UPDATE: Turns out this includes multiple sites under the Gamer Network (IGN Entertainment) umbrella; Not just Eurogamer.. Although IGN’s search – though functionally more limited – doesn’t implement this requirement. The rest of the article continues below.
I wasn’t planning on doing any writing this weekend; Yesterday we had the funeral service for Jess’ Grandma, who was a wonderful woman that included me as a part of the family. I loved her, and she had become a surrogate grandma for me after both of mine had passed.
I say that just to emphasize how fucking goddamned stupid it is that Eurogamer – an industry staple on gaming news – has decided to lock you out of the site search until you allow them – any any marketing companies they provide data to – to serve you fucking targeting (advertising) cookies.
It was enough to make me want to write this piece, despite still processing the grief of the events this weekend.
I’ll keep it short.
I have been trying to keep an eye out on the Ubisoft Barcelona strikes; I genuinely want the union to succeed for a variety of reasons, one of which is I’d actually like to.. You know.. Play the Black Flag remake.
With the enshittification of search I switched to using Startpage as my default search engine (with AI suggestions turned off), but I wanted to confirm that I was seeing everything recent, and figured if anybody had recent coverage of the strikes, Eurogamer would.
So, I used the site search.. And was greeted with the view you see above.
Just to give you a brief summary: Targeting cookies are cookies that help advertisers know who you are and what you’re into.. So, in this case, they presumably require targeting cookies enabled so advertisers can know I’m fucking interested in Ubisoft Barcelona (among all the other bits of shit they capture as I browse the site).
Of course, having worked for literal decades in marketing and marketing-adjacent industries now, I know that the details will get glossed over by the time ads are served in this context, and I’d presumably get ads telling me just how great AC Black Flag Resynced is and how I should buy the deluxe edition (even though there’s still more purchasable DLC content that you don’t get.. Enough that it’s value is more than the Deluxe edition of the game).
Fuck that.
Additionally, as a web developer who builds websites for clients large and small, I can’t help but be exceptionally pissed at locking site search behind marketing cookies.
This also emphasizes that my decision to skip analytics on this site for the time-being was the right one.
I’ve used Google Analytics for years, but it’s value has dropped significantly with the advent of AI bots just absolutely fucking wrecking every useful bit of analytics.. And Google sure as shit isn’t going to put in any effort to showcase meaningful data by default.
While I try to decide what route I want to take for stopping those AI crawlers – and also getting some useful data on site traffic – I’ve opted to go without.
I may not be a big player in the gaming news industry, but Eurogamer? Yeah, I feel secure in criticizing your bullshit here.
Fix your house.