covering the week's top tech stories
with a slight linux bias the uk
advertising authority has put a stop to
those pin puzzle ads
arguing that the frequent advertising
misrepresents the gameplay of each title
the advertising standards authority
regularly weighs in
what does and doesn't fly for game
advertisements in the uk
meaning it's important for game
developers to keep up with the
authority's decisions in order to ensure
their own ads don't end up on the
chopping block
the play rick's ads in the asa's
crosshairs this time around might be
familiar to anyone that regularly
dabbles in mobile free-to-play games
or scrolls scrolls through social media
each depicts a puzzle that requires
players to slide a variety of pins in a
certain order
to save a cartoonish character from
certain doom
only as the ad regulator points out the
gameplay seemingly featured in those
advertisements is nothing close to
what's actually found in the bulk of the
match 3 games they're advertising
the complaint itself sprung out of two
particular facebook advertisements
one for homescapes and one for
gardenscapes that followed the pin
pulling format
and aim to lure would-be players with
phrases like only five percent can solve
this and think you can do better
among others in response to asa's
investigation
playwrights argued that the puzzles
shared thematic thematic similarities
with the gameplay and narrative
players could expect in the actual games
the asa however isn't having it
making it clear that those who click the
ad and install the app are expecting
gameplay that reflects what is shown
in the ad the authority has decreed that
playrix's ads are misleading despite
playwrx's inclusion of a disclaimer
that not all images represent actual
gameplay
the offending advertisements can no
longer run in the uk
and playrix has been told to ensure
their future ads actually represent the
gameplay of the titles they are linked
to
hopefully we'll see these annoying false
ads stopped in other regions as well
i i like that the uk authority has
gotten in on this because
this type of ad has driven me nuts for a
while now
anyone else seen this like anyone else
falling for it i see them all the time
but i find that youtube is not youtube
sorry facebook is particularly bad for
false advertisements like so many
computer
app games that i see they're like oh
check out this
you know this is the game you gotta play
it and it's
not the game it's it's video from
another video game
isn't that nuts it's well it's almost
like they've created like a video
yeah i don't know if you've fallen for
this i actually installed
the game when the ad started oh okay
because i thought oh that looks
really fun yes the ads make it look
really really fun
the game was nothing nothing like it
yeah
what the ad showed and in fact it was
like a really bad
topographical kind of like war
simulation
yeah what does that have to do with
anything
yeah absolutely completely misleading i
it's unfortunate though that it's only
the uk authority that's gotten in on
this i think
well i don't know that it is but i mean
the as far as the ruling
that's yeah that's what we're hearing
anyways that's what's breaking the news
right now i
hope that it it catches all across the
globe because these kind of ads
drive me nuts and as as a father whose
kids are now getting into
apps and games they see these ads
and they're like oh dad i want to
download that i want to play it yeah
but i'm now questioning going is what
they're seeing actually the game
yeah and that makes me think i mean it's
good that the authority is putting their
foot down because
if like where's the line yeah if if they
are allowed
if they were allowed to post these ads
that are completely not what they're
advertising what
what's the line what could it be that my
kids are actually installing and i
say my kids because that's the example
that you use but i mean it annoyed me
yeah because i was laying there on the
couch thinking this looks cool i'm going
to install this
could you imagine if we advertised as a
tech show on cat 5 but really we're a
car show
i couldn't imagine that like that would
just drive you all nuts you tune in it's
like
i gotta hear about cryptocurrency to be
fair we have the linux tech show and
people say why are you talking about
windows
okay fair enough i don't know so to be
fair
those are close enough yes but yeah i i
false advertising for apps and games has
gotten
so crazy yeah there needs to be
something
done about it and so i'm glad to see
this story me too it's good
big thanks to roy w nash and our
community of viewers for submitting
stories to us this week
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category5 from the category 5 tv
newsroom i'm becca ferguson
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