Gamers Find Way to Block Ads From New Xbox Dashboard

[Frostbite3789]

so I think it's a fair question for gamers to ask why they should be bothered by advertisements while poking around the service they're shelling out for.

can i apply that to Cable tv? XD

in all seriousness that is fantastic

Now Microsoft is going to put the ad machine on more servers!

Do you have a DVR? There you go.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

I came to this thread to rage at the hypocrisy of the escapist but it's good to see other forum members got that in the first couple of posts.

I mean seriously your giving the simplified instructions directly.

This has nothing to do with the Escapist. This website is 100% free content. The subscription to it is 100% optional. If you turn off the ads on this site, you turn off the site itself. Using ad blocker here hurts this community. Microsoft, on the other hand, makes revenue off of the console, the service, and the content. It survived and grew from those sales alone. Adding additional advertising is simply a money grab, not a component of a sustainability model. This isn't hypocrisy; these are two completely different situations. If you want to complain about how the site wants to stop you from deliberately trying to harm it in an attempt to get free content without so much as being bothered to look at an ad, then go ahead. But please don't compare that situation to a company using the ad system in an entirely different way while claiming double standards.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I came to this thread to rage at the hypocrisy of the escapist but it's good to see other forum members got that in the first couple of posts.

I mean seriously your giving the simplified instructions directly.

And the claims of hypocrisy got smacked down pretty quickly. But reading an additional 6 posts is super hard.

 

[Something Amyss]

The Escapist: Banning people for using adblock, and then telling people how to block ads.

Well, we've seen advocacy of piracy as well before, a moddable offense. So it's not exactly new.

I do very much enjoy the selective justifications people are making for cable being different.

 

[new_age_reject]

Everything is just becoming another way for companies to brainwash us into buying their stuff.
I also use adblock on escapist... but then I do pay for the escapist pub club

 

[Chappy]

[Qoute not needed for point]

This has nothing to do with the Escapist. This website is 100% free content. The subscription to it is 100% optional. If you turn off the ads on this site, you turn off the site itself. Using ad blocker here hurts this community. Microsoft, on the other hand, makes revenue off of the console, the service, and the content. It survived and grew from those sales alone. Adding additional advertising is simply a money grab, not a component of a sustainability model. This isn't hypocrisy; these are two completely different situations. If you want to complain about how the site wants to stop you from deliberately trying to harm it in an attempt to get free content without so much as being bothered to look at an ad, then go ahead. But please don't compare that situation to a company using the ad system in an entirely different way while claiming double standards.

I'm not joining the arguement comparison between Escapist and XBL but the arguement that the subscription is 100% optional made me wonder if XBL will try and pull that one out with the difference between silver and gold?

Not trying to defend the ad's but I can imagine Microscoft saying that the option to be for gold is 100% optional as well and the ad's are there for the silver XBL user's service in an attempt to look less greedy?

 

[Fappy]

Everything is just becoming another way for companies to brainwash us into buying their stuff.
I also use adblock on escapist... but then I do pay for the escapist pub club

I was going to post something intellectual to add to the interesting conversation here, but your horrifying avatar distracted me and now my brain is dead D:

 

[Amnestic]

This website is 100% free content.

Sorry, but no. One need only look at the Subscription Page [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/subscription/] to see that you offer some content at a premium. Therefore the Escapist is less than 100% free.

 

[ElPatron]

Hmmm, we pay for TV too, yet we still have to put up with commercials. Something about that smells wrong...

You pay to have access to channels, those channels are paid with ad revenue.


Otherwise they could just put on shows nobody wanted to watch and still earn monheys.

Not trying to defend the ad's but I can imagine Microscoft saying that the option to be for gold is 100% optional as well and the ad's are there for the silver XBL user's service in an attempt to look less greedy?

But silver doesn't have the online service so it effectively cuts the functionality.

You can still read the content on the Escapist without paying.

This website is 100% free content.

Sorry, but no. One need only look at the Subscription Page [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/subscription/] to see that you offer some content at a premium. Therefore the Escapist is less than 100% free.

That's like saying that a F2P game isn't 100% free to play because it has premium hats.

It wouldn't be 100% free to play if there was playable content locked for free users.

 

[Epona]

The Escapist: Banning people for using adblock, and then telling people how to block ads.

You don't pay $60 a year to access the Escapist.

 

[Glerken]

I came to this thread to rage at the hypocrisy of the escapist but it's good to see other forum members got that in the first couple of posts.

I mean seriously your giving the simplified instructions directly.

And the claims of hypocrisy got smacked down pretty quickly. But reading an additional 6 posts is super hard.

Except it doesn't actually.
On the Escapist you're not allowed to promote ad-blockers.

Similarly, posts including, advocating, or linking to...Ad Blockers...

People get mod-wrath all the time for "promoting" ad blockers. Ad Blockers work on more sites than the Escapist, even website where you pay for a service. The Escapists rule isn't only no talking about ad blockers for it's own personal website, it's a general rule.

 

[Epona]

Hmmm, we pay for TV too, yet we still have to put up with commercials. Something about that smells wrong...

I don't and I haven't for years. I never will again either.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Haven't been on my 360 to update it yet, good to know there is a way to get rid of ads, considering they shouldn't be there since I pay them a crap load so that I can use their service.

