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Discussion Few questions about GMS 2

S

Sin_of_Nature

Guest
Hi,

Just away to purchase but I was wondering if you could answer a couple of questions:

1. Is the licensing the same as GMS 1. 3 installs and if 1 is not used within x number of days, that install becomes free? I don't care if they have a check to ensure only 1 instance of GMS 2 is being used at the same time but I nuke my PC's a lot and I hate fixed number of installs before having to chase companies to get it reset.

2. If I purchase say the Pro and the Mobile, does it require to completely separate installs or will it install into the same folder and they'll be away of flicking which version inside the GMS 2 (similar to GMS 1)?

3. Will there be a way of turning off YoYoGames collecting of information inside released apps? I was quite disappointed to see that in your FAQ. There should be a way of opting out of this as I find this quite sneaky/dodgy. I produce kids apps with no IAP and no collection of information deliberately. I know you say its only for things such as display size... etc but we dont know what is actually being collected and I don't want another Windows 10 "Making a better user experience" excuse for collecting info inside my apps for YoYoGames to harvest or sell.

Any help appreciated

Thanks
 
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Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
1) I'm not sure about that but I will find out.

2) Each purchase will simply add that platform to your target list in the IDE, so you can change between them at any time.

3) No, analytics cannot be turned off, but this should not affect anything as it simply pings out a small amount of information if the game is connected to the web (if it's not then nothing happens and the game plays as normal). The information is anonymous and will only contain the data about the device and architecture. This data will be used to provide a better experience for everyone, with the plan being to share it with you all later so that you can better target your games. This is normal behaviour and all games made with all engines do it to some extent, and it can be extremely beneficial. Think of the Steam Hardware Survey, as that helps people to target their Steam games at the correct specifications and audience. This will be used in the same way.
 
S

Sin_of_Nature

Guest
Thanks for the quick replies. I suspect a lot of people would like to know how the licencing works so that would be appreciated.

Answer 3 is disappointing. This is not a dig at yourself or YoYoGames but "small amount of information" and "anonymous" are phrases often used by data collection organisations but they never quite give a detailed list of what information is being sent (i.e. if a IP address is stored or device ID, then it is not anonymous. A user can be identified). My counter argument is if its not a big deal, then allow us to turn it off. :)

I appreciate clarifying the situation though and the speedy answer.

Thanks again


1) I'm not sure about that but I will find out.

2) Each purchase will simply add that platform to your target list in the IDE, so you can change between them at any time.

3) No, analytics cannot be turned off, but this should not affect anything as it simply pings out a small amount of information if the game is connected to the web (if it's not then nothing happens and the game plays as normal). The information is anonymous and will only contain the data about the device and architecture. This data will be used to provide a better experience for everyone, with the plan being to share it with you all later so that you can better target your games. This is normal behaviour and all games made with all engines do it to some extent, and it can be extremely beneficial. Think of the Steam Hardware Survey, as that helps people to target their Steam games at the correct specifications and audience. This will be used in the same way.
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
3) No, analytics cannot be turned off, but this should not affect anything as it simply pings out a small amount of information if the game is connected to the web (if it's not then nothing happens and the game plays as normal). The information is anonymous and will only contain the data about the device and architecture. This data will be used to provide a better experience for everyone, with the plan being to share it with you all later so that you can better target your games. This is normal behaviour and all games made with all engines do it to some extent, and it can be extremely beneficial. Think of the Steam Hardware Survey, as that helps people to target their Steam games at the correct specifications and audience. This will be used in the same way.
Not allowing analytics to be turned off is overbearing and has several practical consequences.
  • Some projects have legal requirements restricting or banning telemetric data collection, no matter how "anonymous" you claim it to be. Sin_Of_Nature has already raised the education sector as being particularly sensitive, the government sector is another one.
  • If we decide to release an app in a non-Google Play store for legal reasons (e.g. China, Russia), this analytics feature alone could disqualify us because communication with the telemetry servers would itself be illegal.
  • Some builds (including final ones) are intended for niche audiences not indicative of the wider market, such as test devices and in-house apps. You run the risk of tainting your telemetry set full of these, especially in the earliest days of this telemetry initiative.
  • Having the telemetry on means forcing the Internet permission to be on, potentially plus other system-level permissions. This could alienate app developers from certain prospective audiences who see these excessive permissions and feel unsafe installing the product.
  • Having every app made with GMS 2 ping YoYo servers creates a huge strain, and from past experience YoYo has been proven to handle surge loads poorly. It only takes a holiday season or one GMS 2 project going viral to get you virtually DDoSed.
  • If the telemetry servers are down or become inaccessible for any reason, what then? And if it goes down or gets hacked on the server end, what's stopping the problem from bubbling down to GMS 2 apps worldwide?
  • If you decide to collect telemetry data in a new format (e.g. a new system property to detect), what happens to the integration burned into existing apps?
  • Developers in general have greater utility for analytics based on the market as a whole, than that of the GMS 2-made sub-ecosystem (likely far too small for quite some time and could deviate visibly from the general big picture). You are collecting analytics on a sample that developers might not need or want to sample.
  • Is there any disclosure on what's being collected? Some of such information (e.g. ad identifiers) are a point of contention for app submission. Enabling telemetry by force under the lid could get a lot of submissions rejected because the authors didn't know it's there, or force them into a F2P model because advertisement appears to be enabled.
Seriously, make this telemetry program opt-out and leave it that way. Almost every time anyone on the YoYo team says "it shouldn't affect anything", it hits like a truck.
 
