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Bocian

Arcane
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
1,912
People who receive this message either turn off their ad blocker, become a supporter to get an official ad-free version of the site, or they can’t read Rock Paper Shotgun.
The choice seems fairly obvious.
 

wyes gull

Savant
Joined
Apr 20, 2017
Messages
424
Hello ad block users: we'll probably be saying goodbye soon

Over the the past year, we’ve been showing a message to those of you who use an ad blocker. This message basically says, “Hey, could you not?”. It then offers a few options: whitelist RPS in your ad blocker, become an RPS supporter to get access to an official ad-free version of the site, or ignore the message and continue reading the site anyway.

We are starting to take this third option away.

Over the past month, we’ve been running a test in which we show a message to 10% of signed-out readers who use an ad blocker that does not feature a “continue ad blocking” button. People who receive this message either turn off their ad blocker, become a supporter to get an official ad-free version of the site, or they can’t read Rock Paper Shotgun. This week, we’re expanding that test to 35% of signed-out ad-blocking users. It’s likely that percentage is going to increase in the weeks and months ahead, too.

The reasons we’re doing this are fairly straightforward. Everything RPS does costs money, and most of the money we make comes from advertising. If readers are blocking the adverts on our site, then they’re benefiting from our work while not giving anything back. The more readers who block adverts, the harder it is for us to keep making everything you (hopefully) enjoy about RPS. And without advertising, RPS would cease to exist.

Since most ad blocking software blocks all adverts on all sites by default, most readers never think to whitelist the sites they enjoy or the sites which make the effort to have good advertising. That’s what the message we’ve run for the past year has aimed to change: it’s a friendly reminder that we need advertising to survive, and if you’d consider whitelisting us, that’d be a huge help.

Unfortunately, this message only converts so many users. The vast percentage of readers hit the “Continue ad blocking” button without thinking twice. By removing that button, we’re effectively leaving people with no choice: either they think our work has value and let advertising appear on the page, or they turn around and go somewhere else. Yes, this means that some people will go somewhere else.

Over the last ten years, I’ve had a lot of discussions with a lot of people about advertising. I always start by pointing out that we aim to make our advertising unobtrusive. We don’t allow auto-playing videos with sound (and if any ever sneaks in, email me and we’ll have it removed immediately). We don’t do pop-ups or sticky blocks which follow you around the page. You can customise how we use your information to personalise adverts. Our ads team work to make sure that what we show you is relevant and that we meet industry standards.

Sometimes the conversation ends here, but other times it continues. The response I hear most often is that there’s no such thing as “good” advertising, because advertising is inherently bad. This is normally either an anti-commercialism argument, a pro-privacy argument, or a PC-performance issue. I can respect a person attempting to live by a set of principles, but here’s the response I usually give: if you object to advertising in principle, then you shouldn’t read websites with adverts.

Ad blocking does not make websites better; ad blocking leads to advertising that’s more obtrusive, as it fights to get in front of you and get your attention by other means. It creates an adversarial relationship between us, the creators of RPS trying to make a living, and you, the reader trying to duck and dodge those efforts.

If you whitelist us however, and trust us to show you decent adverts, then now we’re in a mutually beneficial relationship. You become our customer and as such we’re beholden to you, and we have cause to make sure our adverts don’t chase you away.

The same is true if you decide to pay and become an RPS supporter. Sign up and you’ll get a version of RPS without adverts, but with bigger images and a cleaner reading experience.

It’s possible you’re reading all this and thinking: “I am seeing this message even though I don’t use an ad blocker.” It is extremely likely that if you’re seeing adverts but still getting the message, then it’s because you’re running another browser plugin or VPN which blocks some adverts or cookies, and therefore we have no way of knowing that you’re seeing the adverts. If you think that’s not the case and that we’re showing you the message in error, then please get in touch and we’ll do everything we can to fix the issue.

I am a reader of the internet and I know how bad advertising can be. I believe RPS’s adverts are some of the best in the business, and if you think they can be better still, then hit that email link and tell me. I have all the motivation in the world to make them better.

If you still don’t want to see our adverts, consider signing up to the RPS Supporter Program. We relaunched it back in July and now those most-beloved people who support RPS with hard cash get not only our undying appreciation, they also get games and gifts, three extra posts a week, and an official ad-free version of the site. No ad blocker required.

