Disabling pitchside advertisement hyperlinks

Has anyone found a way to do this yet? I've unclicked 'Enable Media Hyperlinks' but this does not affect the adverts in the match engine, and it's buggering me right off to have unexpected internet windows launch when I'm trying to get into my Tactics screen.

I don't think you can turn them off, unfortunately.

+1 for an option to disable these.

Well annoying if you are already frustrated in a match and then you accidentally click one!

Yep, I want them off too. It's annoying.

try to remove the ads.fmf file located in the data folder (make a backup of it in case you need to put it back)

I've read somewhere on these boards that it should disable them.

@gipsy Really hopes that works. They're really bugging me. And otherwise, we'll have to hope some of the skinners makes something.

i just think ur making a complaint about something for the sake of making a complaint. in all reality how often is it that u actually do click the advert haording by accident, ive been on my season for a total of 16 hours so far and only clicked on the haording advert once and that was to see what would happen. if u seem to be constantly clicking the advertising boards then i think u need to get a check up from the docs coz u might have a nervous system failure which means u cant control ur hand from slipping 4 inch south from ur tactics button onto the hoarding.

in all reality how often is it that u actually do click the advert haording by accident

4-5 times or more per playing session. I use windowed mode and browse the net at the same time. I see action, click to bring it into focus and end up causing a popup.

We don't all play the same way you do you know?

then i suggest dont browse the net whilst playing the game, how would the board feel if they knew u was making a half ars*d attempt at winning the title

no need to be so harsh marcoavgousti

there are a more things to click on pitch screen while playing (widgets come to mind), it can happen more than you think.

also for people that cannot play in windowed mode it's a real pain as the game will first minimize, then open your browser, go to SI forum to let you know that you are being sent to a 3rd party site and finally the site => annoying

Even Matt has recognized that they did not see the negative response to this coming (as other things for the release of 09 but there are already billions of threads on this) and that they shoud have maybe organized a poll before making such an addition to the game

PS: i play like you r0x0r and I totally understand you.

Can someone tell me if removing the ads.fmf file actually works?

sorry im not meaning to be harsh.

no need to be so harsh marcoavgousti

there are a more things to click on pitch screen while playing (widgets come to mind), it can happen more than you think.

also for people that cannot play in windowed mode it's a real pain as the game will first minimize, then open your browser, go to SI forum to let you know that you are being sent to a 3rd party site and finally the site => annoying

Even Matt has recognized that they did not see the negative response to this coming (as other things for the release of 09 but there are already billions of threads on this) and that they shoud have maybe organized a poll before making such an addition to the game

PS: i play like you r0x0r and I totally understand you.

Can someone tell me if removing the ads.fmf file actually works?

Of course 'they' didn't see any negatives to the inclusion of IGA, all they see is another revenue stream and the consumers were not even considered.

You will also note they did not consult with the plebeians with regards to the inclusion of the DRM feature.

Of course 'they' didn't see any negatives to the inclusion of IGA, all they see is another revenue stream and the consumers were not even considered.

You will also note they did not consult with the plebeians with regards to the inclusion of the DRM feature.

Iga hasn't bothered me one little bit - and anything that helps a product that we all enjoy become more commercially succesful can only be a good thing in my book. I suppose, like anything, people will react in different ways - but I suspect that you'll see IGA making more and more appearances across games in the future.

Why on earth would you expect a developer to consult with a (small) proportion of its potential userbase on DRM?

4-5 times or more per playing session. I use windowed mode and browse the net at the same time. I see action, click to bring it into focus and end up causing a popup.

We don't all play the same way you do you know?

Click the top of the window frame, rather than the window itself.

What are you people doing during a match?! Why are you even clicking close to the hoardings? I just leave my mouse arrow by the button to enter tactics. I've not clicked an advertising hoarding once.

I've done this several times and it is very annoying. The way it works Mike is I play windowed mode, I let the match get under way flick to another window taking up some of the free space on my screen, click anywhere on fm to get back to it, oh no I hit the hoarding and its popped up some rubbish.

^^(mike) me neither lol. Didnt another game have this in? It was a racing game IIRC but not sure which one... you would drive on the track and then you'd go under a borak obama advertisement

Was a console game i believe

I've done this several times and it is very annoying. The way it works Mike is I play windowed mode, I let the match get under way flick to another window taking up some of the free space on my screen, click anywhere on fm to get back to it, oh no I hit the hoarding and its popped up some rubbish.

Ahh, I understand. I don't play that way. Must be annoying when it happens.

In my 3rd season and never clicked a board yet, you lot wanna get some more mouse control or stop drinkin when your playing!

My laptop gets its knickers in a real twist if it tries to resolve a URL when there's no network connectivity. An accidental click on an advert involves a drawn-out return to the desktop whilst IE/Chrome decides whether it can find sega.com or not.

A cheap and easy hack to disable the adverts i used works like this:

find ads.fmf (....\Football Manager 2009\data) and open in notepad. it looks like this

<record>
<!-- this is the default ad that will be displayed whenever the code fails to find the ad
it is supposed to show, shouldn't ever really happen, but it is here as a fall back option -->
<list id="default_value">
	<record>
		<string id="path" value="pictures/ads/default/fm live"/>
		<string id="url" value="http://www.footballmanagerlive.com"/>
	</record>

simply take the URLs ("http://www.footballmanagerlive.com" in the example), and change them to "about:blank".

result? yes the click still invokes your browser during a match (FFS during a match: which muppet dreamt that up!?), but you don't get dragged to sega's site with the concomitant delay, and, in my example, there is far less knicker-twisting on the browsers behalf.

Click the top of the window frame, rather than the window itself.

In theory, sure. Then again in theory I can just be careful to click on a non boarded part, or right click... But when the ball is moving up field rapidly "theory" goes out of the window.

IGA is fine. However surely it's in the advertisers and SI's OWN interest to let people who don't want to click the links to have a way to prevent accidental clicks? Accidental clicks lowers the click to sale ratio so SI are seen as less lucrative and as such are paid less perhaps?