to specifically remove ads.

The amount of money an end user is willing to spend on a given product will never outweigh the amount of money that comes in through ad revenue.

A world without ads, or the option to never see ads, would be great, but as it is consumers would have to spend way more than they're comfortable with in order to support production of the media they want in order for that world to be a reality.
 
Feb 19, 2023
1,930
what equivalent ads are you referencing? what platforms, what was being advertised, and when?

So now the goalpost has moved to "equivalent" ads? So, what classifies an equivalent ad? Full screen versus 80% of the screen is different? Why does it matter? This shit should be condemned consistently and across the board.

Look, ads are annoying as fuck and we've been unfortunately dealing with this shit for two gens now. It's only getting worse across the board to include websites and streaming services that require you to pay for an ad-free experience. Shit sucks and it's good for us to keep these companies on their toes and express our frustrations.

However, this thread is incredibly blown out of proportion which is because it's a mix of legitimate concern, faux outrage, thinly-veiled console warring, angst being taken out because of how shitty ads being shoved in our face is for us (in general), incorrectly relating this to the ABK acquisition (even Tom Warren had to step out and address this), confused people wondering why this has 20 pages, confused people wondering why pressing 1 button to have it permanetely go away warrants 20 pages (and then being accused of defending ads), confused people wondering why this exact thing happening for the past year warranted zero discussion whilst now it's one of the most active threads in a long time, people wondering why this is being "defended" and possibly (?) people defending ads (I've been active in this thread and have not really seen people openly defending ads).

Let's be real now. Certain people are getting fact-checked because they're incorrectly saying you need to press 3+ buttons to back out when it's really just one button (B), or that this is a recurring issue when it happens only one time per user, or how this is actually so much worse than XYZ (is it, though?), etc., which actually muddies up the conversation for people that actually are arguing in good faith. Just look at the amount of drive-bys during the first half of the thread.

And yes, people are going to continue and come in here wondering why this thread has 20+ pages. That shouldn't be surprising.
 

Lydecker

Member
Aug 13, 2020
1,222
User banned (5 days): Console wars
So sad... because they can't do it with a game they made themselves because they have no games of their own.

Also, get those intrusive ads out of my face.

Also, why are these wargames so popular in times of terrible conflicts in Ukraine and Israel (and in general)?
 

Gestault

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,494
I've seen several people make otherwise totally reasonable posts but insisting ads like this aren't grounds for frustration because it's "only one time per user," even though they're aware of the Forza/Starfield/etc versions of the same ad format. Meaning that is a recurring issue. Vigilante Joker , yours is the one I just noticed now, but it's definitely not just you.

Obviously I'm not saying this disqualifies everything else they're saying, but a subset of people seemingly aren't willing to recognize they're talking about an ad slot, in the sense that it'll presumably be a thing moving forward. So someone like me saying "yo, I don't want pop-up ads on my console, and if things get too lousy with ads I'll avoid them" isn't just talking about [this one individual instance], I'm talking about how this is an ongoing/recurring ad slot that I think is too disruptive.

A fullscreen pop-up that you have to dismiss before doing anything else is more disruptive for me than a square on a content grid that's part of the interface. That's no different than how I feel about web-page or mobile ads, and I think people aren't being serious if they're saying they don't understand that difference.
 
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Apr 12, 2021
60
So now the goalpost has moved to "equivalent" ads? So, what classifies an equivalent ad? Full screen versus 80% of the screen is different? Why does it matter? This shit should be condemned consistently and across the board.

Look, ads are annoying as fuck and we've been unfortunately dealing with this shit for two gens now. It's only getting worse across the board to include websites and streaming services that require you to pay for an ad-free experience. Shit sucks and it's good for us to keep these companies on their toes and express our frustrations.

