I received an Email from a fellow giveaway community member yesterday informing me about a new tactic that Gametop has started with their free games. Most of you are aware of Gametop and the excellent games you can download for free.
when I first discovered Gametop about three years ago I couldn't believe my luck. Most arcade games retailed at nearly $20 and there were few sites like it. As time has passed more of these sites have cropped up, but so too has the practice of browser hijacking and tool bar insertions increased. I'm sure the economic climate has something to do with it, and thankfully in most cases (exceptions include most games from sites like MyPlayCity, who force you to have the toolbar and home page hijack for the game to work).
Unfortunately Gametop now seem to be adding a new form of malware/adware that opens up a page to a site that offers pornographic images as well as games and other delights.
This is not acceptable, especially as I'm sure many of you who use Gametop have children. Such images are definitely not for children. I haven't actually checked out this claim yet, but I have seen an images sent to me by the giveaway user and was shocked at the content. I am waiting until I return home from my vacation to see if I get the same response from downloading one of their games.
From memory which is rather poor these days) the email I received actually said that when trying to download a game, the page was redirected to a new site. (this may possibly indicate a piggy back hijacker has invaded the site, so it may not actually be Gametops fault, so for the moment if you have children, or find such images abborant, please be wary and ensure any game you download doesn't do what I mention above. I will post the name of that site later when I check my emails again, and maybe even copy the part of the email that mentions the problem to ensure I've got the whole picture explained.
Until this problem has been investigated/clarified further and a possible solution found I will not be posting any links to gametop games.
I hope that you can find the time to Email Gametops owners to either query the practice (I don't want to say complain yet as I really need to see for myself whether this was an isolated incident; however I thought I should at least warn the community in advance of my own investigations because I wont be doing those until I return home. I only have a few days left before I return to the UK so don't want to spend that time on such tasks; I hope you understand. In the mean time if anyone else can confirm or negate what I've posted I wouldgrateful. :)
It may be the latest games as opposed to those the site has been offering for a long time. as I've found the older games do not have the toolbar and home page hijack boxes included. Only those that have been added in the last year seem to have those annoyances. Though of course all Gametop games will open up your browser when you close the game down, but this isn't home page hijacking as some games will if you don't uncheck the boxes during the installation wizard.
Regards to all from sunny Florida
Whiterabbit
