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Old 09-24-2011, 06:52 PM   #41
olivertheorem
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Originally Posted by Dr. dru View Post
I'll be turning this off as I play this game more than 70 hours a week and I don't want anyone to know it's me. It's not worth losing my job over even if there is a small chance of this getting out. Anyone can hack the OOTP website and publish this info online.
After looking over the info included in the upload from the first post, I don't see anything which could identify even the user's IP address, much less any other identifying info. I understand your position (I'm generally not fond of such things myself), but in this particular instance I don't think there's a need to worry about it. All it seems to be gathering is that a user did certain things with the game, not that a particular user did.

Or maybe I misunderstood your concern.
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Old 09-26-2011, 04:33 AM   #42
Andreas Raht
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After looking over the info included in the upload from the first post, I don't see anything which could identify even the user's IP address, much less any other identifying info. I understand your position (I'm generally not fond of such things myself), but in this particular instance I don't think there's a need to worry about it. All it seems to be gathering is that a user did certain things with the game, not that a particular user did.
That is correct. We do not want to know who plays OOTP in one way or the other. We just want to know which screens and features in OOTP are used often and which are not.
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Old 09-26-2011, 06:36 PM   #43
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I'm a privacy nut and I do turn off any kind of usage stat options but as Rich said, you guys have earned entry into the inner comp circle or trust so I will gladly provide stats back to you guys.
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Old 09-29-2011, 03:49 PM   #44
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OOTP 12.5 will include what we're calling the Usage Tracker. We wanted to be upfront about what it is and what it does.

The Usage Tracker captures basic gameplay information, but we want to emphasize that all data we gather is anonymous. The goal is to learn more about how OOTP is played so we can make improvements in version 13 and beyond. What we're doing here is no different than what many companies do with their software.

We also want to make it clear upfront that the Usage Tracker does not slow down the game or hamper it in any way. It transfers data to our server when the game connects to check for news. This happens while OOTP loads the skin and other data. If the data transfer takes too long because the server is busy, or if it hangs because the server is unavailable, the process will abort as soon as the game data is loaded, so the Usage Tracker won't get in the way. It also won't produce any annoying error messages.

The Usage Tracker generates a unique random key the first time OOTP starts. No IP addresses or other identifying information is used; it's simply 20 random letters and numbers.

The following information is uploaded with the unique key:

- Product name and version (i.e. OOTP 12.5.28)
- OS, OS version (i.e. Windows 7 64-bit)
- CPU type (i.e. Intel or AMD)
- Memory size (RAM)
- Product window size (i.e. 1024x768)
- Product running fullscreen Yes/No
- Number of sessions (i.e. game starts)
- Amount of minutes played
- A counter for each page and dialog that has been opened
- A counter for certain program features like team file import/export

All data is transferred without encryption as a simple HTTP call with parameters. There are no hidden data transfers or fishy things going on, we just need to learn more about how you play OOTP. You also do not need to fear that we remove screens or features that are not being used often. After all it was a lot of work to create them

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. Thanks.
Andreas, this thread should be made a sticky.

Cheers!
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Old 09-29-2011, 05:42 PM   #45
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Thanks! Done
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Old 09-29-2011, 05:49 PM   #46
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Enabled it on mine for you guys. Anything that makes the game better is great.
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Old 09-29-2011, 06:03 PM   #47
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Alright, I enabled it on mine as well, but last night when I went to bed, I kept hearing this voice coming from my computer room saying "why aren't you playing me" over and over. Had a German accent too.
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Old 09-29-2011, 11:13 PM   #48
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Alright, I enabled it on mine as well, but last night when I went to bed, I kept hearing this voice coming from my computer room saying "why aren't you playing me" over and over. Had a German accent too.
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Old 09-30-2011, 04:11 AM   #49
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In build #33, we added a feature to enable and disable the usage tracker and the news system in the Prefeferences dialog/Misc tab. The new build also tracks the license status to show us how many people try the demo and how long they play. Again: it's all anonymous and we are totally open about the data that's collected.

Last edited by Andreas Raht; 09-30-2011 at 04:13 AM.
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Old 10-04-2011, 12:11 PM   #50
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seems to me that the usage tracker is slowing things down.
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Old 10-04-2011, 12:55 PM   #51
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seems to me that the usage tracker is slowing things down.
No, it cannot slow things down, really.
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Old 10-05-2011, 05:32 PM   #52
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I see a lot of talk about playing at work, here. I assume that those of you who are able to do so can generally get away with it, so I doubt that there's anything to really worry about.

