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Google Play will let developers earn more money by having users watch ads in exchange for rewards
[In free-to-play games] you'll often be offered the ability to watch a video advertisement to receive some sort of bonus. This bonus can come in the form of double the in-game currency for X number of minutes, an extra chance at a particular level, or anything else that can benefit the user. Developers could add this feature with Unity Ads, but now Google has announced they are building it into the Google Play Billing Library or AIDL interface with only a few additional API calls. The featured is called a "rewarded product" and instructions on how to set it up can be found here.
This means the developer doesn't have to integrate any other SDK into their application or game which should reduce the work required to add this extra monetization opportunity. The feature is powered by Google's Admob technology so developers will have access to the large number of advertisers who they are working with.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 11 2019, @06:26PM (10 children)
Okay, I agree an get the bonus. They play the ad. How do they know that I watched it? Do they monitor via the phone's front camera? Can I just put a photograph of my face as a proxy while I do something more interesting with that extra 30 seconds of my life?
Idea: new hardware feature for mobile phones to be required by an upcoming Android / iOS. A blood sample device. With a "Theranos" style 'mini lab'. Or think of the movie GATTACA. Hold your finger up to the correct part of the phone, it instantly pricks your finger and draws a drop of blood.
Next patentable idea: The phones can be slightly partially powered by the glucose in those blood drops. Eventually the machines develop a taste for human blood, and well . . . why spoil the surprise.
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by urza9814 on Monday March 11 2019, @06:45PM (1 child)
Same way they know you're paying attention to ads on TV or radio or YouTube -- they don't.
One option is the make the ad catch your attention so you do end up watching it. Another option is to make it short enough that it'll take you longer to figure out something else to do than it takes to just watch the ad. But that's the advertiser's job, not Google's. Google doesn't care, they're getting paid anyway.
Although, yes, finding a way to force you to watch would potentially give their advertising platform a "competitive advantage"....although they could also cover that by just becoming the only game in town, they're doing pretty well at that already...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:24PM
You mean by blasting sound out of the device speaker? Sure. That certainly gets my attention. It is suddenly worth my while to install or configure a new advertising blocker
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @07:06PM (1 child)
The ads only reward the user with make believe money "gems" and such stuff.
Even if it wasn't easy to see when the only phones watching your rewarded content are all in the same place, the revenue for one view is probably barely worth the energy powering up the phone.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 11 2019, @08:09PM
What? Nothing real? Not even something I can hold in my hand, like a Bitcoin?
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday March 11 2019, @07:57PM
It means you cannot use the app again until the ad finishes playing. Press the Home button, then reenter the app, and the ad restarts. Press the Recents button, switch to another app, and switch back, and the ad restarts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @09:50PM (1 child)
that's where the chip in your head comes into play.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @05:28PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2I84-A9duY [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Monday March 11 2019, @10:46PM (2 children)
You not paying attention means the ad is working its way through your subconscious brainwashing you. For instance, if a half naked woman pops up in your browser holding a brand drink you'd just look at her before closing the window. But if you're busy doing something else while your peripheral vision catches a mostly naked woman with some brand name / merchandise around her, your mind will associate the two together without your conscious mind there to prevent such a foolish association.
compiling...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @01:11AM (1 child)
Beware of geeks bearing gifs.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:52AM
TIMEO DANAOS ET GOOGLE OS
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @06:39PM (5 children)
In related news, smartphones have been proven to shrink penises. But that has been deemed not an issue as smartphones are mostly targeted at teenage girls.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday March 11 2019, @07:04PM (4 children)
So if I leave my phone in the sock drawer will my vibrator turn into one of those little pink egg things from Japan, or does this only work on organic matter? =P
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @09:20PM
engorged clitoris
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @10:23PM (2 children)
It's worth a try, but be careful your vibrator might start to show ads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:27PM (1 child)
Or report your orgasms back to the internet.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday March 13 2019, @09:54AM
I am sure there is a porn category called something like vibrator-POV but I am afraid to check.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday March 11 2019, @06:49PM
Coming soon, to a crappy mobile app developer near
youChina: ADPOCALYPSE 2!I'd say I hope it comes soon...but honestly...maybe the idiots playing these games are serving as useful cannon fodder, keeping the advertisers focused there instead of spending too much time looking at the rest of us. PLEASE waste more of your effort on ad-supported lootboxes!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @07:34PM (3 children)
We live in a fucking dystopia.