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chamaeleon

Member
From the Steam link in the FAQ regarding Steam Software Survey: "Participation in the survey is optional".

Presumably all EULAs for gms2 games should have phrasing to the effect this is taking place. Additionally, I assume the developer becomes responsible for any controversies stemming from this. That is, I can only assume yoyogames will have words in their EULA that disavows any liabilities or responsibilities towards an end user. Not saying this is good or bad, just that it will be a fact of life unless the developer is given control.
 

csanyk

Member
Not allowing analytics to be turned off is overbearing and has several practical consequences.

[...]

Seriously, make this telemetry program opt-out and leave it that way. Almost every time anyone on the YoYo team says "it shouldn't affect anything", it hits like a truck.
I can't say it any better than this, FrostyCat is right on all counts, 100% agreement. Please YYG listen. Thank you!
 
N

NPT

Guest
From the Steam link in the FAQ regarding Steam Software Survey: "Participation in the survey is optional".

Presumably all EULAs for gms2 games should have phrasing to the effect this is taking place. Additionally, I assume the developer becomes responsible for any controversies stemming from this. That is, I can only assume yoyogames will have words in their EULA that disavows any liabilities or responsibilities towards an end user. Not saying this is good or bad, just that it will be a fact of life unless the developer is given control.
They have language that specifies We must indemnify and hold harmless YYGs.

From the EULA,
"7.2. Indemnity. You agree on demand to indemnify and hold harmless YoYo Group and its officers, directors, employees and agents (and keep them indemnified and held harmless) on demand from and against any and all damages, claims, suits, actions, judgments and costs (including legal fees and costs) and expenses whatsoever arising out of your use of the YYG Platforms or Publisher Property, including your material breach of this User Agreement."​
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Umm... this is standard for all engines. Unreal does it, Unity does it, lumberyard does it... and it's not optional on those platforms (check out part 57.9 of the Lumberyard EULA or the Unity FAQ for example). This is beneficial to all developers as the final data can be used to better target your games. As for WHAT is being collected, afaik IP's no, but CPU/GPU details, device type, OS, display size and number of monitors will make up the bulk of the data.
 
N

NPT

Guest
Umm... this is standard for all engines. Unreal does it, Unity does it, lumberyard does it... and it's not optional on those platforms (check out part 57.9 of the Lumberyard EULA or the Unity FAQ for example). This is beneficial to all developers as the final data can be used to better target your games. As for WHAT is being collected, afaik IP's no, but CPU/GPU details, device type, OS, display size and number of monitors will make up the bulk of the data.
it is NOT standard for ALL engines.

It might be done for a lot of them, even the majority, but please don't claim all engines do it, and it most certainly has nothing to do with any kind of a standard.

And so what if other engines do it. Since when is any kind of justification for an undesirable feature, "Well Unreal and Unity do it so, so do we". If our justification for a feature, upgrade or any kind of request was, Unity, Unreal, and Lumberyard do it, that certainly wouldn't create any kind of obligation on YYGs part.

So please don't use that as a justification for your decision.

But since you brought it up, let's take a look at how Unity developers and users responded to it.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/artic...e-with-details-of-your-hardware-software.4452
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/4cvdj4/unity3d_games_phone_home_with_details_of_your/

They hate it.