However, this thread is incredibly blown out of proportion which is because it's a mix of legitimate concern, faux outrage, thinly-veiled console warring, angst being taken out because of how shitty ads being shoved in our face is for us (in general), incorrectly relating this to the ABK acquisition (even Tom Warren had to step out and address this), confused people wondering why this has 20 pages, confused people wondering why pressing 1 button to have it permanetely go away warrants 20 pages (and then being accused of defending ads), confused people wondering why this exact thing happening for the past year warranted zero discussion whilst now it's one of the most active threads in a long time, people wondering why this is being "defended" and possibly (?) people defending ads (I've been active in this thread and have not really seen people openly defending ads).

Let's be real now. Certain people are getting fact-checked because they're incorrectly saying you need to press 3+ buttons to back out when it's really just one button (B), or that this is a recurring issue when it happens only one time per user, or how this is actually so much worse than XYZ (is it, though?), etc., which actually muddies up the conversation for people that actually are arguing in good faith. Just look at the amount of drive-bys during the first half of the thread.

And yes, people are going to continue and come in here wondering why this thread has 20+ pages. That shouldn't be surprising.

You are out of your mind if you are seriously offering up that people posting 'LOL 1 button press', 'B', or "2 seconds? It should've only been 1!" are doing so to fact-check other people posting it's three button press - it's being done exclusively to dunk on others and I have no idea why you feel the need to defend it.

The discussion in and has always been - for most of the people seriously posting to complain about this - that's it's a full page ad appearing on start up that you must interact with before you can even get to your dashboard, it is very clearly the definition of intrusive. It's not anyone moving goalposts, no one is complaining about the regular ads that continue to be displayed on xbox and ps5 dashboards every day - it's the nature of this one specifically that is causing concern.

These discussions wouldn't need to get 20+ pages if people clearly operated in good faith with what others are actually saying, but so far the only real discussion is about how fast you can close the ad, how people discussing how problematic this type of ad is are 'outraged' when this 'isnt that big of a deal', or how this is clearly just FUD surrounding the first post-acquisition ABK game, as if there aren't two decades of precedence for discussion surrounding the problematic nature of companies pushing microtransactions/advertisements for devices users have already shelled out hundreds for. You're right though, I'm sure people disliking ads you must interact with to close are just console warriors.
 

BobLoblaw

This Guy Helps
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,360
So sad... because they can't do it with a game they made themselves because they have no games of their own.

Also, get those intrusive ads out of my face.

Also, why are these wargames so popular in times of terrible conflicts in Ukraine and Israel (and in general)?
They did it with both Forza and Starfield. Still sad? And now we've moved the goalpost from one-time pop-up ads that you can skip in one second to a discusion about "wargames" and their appropriateness during ongoing conflicts? This thread's something else.
 
Nov 19, 2019
10,231
So now the goalpost has moved to "equivalent" ads? So, what classifies an equivalent ad? Full screen versus 80% of the screen is different? Why does it matter? This shit should be condemned consistently and across the board.
The goalposts have only been moved by people saying "what about switch/ps5/resetera/youtube/highway billboards".

This thread isn't about those things. Its about a specific thing.

If someone wants to make an "all ads suck OT" then have at it. Discussion of all of those unrelated and fundamentally different ad practices can live there in harmony. But this thread ain't about those other things.
 

gothi

Prophet of Truth
Member
Jun 23, 2020
4,433
PlayStation is when you hover over the store tab
Just in case you weren't aware, the Sony situation varies depending on the region of your account. If you have a USA account the console boots to a tab called "Explore" which is a page of adverts and other things.
 

Aswitch

"This guy are sick"
Member
Nov 27, 2017
5,133
Los Angeles, CA
Yeah not a fan of these. Feeling a bit too predatory to my liking. Experienced it yesterday. I mean...I was going to play MW3 anyway, but still.
 
Mar 19, 2020
1,325
People are ready to burn the house down over…nothing really!

Sure, ads suck. Yep. I don't see this as particularly more egregious than most. If this was every time you turned on your Xbox, I'd understand it. Once every couple months for high profile Xbox releases? We're bitching about the most first world of problems.

