Please give us a way to turn off ads in the launcher

General Discussion
38

@sp5it:
Thank you. Thank you.
Now that there has been additional chimes-in into the convo. Let me just add this. I said the following:

With some folks if you piss them off, they will use the resources (ex: technical knowledge) they have available to avoid you, circumvent you, and disengage you, in a stealthy fashion. Employing a filter/redirect via the hosts file is a nice stealthy move. However, adding a filter/redirect via the hosts file puts the stealthy work on full display (see what I said about the Laucher’s level of access to your files/system above). A better and even more stealthy approach is to put the filter/redirect on the router or if you have Raspberry Pi put it there (what a lovely little Linux device). Any filter/redirect of this type could lead to breaking the functionality of the launcher. So, for all those who might want to employ this tactic please be aware.

Thank you again for the wisdom you shared. Now the whole player community has the ability to circumvent and filter out ads from any app/launcher on their devices.

@VitaKaninen:
I followed your steps of removing the folders, but copied them to a safe place. Here is the D4 buy now in-launcher pop-up advert:
https://i.imgur.com/reU3MzZ.jpg

Here is an ad-rotator ad:
https://i.imgur.com/bwRLdkE.jpg

Both exist within the Launcher. The pop-up advert blocks one’s ability to launch a game or interact with the other Launcher window elements until the in the top-right is clicked to dismiss it. Now the pop-up advert does not show up multiple times now. However, as described in post #8 it was showing up multiple times (aka being spammed at the user). I do not mind the ad-rotator ads. I generally pause the ad-rotator so that it doesn’t continue leeching CPU time. I don’t care which ad it lands on when I click the pause button. You are correct. Ad-rotator adds do not pop-up.

I followed your instructions a second time and removed the new cache folders. I then copied the old cache folders back in place and fired up the Launcher. No pop-up advert(s). Maybe there was a glitch and multiple spawns of the pop-up advert was unintended. As stated in a prior post today, I did get the OW2 starter pack pop-up advert but it was only shown once. This is what I think @Meteorblade encountered as well.

Thank you. Do you have a means of contacting the team that handles development for the launcher? If so, did you pass along the info. contained in this thread? Surely, you have a higher level of access than a “plain white text” poster like me.

mmmhmmm… and you have to wonder. Where did all of these circumvent ideas come from? Of the ones that were shared in this thread, who did the posters share the info. with before I made this thread? Who have they shared this info. with since the thread was created? Has the info. been copied to other forum sites, social medias, and chats? Information is like a fast spreading germ. What you count as what does and does not matter, doesn’t necessarily reflect reality because not everyone posts in this forum. Some only lurk.

@Everybody Else:
Fun fact… if you want elementary school kids to learn multiplication, you don’t teach them times tables first. You teach them a “secret method of faster addition and subtraction”. Once they get it, tell them to keep it as a secret. Find ways to discuss the “secret” openly around other kids of the same age who don’t know the secret. Once there is just a little bit of interest in the secret, tell your pupil(s) that you’ve changed your mind and remove the secret status. They will be thrilled that they don’t have to hold this secret inside anymore and will blab it to all of their friends/peers. The “secret” will spread like a virus. You then introduce multiplication tables as the new secret and start the cycle all over again.

It only takes one spark… to create an inferno.

Somebody queue the evil vampire laugh.

39

Correct.

Deleting the folders resets all the settings, so you will see the ads once more on the first startup, but they should never show up again until Blizzard has another promotion.

Assuming that you left the cache folders removed, this should solve your problem.

40

I put the original folders back in place and I haven’t gotten the repeat pop-up advert behavior.

41

There’s a world of difference between making a workaround yourself and “forcing” the company to do what you want. You have argued for the latter since your first post in this thread and that has been the specific scenario I have talked about.

42

No no no. I said nothing about boycotting. Take your meds… your selective comprehension is acting up again. I said opt-out of being spammed pop-up adverts. If there is no push back, then the silence amounts to a permission slip. If you give greedy types like the fat boy from Long Island a permission slip, you’ll soon end up with pop-up adverts for Ozempic, Icy Hot, and Car Fax. Why wouldn’t he push that crap. They [the players] must like it because nobody complains about it. Fat boy makes an easy $100 million, just by getting some folks to sign a contract and submit a few bitmaps (aka hardly working but raking in the doe).

