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500 Adware Games

(17 posts) (8 voices)

Started 13 years ago by Dragonlair
Latest reply from Dana

Dragonlair
Member

MyPlayCity has hit the magic 500 Free Games mark! Since last fall, they've been adding a game a day and have now hit this level.
---edited by graylox: Though they call it "Free Games" in truth it's just Adware!---

Today's new game is Magic Tale which was the Free Game of the Month back in November from Alawar's GameBox. That's the one that most of us had to contact Alawar because there was no way to unlock the game - that part of the gamebox didn't work.

MyPlayCity does insist on the inclusion of their toolbar (by Ask.com) but does not insist on you using it. It's very happy with the toolbar being disabled in both IE and FF. If you use their simple "recommended" install, it will install the toolbar, set Ask.com as your default search engine, hijack your home page AND install the game into Program Files. If you select "custom", you can block the changes except for the installation of the toolbar and tell it where to install the game and place the shortcut.

Note - I was having a big problem with the MPC toolbar for awhile. Even though it was disabled in IE, it checked TWICE every time I opened IE on whether to enable it. The second attempt was after I said to to stay disabled, it would open a separate window and ask again. I finally got that resolved when I installed CCleaner and ran it's registry check. It found register errors relating to ask.com and when they were cleaned out, the problem cleared up. I have no idea how the registry entries got corrupted - I was just glad it was over. Now I have no problems. As long as I leave the toolbar installed but disabled, it is basically ignored by new installs.

Posted 13 years ago #
PlainVanilla
Member

So if you don't install a toolbar, you won't be able to play any of their games?

Posted 13 years ago #
Diane16
Member

When you click to set up the game, you get 2 options, the 1st one says standard installation recommended, but I always tick the 2nd one custom installation you can then untick the set ask as my default browser and the ask.com as my browser homepage toolbar and continue with installation. I have downloaded a lot of their games doing it this way and have never had a toolbar or problems playing without it. Hope this helps. Diane

Posted 13 years ago #
Dragonlair
Member

If you don't already have their toolbar installed, any install will install the toolbar without saying anything. However, you do NOT need the toolbar to actually PLAY the games. You could uninstall it after each game install. It's a totally separate install. I just leave it as "disabled" and it's quiet and stays out of site -- out of mind! We're both happy - it gave me the toolbar but I don't have to be bothered with it or even know it's there.

Posted 13 years ago #
Diane16
Member

Hi Dragonlair, how can I find if I have their toolbar on my computer please, I have just done a search and it is not there, so am now puzzled as to where it is. Thanks Diane

Posted 13 years ago #
kvtto
Member

Diane16, if you use Firefox: click "Tools", then click "Add-ons" -- that's also where you can disable it. If you use IE8: click "Tools", then click "Toolbars" -- that's also where you can disable it. IE9: click "Tools"/gear, then click "Add-ons".

(Tools is located at the top of the web browsers)

Posted 13 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

What annoys me about the whole thing is that the toolbar and home page hijack are installed or changed without your permission. I'm just wondering whether MyPlayCity planned this all along. what I mean by that is, for about 18 months you could install any MPC game and select whether or not to include the toolbar and home page change; in fact for quite some time they were clear of these altogether. I used to recommend leaving MPC alone a few years ago, because you couldn't avoid installing their tool-bars if you wanted to play any of their games (well nearly all of them), then all of a sudden they changed tactic and allowed you to install with no tool-bars or home page hijack. Then, a few weeks before this last Christmas after they probably increased their fan base significantly they changed tack and re-introduced the tool-bars and home page hijack, only this time they included check boxes to stop them from being installed, which would probably lull many into a false sense of security, but still installed the toolbar and hijacked the home page even though you'd expressly indicated you didn't want them.

I just think it's bad form to do what they did. You may be able to ignore them once they have been installed and change your home page back, but to do that every time you install another of their games is just plain annoying. I've stopped downloading MPC games because of this. To be honest, I already have many of the games they give away as I used to purchase up to three arcade games every day shortly after my accident back in 2005 because I found they helped distract me from the pain. Quite often I'd download a game from MPC that I'd previously purchased simply because it was easier to go to MPC than find my back up (My back up's are badly organized)

All that said, if you can't afford to buy games to support the developer then sites like MPC are the next best thing because MPC do pay the developers a retainer. (I'm not sure whether they get a set sum or a percentage for each download)? Ultimately MPC are out to make money via all the advertising etc, so I can't see them giving a percentage.

(sorry for going off the point)

Posted 13 years ago #
Dragonlair
Member

Stephen,

MPC does NOT hijack the home page or change your search engine (if you uncheck those 2 boxes). It does if you use "Standard" installation but I NEVER use standard if I have a choice and I NEVER EVER EVER recommend it to anybody!

Posted 13 years ago #
graylox
Moderator

I'm with you Rabbit, it was a put-up affair.

