Allow me to toss out a WTF moment. Yesterday Square Enix releases a patch for the PC version of Deus Ex: Human Revolution that, among other things, fixes some horrible performance bugs that have plagued the game since launch. So obviously, everybody wants to download the patch as soon as possible.
One other "feature", that wasn't mentioned in the patch notes, is the new in-game advertising system! Yes, the fifty bucks that I already paid for the game apparently isn't good enough. Now they want to show me real-world advertising on the loading screens. Yay for immersion.
Bear in mind that advertising is, in general, one of my pet peeves. I absolutely hate.. nay, despise being told what I should buy. You're not telling me anything about the product that I care to hear. If I don't already know about it through word-of-mouth (which, on the internet, is extensive, and I hang out at all the places that will have first news of anything that interests me), then it's clearly not worth my time or money. And if I do hear about it through word-of-mouth, I'll do my own research, and then I'll make up my own mind about whether to purchase your product. Therefore, I simply don't do ads, period. I have more ad-blockers installed than I know what to do with, and I frantically perma-ban anything that slips through that minefield.
So why in the holy hell would I want to see real-world advertisements in my games? If the game were free-to-play, I could understand it, although most FTP developers use other methods for profit generation than advertisements. Valve, for example, sells in-game hats that your Team Fortress characters can wear. Silly, yes, but it works, and you're not forced into it.. it's a cosmetic thing. But no.. I'm loading up the next level in DXHR, and there it is.. "Buy the Star Wars Blu-ray!!"
Really? The Star Wars Blu-ray? Do you think I live in a ***king cave? That I honestly was not aware the set existed? That I didn't already ***king own it? Of course I already own it. So why would I want to see anything.. ANYTHING telling me to run out and buy it again?
I'm waiting with baited breath to see what Square Enix has to say in its defense. Unless they want to refund my fifty bucks, their ads can go to hell.
One day later, and I've got a mod that blocks them. But what pisses me off the most is that I shouldn't have to do this for a game that I bought and paid for. It's like DVDs that don't let you fast-forward through the trailers for movies that came out six years ago. It's stupid.
You can download the mod HERE. I recommend everybody do it. And send a nasty letter to Square Enix while you're at it.
I'm out.
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