Edit: Far worse is the line of games advertised before I can get to my pinned games on the dashboard…
 

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,504
"It's just one pop-up browser window. Close it and move on. Who cares? Stop overreacting. LOL the outrage!" -- Someone in 1999, probably

Fuck that noise. Also, the "gotcha" about Starfield and Forza is tiresome. Guess what, those ads were bad too. Perhaps it wasn't talked about as much simply because it wasn't established as a pattern of intrusive ads just yet, or someone simply didn't happen to make a thread? Nah, must be because they're secretly hypocrites or whatever the fuck 🙄

This is literally the slippery slope fallacy.
It's not a fallacy if there's literally multiple precedents of this happening

Just like horse armour, right?
Haha, yep. And Youtube ads. And browser pop-ups. And ad-free paid streaming services that suddenly started serving ads. And...
 
Aug 13, 2019
3,615
I find it annoying when Steam occasionally opens to the store instead of my library and I dislike the stupid little pop-up letting me know what sales are going on, so, yeah, I get being annoyed by this.
 

MisterHero

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,934
I understand gaming machines should just be about the games but gamers just gotta understand that nowadays they can't game without money shooting out of every hole in their body
 

BountyHunter

Member
Apr 13, 2023
842
I can't believe it's been 24 hours since one advert appeared on my Xbox and I haven't yet been hit with video ads a la YouTube every time I start up my console. Because clearly that's where one singular ad that can be immediately closed with the press of a button is taking us....

Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and be hit by all those ads everyone's dooming about
 

Yasumi

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,594
User warned: drive-by antagonizing
About half the thread being "why are people talking about this" goes a long way.
Going by the most active posters in this thread, it's way more than half. Also "Why are people only talking about this now" Because somebody only made a thread now. I'd find this super obnoxious whenever it had happened to get posted.
 

Dis

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,026
User warned: drive-by antagonizing
Going by the most active posters in this thread, it's way more than half. Also "Why are people only talking about this now" Because somebody only made a thread now. I'd find this super obnoxious whenever it had happened to get posted.

Members of era posting these takes are either children who didn't see the criticisms of Xbox ads for the last almost 15 years now and/or they are somehow unable to understand that people can ignore some things that annoy then just fine and then when said annoying thing keeps happening and getting more common they get a greater reaction of annoyance to it and voice more criticism of it.

"but why is it only mentioned now!!!" Because it's 1) maybe seen by more people now as these ads don't always show for everyone at the same time so may not have popped up before for those folks who now got them 2) because once again, the very basic concept of things getting more annoying if they're repeatedly done as opposed to done one or two times and the reaction of it happening more times getting greater along with it isn't a complex thing to understand for anyone who isn't a child.

Those who will bend over backwards so far as to create conspiracy theories about anti Xbox narratives are being absolute asshats who should check their own fanboy nonsense at the door before trying to throw shade at others. People hating ads, especially on paid products, isn't a new phenomena and isn't something that needs a conspiracy theory to explain the logic of. It's a daily occurrence in multiple services and industries, and is criticised constantly. The moment it happens to a console some folks can't handle that fact and will do whatever they can to pretend it's not a thing that has ever happened or can be criticised.
 

dose

Member
Oct 29, 2017
2,514
"It's just one pop-up browser window. Close it and move on. Who cares? Stop overreacting. LOL the outrage!" -- Someone in 1999, probably

Fuck that noise. Also, the "gotcha" about Starfield and Forza is tiresome. Guess what, those ads were bad too. Perhaps it wasn't talked about as much simply because it wasn't established as a pattern of intrusive ads just yet, or someone simply didn't happen to make a thread? Nah, must be because they're secretly hypocrites or whatever the fuck 🙄


It's not a fallacy if there's literally multiple precedents of this happening


Haha, yep. And Youtube ads. And browser pop-ups. And ad-free paid streaming services that suddenly started serving ads. And...
Ha exactly. If people are accepting of this companies will continue to push the boundaries that little bit more each time, to no benefit to the customer. I know how it goes, Marketing teams love to bombard the customer with crap like this.
 