And BTW the developer can disable the feature in the Pro version of Unity.
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/866325/unity-5-disable-analytics-pro-only.html

Given that part of your justification is other engines do it, perhaps you should make it optional, because after all, that's how other engines do it.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Pffff.... Okay, it's standard for a lot of engines. :) And I didn't know that about Unity. Interesting...
 
N

NPT

Guest

XanthorXIII

Member
I'm not sure I like data collection of any kind. I know the goal is to better improve your product but you may start running up against antivirus software that would report that as an Indicator of Compromise. A program shouldn't just up and randomly send data to an external IP. I work in Network Security and we see a lot of that junk. So this may cause more issues for customers than to help them.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Unity made it optional instead of responding "Pffffff....."
I am not a developer (I only document and run the forums), so cannot say any more on the subject than I have been told to say.... and "pffff" was my response in a lighthearted tone to you picking holes in my comment, NOT to the feelings you (or anyone else) has on this. ;)

The product is only just gone into beta, so feedback about these things is important, and I can assure you that these concerns will be passed along and considered.
 

csanyk

Member
I wish Josh from Leadwerks were here to see this. He would sh*t on Nocturne's tombstone.
No but seriously, let's make this optional please. What is wrong with making it optional?
Moreover, it should also be up to the end user, the customer who bought the game, to decide for themselves if they wish to OPT-IN to telemetry. It is THEIR data being transmitted to the developer or YYG, and it should be THEIR choice whether they wish to participate in the program. This is a foundational freedom of computer users.
 
B

BlueSlime

Guest
I want yoyogames to add the ability to opt-out of forced analytics or I am not upgrading
 
G

gamible

Guest
I don't see what the big drama is about Analytics being reported back to YYG. It gives them feedback on how the product is being used along with system specs (I am assuming).
That is great but, why can't it be turned off? I am honestly fine with analytics on, but I know plenty of people who would rather get another engine instead of it.

Just an option would be fine, and they can hide it in appdata or something idk.
 
Z

zircher

Guest
It's like these folks have never heard of a firewall. :) [Yes, Yes, I understand the principle of the argument .]
 
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hdarren

Member
Or just have the intelligence and foresight to know this is a catastrophe waiting to happen when end users find out about it.
 

Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Guys, guys, calm down... this is something we will look at and discuss with a view to reach a compromise that suits everyone. GMS2 is only just gone into beta, and we need REASONED feedback about these things and not conspiracy theories!!!
 

Roa

Member
MAC address + IP address us pretty conclusive though. ;)
I wasn't aware you could recover macs on a network beyond ARP request?? Why would a browsers cookie have access to that information. Thats a total compromise


And yeah, you download the beta knowingly, deal with the telemetry for now. Have compiled games report back data can still be debated over at a later date.
 
R

Revenant

Guest
Thank you, Nocturne, for conveying these concerns. Hopefully YoYo realises that this is actually a serious concern for people (and not a minority, either) and at the very least puts in an option to disable this on published games. I don't care if you have info about my development environment but as a developer, I absolutely do not want to enforce things onto customers (whether paying or otherwise) that are not necessary for my application.

I can completely understand why you want the information and yes, it may well help making GMS2 (and beyond!) a better application - but don't force it on people. There are those that won't care but equally there are those that will, and ultimately having to mention this in our T&C's may cost us sales - this is a very real concern. We clearly cannot hide/obscure the fact the game will "send anonymous statistics to YoYo Games" from the customer and placing the information on the product page will undoubtedly cause some people to disregard your product. To me at least, placing the information inside the game (and not on some EULA/splash screen that is shown at the start of a game) is somewhat disingenuous.

For the record, I'm not suggesting that YoYo will be doing anything sinister in the slightest with this - but there have been enough high-profile cases involving data collection to mean that many people will automatically disregard your application if it does this stuff. As such, PLEASE seriously consider making this an option for finished games.
 

rIKmAN

Member
Would this data being sent back from games on Android/iOS mean we have to tick the various boxes during App Store submissions for conforming to privacy regulations and jump through all those hoops as well?
 
G

gamible

Guest
Thank you, Nocturne, for conveying these concerns. Hopefully YoYo realises that this is actually a serious concern for people (and not a minority, either) and at the very least puts in an option to disable this on published games. I don't care if you have info about my development environment but as a developer, I absolutely do not want to enforce things onto customers (whether paying or otherwise) that are not necessary for my application.

