If there was a way to run SUPER MEGA AD BLOCKER on this website I fucking would
“Please oh please open up your computer to a porn virus! If you don’t you’re evil!”
Freeloader Comin’ through!
We didn’t start this war internet users have with ads - We might have moaned about banner ads, but it was only when they started making noises when we might be listening to music or a podcast or whatever, causing two sound sorces at once, that we started trying to block ads universally rather than just a specific type of ad (pop ups).
And since then ads have gotten worse - Actual malware rather than merely breaking one of the fundamental sins of web design - though shalt not autoplay anything with sound. And the more aggressive a website is with ‘please turn off adblock’ the less I trust it to bother to vet ads and advertisers to make sure they’re not installing malware.
Not to mention that the idea that avoiding ads is “freeloading” is hilariously backward. Advertisement is a transaction between the platform and the advertiser, the user has no obligation to provide the views/clicks the platform has promised. Using an adblocker isn’t freeloading in the same way that leaving the room to get a snack during a commercial break isn’t cheating the tv network.
Ok y’all, I work as a web developer and I’m here to tell you that you are 100% right and that it’s shit. SO I’m going to tell you how to get around websites that block you from using their website if you’re using an adblocker.
Every website uses a language called JavaScript; long story short it’s a website language that allows developers to do the crazy shit you see on websites. Now the easiest thing to do is to disable JavaScript to stop them from knowing you have an adblocker:
Oh no! I’m blocked from viewing the website. It would be a terrible shame if I were able to right click and select the “inspect” feature
Click the three dots in the top right and open the “Settings” Menu
And then scrolled down to “Debugger” and checked the “Disable Javascript Option”
And then just refreshed the page
since advertising usually fills me with irrational rage (especially toilet paper commercials) there’s no advantage to companies to getting the use of my eyeballs.
I noted with Italy 1990 that it was a rather late moment to finally cover a straightforward football game, but of course there were many, many such games before that. Italy 1990 was fairly representative in not being very good, especially within the class of games going for simulation. The business of attempting to accurately represent a football match tended to get in the way of that kind of game being particularly fun to play. There are two different approaches to solving this problem. One, wait for time and technology to make the aim a bit more possible. Two, take a different gameplay approach to representing football. More on both of those to come. Or three, turn the problem inside out, and make Speedball.
Speedball 2 (which is an upgrade on the original rather than a complete revision) is really very similar to Italy 1990 and other football games of the time – more similar than certain better football games we’ll see soon are. In both, sportspeople move around a field of play in eight directions from a top-down view, zoomed in to the point where you can’t see very far. Once a participant gets the ball, it sticks to them until they pass, shoot, or get tackled. When your opponent has the ball, your control switches to the nearest defender and you can slide tackle. At heart, it’s the same gameplay model. It’s just much better thanks to one of the best bits of outside-of-the-eighteen-yard-box thinking in sports games history, which is to solve the issue by removing football from the equation.
One by one, the things which get in the way in Italy 1990 and similar are ticked off and chucked out. The whole ball-magnetically-sticking-to-you thing makes no sense? Turn this into a sport where players carry the ball! Defending is too difficult when half of your tackling options result in fouls being given? Make it a lawless future sport fought by armoured goons where the more violent a tackle, the better! Too many hold-ups when the ball goes out of play? Stick bouncy walls at the edges! Goalkeepers invincibly hanging onto the ball slowing things down even more? Make throwing the ball to the goalkeeper and then wiping them out not only possible, but a strong tactic! Matches a bit samey? Have different arenas with different bonus features and randomly appearing power-ups!
Do all of that, and couple it with some well thought through rules and AI, and it turns out that the underlying gameplay can be great fun after all. For me it’s more than enough to overcome a lack of love for the specific acquired taste that is the game’s sports metal aesthetic, though I’ll also grant that in its context the subtitle and team name “Brutal Deluxe” is an absolutely perfect combination of two words. Plus there’s something to be said for the fact that inventing a fictional corrupt and amoral sport means not having to support, license from, or name your game after, any real-world corrupt and amoral sports governing bodies. So Speedball 2 scores a moral victory too.
ALT