However, just because the file itself doesn't contain any identifying information doesn't mean that it's being sent out does not breach your privacy, if you need it. There's obviously nothing to worry about at home (I'd hope!), but in the workplace or (especially) in a school environment you'd be well advised not to allow anything other than a browser or IT approved software to send anything at all over the network. Simply installing software on any workplace or school computer is usually something that can open you up to disciplinary action, up to and including termination or suspension of some sort. It's unlikely that the IT people will actually look at the file(s) being sent, but outgoing traffic like this sets off big, blaring alarm bells to IT managers who pay attention to it (regardless of what port it's being sent on. They look at the packet headers, which include much more than the port number).

Trust me, I've worked in and with plenty of IT departments. Don't install anything on work or school computers, but if you do don't let anything go on the network. Quite a bit depends on the head of the IT department, but don't risk your job or academic status for a game. This has very little to do with OOTP's actual tracking data, it's simply realizing that you have absolutely no privacy at work (or school, for that matter). If you don't personally own the computer then everything you do can and its being tracked and watched by your superiors.
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Old 10-05-2011, 06:11 PM   #53
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I do hope that OOTP will keep in mind that sometimes very important features might be used only once or twice a season. For example, I don't do a whole lot with exports (mostly because I consider it a pain to convert them from HTML to Excel), but I absolutely need them for my 1st Year Draft preparations.
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Old 10-05-2011, 08:35 PM   #54
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will you be tracking how I alt-ctr-del to close the game and then reopen it after I sign a free agent and think I could have screwed him over a little bit more?
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Old 10-06-2011, 03:33 AM   #55
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Originally Posted by ohms_law View Post
I see a lot of talk about playing at work, here. I assume that those of you who are able to do so can generally get away with it, so I doubt that there's anything to really worry about.

However, just because the file itself doesn't contain any identifying information doesn't mean that it's being sent out does not breach your privacy, if you need it. There's obviously nothing to worry about at home (I'd hope!), but in the workplace or (especially) in a school environment you'd be well advised not to allow anything other than a browser or IT approved software to send anything at all over the network. Simply installing software on any workplace or school computer is usually something that can open you up to disciplinary action, up to and including termination or suspension of some sort. It's unlikely that the IT people will actually look at the file(s) being sent, but outgoing traffic like this sets off big, blaring alarm bells to IT managers who pay attention to it (regardless of what port it's being sent on. They look at the packet headers, which include much more than the port number).

Trust me, I've worked in and with plenty of IT departments. Don't install anything on work or school computers, but if you do don't let anything go on the network. Quite a bit depends on the head of the IT department, but don't risk your job or academic status for a game. This has very little to do with OOTP's actual tracking data, it's simply realizing that you have absolutely no privacy at work (or school, for that matter). If you don't personally own the computer then everything you do can and its being tracked and watched by your superiors.
Very true. Network admins have great tools to see what you're doing on your computers. Obviously internet access is very interesting for them. You boss probably wants to know who's watching Youtube movies the whole day long or who's dealing on eBay all the time during work. If you're playing OOTP at work I suggest you disable all the online features. But you should also not open the OOTP web site or forums at work because that's similar network traffic as the traffic caused by OOTP's usage tracker.

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Originally Posted by fintach View Post
I do hope that OOTP will keep in mind that sometimes very important features might be used only once or twice a season. For example, I don't do a whole lot with exports (mostly because I consider it a pain to convert them from HTML to Excel), but I absolutely need them for my 1st Year Draft preparations.
We will NOT remove features because the usage tracker tells us that they are rarely used. We will IMPROVE the features that are being used often.

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will you be tracking how I alt-ctr-del to close the game and then reopen it after I sign a free agent and think I could have screwed him over a little bit more?
The whole session will be "ignored" by the usage tracker because it cannot save the data, you cheater
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Old 10-06-2011, 06:28 PM   #56
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The whole session will be "ignored" by the usage tracker because it cannot save the data, you cheater

Speaking of which, it'd be nice if there were a more graceful way to do this. Yes, obviously it's cheating, but... this is a game, after all. For single player games there ought to be a menu option, or something similar, that lets you close the game without saving (I assume that online league files would need to have this disabled... although, maybe not).

I know that this subject is pretty off topic for this thread, but singe the subject came up I figured that I'd say something.
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Old 10-09-2011, 09:04 PM   #57
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Got mine turned on. I think it would be cool if we could see average number of hours played... I want to see if I have a problem.
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Old 10-10-2011, 03:43 PM   #58
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Are you getting all this data that I've been giving you this holiday weekend?!? Huh? Here's some more. *resumes play*
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Old 10-10-2011, 03:50 PM   #59
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Got mine turned on. I think it would be cool if we could see average number of hours played... I want to see if I have a problem.
Are you t5vFfHY1teDH7bkzMyRg ? That guy really has a problem.
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Old 10-10-2011, 04:59 PM   #60
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