I can completely understand why you want the information and yes, it may well help making GMS2 (and beyond!) a better application - but don't force it on people. There are those that won't care but equally there are those that will, and ultimately having to mention this in our T&C's may cost us sales - this is a very real concern. We clearly cannot hide/obscure the fact the game will "send anonymous statistics to YoYo Games" from the customer and placing the information on the product page will undoubtedly cause some people to disregard your product. To me at least, placing the information inside the game (and not on some EULA/splash screen that is shown at the start of a game) is somewhat disingenuous.

For the record, I'm not suggesting that YoYo will be doing anything sinister in the slightest with this - but there have been enough high-profile cases involving data collection to mean that many people will automatically disregard your application if it does this stuff. As such, PLEASE seriously consider making this an option for finished games.
Couldn't agree more.
 
N

NPT

Guest
Guys, guys, calm down... this is something we will look at and discuss with a view to reach a compromise that suits everyone. GMS2 is only just gone into beta, and we need REASONED feedback about these things and not conspiracy theories!!!
This is one time where the argument of the paranoid, computer illitorit and conspiracy actually has merrit.

I recognise the value of the data and how it will eventually benifit all Studio users. but the problem is the end-customers of the developers do not. All they know about is, a non-networked game wants access to the network, and therefore could be malicious. Or somebody notes through a sniffer or firewall configured to trigger on outbound traffic that the game is phoning home. Once again their paranoya sets in.

This is especially problematic to developers who aren't aware of the phoning home and therefore can't explain it.

Reasoned explanation won't satisfy a lot of the general population who are constantly being told about security problems and those same people make up a large percentage of the customer base of Indies.
 

ShaunJS

Just Another Dev
GMC Elder
We know that, for example, Unity provide the option for paid users to disable analytics being sent back in their highest paid tier. We don't operate the same pricing model Unity does but we recognize everyone's concern and we recognise situations as brought up by @FrostyCat where certain stores, projects and environments have legal requirements on this front. We are still internally discussing ways to provide flexibility with analytics, exactly what form that will take has not been decided.

[/Official response]

Until such time where changes might be announced on this front, please just know that these analytics are very important and are something that serve to benefit everyone. This is data we want to share with all of you to help improve the tool. This is industry standard for very good reason, and that fact isn't being used to disguise a sinister intent or to justify sinister intent by pointing at others who do it. This is information we have sorely lacked for years with GameMaker: Studio 1.x that has stunted our growth in numerous ways. We want to bring you an excellent tool and these analytics are a fundamental part of doing that.
 
R

Revenant

Guest
We know that, for example, Unity provide the option for paid users to disable analytics being sent back in their highest paid tier. We don't operate the same pricing model Unity does but we recognize everyone's concern and we recognise situations as brought up by @FrostyCat where certain stores, projects and environments have legal requirements on this front. We are still internally discussing ways to provide flexibility with analytics, exactly what form that will take has not been decided.

[/Official response]

Until such time where changes might be announced on this front, please just know that these analytics are very important and are something that serve to benefit everyone. This is data we want to share with all of you to help improve the tool. This is industry standard for very good reason, and that fact isn't being used to disguise a sinister intent or to justify sinister intent by pointing at others who do it. This is information we have sorely lacked for years with GameMaker: Studio 1.x that has stunted our growth in numerous ways. We want to bring you an excellent tool and these analytics are a fundamental part of doing that.
Whilst I don't doubt the latter paragraph at all, it doesn't change the fact that imposing this will undoubtedly mean lost sales to developers. How many? Who knows - might be useful to have some statistics on that! ;)

But there are consumers that will simply not buy/install apps that engage in such activities - I know, because I have on occasion been one myself - I've chosen not to update an Android app that requests different/unusual permissions and simply removed it. I know this attitude exists amongst my circle of friends too, but that may be because most of them work in software development. My father, mother or sister on the other hand may just click 'accept' on anything they install.

I can also see YoYo's side in all this - if you do make this an optional 'feature' then a lot of people will simply tick the box to not include it and you'll not get these statistics reported. It's certainly a somewhat delicate issue.
 