The Escapist: Banning people for using adblock, and then telling people how to block ads.

Random dude: "Hey, I use an adblocker on the escapist"
Escapist: "Lol, Suspended!"

. . .

Escapist: "Hey, here's how to block Xbox Ads"
Me: "Lol, Hypocrisy".

There is a difference between blocking ads on a free site that is free because of those ads, and blocking on something where there shouldn't be ads because the user is already paying the company, so there is no reason for ads.

The Escapist is well within it's right to take action against people that spread around how to block ads that pay for the free areas of the site.

If people don't want to see ads on here, they can pay for a Pub Club membership to get rid of them and get lots of cool extra stuff.

Wrongfully be spread around ways to block this site's ads without paying, rightfully face wraith. If people can't show support for the site that they get free entertainment from, then those people don't deserve it.

 

[Epona]

Hmmm, we pay for TV too, yet we still have to put up with commercials. Something about that smells wrong...

the commercials are going to the shows you are watching, or the channels that you watch the shows on.

You are paying for access to watch TV, sure, but that money never goes directly to the channels.

Oh please. Given enough time people can justify getting double charged for anything but that doesn't make it right.

Say you pay a taxi driver $20 to drive you across town and then you are forced to watch ads to pay for the gas. When you ask why you are told. The $20 is the drivers labor fee and wear and tear on the car, the gas is separate and ads pay for that.

 

[Chappy]

Not trying to defend the ad's but I can imagine Microscoft saying that the option to be for gold is 100% optional as well and the ad's are there for the silver XBL user's service in an attempt to look less greedy?

But silver doesn't have the online service so it effectively cuts the functionality.

You can still read the content on the Escapist without paying.

I know i'm not going to say one way or the other on Escapist but I was just wondering if thats what Microsoft might try to claim to try and distract gamers from the fact that they just want more money, calling it in advance as it were.

 

[dmase]

I came to this thread to rage at the hypocrisy of the escapist but it's good to see other forum members got that in the first couple of posts.

I mean seriously your giving the simplified instructions directly.

And the claims of hypocrisy got smacked down pretty quickly. But reading an additional 6 posts is super hard.

I came to this thread to rage at the hypocrisy of the escapist but it's good to see other forum members got that in the first couple of posts.

I mean seriously your giving the simplified instructions directly.

This has nothing to do with the Escapist. This website is 100% free content. The subscription to it is 100% optional. If you turn off the ads on this site, you turn off the site itself. Using ad blocker here hurts this community. Microsoft, on the other hand, makes revenue off of the console, the service, and the content. It survived and grew from those sales alone. Adding additional advertising is simply a money grab, not a component of a sustainability model. This isn't hypocrisy; these are two completely different situations. If you want to complain about how the site wants to stop you from deliberately trying to harm it in an attempt to get free content without so much as being bothered to look at an ad, then go ahead. But please don't compare that situation to a company using the ad system in an entirely different way while claiming double standards.

Try again guys, I'm not raging that Microsoft is losing money I'm raging at the community based hypocrisy. I totally support the community but when users get banned for talking about ad blockers and yet a contributor does the same damn thing and it ends up on the front page. Type ad blocker into the search bar you guys should still see threads where people got perma banned for talking about using ad blockers yet a contributor gives directions? No, this is a ridiculous.

Also your under the assumption that getting rid of ads on microsoft is "righteous" somehow while blocking ads for the escapist is... wrong? No, don't think so, even if microsoft's subscriptions are required.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

I hate when you pay for services and STILL get advertisments shoved into your face. The commercialism should really be aimed at "silver" players.

I don't believe in blocking ads (after all thats how 90% of the world make money, unless those ads are intrusive and obnoxious.

 

[Amnestic]

This website is 100% free content.

Sorry, but no. One need only look at the Subscription Page [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/subscription/] to see that you offer some content at a premium. Therefore the Escapist is less than 100% free.

That's like saying that a F2P game isn't 100% free to play because it has premium hats.

It wouldn't be 100% free to play if there was playable content locked for free users.

Quite right. But a game need not be 100% free to play to be called "free-to-play". It need only not have subscription fees and an initial purchase price. You will note that we often draw a distinction between "Free" games and "Free-to-play" games. Generally the reason for doing so is because the latter has premium content while the former does not.

Regardless, your objection is irrelevant to my point. Mike Kayatta stated that the Escapist was 100% free content, which is patently untrue and they admit as such on their subscription page.

 

[Wintermoot]

soo blocking adds on the Escapist is wrong but blocking ads on XB dashboard is a-ok!

 

[Pandaman1911]

Ah! AH! AAAAHH HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! IT WORKED!

Thank you ever so much, Escapist, now I have my 360 back as a video game console, and not a corporate brainwashing tool to get me to spend MORE of my money on crappy things I don't need, like music or movies and the like!

-EDIT- Oh cool, it makes MSN.com ad-free too. Neato!

soo blocking adds on the Escapist is wrong but blocking ads on XB dashboard is a-ok!

Because if you pay for service on the 360, you still get ads. If you pay for service on the Escapist, you don't get ads anymore.