Universal Vampire Survivors (by Poncle)

Only two things that we as consumers can do to stop creeping shadiness like this—uninstall the app and report the behavior as a possible violation of the app guidelines.

I’ll also be removing it from my PC. I know lots of Unity games use Unity metrics at that domain. I’ve seen and read similar reports on games like Iratus, another game that I refuse to install on my PC due to the background calls it makes to unity3d.com.

i am assuming that’s what is going on here and either the dev innocently forgot to disable something in the metrics suite that is keeping the DLC screen from loading properly, or the dev is intentionally using the DLC as a Trojan horse method to bypass users effectively opting out of tracking by having adblock installed. Either way, I’m out and I’ll encourage everyone who will listen to follow.

 

Well, I've posted my thoughts on the VS subreddit and replied to their tweet of the FAQ. Now to see if they bother to reply.

 

Lol. Swiped from Reddit. 742 tracking attempts on Android!

Having a tough time continuing to give Poncle any benefit of the doubt.

 

Thanks for the tip man!

 

One of the developers confirmed on Discord that they already have a patch in QA that will allow the DLC to be purchased and played with an adblocker running.

 

Good. Though I don't at all believe that this was an error or unintended. Potentially create all those support inquiries just to get it out a week or so earlier?! Can't imagine they're hurting for money that bad.

I think somebody wised up and realized how big of a potential issue it is to use channels outside of the app stores to tell users, especially minor users, to disable security settings to play a game.

"Mommy, what does this mean?"
(Shows mother banner ad proclaiming that THIS GAME WILL MAKE YOU CUM IN 20 SECONDS)
"All I did was disable ad block because the Vampire Survivors guys said I had to!"

 

Whether it was intentional or not, I’m glad they’re not doubling down and seem to be taking quick action to resolve. I’ll happily play the game as soon as I can run it without disabling my adblocker.

They also specified on a follow up response on Discord that they’ll be updating the game so the DLC is on playable offline. I’m not sure if that will come with the next patch or a future patch, but it’s still a nice step in the right direction.

 

Patch is live. Can confirm the DLC is accessible without altering my Adblock settings.

Looks like the content is accessible without an internet connection too.

 

Totally agree. You have every reason to be suspicious, but Poncle has always been supportive of their community, clearly against unfair monetisation and just seemingly cool people, I don’t know why a mobile DLC would change that.

 

I understand that nobody wants to pay for mobile games so business models like these are prevalent.

So when you aren’t charging upfront for a game, and instead are serving advertisements and monetizing your userbase’s harvested data to the tune of more than 700+ known tracking and user profiling calls on Android, I’m personally not going to install your game, but whatever. Do what you must.

But then when you release a long-anticipated update that requires users to disable their last line of defense against the above, I am gonna call bullshit loudly.

And then when you have a support document ready to go, telling users, including many users under the ages of 18 and even 13, to disable their adblock, I’m going to call the authorities. Especially when your behavior strongly indicates that you realize that what you are doing is not totally on the up and up.

We all put up with too much crap on this platform already, largely because it has become the platform of choice for children to play free and low cost games. I believe we have a moral imperative to to make sure developers and publishers aren’t using that situation to literally exploit children. No matter how we might try to sugarcoat it, in my opinion it’s pretty obvious that in their quest to harvest more data and/or deploy anti-piracy methods that are clearly verboten, the devs were skirting laws, regulations, and parental attempts to protect children online.

And the idea that this tracking has somehow been forced upon Poncle by Unity is um, interesting. Many, many (most?) Unity games don’t exhibit this behavior, and Poncle’s actions make it clear that this wasn’t somebody inadvertently leaving a checkbox selected in the Unity suite.

 

One more thing and then I’ll leave it be unless someone else wants to engage further in this discussion.

Imagine if there was a bug or exploit that allowed users to bypass parental controls on in-app purchases. And a dev was sending kids to their website where they had a support document suggesting they use this bug. Not clarifying how, necessarily, but planting the idea and encouraging the google. Would we be sitting here splitting hairs over how bad this is because after all, the dev is friendly and has had good engagement with their fans and it’s not like they’re selling consumables. It’s just a single 99 cent purchase!

I don’t think so.

Savvy parents install adblock on their children’s devices to help protect them from tracking, data harvesting, malware, pornographic advertisements, etc. And this dev blithely was all, “Eh, just disable that.”

 

I got excited by the update article on the main page that there was an graphics update to make the game look less crappy. Oh well, still a fun way to kill time, even if it still looks awful.

 

I can only roll my eyes when people call this game awful looking. To me, it‘s oldschool pixel art perfection. The endgame mayhem with tons of wild effects going on at the same time is a sight to behold. This game is a timeless stunner, in my eyes. Not trendy, just perfect. I‘m dead serious.

 

I totally agree, I’ve always disagreed with the idea this looks bad. Every aspect of this games art, from characters to enemies, early game to late, looks great. The UI sucks, but that’s it.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying pixel art is bad. I love good pixel art, games like Hyperlight Drifter, Sword and Sworcery, Dungeon of the Endless...I'm just saying this isn't good pixel art. Describe "old school pixel art" without referencing the name of a game and you just mean bad pixel art.

 

We aren't saying you don't like pixel art. We are disagreeing about the pixel art being bad.

 

Really digging Ultra Blade, I vibe with that style a lot more.

 

New DLC had landed.