Edoc'sil

Member
It doesn't bother me but I can definitely see it bothering people that like to keep everything they do over the internet private. I think it will be largely a minority that care about these things though as most potential customers probably have everything default in their computer installations anyway.. and doesn't Windows send that sort of data all the time? As well as mobile devices? I could be wrong.
 

csanyk

Member
We know that, for example, Unity provide the option for paid users to disable analytics being sent back in their highest paid tier. We don't operate the same pricing model Unity does but we recognize everyone's concern and we recognise situations as brought up by @FrostyCat where certain stores, projects and environments have legal requirements on this front. We are still internally discussing ways to provide flexibility with analytics, exactly what form that will take has not been decided.

[/Official response]

Until such time where changes might be announced on this front, please just know that these analytics are very important and are something that serve to benefit everyone. This is data we want to share with all of you to help improve the tool. This is industry standard for very good reason, and that fact isn't being used to disguise a sinister intent or to justify sinister intent by pointing at others who do it. This is information we have sorely lacked for years with GameMaker: Studio 1.x that has stunted our growth in numerous ways. We want to bring you an excellent tool and these analytics are a fundamental part of doing that.
Thanks for this, Shaun.

I've been thinking about this some more, and I think that for purposes of the Beta, it makes sense to make analytics data gathering and reporting mandatory, but something that is agreed to in the ToS/EULA for the Beta. One of the major purposes of the beta test phase is to use the sort of data that analytics gathers and use it to determine the software's readiness for release, after all. So it's understandable if there's no off switch, or opt-out. Opting in to the beta means agreeing to send data. I'm fine with that.

For the official release, though, I do think it's essential to make the data gathering optional.

I would likely enable data gathering in the IDE so that YoYo can see how I'm using GMS and use the information to determine where they need to improve things. But I would need to have full, detailed disclosure of what data is gathered and judge for myself whether that data is something I feel comfortable sharing.

For games I build with GMS, I would want a few things:
  1. Full, detailed disclosure of what is gathered, who it is shared with, and what it is used for.
  2. The ability to disable the data gathering/reporting in a build.
  3. If I do enable it in the build, the end-user who installs the build should have to opt-in.
  4. YYG should share the data my game gathers with me, so I can make use of it to improve my games, as well as YYG make use of it to improve GMS.
  5. All data is anonymized.
I do think telemetry and analytics are very useful tools. I nevertheless feel that it is absolutely up to the end-user to opt-in to any such data gathering/monitoring. Always.
 

xot

GMLscripter
GMC Elder
I agree completely with csanyk here. As a developer, I would be much more willing to enable telemetry (with user permission) if this data were reported for all developers' benefit, like Steam does, with the caveats he enumerates.
 

pucone

Member
just wanted to chime in and agree that people who do not want this feature in their software should absolutely be able to disable it, just like in unity.
 

csanyk

Member
It is time for us to move to Unity guys
Keep in mind, whether any of us abandon GameMaker or not, there will still be plenty of games released that are built with GameMaker, and we may end up being players of them, and may not know what tools were used to develop it. So, think of it not just from the standpoint of being the developer and knowing what's going on under the hood, but as a player who most likely won't. Whether we use GMS or not, we may end up using something built in it.
 
B

BlueSlime

Guest
Well, I'm looking at Unity prices right now and $420/year doesn't seem so bad now compared to GMS2 $525 (I bought MC)

I'm going to finish my game in GMS 1.4 still but learn C# at the same time to prepare to upgrade to Unity... I'll still keep GMS 1.4 as long as it still works
 

Mick

Member
just wanted to chime in and agree that people who do not want this feature in their software should absolutely be able to disable it, just like in unity.
I also hope that this will be an optional thing, I really don't want to have to include a disclaimer in my game saying that anonymous information is gathered when playing the game. I know information is gathered about us all the time, I just don't want to support that myself.
 

makas

Member
Well, I'm looking at Unity prices right now and $420/year doesn't seem so bad now compared to GMS2 $525 (I bought MC)

I'm going to finish my game in GMS 1.4 still but learn C# at the same time to prepare to upgrade to Unity... I'll still keep GMS 1.4 as long as it still works

yeah but with gamemaker you get the product, period, is not a subscription so in the second year your unity switch would have costed you almost the double
 

Mr. RPG

Member
The manual mentions an option to 'Share Game Statistics With YYG', however it is nowhere to be found in the game options. It looks like YoYo Games originally planned to allow developers to opt out of it.
 
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Hermit

Member
I'm a Master Collection owner who will not upgrade if there isn't an option to opt out. This has more ramifications than just technical.

