Wow, that's brutal, even if unintended. I can see what they're trying to do - but this will probably alienate players even more. I think the solution to all the player complaints would be to simply disallow quickplay traffic to Pinion servers. That way, server operators can still use it if they wish, but they will need to attract & build traffic the old-fashioned way (via the server browser). I honestly think that's the litmus test for a good server environment - will it stay full without quickplay? For pinion/3rd party ad supported servers (that interrupt the natural operation/flow of the game to force an ad on players), I doubt they would survive without being constantly fed easy traffic.
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 21:00:36 -0400 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising It's not on purpose. Just a side effect of their implementation. What they did was add a dynamic timer. So if there's no ad you can skip right away, if there is an ad it prevents you from closing it while the ad is playing. And all of this is queried in real time. So a 13 second ad will only prevent you for 13 seconds. Where as before their system would just force everyone to wait 30 or whatever seconds. Even when there was no ad. Now if you have Pinion blocked in one way or another, it will assume your video is taking a long time to load and will wait as long as the plugin allows (which was decreased to 40 seconds in the new plugin or something). I haven't looked at the code in a while either, but that's what it was like before. On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Doctor McKay <[email protected]> wrote: Evidently, Pinion has implemented procedures to delay the game for players who block their ad server in their hosts file. I haven't looked at the code though, I'm only going from what SPUF has spewed forth. Honestly, just blacklisting the servers is your best bet. If you believe that a server that forces advertisements on its players is of poor quality, why would you consciously choose to play on it? Regardless, this is a discussion for SPUF/SPUD, and it's already been beaten into the ground several times over there. Doctor McKay http://www.doctormckay.com [email protected] On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 9:58 AM, Mart-Jan Reeuwijk <[email protected]> wrote: Nah, thats a blacklist for in TF2, so you don't see those servers. technically its not a ad-blocker. creating the hosts file to block the advert server of pinion would be considered such. From: Christopher Andrews <[email protected]> To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, 5 June 2013, 15:35 Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising Didn't Dr. McKay already make one? On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 9:33 AM, Patrick Delle Grazie <[email protected]> wrote: Here’s an idea. Why don’t one of you stalwarts create an in game ad blocker. J But then of course you’d have to advertise it to get people to use it. ;) P. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Saint K. Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 9:26 AM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising It's a server discussion mailing list, we, the server operators make the call on advertisements. No need for SPUF, perfectly valid here. Saint K. From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Sebastian Iskra [[email protected]] Sent: 05 June 2013 14:18 To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising Once upon a time there was SPUF. /thread. On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 8:04 AM, Saint K. <[email protected]> wrote: Once upon a time there was an era where community's survived on donations. Receiving donations was an indication of the community doing a good job, after all, if they weren't, they wouldn't receive donations and the community wouldn't last. With crap like Pinion nowadays all that counts is luring people in to connect and then earn money per player being forced to watch the pinion crap in their MOTD (MVM matchmaking and quickplay makes for an easy task to do this). You can host the most shittiest servers now and still earn money to survive. I for one would like to see VALVe picks up their old policies again, where advertising in their games was completely prohibited. Want to have better quality servers again VALVe? Then make sure you get rid of crap like Pinion. My 2 cents. Saint K. From: [email protected] [[email protected]] on behalf of Devin [[email protected]] Sent: 04 June 2013 17:50 To: 'Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list' Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising Valve and Pinion are independent companies. Pinion is designed to help offset the overhead required to host servers, web sites, etc. Valve isn’t going to force you to start using pinion. My goodness, use some brain power at some point. Don’t just spew your knee-jerk reactions on a mailing list that end up harassing people with your bonehead thoughts. