I want refund, spyware in the game is unnaceptable.

[nerval]

I think that steam should add a refund in case developers build spyware into games after a long time.

[Corpsesnare Vholkuss]

''Hello!

The software in question, for which the EULA was updated, was a tool intended to help us measure the effectiveness of our social media content and sales. It would allow us to optimize our marketing efforts, waste less budget and better spread information about the game.

However, the feedback of the community clearly reveals that this method is not acceptable for our audience at all. We've severely underestimated how much you guys would be frustrated over this, and we are sorry.

We heard you loud and clear. The 3rd party software has since been removed, old EULA returned and all the data already collected has been fully wiped. We admit our mistake and apologize for the disturbance caused.''

This is from Starrok the developer.

[Raikon]

It made an offline game track your IP address.... I don't think I have ever heard of that before. Everyone quotes phone usage, steam, Facebook. These are online things.

Can you imagine reading a news article about someone getting swatted because they were playing an offline game? That was the future that wrath of the righteous made possible.

[.//slayer]

Originally posted by nerval:

I think that steam should add a refund in case developers build spyware into games after a long time.

Contact Steam support, then, and explain your reasons. It's not like you can get a refund by making posts like this.

[Silyon]

Originally posted by Raikon:

It made an offline game track your IP address.... I don't think I have ever heard of that before. Everyone quotes phone usage, steam, Facebook. These are online things.

Can you imagine reading a news article about someone getting swatted because they were playing an offline game? That was the future that wrath of the righteous made possible.

Classic slippery slope fallacy. Textbook in fact.

Fact is Privacy has been an illusion for just over two decades. Anyone with the right technical know-how and an internet connection can track down and find out anything they might want to about anyone else, even if they've never been online. And that's because all kinds of business and government institutions don't use anywhere near the security they should. Birth certificate, social security, phone numbers and addresses, everything's stored electronically on systems that aren't updated nearly as frequently as they should be. Hell, some of these things are public record anyone's can search for so long as they have a phone number or partial-name to search with.

Welcome to America, where Cyber-security is a joke and identity theft and fraud are a daily occurrence.

[[Tact]]

IP address doesn't reveal your exact location, or even your home address. It's about as useful as knowing someone's zip code. You would need to already know where the person lives, or somehow have access to ISP billing records. Which would require either a criminal act, or a subpoena.

Google.com's IP address is 142.250.191.78. This really tells you nothing, except that it's somewhere in Detroit.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by nerval:

I think that steam should add a refund in case developers build spyware into games after a long time.

Fortunately for you, they removed the "spyware" in less than 24 hours.

[Raikon]

Originally posted by Tact:

IP address doesn't reveal your exact location, or even your home address. It's about as useful as knowing someone's zip code. You would need to already know where the person lives, or somehow have access to ISP billing records. Which would require either a criminal act, or a subpoena.

Google.com's IP address is 142.250.191.78. This really tells you nothing, except that it's somewhere in Detroit.

95% of the time you are right. It doesn't really give you pin point location. I decided to look this topic up before commenting. 5% of the time they can get much more accurate information.

It's a pathway that no offline game should give. Why does an offline game install malware that tracks online information?

I really wish people emphasized the offline part. Instead they act like it's world of warcraft or Facebook. It's also not your phone.

[Raikon]

We severly underestimate what we can do to eachother at every turn. Owlcat installs malware to track your movements, and where you live. They do it for innocent purposes (supposedly), but what about others with not so innocent purposes, or just a bad apple in the company itself.

Dynamite was invented to help building and mining. That didnt last long did it.

[DFBrawler]

On what grounds do you even make the assumption that it was malicious? The 'SpyWare" in question is a tool utilised by many companies. Not to mention the actual usefulness of collecting information to improve a product.

While its true most tools can be used inappropriately, that doesnt mean OwlCat is using it in that fashion.

I've been supporting OC since the inception of Kingmaker during the Alpha.
They, like SO many other Indie Devs make mistakes, but unlike other Devs they Fix their mistakes.

As a fellow Indie dev, all be it a much smaller dev, i can relate to their need to analytic data. And if you are worried about Owlcat having some information about your system, you'll be shook to the core when you find out every single major company including steam already have it all.

[AlexMBrennan]

Hahaha, this is software and thus you have no rights. Sellers are not required to deliver the product, and they are not liable if they knowingly sell defective software. Being able to buy politicans sure is great, isn't it?

[mk11]

Originally posted by AlexMBrennan:

Hahaha, this is software and thus you have no rights. Sellers are not required to deliver the product, and they are not liable if they knowingly sell defective software. Being able to buy politicans sure is great, isn't it?

Do you live in the USA by any chance? Other countries do not have the same laws.

[mk11]

Originally posted by Silyon:

Welcome to America, where Cyber-security is a joke and identity theft and fraud are a daily occurrence.

The shocking thing about identity theft is that, knowing this information is readily available, it is still accepted as proof of identity. Have a look at India with the problems with people being declared dead and proving that they are still alive.

[nerval]

Originally posted by .//slayer:

Originally posted by nerval:

I think that steam should add a refund in case developers build spyware into games after a long time.

Contact Steam support, then, and explain your reasons. It's not like you can get a refund by making posts like this.

The problem is that I have owned this game for quite some time and I love it. I've spent over 500 hours in the game(and steam forbid refunds after maybe 1 day of playing). I have a claim not even to this game, but to the precedent. That developers add malware after a long time. I wouldn't have a problem if I was told when buying a game that you need to install malware to run this game, I simply would not buy this game. But in fact, years later, I was banned from playing the game I bought (I categorically refuse to run malware on my computer, the game developers themselves may not know where it sends it from the collected data), but they removed it. But what's next? creators of elden ring will launch spyware? and I can't play it anymore? I started this thread to see other people's opinions. Sorry if I was misunderstood, I write through Google.

[Raikon]

Im all for complaining about blocking access to the game, and even complaining about the malware they force installed upon you.

However, after 500 hours, you definately already got your money's worth in my opinion.

[tjdragon]

You act like they installed a keylogger or something on your machine. They specifically stated no 3rd party software was installed locally - literally all it was is that they started using this software ON THEIR END, and only for one purpose - to correlate clicks on ads with new installs of the game. Think about it logically for a minute - how the hell would software installed with the game on your machine be able to know about you clicking on an ad through your browser earlier?

This was a totally innocuous thing and the sheer level of ignorant witch-hunting going on by the community over it is so absurd it would give Hulrun a run for his money. Yes, it's true that many companies have been adding ever more intrusive tracking and data collection software to their programs. No, that doesn't mean that every tiny back-end change using a marketing tracking program is some nefarious plot to steal your social security number, track your location, install 57 trojan horses, and sell your information to the Chinese government. Good lord.