http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

While I'm sure viral marketers exist at many websites, I'm skeptical of the article based on its sourcing, as entertaining as it is (and how it validates tinfoil hat conspiracy theories). 

Edit: As for using the term "shill", especially accusing someone of it, it is provocative and obviously can't be substantiated.  At least they were kind enough to offer a warning up to you that that is unacceptable behavior.  As Gajari points out below, the fact that you're effectively trolling them now in some sort of rhetorical statement likely will get you a ban, but clearly you know what you're doing ( ' :

Originally posted by noncley

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

Apology accepted, Mike!

Well you're gonna get banned now, for sure, for attempting to troll the staff. Good job.

Didn't EA get in trouble for this before with their marketing protests? To get people to think people were protesting them but in reality it was people hired by EA so that they would gain more notoriety for putting "Edgy" content in their games? I think it was about the homosexual stuff in mass effect or something.

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

Apology accepted, Mike!

Well you're gonna get banned now, for sure, for attempting to troll the staff. Good job.

The truth is my defence.

Originally posted by noncley

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

Apology accepted, Mike!

Well you're gonna get banned now, for sure, for attempting to troll the staff. Good job.

The truth is my defence.

Even the person who wrote the article was unsure of the accuracy of the person's claims. So much for that defense. :p

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

Apology accepted, Mike!

Well you're gonna get banned now, for sure, for attempting to troll the staff. Good job.

The truth is my defence.

Even the person who wrote the article was unsure of the accuracy of the person's claims. So much for that defense. :p

Irresponsible posting is irresponsible...but it's not his fault ( ' ;

Maybe the info isnt all true, but EA has done SOMETHING to get its reputation as one of the most hated businesses.

Originally posted by Panther2103

Didn't EA get in trouble for this before with their marketing protests? To get people to think people were protesting them but in reality it was people hired by EA so that they would gain more notoriety for putting "Edgy" content in their games? I think it was about the homosexual stuff in mass effect or something.

Might have been Dante's Inferno: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06/05/dante039s-inferno-protest-e3-was-staged-ea

Originally posted by therain93

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

Originally posted by Gajari

Originally posted by noncley

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/EA-Viral-Marketing-Exposed-Big-Buyout-Horizon-40885.html

I remember when the SWTOR forum of our own dead mmoprpg.com became infested with repetitive, mindless and quite obvious shill posters, far, far beyond the ordinary - and obviously legitimate - pro-fan arguments and discussions. I received a personal warning not to use the term 'shill' or I would receive a lengthy ban. I wonder if I was right all along? 

Apology accepted, Mike!

Well you're gonna get banned now, for sure, for attempting to troll the staff. Good job.

The truth is my defence.

Even the person who wrote the article was unsure of the accuracy of the person's claims. So much for that defense. :p

Irresponsible posting is irresponsible...but it's not his fault ( ' ;

But you can have lot'sof fun with shill threads, like posting really Irelevant things in the thread while still getting your point accross. Here is an example if I may.../clears throat;

"Oh wow I have just played this game! It is better than sex, I need to tell you guys about it! It is super sanbox theampark pvp open world full loot superdecepticonattacker and they give you a free pizza pie just for playing! You guys should really check out!...Peace!"

"Who was that former baseball player who started his own game studio? Was his name Kurt SHILLing?"

See? Fun right?............Riiiiighhhhhhhtttttttttt?????? ;)

Originally posted by Zaltark

Maybe the info isnt all true, but EA has done SOMETHING to get its reputation as one of the most hated businesses.

Yeah, I am not a fan of EA in the least, and I'm sure they've done many things similar to what was pointed out in the article. But I can't take 100% of the word of someone who is obviously pissed about being laid off and wants to fuck the company over as much as possible.

Personally, I think they're just run by rich people with too much "business sense", but have completely lost touch with the general gaming public. This is where problems start, because now everyone is just money, and when developing games for money, you're not overly worried about pleasing the people behind the money as long as there's still money.

And somehow, they always have a steady flow of cash, even as the most hated company.  Hmm!

Originally posted by Zaltark

Maybe the info isnt all true, but EA has done SOMETHING to get its reputation as one of the most hated businesses.

You mean, besides gobbling up and shutting down some of the best gaming development houses around?  Or just destroying gamers' favorite pasttimes? Perhaps over-saturating the market with progressively superficial franchise sequels and spin-offs, leaving the land barren/infertile like farmers who don't rotate crops?

Edit: Not that I'm jaded, or anything....

We are talking about EA here. This is the same company that paid fake christian protestors.

If you think someone's shilling then just post a picture of a nice plant.

we need some kind of emote for that. maybe this one would be ok too

About shilling, I think it has only negative impact, so retreating would be a good idea. Also shilling isn't a fucking job. I think those guys are called Account Managers.

Originally posted by mklinic

Originally posted by Panther2103

Didn't EA get in trouble for this before with their marketing protests? To get people to think people were protesting them but in reality it was people hired by EA so that they would gain more notoriety for putting "Edgy" content in their games? I think it was about the homosexual stuff in mass effect or something.

Might have been Dante's Inferno: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06/05/dante039s-inferno-protest-e3-was-staged-ea

The funny thing about that is, the marketing campaign (including but not limited to that fake protest) probably offended a lot more people than the game itself.

On forum moderation, there is an enormous difference between "there are shills out there" and "you are a shill".  It's about the same as the difference between "there are murderers in the world" (indisputably true) and "you are a murderer" (you'd better have strong evidence to make that claim).  Some fanboys are so over the top that they might as well be paid shills, but they do it for free.

Originally posted by dronfwar

If you think someone's shilling then just post a picture of a nice plant.

Seriously, though... while there probably are PR folks who have nothing better to do than post sweet nothings to their livelihood on these forums, I suspect that maybe... just maybe... most of the posts are from real fans who actually love their game.

This thread makes my eyes bleed... It isn't like EA is the only company doing things like this. I am sure if you do a little more digging you will find all sorts of companies that do viral marketing...

They did a crap-ass-ton for The Dark Knight, did you whine about that on the messege boards of Warner Brothers? What about Ridley Scott and all the viral marketing for Promethius? Going to go complain about that and say how "right" you were?

Give it a rest...this crap is getting old...

Originally posted by RefMinor
"His mention of threads relates to "trolling" popular websites and forum boards and aiming to derail bad publicity and "negative" marketing from spreading." - lol, he didn't do a very good job here then.

If you commit a murder in front of 10 eyewitnesses and get arrested on the spot, and there's also a high definition video of the whole incident, and then you later get convicted of murder, that doesn't mean your lawyer did a bad job.  It only means that even the best laywers can't get you off the hook when they have no plausible case.

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Originally posted by Slampig
This thread makes my eyes bleed... It isn't like EA is the only company doing things like this.

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True its not the only one. But EA is currently on the HATE-HYPE machine.