I never got any game from that site, so I can't tell if the installed toolbar does anything in the background or not. For me it's enough to know that someone installs a programme (a toolbar is a programme) on my machine that I don't want to have and without asking me.
Some users might be happy for not having to pay with money for software/games, but they should be honest and not call this "Freeware". It's "Adware", and we should at least in these forums be honest enough to call it by the right name.
If this (or similar posts) would have come from a new user, I probably would have reported it as spam and would have deleted it.

I remember times, when it was not allowed to post anything else than plain freeware here.
I wished we would come back to that routine, just to give honest developers and retailers encouragement.

I changed the title of this topic.

graylox

Posted 13 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

It did when I installed one of their new games that I didn't already have. I was curious to see what they game was like so installed it after unchecking both checkboxes. This was on a newly installed operating system so there was no possibility that I'd accidentally neglected to uncheck a box previously when installing a MyPlayCity (MPC) game. I also ended up with a second browser opening whenever I opened my usual browser that was directed to the ask search engine. I definitely unchecked both boxes. That as far a sI can see is an invasion of privacy.

I agree with you on this not being freeware. All of the games given away by MPC are sold elsewhere and are commercial tiles sold elsewhere. The only reason MPC can give them away is becasue they pay a retainer to the developers. None of the games are new games. (that would be stupid of the developers unless they were trying to get users to see them as new developers and get a following).

By the way, I never said you recommended the software, but in reality you are because you posted this thread here. That in itself is a recommendation. I'm not trying to argue with you. Each to their own. If you are comfortable installing adware supported games rather than paying for a non adware supported version that's entirely your choice. I just prefer to pay the developer directly or via a reputable site that doesn't suppot adware.

Posted 13 years ago #
Diane16
Member

Thanks kvtto, I use Firefox and IE, but only Firefox to download games. I have several MPC games on my computer even downloaded one last night and still cannot find any toolbar on my computer relating to ask.com, very strange.

Posted 13 years ago #
kvtto
Member

Diane, look for "MyPlayCity toolbar" in Programs and Features -- that's where I found it on my computer.
If you have CCleaner...click "Tools" and the programs are listed alphabetically. My old laptop's Programs and Features listed by install date and not alphabetically, which made looking for a program a chore...so I used CCleaner to uninstall.

edit: I did find "Ask toolbar" :C/users/me/AppData/LocalLow/AskToolbar
It's a hidden file.

Posted 13 years ago #
Dana
Member

I agree that adware is invidious and doesn't endear me to the company practicing its use. Random ads in game is fine as I'm used to the Gamehouse free offerings.

Another site I like is http://www.mostfun.com and from a quick scan of the lists on it and MPC, some of the HOg's at least exist on both sites. Mostfun, unlike Gamehouse, is free all the time and not just for the one day.

Do excuse me if this comment was inappropriately made on this topic and please direct otherwise. Sleepy time for now.

Cheers. ^_^

Posted 13 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks for your post Dana, it's not a problem, though Mostfun games has been mentioned elsewhere in the forums. I don't kno whether it still stands, but there was a warning about Mostfun games over three years ago on this site. yu can read the discussion HERE. They may have changed their practice now. It may be worth reading the EULA that's displayed before you agree to install the game. Read it carefully becasue previously it basically said it could use your bandwidth to route adware. I'm not willing to even try downloading from them because of this concern.

I've used the snipping tool (Vista and win 7) to capture some of the legal stuff that you have to agree to before installing games from Mostfun.com. It appear that they have not changed their policy regarding using users bandwidth to advertise and route to other users, so, beware if you decide to download any games from Most fun. I hope the image resolution is okay. with respect to using your bandwidth (mentioned in the original post rom three years ago that i've linked to above), they appear to still practice that.

Posted 13 years ago #
Anonymous
Unregistered

Don't like tool bar you get the fist ask.com fit the rest of the games and take not of the folder it said on my PC folder name Ask.com in side a ini file and some files now take off and make a new folder Ask.com now open make a new notepad now name it to a .ini file so if the old one was Ask.ini you do that now go and right click Properties > Security & make all to Deny (Yes all Permissions Deny) that will stop it.
That is the Ask.ini file & The Ask.com folder

Posted 13 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

thanks hotdoge. :)

Posted 13 years ago #
Dana
Member

@Whiterabbit-uk

Thanks for the snippet - it does sounds dodgy when you read all that, if I understood it correctly. They are saying that third parties jump on but they're not responsible for whatever content is displayed, and that they basically make your computer part of a peer-to-peer network, as with uTorrent and others such things?

I'm not too tech savvy, so no idea how you work around that at all. >.< All I can say is that I never experienced anything odd while I was using the service regularly.

On the other hand, my PrevX security had a meltdown over the New Year's day offering from Gamehouse.com, twice. First over the version of the game I already had installed (red marked the .exe launch file) and then again after I'd uninstalled it (zSoft Uninstaller) and tried to put on the new one.

Could it perhaps be that the ads ping an outside site rather than being randomly built in the game code for distribution? I'd ask the staff @ Gamehouse, but the tech support experience I've had so far is horrible. And no, I wasn't rude or anything. :P

Posted 13 years ago #

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