Dis

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,026
Still no ad in Europe, now i'm feeling left out :(

PS5 also doesn't default to ads being the main start page in Europe afaik. Seems like both of these companies are far more careful with how they throw these ads up to users in Europe, I'd love to hear why that is, if it isn't a legal reason then it could simply come down to the fact that Europeans by and large maybe aren't going to be accepting of such things as Americans are, but it would be interesting to know what the reason is.
 

Aarglefarg

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,076
"It's just one pop-up browser window. Close it and move on. Who cares? Stop overreacting. LOL the outrage!" -- Someone in 1999, probably

Fuck that noise. Also, the "gotcha" about Starfield and Forza is tiresome. Guess what, those ads were bad too. Perhaps it wasn't talked about as much simply because it wasn't established as a pattern of intrusive ads just yet, or someone simply didn't happen to make a thread? Nah, must be because they're secretly hypocrites or whatever the fuck 🙄
For me, it is different when it's advertising something you have access to, saying it's available now (like one of their showcases, or a game that is on Game Pass to a subscriber to that) and an unexpected Buy Now button selected by default. Even though the former had an upsell button for the deluxe version further along the screen, it's a clear escalation.
 

LossAversion

The Merchant of ERA
Member
Oct 28, 2017
10,778
"It's just one pop-up browser window. Close it and move on. Who cares? Stop overreacting. LOL the outrage!" -- Someone in 1999, probably

Fuck that noise. Also, the "gotcha" about Starfield and Forza is tiresome. Guess what, those ads were bad too. Perhaps it wasn't talked about as much simply because it wasn't established as a pattern of intrusive ads just yet, or someone simply didn't happen to make a thread? Nah, must be because they're secretly hypocrites or whatever the fuck 🙄


It's not a fallacy if there's literally multiple precedents of this happening


Haha, yep. And Youtube ads. And browser pop-ups. And ad-free paid streaming services that suddenly started serving ads. And...
Yep. It's funny seeing people try to downplay this with the "what about these ads that didn't get a thread!" nonsense. Like, if someone did make a thread about those, I would have had the same exact reaction. What people show an interest in on these forums makes no difference to how shit this practice is. There will always be people using every little thing for console wars. That doesn't mean you should be defending a shitty thing. Trying to make anyone that is annoyed by this out to be some hysterical fanboy is just as obnoxious as the actual console warriors.
 

AntiMacro

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,156
Alberta
For all the anger people here have about it, I would bet there's a ton of casual gamers going 'holy SHIT the new CoD is out?' and making it all worthwhile haha
 

Dis

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,026
Expect this type of heat on anything ABK related going forward.

Should we also expect anti Xbox conspiracy theories from certain members of era to pop up anytime a criticism of Xbox or MS shows up going forward? Even criticisms that have been an ongoing point of issue for well over a decade now?
 
Nov 19, 2019
10,231
Should we also expect anti Xbox conspiracy theories from certain members of era to pop up anytime a criticism of Xbox or MS shows up going forward? Even criticisms that have been an ongoing point of issue for well over a decade now?
Yeah i find that line of thinking really questionable.

If the point is "people are gonna demonstrate more scrutiny of Xbox after they bought ABK" well…yeah, absolutely.

People certainly aren't going to pay less attention. No anti-anything conspiracies required.
 

Drksage

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,301
Just in case you weren't aware, the Sony situation varies depending on the region of your account. If you have a USA account the console boots to a tab called "Explore" which is a page of adverts and other things.

Ah okay, I think I may remember something like that on ps4. Been ages tho since I'm mostly on PC.

Expect this type of heat on anything ABK related going forward.

The funny thing is, in any other circumstances you might have had a point there. Except, this isn't ABK related at all, there's posts with valid arguments and criticism, and yet the best defense is to pull the conspiracies/persecution complex.