Originally posted by Occular Malice:

The actual Survive on Raft logo bears no resemblance to the original Raft(...)

Yep. but people buying it by mistake probably don't know the real RAFT logo, and just see the gigantic "RAFT" on the thumbnail.

Originally posted by Occular Malice:

This is a deceptive marketing technique (and in some cases can be classed as false advertising). IANAL but I would consider this deceptive marketing and as such you could report the app under those pretenses (I think there's an option for false advertising).

You're right... I'll try it, but I have no hope that Valve cares about these kind of reports..

Originally posted by Occular Malice:

I've sort of given up reporting these titles because most of my experience has been they never end up in their removal and the "developers" just keep on shoveling it out making both them and Valve money in the process.

I know right? I also have 0 confidence in Valves "quality" control (or lack thereof)

Originally posted by Occular Malice:

Originally posted by Mellow_Online1:

(...) There were allegations it's basically a carbon copy of the alpha version of "Raft" (the popular one) that got posted to itch.io, but I wasn't fully convinced.

(...) it's not a clone of the alpha version of Raft. It bears a lot of resemblance to it, but the inner workings are not the same.

My main concern is that the developer is clearly trying to deceive people into thinking his game is the famous one. You can see that specially on the game's thumbnail where the word RAFT is much bigger than the rest of the title, which is barely visible on the image:

https://steamhost.cn/app/1094000/

Originally posted by Eviction Notice:

It's not the only one out there: https://steamhost.cn/app/918590

As much as that one may be a clone or "semi-clone" os RAFT, at least it isn't something someone looking for the original game may buy by mistake, since the title and image of the game are very different from RAFT's.

Today I stumbled upon this game:

https://steamhost.cn/app/1094000/

It's obvious that not only it is a blatant copy of RAFT, but also that the developer is trying to mislead people into thinking this is the original game. Just look at the game "cover", and how the "Survive on" is minuscule compared to the word "RAFT", and almost "disappears" on the thumbnail on search results.

Besides that, when I checked if the developer had published other games, I found a big list of titles and all look as probable asset flips. (I haven't done more research on them yet though, so I can't say that for sure at the moment.)

PPS: I worry about more people having problems with Gaijin's malware specially because they have a new battle royale game - Cuisine Royale - which has a relatively large playerbase

https://steamhost.cn/app/884660/

Originally posted by Jillas:

Originally posted by Dwolfy:

PS: Here is one of the many articles about this:
https://sensorstechforum.com/crossout-net-game-ads-solved-remove-block/

Sorry, but that article looks a bit sketchy to me, especially the part about "Manually delete Crossout net Adware from Windows and your browser" It's said that we are removing "Crossout net Adware" yet on a screenshot he's uninstalling something different ("SolveigMM AVI Trimmer").

I think even if there is a Crossout-related malware, I don't think its coming from the game files.

Yet Crossout launcher do have some auto updater that stays in your system tray even after you restart your PC, I didn't liked that at first, but I found out that it can easily be turned off in the launcher settings, so nothing too scary here.

I used the article as an example, because I think their explanation regasding the malware was good, but didn't manually uninstall using their steps (I hadn't noticed those sketchy parts, sorry).

About the origins of the malware, I'm pretty sure it's from Gaijin's aplications. Some people mention this in thier reviews too. Yes, there is as easy option to turn auto updates off in the launcher's configurations (I'm not sure if it the unwanted software installation isn't "triggered"
when you manually update the game though...). What really bothers me (on top of the malware) is how shady everything related to Gaijin entretainment softwares is. Their games don't even have an option to uninstall! If you didn't use Steam to get them, you have to use the Windows tool to remove them! Oh, no to mention that the use you as a seeder for other players to download the game and updates.

PS: The malware isn't exactly "dangerous", since apparently its main function is to pop up adds, but it's still invasive af.

"how much you trust an auto-starting executable coming from Russia attached to a game that has an in-game store that uses your payment data."
LMAO yeah... not much. I have uninstalled the game already...
Wasted potential, imo :/ The game is cool, even if a "bit" P2W... (which is expected from a freemium game anyways)

Originally posted by 真 MUTANT OVERLORD:

No, I am not antagonize you. I just point out to always do a research before buying the game.

The game is free :P
But yeah.. I hope other reviews that mention the adware would rise to the top...

Originally posted by 真 MUTANT OVERLORD:

Did tried to read Steam reviews before playing it?
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/386180/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated&snr=1_5_reviews_

I didn't get it through Steam - it's not available in my region (but since the problem is not restricted to any 'versions' of the game I decided to post here).
Anyhow, why are you trying to antagonize / shame me instead of discussing the issue itself? And "if you don't read reviews for a game and than have problems with it, it's your own fault"??
PS: And btw, most of the top reviews do not mention the malware.

After I installed the game Crossout, and started experiencing some pop ups out of nowhere, and even had a Chrome extension installed automatically without my permission. When I searched about this, I found out that apparently all games by Gaijin Entertainment do that, and the malware is hard to remove (specially if you want to keep the game). I saw some people vehemently claiming it is not malware, that it's just a couple of applications "necessary to run the game", and I noticed many players are pretty defensive about that "feature" of the game. But I find it hard to call the "applications" anything other than malware, since they get installed without your knowledge or permission, and most of the time aren't even connected to the game (like a "secure search" extension for Chrome).

So... does anyone here know any more details about this?

I actually like the game Crossout, but I'll uninstall it and probably won't play it again in the future.

PS: Here is one of the many articles about this:
https://sensorstechforum.com/crossout-net-game-ads-solved-remove-block/

Originally posted by Jillas:

Personally, I stoped collecting removed games, because it became too costly for me (there's too many games getting removed now), but if I had a better financial situation I would still keep doing that, and I wouldn't disregard assetflips either.

More than becoming costly, for me it became kinda pointless. The fun of it (for me) would be having a "rare" game. But if there are literally hundreds of those, they aren't exactly "rare" anymore.

Originally posted by Jillas:

Btw, you did (kinda) state a valid reason to collect such games - the cards!
Let me clarify: like you said their cards can't be sold anymore, but if it happens that you would want to have an emoji or a background from a game that was removed (which is not that unlikely, most of the removed assetflips does include memes), then you better to own the game, owning the game will grant you ability to craft booster packs for that game, which you can later use to craft a badge that would give you emoji (like this one :pcry: for example) and a background that would be difficult to obtain by other means (such as trading). Yet trading is possible option too, I once traded a non-marketable emoji (from the removed game) for 5 euros to a guy who makes pixel art with Steam emojis.

That actually makes sense... Even though lots of the emotes / backgrounds related to asset flips and shovelware are kinda trashy (some are cute :3 ), they would still be something rare, now that not everyone can get them.... An I imagine having a badge for one of those games would be kinda a show of "status" too... It's a game in and of itself. I get the appeal of all that...

I guess what makes it not worth it for me is the feeling that I'd be contributing to these shady developers and - worst of all - to the sh*tty state of the store. But my "collector spirit" (lol) gets it, and I wouldn't judge anyone that still likes it.