Screenshot of adware

[Wuzzy]

I know there are a couple of ad-infested rip-offs of Minetest floating around, especially on mobile.

Does anyone have a screenshot of these apps, first how they look like "normally", and second how they look like when the ads show up. And maybe other screenshots of interest (if there are any). I want to document this practice of adware for the Minetest Wiki.

Thanks for reading.

[MCL]

I do not have any screen shots, I have a video however.
The video is on Youtube, it was made by a Polish user and is not in English but you do not need to understand to know what is going on/

[Wuzzy]

THX!

OK, the video shows "Handcraft". It's a clear Minetest fork, I can clearly identify GUI elements, models and some textures. The game features are basically Minetest Game with mods, but much worse. It seems to be an ancient Minetest version as well …

• Identified ad types:
  • Full-screen video ad: players can "voluntarily" watch this ad for coins, the premium currency (but coins doesn't seem to be of much use, so it's basically a scam)
  • Full screen image ad, skippable: Appears after leaving a world, and apparently randomly during playing as well
• Identified restrictions: Can't create maps, can't fly, can't use Creative Mode, and probably more restrictions. You need "VIP" status for that which must be bought, apparently

Yeah, nothing too surprising. At least I know how the ads are used in one instance. In this case, all ads are fullscreen. I always suspected that they use ad interruptions right in the middle of the game, which must be infuriating. But it's nice to see it confirmed now.

The state of adware around Minetest is basically just as bad as I expected. :-/

If you have any data on other ads in abusive Minetest forks, please let me know! :D

You know, the only good thing about these ad-infested games is that they get all the hate instead of Minetest. :D

PS: WOW, a video with 300k views, and it's ALMOST about Minetest. If only the real Minetest could get so much views. :-(((
(EDIT: OK, so apparently there are 2 Minetest videos featuring Minetest with >300k views, but both of them are quite old and still rather superficial (Minetest Game ...)).

[MCL]

OK, the video shows "Handcraft".

In the video, the author refers to the game as "Worldcraft 3D". You can also tell that it's Minetest by the server list, it has Rubenwardy's CTF server and Telesight's Sky-Wars.


Here's another video from a Polish user, at first I didn't know if it was Minetest or not (many things were changed) but when I saw the tree log texture and models from mobs_animals I knew that it was. The game isn't that bad, but it has ads.





I am also thinking about installing Android on a virtual machine or an emulator and trying out some of these myself.

[Sokomine]

Thankfully most servers and users try to explain to new players that those ad-infested android implementations aren't the real thing. Perhaps the way they try to communicate that isn't always optimal. And users may feel bad if they discover that they paid for something that is available for free.

PS: WOW, a video with 300k views, and it's ALMOST about Minetest. If only the real Minetest could get so much views. :-(((

I suspect that at least some part of these views might be paid ones. That combined with better optimization of search words and videos with more views probably beeing prefered by the algorithm further grants more views. Might be worth for those people selling ads: After all they earn more money if their apps are found. Normal players who upload their videos have no such gain.

[MCL]

I suspect that at least some part of these views might be paid ones.

I doubt that, he's a relatively popular YouTube user in Poland and has made many videos about shitty Minecraft clones, the reason they get so many views is probably that they are presented in a humorous way.

[MCL]

Here's another one: https://youtu.be/KNtN_LiozmY?t=598 "Megacraft", looks like heavily modified Minetest with Mineclone2 and a bunch of mods, I recognize a lot of the textures and mods.

(This is not URL-squatting or a scam Youtu.be is a domain belonging to YouTube!)

[Jastiv]

I suspect that at least some part of these views might be paid ones.

I doubt that, he's a relatively popular YouTube user in Poland and has made many videos about shitty Minecraft clones, the reason they get so many views is probably that they are presented in a humorous way.

That is what we need, we need to attract more humorous You Tubers to help promote the project.

[maikerumine]

That is what we need, we need to attract more humorous You Tubers to help promote the project.

Agreed! Our current lot of youtubers is too far and few. :)