Does Ubisoft have some creepy social media tendencies or am I being paranoid?

Hey gang,

Recently, I've tried to play Farcry 4. The first time I played, I lasted about an hour, and the second time I lasted about 20 minutes. After sheer boredom, I decided I'd had it with FC4. I then went to message a friend on twitter, saying I was giving up on FC4, because I found it "Boring and a really boring start".

Now, within 20 minutes of sending that tweet, I got an email from Ubisoft saying "Please don't give up on Kyrat yet!", telling me how I could make it easier, and directing me to their official forums.

Now, my UPlay account has the same e-mail address as my twitter account, so my paranoid brain is telling me "Ubisoft have a detector in place and "Farcry" and "Boring" tripped their sensors. Or maybe it's the fact that my playtime each session was quite low?

Either way it's pretty weird. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Was this a direct message or a general tweet? This is really the crucial bit of info here.

Did you delete the game? I doubt it was from the word 'boring'.

I tweeted at a friend.

No of course we didn't look through your twitter feed! Don't give up on Far Cry though, it's a really good game!

From Ubisoft Mike

I think it's lame to basically beg you to come back to it via e-mail but this goes on with a lot of #brands on twitter. I was discussing the finer points of Hitman with Zodiac Motherfucker on twitter and the Hitman account just jumped in on the conversation.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just generally search twitter for mentions of their games. I doubt it was some complicated match between your Uplay and your twitter (though that is possible) it was probably just some social media person reading through the twitter mentions (of course they are monitoring social media to see what people are saying about them, it would be almost irresponsible not to) saw your tweet and shot off a reply.

I don't think it's particularly creepy. Maybe a bit nosy but if you tweet about a company or its products you should expect that it might see it. Looking for mentions and responding to them is part of what social media managers do. They don't only look at tweets directed at them.

@beardandcompany: You just answered your own question.

Unfortunately this is common nowadays. Invasive? On the surface. But you did publicly post about Far Cry leading to this whole thing. Unexpected? Yes.

Possible it's a coincidence but more than likely not with public profiles.

We have been watching you matoya. We know where you live. When you get home you will find that your PS4 is loaded up with your copy of FC4. We've prepared snacks and beverages. You will find your credit card has been billed for some Krayat credits that you will use in-game for an enhanced experience. You will post on social media about your experiences. Those experiences will be positive.

Fondest Regards,

Your friends at Ubisoft

I had this happen with Assassins Creed Rogue and Black Flag. About a week after finishing both games (several months apart btw) I got an email basically saying to come back and finish the game or that I wasn't done yet and that I should continue playing them, or something to that description. This may have also happened to me with AC3 and Far Cry 3...

I suspect uplay has some kind of feature that tracks how much of a game you played and if you suddenly stop for any reason (short initial play time or a sudden stop after x amount of time in my case) and sends out an automated email to encourage you to continue playing. Something to counter trade in's and refunds I bet. "Hey don't leave! We got more stuff to do! Here have a strategy guide and these dumb uplay rewards! COME BACK WE WANT YOUR MONEY AND SOUL!" ...probably. Or it could be just some crazy coincidence. As for twitter? I would not put it past ubisoft to have a twitter bot that tracks comments on they're games and then has another program send out emails like this.

Twitter is not a place to have a private conversation. It's odd that Ubisoft is potentially scanning twitter in order to persuade people not to give up on their games, but if you're tweeting something you better be okay with anyone and everyone having access to what you've said.

Somewhere in their user's agreement policy, you must have skipped over the part where they own your life after agreeing to it.

I played through FC4 a couple months ago, at some point in the middle of it i checked out another short game, after about 3 days away i got an e-mail from Ubi detailing all of my stats in the game, what percentage of things i had completed, how many collectables i'd found, telling me that Pagan Min was still at large and that i had to return to save Kyrat!!
I can't be too mad at it in my case because it was an e-mail no one else could see, and i gave them my address in Uplay so i'd kind of expect that sort of thing, i think sneakily propositioning you on twitter is a step too far.
Even though it's a marketing thing the extra paid stuff in the game are the most optional things imaginable so it doesn't strike me as a devious ploy to extract more money from you, just that they want you to finish the game, so i can't really get mad at that aspect either.

Interesting.

I have played quite a few Ubi games over the years and never got any emails. I tend to either play 30 minutes or 20 hours so maybe they caught on to that.

I stopped playing FC4 the point where the stadium thing opens. AND UBISOFT DIDN"T SAY SHIT TO ME!!! What's wrong with me to not garner a response from them to finish the fight? Am I not good enough for them? A lost cause? Fuck Ubisoft, they lost a customer by not begging me to stick with their games.

Welcome to the modern world. Nothing is personal anymore. Fucked up but there you go

I presume this was open forum on Twitter and not a private message. No surprise really

Every Ubi game I've played sends an email saying similar things. Like welcome to Victorian London or You're in the Crew now. Stuff like that.

So yeah just coincidence.

Well that's the true purpose of social media, for companies to monitor you...

Did you tag Far Cry in it your public message?

I think it's probably just a coincidence. I mean their timings on it must be pretty good if it's enough to look like they are actively trawling for mentions.

I try to stay off the grid - no twitter, no facebook - I barely have any digital footprint connected to my real name. You people will regret exposing your personal info so carelessly when the machines inevitably rise.

I got this same email, I haven't played FC4 since about a month after launch and never posted about it on social media, it might have just been an email blast or something?

Yeah probably more of a coincidence since they might do a scan from time to time on uPlay and then would send out emails automatically. I also opt out of newsletters or promotions, which is probably the reason why I don't get those emails.

Yeah usually don't post any super personal stuff online...but the machines might come at me with video games and balls from various kinds of sports. The horror...