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Doctor McKay Sent: Monday, June 03, 2013 4:49 PM To: Half-Life dedicated Win32 server mailing list Subject: Re: [hlds] NO to in game advertising This mailing list is for server operators, not for players. Please take it to SPUF or SPUD if you want to discuss this. Doctor McKayhttp://www.doctormckay.com [email protected] On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 11:49 AM, big john <[email protected]> wrote: What the hell is this random mumbo jumbo. It was clear in the first 2 sentences the you have no idea what you are talking about. On Jun 3, 2013 11:47 AM, "proto mon" <[email protected]> wrote: Holy Jesus Please disable these ads They are getting so god damn annoying, And the audio ads are even worst. They keep playing somehow even if you switch the server. You literally have to quit the game to stop the ads. On Sun, Mar 31, 2013 at 2:42 AM, G. Hutchinson <[email protected]> wrote: This pinion thing first visited the list a month or two back and I wrote a response to the list voicing my two cents. However I did this from my phone and it got bounced back for because of the previous posts not being cropped down. In short it essentially said "Shame on Valve for even entertaining something like pinion" pertaining to any in game advertising. Valve is selling hats, drop items, etc etc etc... The game is still generating money. To play the game we see advertising when we log in to steam. I don't want to see ads when playing games for Viagra, Uncle Bucks Beer, and Lysol. Everyone knows Uncle Buck is in the Klan. If Valve wants to pursue money in advertising, then replace the cereal boxes in L4D with Honeycomb and Fruit Loop boxes. Make the soda cans in the games that are lying around Pepsi cans and profit that way. You're welcome for the idea... (% my way). MAKE MOVIES... If other community owners want to show ads on their MOTD, have at it. Whether it is through pinion, or by bypassing pinion and seeking ads through other means and cutting out the "middle man", ie; pinon. Live and let live. However, my fear is about the day Valve "forces" the servers I run to show ads or do anything through the in game browser I am unaware of for that matter, of such nature. They are ran on my hardware, at my expense, running essentially an "open source" game server file(s). Or at least that's how it started out. So if this changes, I would expect to see a full disclosure on the matter, and expect to have to click something saying I approve of the conditions before downloading the new server files to my server prior to implementation. Warranting today's society, a class action suit undoubtedly would pop up and surely Valve is clever enough to think of such matters, thus dropping such a concept of pinion rather quickly. Now through my own absurdity I hope it makes Valve see it's own... If any of this pinion crap is true. I am reasonable... I would expect 50,000% profit for my share of monies generated. That is fifty thousand percent, not 50 percent. I am reasonable after all... Should the day come that I entertained a partnership with Valve as an advertising agency. This would cover any future potential and probably legal expenses expected to incur. And that's what would occur... My hardware would them become a venue of advertising the game more so than I already do, not to mention the involvement of a third party(s) and their products. I would also expect a seat on the "board" to approve and review any such ads conveyed though my medium. And the typical 20% from any advertisers I obtain and bring to the table that are interested. Should Valve "force" me to advertise through the current concept of the "MOTD Browser" in game for any of the game servers I host, I will probably not host them any longer. In fact, I am sure I would no longer host them in protest. The same if Valve will not show my servers in the game browser or include me in matchmaking pools simply because I chose not to promote advertising unknown products through such medium. That is not a way to treat the folks that assisted in making your games a success for you. WE THE PEOPLE ran the majority of the servers promoting your games at our own cost. Game console, Steam, PC computing... At what point does the "want to take over the world" settle back down to reason? Is ValveOS next (®) ? Make Half Life 3... Left4Dead 3 (bigger maps and 6/6 or 8/8 for versus please), or even make a TF3... Make money that way Valve... You look like beggars and extortionist when you team up with such things as an advertising plugin if that is what you have done. Have some dignity. Now mind you, whoever designed and thought of this pinion gig, more power too you... Brilliant... I wished I had thought of it. But Valve having any official involvement with it... Just doesn't sit right with me or anyone else I have discussed it with. Now if you think my post is ridiculous, imagine how YOU look Valve entertaining ANY involvement with such. NO TO FORCED IN GAME ADVERTISING if it is being entertained... But that's just my two cents... _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: https://list.valvesoftware.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hlds
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