Trackmania == Adware

Sometime around last week or so, the world of Trackmania Nations collided with Olin College. The sound heard ’round the campus was the collective dropping of the ball with regards to assignments, projects, and actual college work. Typical college life reared its ugly head and time, oh it was a wasted. Ahhhh… good to know that you can’t keep a good gamer down, even if you try and bury them in engineering homework.

But, as your parents and those wise characters that eventually die early in most movies told you — nothing comes for free.

Reports of StarForce copy protection started rolling in. Seems it was “bundled” (thank you!) with Trackmania Nations. Some people got it, some people didn’t (or didn’t find it). BoingBoing got it, then got a butt-load of ScareTactics (hey, CamelCase for EveryOne) from Mr. StarForce, Denis Zhidkov for writing about it. Slander!, they say. Oh well. Blame the messenger. For more on the anti-StarForce scene, check out these guys, standing tall against Da Man. They’ve even got the “CD destroyed in anger” picture to prove it.

But, this evening I was strong armed by a group of students to install TrackMania. “Hey, who doesn’t like a little DRM with their Windows?”, I thought to myself. And honestly, I can’t ignore a good driving game. Plus, it’d give me a good reason to dust off my racing wheel and couch-potato driving shoes (not). So, I go to load the installer and read the EULA. Yes, I read EULAs. Any EFF-loving person should. (And as a side note, since Mr. Cory Doctorow is coming to speak tomorrow, I figured now is as good a time as any to re-up my membership with the EFF — Free Mitnick!)

Paging through this thing, like most EULAs, there is at least one interesting part. Click, click, click, click… ooooo, there it is. Let me cut and paste just the good bits for you.

“TrackMania Nations ESWC uses technology developed by IGA Partners Limited (”IGA”) that delivers content and information to and from the game and game environment when you use TrackMania Nations ESWC while connected to the Internet. Such content may include advertising and other material created by third parties and may be sent from a remote server inside or outside the country in which you reside or use TrackMania Nations ESWC.”

Awesome. In-game advertising brought to you via teh INTARWEB!!!!111 Nice. But wait, there’s more.

“When you use TrackMania Nations ESWC on a computer connected to the Internet, IGA may record data relating to your use of and interaction with the TrackMania Nations ESWC, including your response to ads, content, and other information presented by IGA. This information will be associated with the IP address assigned by your service provider, which may or may not be personally identifiable, based on the service you use. IGA uses this information to analyze and enhance the effectiveness of commercial messages and other information delivered by IGA as well as to provide you with an up to date, enjoyable and dynamic gaming experience.”

Awesomer.

First, don’t think I’m pulling the conspiracy theory cord here just yet. I’m just answering the question that got posed — how are the publishers making money off of this thing? Many naively thought it was through enticing you to buy their for-real-money games after getting a taste of Trackmania Nations. Probably. But this thing just might pay for itself, given the huge following it has online. Heck, there’s even a Firefox Toolbar that helps you do, er, something with the game and its online presence.

But the real question this EULA poses for me is, how exploitable is this? Is it Sony Rootkit-friendly? Or is it better/worse? As far as I can tell, it downloads stuff from somewhere else and inserts it into runnable code. Coupled with StarForce copy protection that supposedly runs at Ring 0 (look it up), this could spell some serious badness.

So, do you throw down your handkerchief and call out that punk, NADEO? Or do you just click Next and hope for the best? Unfortunately most research shows that you’ll probably end up clicking through, trading away your privacy (and possibly security) for a piece of this hot-sweaty-good gaming action. Then sometime down the line, while you’re in your sixth hour of TrackMania, somehow, you’ll get a craving for that cool refreshing taste of Diet Pepsi(tm), and boy, wouldn’t one of those new Taco Bell Crunch Wrap Supremes(tm) taste really good right about now?

And you’ll thank them for it.

Now that’s a kick in the pants.

Maybe the EFF should give me my money back. I don’t deserve it…

So I’m clicking Next. Don’t hate the playa, hate the game.