In game ads coming to XBOX...

[Hot Monkey]

If this recent news is true I will cancel my XBOX Live account and launch my console of the nearest bridge. Or maybe gut it, pack it full of litter box treats and FedEx it to Microsoft with a colorfully worded greeting card.

So let's see... I already pay for...

1. The console purchase price which is nearly double the previous console, not backwards compatible and like all consoles destined for rapid obsolescence.
2. Fast internet service which is not optional.
3. XBOX Live subscription so I can actually play online with friends.
4. Game titles that I buy and "own" have regular forced DLC updates that add to original purchase price if I want to stay current with content.
5. The majority of the cool content/skins/goodies are pay to play add on purchases as well.
6. Also rumored to be coming soon is that if I "purchase" and download a title and do not play it for a certain period it can be deleted from my account. WTF. This is not "purchasing" this is renting.
7. And now I get to watch in game ads on top of all this?

Nope. If this is for real I'm all done gaming. Thanks for ruining yet another enjoyable pastime. Honestly I should have quit somewhere around #4 when Destiny started piling on the pay to play DLC content. Enough is enough. If/when these in game ads kick in I'm done. I'll just read a book or workout more. I only really game to stay in touch with some old friends. And for the record they feel exactly the same way. We'll just find other ways to stay connected.

End of rant. Grumble grumble groan.

 

[PaulyT]

Yeah that would suck. As a PC gamer (where most of my games are through steam), hopefully this wouldn't be possible since it's not all coming through one company. I guess in theory steam itself could try to do something like that, but I can't imagine the outcry/blowback that would cause.

 

[Botch]

Enshittification extends its ugly tentacles everywhere.
Unfortunately, what you're doing, @Hot Monkey, is the only thing we can do, and not enough of us do it.
I've done the following, and many of them are frustrating:
- I refuse to fly commercially anymore (as of 7, 8 years ago?)
- I refuse to pay sirius XM another nickel; never again
- I refuse to pay for lawn treatments anymore; 31 years ago I got a single treatment in the spring and my lawn was gorgeous. Then they went to two treatments/yr, then to four, and now they want to treat my lawn six times/year! No more.
- I refuse to pay for amazon Prime anymore. There still are a couple items I can't find locally, but by careful order combining/waiting I usually get free shipping; if it takes ten days vs two, that's fine.
- I refuse to renew my longtime subscription (since ~'99) to Cooks Illustrated. Folks on my BBQ forum told of trying to cancel their digital subscriptions (on credit card), and being put thru the "you'll have to talk to my supervisor"/put on Hold/getting disconnected for up to 40 minutes, trying to wear you down (see sirius XM above). I've always renewed my CI subscription via check (which is the only way I'll subscribe to anything from now on), and the bill stated, "Since you chose Auto-Renew, send no money now, we'll bill you, oh and it'd be So Convenient to just send us your CC number..." GAAHH!! I never chose Auto-Renew (I never will) and this thread has got me fired up enough to write my FU letter to them now.
- I refuse to eat at Burger King ever again. Their drive-in sign lists a "Whopper Meal", for $7 (prices estimated, it's been awhile). Voice on the speaker asks, "Would you like a Regular or Large?" I scan the sign again, Regular was $1-something more and Large $2-something more; I told her "Just the Small". She comes back with, "We don't offer a small, would you like a regular or a large?" Me: "I want the $7 Meal you have advertised on your sign!" Voice: "We only offer a Regular or a Large, which would you like?" Me: "WHY DO YOU OFFER A $7 MEAL IF YOU DON'T SELL ONE?!?" Voice: <crickets> Fortunately there was no one ahead of me in line; I drove off. Would love to know if this is just a UT thing, or nationwide...
- And I absolutely refuse to watch ads on EweTube. Zuckerberg and buddies came up with a clever idea: offer free video hosting, collect the data on viewers, and sell that data to merchants for targeted advertising. I knew that going in and I was okay with it; zuck and buddies became billionaires, billionaires!, with that idea; you'd think they'd be eternally happy. But, no. They must have MORE MONEY!!! So they started shoving ads, then non-skippable ads, then ads internal to the video (usually interrupting the video mid-sentence). I started using a program called Wipr, then another called Vinegar, and now my ad-blocker of choice (for ewetube) is a companion program to the DuckDuckGo browser called Duck Player. They have a software update once or twice a month, they're on top of it, and they're still free (I'd pay for it, I really like it).

Blah, blah, blah, go to bed Botch! Thanks for letting me vent.

 

[Hot Monkey]

Now that was a proper rant thanks for that. I feel better about the whole Xbox thing already LOL seems minor in comparison. I’m still opting out though.

 

[Haywood]

Everyone wants to nickle and dime you. Something went goofy with a recent airline reservation. I had paid extra for the ability to reschedule, so I went in to fix it. Sure, you can reschedule. No fees at all. Unfortunately, your new itinerary is now $800 more than the original, even though all you did was move to the same flight on the previous day. Oh, also the couple hundred in fees on the original booking are not refundable. Oh, wait, that seat selection you made is no longer available. No, there are no free options left. Either roll the dice and risk getting put on the first-to-bump list or pay an extra $40 for a normal seat that shouldn't cost extra. Even though my company was paying for all this shit, I wasn't any less pissed. This is some serious bullshit. These airlines are complete scumbags.

