What The Indie Stone know about how you play Project Zomboid!

[Another Mother's Son]

This should not be a spoiler, since you all had to accept the Terms of Service when PZ started to get all growed-up. As much as I trust The Indie Stone after all these years of them trusting me, I was curious as to what this specifically means about our relationship. Like when you realize you are getting pretty serious with That Person and you have to have That Talk about What Are We and What Does This Mean? It was honestly the most exciting moment since I started playing Project Zomboid.

So I actually read the TOS. Pretty boiler-plate for the most part. This is ours, you can't use it except in this way, we're not liable for burning up your gaming rig / fish aquarium. And then I read what I had actually hoped to find... SPOILERS! If you want to maintain your faith in RNG and just plain luck, skip this part!

The Indie Stone aggregate data on ... [paper shuffle, push up glasses] ...and I quote:

"B. Your Activities.

When you use, play or access The Indie Stone Services third parties (such as platforms like Steam or GOG) may on our behalf collect details of how you use our services, including:

• metrics information about when and how you use the services
• traffic data
• language preferences
• ACHIEVEMENTS
• SCORES
• GAMEPLAY STATISTICS
• TIME SPENT PLAYING
• CHOICES YOU MAKE ABOUT ANY CHARACTERS YOU USE AND PROGRESS YOU MAKE ON PROJECT ZOMBOID"

The first three are germane to any online game, to determine server requirements, volume of use, server origin... But the last five are the meaty ones!

• ACHIEVEMENTS? Does this mean in-game XP upgrades? STEAM badges?
  
• SCORES? Again, XP aggregate, longevity, ACHIEVEMENTS?
  
• GAMEPLAY STATISTICS: the most cut & dried. How many newspapers did you deliver vs. how many windows did you break ;)
  
• TIME SPENT PLAYING... this is where this starts to get interesting. I just crested 1000 hours in Project Zomboid. I've been playing since build 39, I think... This has been the most continually challenging (and my favorite) aspect of playing an early access game. I can read the developer's patch notes and still get caught completely off guard when zombies suddenly know how to find me upstairs or get around a long fence!
  
• CHOICES YOU MAKE ABOUT ANY CHARACTERS YOU USE AND PROGRESS YOU MAKE ON PROJECT ZOMBOID... This is the most fascinating by far! This means how we play Project Zomboid informs how Project Zomboid is played. For those who remember Build 40, waiting for a zombie to fall over a fence was pretty much a guaranteed one-shot kill. Well, guess why that is now offset by the RNG of an ankle lunge!

To me, this is the ultimate answer to Why Should I Buy/Play a Game that's Not Finished Yet? It's fulfilling to watch your use of the game affect the outcome of the final product from an independent development team with a goal to make their game as fleshed out and immersive as they possibly can. At this rate, I'd gladly pay annually what I first ponied up to get PZ 1000 hours ago!

[Shurenai]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

How do you do achievements without any of that?

You don’t.

Steam itself tracks your time spent playing too.. Like, Is this supposed to be some big revelation? "Oh god, they tracked that I spent 8 hours in game today, WOE! IM RUINED!"?
Edit: Oh, there's an edit that explains things more in depth. Re-reading it now.
Edit 2: Okay, The vibes of "Oh my god the TOS! They're stealing our souls!" is alleviated a bit. OP is looking on the brighter side of things (which is rare) and wondering at just how the collected info might be informing the games development.

[Another Mother's Son]

Originally posted by Shurenai:

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

How do you do achievements without any of that?

You don’t.

Steam itself tracks your time spent playing too.. Like, Is this supposed to be some big revelation? "Oh god, they tracked that I spent 8 hours in game today, WOE! IM RUINED!"? :winter2019neutralyul:
Edit: Oh, there's an edit that explains things more in depth. Re-reading it now.

Hehe. Great editorial

[Lost Latios]

Everything you do these days is tracked for one reason or another. All I ask is that they translate Legalize to us simple folk and make sure it doesn't get used for malicious intent.

[Grishnerf]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Also just in case it matters: we don't currently track anything in the game.

Steam ofc tracks your playtime, but aside from that there's no analytics at this time.

i dont trust you,
i think you and your company are preparing to release the z-virus, you just need more info on how to do it perfectly so noone can survive.

[nasKo]

Originally posted by Grishnerf:

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Also just in case it matters: we don't currently track anything in the game.

Steam ofc tracks your playtime, but aside from that there's no analytics at this time.

i dont trust you,
i think you and your company are preparing to release the z-virus, you just need more info on how to do it perfectly so noone can survive.

But who will people believe

[Shady Allie]

Telemetry is a thing with our new digital age.

This is where we live.

It is everywhere and inescapable if you choose to use a computer of any kind, even the one ford and chevy adds to your vehicle. If you use a cell phone of any kind or brand. If you use any social media or app. You are tracked and data is sold. Period. That is a trade off of using technology. I am tracked by the shopping app I make a food list with, and they sell that data.
I am photographed at intersections and on the thruways. The DMV sells your data. Satellites owned by huge rich guys and companies making billions float in space and record earth stuff.

I can look up a town on google maps, find the houses that have swimming pools, then go to the local governments and look up if they had the proper permits to install that pool.

If Indie Stone grabs data that tells them: I like black tank tops on my girls and white tank tops on my boys, and all my girl's and boys love the combat knife and baseball bat, but never farm or forage, but likes to fish in game, they now have a player database where to spend time in game development.

Indie Stone Developer: "Should we add more knives in the game?"
Indie Stone Data Cruncher: Player telemetry says yes or no, based on collected data.

ALL GOOD, helps indie stone to make decisions based on the people that play it.