The collected data is potentially more valuable than the product itself. Each game sale happens once whereas data collection is continual and can be used for all sorts of things. If you're paying for a tool you ought to derive the full value of what you make with it. We're at your mercy with how much of that data you choose to share with us and what that data even is.

The people who are okay with this are limited to the ignorant; ignorant of what this actually means or ignorant that it's even happening at all. To say that our concerns are based on paranoia means that you have no knowledge of analytics. It's a massive business across all industries. I understand YoYo's need for this feature 100 percent. If evaluated properly analytical decision making will improve their sales, their tools and their strategies against competitors. They would be able to identify problems on a factual level in real time. They should definitely build systems to do this...with a boolean to turn it off.

Put your customers first. Entice users to share their data by telling them exactly what is being shared (your vague language is very disturbing), why you want it, what you will do with it and give them the option to help you. Make no mistake that this is helping you, not us. We're essentially paying for your data scientists and associated programs to identify and create new features that you will turn around and sell. The benefits we would derive from your findings wouldn't justify the high customer acquisition cost it would impose. I would be happy to help you from the IDE but I refuse to force this on my users and I certainly never download any games I'm aware of doing this.

Alienating a portion of your customers will hurt your net profit more than the loss of data value were you to make it optional.
 

Ubu

Member
If I have to tell my customers that data are collected by a 3rd party (in this case yoyo-games) with me as a producer not even knowing or controlling what data are collected, I'm in BIG trouble!
 

FrostyCat

Redemption Seeker
We know that, for example, Unity provide the option for paid users to disable analytics being sent back in their highest paid tier. We don't operate the same pricing model Unity does but we recognize everyone's concern and we recognise situations as brought up by @FrostyCat where certain stores, projects and environments have legal requirements on this front. We are still internally discussing ways to provide flexibility with analytics, exactly what form that will take has not been decided.
Here's my take: Instead of burning telemetrics into GMS 2, revive the publisher service and leverage that.

Throughout the history of GMS 1, API/policy changes and submission failures slipping under YoYo's radar has been a constant source of headaches. Having an in-house publishing service provides YoYo with full games to test against these and the means to stay in the loop. This translates into a better publishing experience for everyone, regardless of whether they use the publisher service.

Another advantage of this approach is that you don't need to build and maintain your own infrastructure to receive telemetrics. Because you have the publisher certificates and control at the source level, you can aggregate data from existing analytics services offered by app stores. There is no risk of that running afoul of app store rules or local laws because the app store made it.

One additional advantage is that this is 100% consensual. Anyone using the service knows they are dealing with a publisher, and publishers are expected to analyze their own sales and help with marketing as part of the deal. They know precisely what you would do and why.

Don't forget that Unity blew big money buying out a whole analytics firm to make its analytics happen. This could be a viable alternative to do that on the cheap and offer an attractive service to boot.

Until such time where changes might be announced on this front, please just know that these analytics are very important and are something that serve to benefit everyone. This is data we want to share with all of you to help improve the tool. This is industry standard for very good reason, and that fact isn't being used to disguise a sinister intent or to justify sinister intent by pointing at others who do it. This is information we have sorely lacked for years with GameMaker: Studio 1.x that has stunted our growth in numerous ways. We want to bring you an excellent tool and these analytics are a fundamental part of doing that.
Except I have reasons to believe it isn't useful data when collected this way, at least not at this point.

One problem is the statistical insignificance of your samples early on, when only one or two big ones monopolize your data set. Given how GMS 1 games were heavily dominated by casual games, that bias may also carry into GMS 2 and show up in client system statistics. Unity started telemetry only after releasing version 4 and gaining a wide stranglehold on the game development scene, there's a reason for that.

Another problem is that I don't think YoYo can stand up to statistically significant telemetry traffic. Be it last decade's 7-8 upgrade or last year's HB bungle, YoYo's network operations proved rather fragile. It's only going to get even more fragile when every GMS 2 app on this planet phones home.

YoYo is potentially reinventing the square wheel and inviting crashes onto its other in-house systems. If you proceed inappropriately by hitting your own systems, collecting poor data and damaging user trust, this could stunt GMS 2's growth even more.
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
Your welcome - and thanks to the community for the feedback :)

I would recommend leaving it ON whenever you can, not only would this help us tune to product and know more about our targets etc, but we might one day be able to let users see these stats for their own games.... not sure about that yet, but it's certainly a goal we'd love to do.
 
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