Streaming service keep raising the rates and raising the rates, or adding ads if you don't upgrade to more expensive plans. Just about every business wants you to fucking tip. I'm at a fast food joint getting take-out, why are you asking for tips? Why do I have to go to a second screen to opt out? Are you fucking kidding me? I ordered a pizza through the restaurant's app and they charged me a $2 service fee, even though I was picking up the pizza. Why? Because I guess they figure people will pay the extra $2 rather than order at the restaurant and sit around for 20 minutes. This nickle and diming bullshit is everywhere.

Ever hear of dynamic pricing? Lawmakers are going to have to hustle to get ahead of this bullshit before it gets off the ground. They use a variety of means to identify you, analyse your spending habits, demographics, and whatever other data they have, then fee the information into an AI algorithm to determine what YOUR price will be. There is no one price with dynamic pricing. They charge what they believe you as a person can or will spend on an item. Three people can go to the store at the same time, buy the same item and pay three different prices for it. I am generally skeptical of government regulations, but this is is way out of control. Right now it is only in the testing phase, but do not be surprised if you see it in your grocery store in the next couple years.

Excuse me while I go shout at some clouds and tell those kids to get off my lawn.

 

[Hot Monkey]

Dynamic pricing is absolutely diabolical.



Continuing this old man rant... when we were kids TV was just "on". You wiggled the antenna around until you got whatever channels were available to you geographically and watched whatever they were showing. Ads paid for this I assume. But the act of receiving and watching it was otherwise free (outside the cost of the actual TV and electricity). Then we had cable with a few different tiers for premium HBO channels. But that was not crazy expensive. Now we have smart TV's that will literally show you NOTHING OF VALUE unless you sign up for various streaming services (not to mention paying to have solid/fast internet service to support the TV). Every friggin' sport and even specific teams and events within sports have their own streaming channels, pay per view events and regional blackouts. I'm a Yankees fan. If I want to watch all the regular (and hopefully) post season Yankees games it is not an exaggeration to say they I would need to sign up for as many as six or seven streaming services. It's out of control. Now I just don't watch at all and instead listen to games on free (for now) AM radio.

The monetization and demographical tracking of literally everything we do, buy, watch, hear, eat, drive, fly, travel, breathe, play, enjoy, etc. is out of control. We are being milked at every corner and I am doing everything I can to opt out whenever possible. I watch and read physical media whenever possible. I buy locally and pay cash as much as I can. I know it's a losing battle but that doesn't mean I have to be a willing participant.

End of rant (for now LOL).

 

[mcad64]

My name's Mike and I approve of each and everyone of these posts!!

 

[Hot Monkey]

Laughing my a$$ off thinking of this thread and watching TV with my wife after work. She pauses the show she is watching and this add pops up. Seriously I am supposed to scan a QR code and order a Butterfinger from Amazon from my phone right now? The end is near I tell you... the end is so near. We are bearing witness to the fall of mankind.

 

[Hot Monkey]

Oh the irony... my son is back from grad school and he really wants to watch the Yankees in the post season together. So I have to get a one month Peacock Plus subscription to watch the Wild Card and ALDS is they advance. Then HBO Max for the ALCS if they advance. Then FOX if they advance to the World Series which means a month of Hulu Plus or some other similar streaming service to get the regular network FOX channel. So three 1-month trail subscriptions to be cancelled immediately afterwards. And if we want to catch any of the National League stuff I believe it's all on different channels. Insanity.

Hope our beloved Yankees play terrible and get blown out in the Wild Card LOL.

 

[Hot Monkey]

The hits keep coming…

 

[Botch]

Laughing my a$$ off thinking of this thread and watching TV with my wife after work. She pauses the show she is watching and this add pops up. Seriously I am supposed to scan a QR code and order a Butterfinger from Amazon from my phone right now? The end is near I tell you... the end is so near. We are bearing witness to the fall of mankind.

View attachment 12992

I don't drink coffee, so I do 45 minutes* of "soft news" in the morning while waking up; CBS Mornings, even if I end up screaming at the TV and wanting to kick Gayle King in the teeth.
They often interview authors and SMEs with a book out, and they always throw a QR code up on the screen to buy it. "We must have more moneeeyyyy!!!"


*CBS Mornings is a two-hour program; I DVR it to skip thru the regular commercials and the 10-minute "CBSDeals.com" segment which is just an infomercial. A sometimes-worthwhile 45 minutes of actual programming left.

 

[Hot Monkey]

I do the same with pretty much all sports now (watch nothing live and skip through YouTube highlights after the event). The only think I will try to watch live is Yankees post season.

 

[Haywood]

We subscribe to YouTube Premium, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Paramount. Just that gets us back into cable TV territory. I would happily drop Paramount if my wife didn't watch it. Honestly, I could probably drop down to YouTube Premium and call it a day. I own at least 80 entire TV series, plus a couple thousand movies. My wife and I have been watching a lot of nostalgia TV from the 70s thru 90's (M.A.S.H., Columbo, CHiPs, The A-Team, Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Miami Vice, Magnum P.I., The X Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a bunch of other stuff. We've also been watching stuff from the 2000s and 2010s like Psych, the Mentalist, and Monk. As much as I laugh at some of the bad supporting actors, the ubiquitous exploding car, and sometimes cheesy music, I'm finding I would rather watch them than most of the slop they've been churning out lately.