Then there's this: All data is sold to big big money bags. Marketers. To sell you more goods. We are consumers. We consume everything dangled in front of us. It is hungry and never ever satisfied.

The major stock holders are the decision makers in any company. That chevy and ford car companies I mentioned? Do you know the major stock holders in those two companies? Will you be surprised to find out that just 2 or 3 companies own ALL the companies as major stock holders? Microsoft and Apple are competitors? Look up the major stockholders for them guys. See? Those that hold the most stock, make the decisions. They choose what t-shirt you will wear. What about the cotton that makes the t-shirt? Who owns the cotton mills? Do you see the same major stock holders own them as well?
Ok, so you can buy fruit of the loom OR hanes. You choose between the two competitors. Who are the major stock holders for FOTL and Hanes? do you see? Who are the major stock holders of the news networks? The decision makers? Who has stock control over amazon and ebay? Coke-a-cola vs Pepsi?

DATA, bought and sold globally to push products and drive markets and money where the major stock holders (the guys that get to decide what a company does) want it.
It is global and ruled by just 2 or three companies with trillions of dollars in assets.

This is where we live.

[Shady Allie]

Originally posted by nasKo:

Originally posted by Grishnerf:

i dont trust you,
i think you and your company are preparing to release the z-virus, you just need more info on how to do it perfectly so noone can survive.

But who will people believe

Enigma, Nasko. Enigma, Nasko....hmm, Grishnerf? Grishnerf! 100%

It is what it is folks. Indie Stone might be the CDC really with a secret agenda.

Black ops baby, in the name of Vanguard and Black Rock.

[Kirino]

Lol, imagine this Game was only developed in order to release a Virus with a near 100% Mortility rate.
If only there was a similar Game that would also simulate the spreading of Diseases (Plague Inc.)

[ｎｏｍａｄ]

All they're gonna see is me reading HottieZ a whole bunch

[Puppers]

no ...my character's "lego collection"

[Another Mother's Son]

Originally posted by EnigmaGrey:

Also just in case it matters: we don't currently track anything in the game. Steam ofc tracks your playtime, but aside from that there's no analytics at this time.

Oh well, that's... disappointing? Really pokes a hole in my adaptive gameplay theory. Here, I thought I had uncovered the real secret to why I suck at Project Zomboid: Every playthrough, the game adjusts to what I did last time, or habitually do in each consecutive run. Then, when I get complacent or repetitive, the 'AI' serves me a steaming plate of "You should have seen this coming" `

[Another Mother's Son]

Originally posted by Shady Allie:

Telemetry is a thing with our new digital age.

This is where we live.

It is everywhere and inescapable if you choose to use a computer of any kind, even the one ford and chevy adds to your vehicle. If you use a cell phone of any kind or brand. If you use any social media or app. You are tracked and data is sold. Period. That is a trade off of using technology. I am tracked by the shopping app I make a food list with, and they sell that data.
I am photographed at intersections and on the thruways. The DMV sells your data. Satellites owned by huge rich guys and companies making billions float in space and record earth stuff.

I can look up a town on google maps, find the houses that have swimming pools, then go to the local governments and look up if they had the proper permits to install that pool.

If Indie Stone grabs data that tells them: I like black tank tops on my girls and white tank tops on my boys, and all my girl's and boys love the combat knife and baseball bat, but never farm or forage, but likes to fish in game, they now have a player database where to spend time in game development.

Indie Stone Developer: "Should we add more knives in the game?"
Indie Stone Data Cruncher: Player telemetry says yes or no, based on collected data.

ALL GOOD, helps indie stone to make decisions based on the people that play it.

Then there's this: All data is sold to big big money bags. Marketers. To sell you more goods. We are consumers. We consume everything dangled in front of us. It is hungry and never ever satisfied.

The major stock holders are the decision makers in any company. That chevy and ford car companies I mentioned? Do you know the major stock holders in those two companies? Will you be surprised to find out that just 2 or 3 companies own ALL the companies as major stock holders? Microsoft and Apple are competitors? Look up the major stockholders for them guys. See? Those that hold the most stock, make the decisions. They choose what t-shirt you will wear. What about the cotton that makes the t-shirt? Who owns the cotton mills? Do you see the same major stock holders own them as well?
Ok, so you can buy fruit of the loom OR hanes. You choose between the two competitors. Who are the major stock holders for FOTL and Hanes? do you see? Who are the major stock holders of the news networks? The decision makers? Who has stock control over amazon and ebay? Coke-a-cola vs Pepsi?

DATA, bought and sold globally to push products and drive markets and money where the major stock holders (the guys that get to decide what a company does) want it.
It is global and ruled by just 2 or three companies with trillions of dollars in assets.

This is where we live.

OK, this is a much more satisfying answer to my conspiracy theory. I'm going with the guy who wrote 10-ish paragraphs about mostly nothing to do with Project Zomboid over the developers... who are OBVIOUSLY lying about something...

[SgtEmissary [Kane's Will]]

Lol all they are gonna see is that I'm a big fan of cars and the military. They will see my traffic going to various car and gun locations.

[DoktorFar]

Sooo this means you'll spread the z-virus eventually? Because I almost convinced my kid today that the zombie apocalypse had started, sent him a picture of some highway taken from a helicopter, from Brazil I think with thousands and thousands of people crowding the highways (I think some kind of national football party bonanza). Would be nice to prove to him I wasnt lying after all to regain his respect.

[TankGoodness]

Have you ever noticed when you text a friend or whomever about maybe a plumbing problem, for example or a car problem, perhaps its trouble with a boss, then you start to see advertisements geared to those issues. Anyone?