Data Harvesting From a Developer's Perspective

cliffski raises some questions about the need for game developers to have some amount of data from the users who play their games. He says, "PC Games connecting to a central server to send information (outside of MMOs) have gotten a (deserved) bad reputation in recent years. The huge outcry about Mass Effect and Spore are evidence enough of that. But in gamers' hurry to prevent intrusive DRM systems and dubious privacy-breaking data harvesting, are we throwing out the good with the bad?" Clearly, some aspects of games could be improved by having a better knowledge of average PC specs or knowing which parts of the games are more entertaining to the users. Input from customers helps to improve almost any product, as indicated by the usage of countless surveys and focus groups. But where do we draw the line between being inquisitive and being intrusive? What can game developers do to prove that the collection techniques or the data themselves wouldn't be abused?

Comments

How about *asking* the user if they want to share?

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

Shockingly, new studies suggest that people may be able to make decisions all by themselves without a company or a government or anything!

Just Ask

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously? Ask us first. Tell your users exactly - EXACTLY - what's being monitored, and 98% of the problem goes away. Users are sick and damn tired of being misled and lied to about stuff like this for our own good.

Maybe from the Developer's perspective having an intrusive all-seeing eye installed on everyone's computer which either can't be turned off or only via a default-selected checkbox in the disused lavatory tab of the options menu sounds like a good idea, but to anyone else it really doesn't. Don't do it.

Be honest with your users or they'll hate you whatever you do.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[stevedcc]

I hate to say anything good about Steam, but this is one thing they get right - they simply ask.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

They usually mention such things in the license agreement. Do you read the license agreement?

That's not asking is it? That's telling someone after they've purchased the product that aspects of their system will be monitored. Of course you can take the product back but that's inconvenient. Technically everyone should read the licence agreement but the plain fact is that nobody does, and while that's obviously got no legal standing, if the developers don't want to be hated by everyone using their product they should cut out the sly bullshit and ask in plain and simple English. If the developers really do just want certain info regarding gameplay or system specs I'm sure that enough people would say yes to get a representative sample of users.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[LighterShadeOfBlack]

the problem with relying on people to make decisions is that people might not do what I want them to.

There. Fixed that for you.

And I don't consider that a problem. If such a small amount of people do say yes then all that's doing is clarifying how many people you're potentially pissing off by forcing such decisions on users. And to be perfectly honest if you word the question correctly and explain how it can help development I think you could get considerably more than 1% of users to accept. It would still probably be a very small proportion of users, but it should be enough to gather useful stats on the kind of information TFA claims developers want.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[MrNaz]

Speaking from experience I can tell you that an "opt-in" program would never collect enough data to be useful.

I'd suggest an "opt-out" system along with restrictions on *what* data was sent. At least I'd say that nothing personally identifiable can be sent, there's no need for it. There may be other restrictions I can't think of right now.

IMHO, this issue is about what data gets sent, not that data gets sent at all. It should be clear and verifiable what data is being sent, so that users who are that way inclined can check to ensure that nothing untoward is being sent to the developers.

Easy answer.

[ScrewMaster]

What can game developers do to prove that the collection techniques or the data themselves wouldn't be abused?

That's easy. Just give me a checkboxed list of all the data items from my computer that you propose to send to your server. Then provide an "UNCHECK ALL" button so I can still maintain my privacy.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[Anaerin]

Of course you can take the product back but that's inconvenient.

It's more than inconvenient, it's usually impossible. Most retailers refuse to take back computer software, especially opened software, as a matter of course. And you would have to open the software to get into the installer to read the EULA (Which, in some cases, you "agreed to" before even seeing it, with phrases on the CD case like "By opening this package you agree to be held liable to the End-User License Agreement contained therein", a so-called "Shrink-wrap" license).

So saying that 'taking back software is an option' is, for most cases, wrong.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[I'll Provide The War]

Speaking from experience I can tell you that an "opt-in" program would never collect enough data to be useful.

Valve would disagree.

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52707

1,728,662 Steam users have voluntarily agreed to participate in their semi-annual hardware survey by having detailed specification of their PC hardware cataloged.

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[morari]

I like it when my quotes are used out of context!

There, fixed that for you.

One small step

[frovingslosh]

Years ago I wrote an adventure type game for the 8 bit North Star Horizon. Very few copies were ever distributed. I was rather surprised years later when I move to another state, logged into a public BBS (this was pre-Internet) and found that the game was running as an option on that BBS. I contacted the sysop and introduced myself. And I ended up making a lot of changes to the code, streamlining it and expanding the game. In the process, one of the things that I did was to simply log all of the things that players typed in that the parser rejected. That allowed me to adjust the game for a few things that I had not expected users to try, and even spot a few repeated spelling errors, so that the game could give out spelling advice.

Echoing through the cave, you hear a voice in the distance call out "I before E except after C".

Re:How about *asking* the user if they want to sha

[basscomm]

Is data from over a million and a half samples not useful?

Who's the wiseguy that sent in the half a sample?