Re: [GD-General] Collecting info from players

[Rob C. <r.j...@vi...>]

Hi,

Most of this has been said but I dont think it can ever be stressed enough -
well ok ;)

I remember many Amiga games in the early to mid 90s with registration forms
asking numerous things like the last five games purchased, number of people in
your house and the annual income - key point being that you could choose not
to fill the information in and you were aware of all the info.

I think you _must_ give the user the option to enable and disable the sending
of statistics. Ideally I would like some sort of window to pop up at the end
of install (defaulting to no stats sent) which aloud you to enable the sending
of stats; specifically I would like to be able to taylor the stats sent (I'm
ok with sending my platform type but not unique HW ids).

Clearly state what is being sent and /how/ it will be used and the /extents/
of its use. Certainly dont attempt to sneak anything out before the user is
given a chance - I run a FW and everone I know runs a FW and any app/game that
attempts communication is immediatly blocked followed by a google search for
info on it - if anything dodgey is found I uninstall it then and there, no
matter how fine and dandy it is!

You dont go walking into someones house and rummaging through there filing
cabs or desk draws to obtain personal info. Just because people now have a
'virtual desk' and the abilities exist to access this doesnt give you anymore
right to access there personal information.

[and breath]

Rob