It's the tragedy of the commons, writ large. "What's wrong with just showing one gaming ad to a precocious dinosaur-loving kid, she'll be able to concentrate on her studies later. Oh, maybe one more ad, maybe one more, maybe one more..."

I don't know how exactly people got the wrong idea from your article, it's certainly not on you. I definitely understood the extension of the "I see the greatest minds of my generation showing ads" idea from a few months ago. Do you think it's a fad? I hope it is. I'd love to see more people trying their hand at making things worth paying for. It's flip but any more I get this Kanye West lyric stuck in my head reading about startups: "Do anybody make real shit anymore?"

Your point was pretty clear. It would be interesting to see a more diverse and direct and relevant advertising world, exactly like you say, present actual dinosaur book or dvd discount offers or similar.

What we see really is sad, it's advertising "Games". Not a game, not something wonderful, but the general timewasting activity of any game, when it could be specific and direct and relevant.

So.. you're sad because of the Ad industry, when there's A LOT more money in the military industry being thrown away? I mean, if you want to be sad about something, choose your argument subject more carefully..

Exactly. And those same users are the most likely to not be able to distinguish a targeted ad from actual content. You can say "this isn't a problem because it doesn't affect me". It's still a deceptive, slimey business practice that effectively tricks a certain percentage of people. But that's what makes a buck.

I'm not necessarily blaming any one company, profit would have inevitably led to this. I just agree with the author that this IS sad.