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Monday March 11 2019, @08:11PM
While technically that might be true, it will get worse.
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday March 12 2019, @03:27AM
Top search result for, "We live in a boring dystopia."
https://imgur.com/gallery/RXstl [imgur.com]
Specifically:
https://i.imgur.com/A59QqVs.jpg [imgur.com]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday March 12 2019, @04:03PM
That's unfair, if the real world was like Brave New World, we'd be strung out on strangely powerful drugs that are the only legal kind, constantly driving from vacuous uninteresting movie to shallow, propoganda filled sporting events, be taught by our media to despise and pity everyone slightly different from us, treat everyone outside our shallow little world as barbaric savages, and the British Isles would be full of mentally broken weirdos.
And if it was like Farenheit 451, we'd all be constantly in front of giant screens engaged in para-social relationships with celebrities who don't know us as people, disdain all academia, never walk anymore, and not even know or care what countries we're at war with.
Those are just absurd.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Monday March 11 2019, @07:50PM (2 children)
Android wants to be the future of gaming platforms (or, at least, a major player - bigger than they are now).
To be a gaming platform, you need game developers to target your platform and make tons of games. And you need game players who want to play the games that are offered on your platform.
If you don't have developers, you won't get players. Developers want to make money. They're increasingly learning (especially on mobile platforms) the upfront cost of the game is barrier to getting players, so they like to make their money other ways (hello, microtransactions!) Shoehorning in ads everywhere they'll fit is another way.
But game players HATE being monitized. They hate "play to win" microtransactions. And they hate being forced to watch ads. The more of these there are in games, the more turned off people get by the games in question, but by the platform as a whole.
The Android development team appears to be gambling that "get developers to make games!" is a bigger concern right now than "don't piss off the playerbase!" Whether that proves to be a short-term smart, long-term foolish move or the correct assessment remains to be seen.
I for one have pretty much given up on mobile games because I can't stand the constant barrage of ads, and this move seems likely to increase that issue.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Pino P on Monday March 11 2019, @08:03PM
It'll be hard for that to happen so long as the only input that game developers can depend on is a flat sheet of glass. Because an Android device's touch surface is flat, the player looking at the action in the center of the screen cannot discern whether his or her thumbs are centered over a button. Thus it's hard to place buttons such that the player is unlikely to press the wrong button or "whiff" (press the dead space between buttons). Third-party clip-on controllers for Android phones exist, and they would partly solve this problem if developers could depend on the player owning one. But because the manufacturers of these controllers have not released sales numbers, developers cannot.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday March 11 2019, @09:28PM
*"pay to win" microtransactions are aimed at "whales", a small percentage of the players:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-20-interview-with-the-whale [eurogamer.net]
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/63lvak/what_is_a_whale/ [reddit.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday March 11 2019, @10:07PM (5 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:31PM
This is why Google is against users having root access to their device. A hosts file and firewall would fix most of the problem cheaply. But no, can't have users deciding what does and does not happen on their device. Google knows best. Can't disable Google services. Can't uninstall locked third party programs.
On an OS based on Linux mind. What has the world come to?
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Tuesday March 12 2019, @12:16AM (1 child)
You'd likely have to set up your own DNS that answers at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
At the very least. Google loves to ignore everything on your network and go straight to their own DNS resolvers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 12 2019, @02:36AM
It may be useful to firewall log those IP to see if google is sending data there that it shouldn't
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday March 12 2019, @05:31AM (1 child)
Pi-Hole maybe?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 13 2019, @06:24AM
On a mobile phone? Without root?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:40PM (1 child)
Oh. No. Wait. "Required to run program x". What absolute bullshit.
If the OS can have permission settings for location, storage, etc, it can damn well have one for Internet access. And WiFi access. Why the absolute ferk would I want my phone to enable WiFi in the frogging shopping center, of all places!!, so google services can connect to the effing internet?!? Wtf. Surely I get a say in this. I disabled WiFi. That means it stays OFF.
Screw you google. Your background services are on par with bixby.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 11 2019, @11:42PM
Can google be sued for turning on the GPS to send the users location back to a google server?