RIP

Oh look, RPS managed to hit triple digit comments on a post for the first time since they decided to pogrom their "problematic" audience. Congratulations! Too bad most of the comments are either people saying they're leaving or people saying their ads are effectively malware. Maybe this'll finally be the end for "Politically Correct Gaming since 1873". Auf wiedersehen!
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
Over the the past year, we’ve been showing a message to those of you who use an ad blocker. This message basically says, “Hey, could you not?”.
I don't see any such message :smug:
 

Hoaxmetal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
9,157
Those morons don't even have a monthly subscription model / donations, instead it's 6 months for 25$ or 12 for 40$ Good luck with that.
 

pOcHa

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Messages
2,855
Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
oh, you thought the games you bought digitally were actually yours to keep?

artworks-000174242113-685d5t-t500x500.jpg
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,152
Best of all even if you hit it by accident Valve won't help. Which means Valve must be totally, 100% OK with it if a publisher intentionally fucks over their customers.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
You could do that back in 2013 before the Steam Outrage Machine became a thing. Today it'd be dicier.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Vault Dweller Is this true? Is there a big old button that revokes all keys?
I've never tried it, so I have no idea how it works and whether or not it's possible to ban all keys with a single click (seems far-fetched but don't take my word for it). Batches of keys created for a specific purpose (beta, limited time access, media access, promotions, etc) can be banned (more like invalidated). Obviously, it's a last resort option that should never be used.
 
Joined
May 6, 2009
Messages
1,875,975
Location
Glass Fields, Ruins of Old Iran
https://store.steampowered.com/app/560380/MapleStory_2/?snr=1_4_4__128

Style Crate and More!
10 DE OUTUBRO - COLONELPANIC
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There's a ton of gorgeous outfits, special deals, exclusive packages and more for you to enjoy! Take a peek at the massive Style Crate, get a boost with style for your Runeblade, unlock nearly every Emote and more with the special deals below!

[...]

Continuing Sale and Event: Freebie Style Pack and Maple Milestone Packages
We're also releasing a pair of special packages to help welcome you to MapleStory 2 once you've spent 10 hours with us! The Freebie Style Pack gives you two free canvases to experiment with the powerful UGC feature plus a special Body Pillow mount.<!-- Phrasing! -->Meanwhile, the Maple Milestone Pack contains 500 special Red Merets, plus a shockingly useful mount and an adorable face accessory, but must be purchased within 24 hours of reaching 10 hours of play time. Check out the details below!

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Freebie Style Pack Details:
  • Claim the Freebie Style Pack after earning the Time Among Friends Tier 2 Trophy to gain the following items:
    • A Template Gift Box, which gives you a T-Shirt Template and Shorts Template for your current character's gender
    • A Blake Body Pillow mount
  • The Time Among Friends Tier 2 Trophy is earned by playing MapleStory 2 for 10 hours on one character
  • Templates from the Template Gift Box cannot be traded or placed on the Design Shop
  • Pack contents cannot be traded to other players
  • Can be purchased once per account

body pillow mount

:shredder:


-




They added jiggle physics. I'm done.
 
Last edited:

Dayyālu

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2012
Messages
4,466
Location
Shaper Crypt
Yes, people are forbidden to leave a bad review after a dev ruins their game with patches, especially in the era of EA.

If only most Indie devs approached the level of the Trese Brothers, your point could have more weight: they are one of the few guys doing passion projects and patching them as good as they can. Also, context.

gqALOeB.jpg
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
Reddit said:
Why are video games still so cheap in spite of inflation and the escalating costs of development, marketing, publishing, etc?
renderTimingPixel.png


I recently stumbled across this old ArsTechnica article that includes a rather shocking image of an Genesis EB ad from 1993 with prices adjusted for 2010 (even before inflation, one of the games is $65!):

https://imgur.com/a/jEepOFE

In 1993, 25 years ago, games costed around $50 - $65. Adjusting just for inflation, and not rising production and marketing costs, those games would cost $75 - $100 in 2010. Now, I realize that retailers took more liberty in raising prices back then to make a profit than they do now, but there is still a dramatic difference between then and now.

Even with older retail practices considered, why the hell are we still only paying $60 for games in 2018?!

People wonder why publishers nickle-and-dime us in paid games, or why most AAA games have three editions around $60, $80, and $100 (which is about what games should cost based on inflation)? Well, creating games costs exponentially more now than it did 25 years ago... but the base price of games hasn't increased in almost just as long. Why is this? Movie ticket price have tripled in that time. Fast food and grocery prices have doubled.

I wonder if we would have such an issue with microtransactions and special editions if the price of games continued to rise instead of freezing in place around 15 years ago. It seems to me like studios and publishers have all these other ways to squeeze money out of consumers because they are selling their games at a loss and need to make up that loss somehow. What if we actually paid what games were worth, and that was it? What if games were sold for a profit at the start?

Just something that's been on my mind lately. I am really curious if anyone here has some inside games industry perspective on this. I've had some limited involvement in the industry, but never at the level required to understand the full extent of how low video game prices impact studios and publishers.

Yikes.

Video games by nature are unaffected by scarcity and have infinite supply. By keeping the real value of the product low they increase the overall demand as long as the market isn't saturated.
One of the titles they mention(Sonic the Hedgehog 2) sold 400k copies worldwide in its first week. If we make basic assumptions because I'm lazy($49.99 per sale), that comes out to $20,000,000 in 1992 dollars or about $37m in 2018 dollars.
GTAV made $800m in its first 24 hours for reference.
 

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