I use Adblock to block all the links on the side. Since practically every Flash game gives me a "Shockwave Flash isn't responding" message, I've been forced to disable it. Same thing happens on Youtube.
I sometimes go on ArmorGames inside a virtual machine (Windows's own XP VM to be exact since Linux is worthless for Flash at this point) just to see if those ads are viruses. 80% of them are. That's why I haven't touched Internet Explorer for the last 10 years unless I've absolutely had to. That's why I hate being forced to disable Adblock. I can handle a 15 or 30 second ad that is over the game. I know those aren't throwing a virus my way should I accidentally click on them since free anti-virus isn't going to protect much.
I am fully aware that ads pay for a lot of things, but the fact that they send viruses our way most of the time is what irks me. I know it's been the same since say one with the "you are the 1 millionth visitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" crap, and I mainly got AdBlock to keep viruses out. I have the "allow some non-intrusive" option selected too to be a bit nicer.
They don't send viruses even the smallest part of the time. If you see one of those, please let me know - but often ads can be "Heat-seeking", meaning that other sites you visit may have their ads follow you to other sites.
So you can continue to believe that, but it's not true.