43

So is yours, read my post again.

44

Nice post edit. I see what you did there. The quote shows the original.

I-C-U little bunny.

45

The edit was done long before your post, as evident by the lack of an edit flag.

46

Click, drag, select. Click "Quote. Continue typing. Click reply. No slight of hand. No deception.

Where is that Vincent Price laugh clip.

Kargon#1
https://i.imgur.com/6cD31wv.jpg

Kargon#2
https://i.imgur.com/c5xZcDd.jpg

Again, no slight of hand and no deception.

1 Like
47

What the hell are you on about?

48

So uninstall the game
no more ads to watch
must be a mongrel watching tv with those stations not allowing you to skip the ads on YOUR TV

49

Hey Steve.

I don’t watch TV. I don’t like watching commercials. See, when you watch TV you pick a show that you are interested in. You think that you are there watching a show with a few interrupts. Nah. TV is just an advertisement platform. It is there to serve adverts. However, in order to lure/entice you to watch the adverts they provide short segments of entertainment. The entertainment segments serve to:

  • extend your watching time
  • keep you below your saturation point (the point where you feel you have enough and are no longer interested)
  • allow the station to serve more adverts to you

This is because western capitalist societies are dependent on excessive consumerism. The internet followed the advertisement model for capitalization (on going monetary support). Social media followed the same advertisement model with a controlled vertical scroll forcing adverts in front of your eyeballs. The advantage social media platforms have is that they don’t have to pay for the entertainment segments like the TV platforms require. The users of the social media platforms generally supply limitless content.

I don’t like being manipulated and programmed. So I don’t watch TV. I watch streamed movies, documentaries, and TV shows without the commercials. As I said earlier, I ad-block. Have you not seen the Dave Chappelle skit called “Spam Busters”. I’ll leave you to find it on the youtubes. Enjoy your commercials and adverts. I have better uses of my eyeballs and time.

1 Like
50

Seems that you advocate manipulating people :grin: :

51

I see you… At least this was funny. You can’t push a wet noodle but you can pull it. You can pick up more liquid with a wet mob than a dry mob. Hesitant and resistant students don’t learn as well. You have to build trust and develop their interest first and then they will be receptive. The learn what you teach and by telling them to keep it as a secret they mentally have to hold on to the concepts. This increases retention. When you remove the secret status and they teach it to other students this reinforces the lessons/concepts. Rote memorization has its uses, but is not always the most effective method of learning. We learn and retain the most when we make connections and establish relationships between ideas/concepts. So it isn’t about manipulation, it is about getting the pupils to build connections multiplication/division tied to a secret that they must hold on to, and later they are emotionally motivated to share on their own.

2 Likes
52

It’s about lying then?

I’m all for using fantasy and imagination and learning in fun and creative ways.

53

I don’t, sorry.

All that can really be done is you making a post over there.

54

And what gives you the idea that I do that?

So what you are saying is you don’t leave the house and some poor carer has to come look after you because otherwise you will have to go outside see all the adverts on everything trying to manipulate you and then going to the shops and buying food and being manipulated by the specials

I find it sad that you have no self control over anything and if something is advertised you have to go and buy it instead of ignoring it

You also watch all these movies, documentaries and tv shows and don’t complain about how they are manipulating and program you to continue watching their shows

Why do you think at the end of a TV show they go
next time on …
and give you a rundown of all the good bits so that you watch the next episode

2 Likes
55

Thanks Levianthan, the new thread was made.

56

+1. I really don’t care about Call of Duty season 5, and Blizz is gatekeeping stuff we already purchased behind ads.

57

I mean it’s not my favourite thing but if it were me I would put it in as well. But I tend to open other stuff when Battlenet is opening so those seconds of waiting for some other thing to start clicking on an add isn’t really a big deal.

Just overall it isn’t a big deal, o here is a box in my way that requires less than a second and one click to get this damn Call of Duty crap out of my life, can deal with that.

What do you mean with that?