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jroberts
Football Manager has 12 billboards in the game, each capable of showing advertising. Each advertisement loop typically runs for 8 seconds and is visible to the player at all times. The advertisers pay bidstack on the basis of the number of impressions, being the number of times an advertisement is seen by a discrete player on the basis of a cost per thousand views (''CPM'' as agreed with the advertiser/brand owner.
On a typical day, around 150,000 people play Football Manager, with an average time in the game of 4 hours per day. Based on evidence gathered during the trial phase, this generates around 25 million potential impressions per day.
The arrangement with Sports Interactive gives bidstack exclusive access to native in-game advertising for six of the 12 available billboards in the 2018 version. The remaining six will continue to display existing advertising that was 'hard wired' into the game at launch in November 2017. bidstack will have exclusive access to 11 of the 12 billboards in the 2019 and 2020 releases
stevemc
They've sold their soul. Ruins the immersion of the game for me, if I'm playing a Champions League game, I want it to feel like the Champions League, not see Nicki Minaj on the pitch side advertisements.
Rivanov
aragornx17
I agree with you and we already pay for game it must be illegal to show us advertisements in the game without our permission. We can see it on cinemas too. We pay for watch the movie but we have to watch advertisements for 15 minutes before the movie (in Turkey maybe other countries dont have that). I hate that.
Here is a video how can you block a program to access internet in Mac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFO_D9ltUOk
mons
Irrespective of whether displaying adverts in this way is justified or not, when you installed the game you agreed to SI's terms and conditions. Nobody reads that stuff, but it will almost certainly have included a section on adverts of this type being included in the game. So to say that adverts are being shown in your game illegally is not entirely correct...
stevemc
Had a go of that too, still no resolution. Ads still show through!
Rivanov
Blocking FM 2019 via the firewall on my Mac doesn't help unfortunately. It did for a couple of games but after a while the Bidstack ads came back. I also got the Cherny Samba book ads..
jroberts
My attempts to block via the firewall on a Windows 10 PC failed as well
stevemc
• Set everything to "FALSE" in this file: Macintosh HD ▸ Users ▸ name ▸ Library ▸ Application Support ▸ Sports Interactive ▸ Football Manager 2019 ▸ Preferences ▸ version 3 ▸ channels ▸ BIDSTACK_CHANNEL.xml
• Put the game in "offline mode" via Steam,
• Turn the WiFi off on your laptop
• Then launch FM19.
Bidstack ads disappear.
lembergman
what about this line? <string id="log_level" value="all"/>
White Flag
Just for the info of those still struggling to get this working on a Mac - still no sign of any Bidstack on Windows 10. Half a season in now and after various PC reboots / re-loads. So something in here should surely work on a Mac with a bit of tinkering ?
Good luck to you.
stevemc
Leave that one as it is, sorry I should have specified that!
Rivanov
Turning off WiFi isn't an option because I can't browse the internet during the game. And I like to multitask.
I think I would have to accept the bidstack ads until there is a proper solution.
jroberts
After 2 days of trying different things I started looking at what files FM18 and FM19 had that were different.
Discovered that in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2019\Preferences\version 3 there was an .xml file called bidstack_enabled.xml missing from FM19. Copied the file from FM 18 over to FM19 and EUREKA!! it works with no changing of firewalls or disconnecting your internet etc.
All the .xml has in it is:
<record>
<boolean id="value" value="false"/>
</record>
You can create your own if you don't have the FM18 version or use my file that is attached
aragornx17
Thanks it works for me too.Interesting there is file in FM19 with name "enable_interest_based_advertising" exactly same codes in it.
Good work Mr Roberts
melnibonian
Does that mean that we can watch the custom made video adds or the boards will be black?
White Flag
Apply this fix, reload and it works perfectly. Only the correct custom adboards show.
zeus1976
i can´t discover paste sports interective in my pc
https://imgur.com/a/amyWItY
Onyewu
Mr. J Roberts deserve a nice cold one (or 10) and a few shots on the side for solving the riddle (until FM finds a way to thwart us again)
gtaylor
hello mate i have steam where abouts in the steam file dose it go thanks
Rivanov
For other Mac users, the folder you need is: /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2019/Preferences/version 3
jroberts
Cheers, lets hope SI don't find out
Rivanov
The only thing I don't see are the static banners at the top of the grand stands. They remain black. Any idea?
Is use the CLUB BANNERS & ADBOARDS from strangerthankindness
gtaylor
Rivanov
stevemc
Rivanov
Also the static club banners?
stevemc
Yes, they've always worked, never had an issue with them. I use competition ads though, not clubs.
Rivanov
So you use the No Club fm.xml file?