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Nielsen To Begin Tracking Game Play
Gamespot is reporting that Nielsen is now going to be tracking game play statistics. The same 10,000 sample households that dictate what succeeds and fails in the television world will also have their game playing habits recorded by the company. From the article: "The rating system will monitor the goings-on of game consoles, including next-generation models such as Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. Data will include which games are played most frequently, along with corresponding information about the demographics of the players. The video-game rating system is also intended to offer insight into what television and Internet trends the players follow. Called GamePlay Metrics, it will be the first project to come out of Nielsen's new Wireless and Interactive Services Division, which itself launched today."
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This is a setup to selling in game advertisements. Once they get a demographic they have a defined audience and can start finding paths and selling spots.
Enjoy, this game, powerd by fruity-soft-beverage
As a new company, it's hard to know if we can really trust Nielson to aggregate all the data properly. I don't know if such a big step is justified. A better idea would be to use a tried and true ratings provider like Nielsen or something.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
...this must be the "how many different ways can people misspell 'Nielsen'?" thread.
It is legal (USA) for the cable companies to report viewer totals down to the zip-code (incl. +4, I think). They cannot legally reveal information about indivdual houses, and they couldn't provide information about *who* in the household is doing the watching. Nielsen tells that advertisers that it was the 19-year-old son watching Firefly, and the 43-year-old mother watching Desperate Housewives.
Nielsen doesn't cancel shows. Stupid people choosing to watch Survivor instead of Wonderfalls, cancel shows. That being said, if the audience wants stupid crap, who is Nielsen (or anyone else) to tell the advertisers that they must give money to networks to produce shows that no one is going to watch?
Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it. --Mark Twain
... Our reports find that the most time spent in game is for World of Warcraft. Apperently this is a popular game. Note: Insert more advertisements on the backs of player clothing and on the rumps of Animals they can ride.
-- We find that the most Loaded game is sims 2 with the nudity patch. This is loaded 2 or 3 times a time, and usually played for no more than 1 or 2 minutes. Note: Try and figure out this strange gamer phenomenon.
--The most played game by troubled youths is Grand Theft Auto.
Final Note:
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Send Jack Thompson a fruitcake for the few millions he gave us to come up with this total bogus and not-proveable report.
Your Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii will all sit there like lumps on your network, sending whatever they like back and forth to the mothership (yes, I know you have a linux firewall. Most don't.) Nintendo and MS have even touted this as a feature. It makes me a little nervous. If your X360 decided to start telling MS about not just how much time you're playing games, but what movies, which music you are listening to? It is a 'pseudo media PC' after all. Nintendo will obviously only be able to track gameplaying (does the Wii play DVDs?). X360 and PS3, if they are used to play ripped music, show photos, watch downloaded episodes etc could provide a pretty rich set of stats on your habits.
You know what the annoying thing about this is - they could have all my stats if they wanted, just not associated with my name. Really I would not care about anonymous collection of media habits. Hell if it keeps a tampon ad out of my copy of DragonFireMasterKiller VIII or whatever, I'm all for it. But the bastards want my name and my habits, and that I have a problem with.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.