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Having worked in mobile games for a few years, it's frightening how confident he is in his data. Demographic data is notoriously hard to acquire and validate wi

by abannin 11y ago

Having worked in mobile games for a few years, it's frightening how confident he is in his data. Demographic data is notoriously hard to acquire and validate within mobile apps. Yes, you collect everything you can (like every other company) but you absolutely do not own anyone. You beg and plead and issue content updates to keep them in the game.

drdaeman 11y ago
I guess it's the same story as with "targetted" advertisement. I'm still to see any advert that'd offer me something I'd like. Don't remember one, ever. In all those years - none. Not even close. Best notifications from Google Now is occasional weather reminders (because, duh, after an year they noticed I check them almost daily), which is very far from being useful. Steam - the platform that should know my gaming habits - had almost never offered me games that I was interested in (although "item from your wishlist is on sale now" surely worked). Music stores don't have a single clue of what I like and what I don't and all they do is some awfully rough genre matching which is nearly disappointing. So, companies - gaming or else - surely have tons of data but I somewhat doubt they can use it any meaningfully, at least from consumer perspective (but hey, If they don't make me open the wallet and don't advertise them - it doesn't work for them too, right?) Wonder if the companies are somewhat hyping themselves on importance of this data and how it helps them, than it really does.
- kasey_junk 11y ago
  Or maybe they know precisely that you aren't worth the effort?
  - Draiken 11y ago
    Exactly. We are not the targets. I would doubt someone here ever spent $10k-$50k on a free to play game. And I believe they know it.
- abannin 11y ago
  I can't speak to your experience, but seeing the performance boosts from good ad targeting is very impressive. Google and Facebook represent two of the largest advertising revenue streams in the world. The success of their ad units is directly linked to their ability to target based on user behavior. That being said, I feel ad targeting is a very different problem then games. Funnels behave differently and data collection is much more challenging in ad tech.
grey-area 11y ago
He mentions Facebook logins being required, this is probably how they can be so confident - that gives them a lot of data on individuals and relationships from a company with no qualms about privacy. Tie that to in-game behaviour across games and you have a lot of info.

by abannin 11y ago

drdaeman 11y ago

I guess it's the same story as with "targetted" advertisement. I'm still to see any advert that'd offer me something I'd like. Don't remember one, ever. In all those years - none. Not even close. Best notifications from Google Now is occasional weather reminders (because, duh, after an year they noticed I check them almost daily), which is very far from being useful. Steam - the platform that should know my gaming habits - had almost never offered me games that I was interested in (although "item from your wishlist is on sale now" surely worked). Music stores don't have a single clue of what I like and what I don't and all they do is some awfully rough genre matching which is nearly disappointing. So, companies - gaming or else - surely have tons of data but I somewhat doubt they can use it any meaningfully, at least from consumer perspective (but hey, If they don't make me open the wallet and don't advertise them - it doesn't work for them too, right?) Wonder if the companies are somewhat hyping themselves on importance of this data and how it helps them, than it really does.

kasey_junk 11y ago
Or maybe they know precisely that you aren't worth the effort?
- Draiken 11y ago
  Exactly. We are not the targets. I would doubt someone here ever spent $10k-$50k on a free to play game. And I believe they know it.
abannin 11y ago
I can't speak to your experience, but seeing the performance boosts from good ad targeting is very impressive. Google and Facebook represent two of the largest advertising revenue streams in the world. The success of their ad units is directly linked to their ability to target based on user behavior. That being said, I feel ad targeting is a very different problem then games. Funnels behave differently and data collection is much more challenging in ad tech.

grey-area 11y ago

He mentions Facebook logins being required, this is probably how they can be so confident - that gives them a lot of data on individuals and relationships from a company with no qualms about privacy. Tie that to in-game behaviour across games and you have a lot of info.