Duck and Cover

I have several accounts banned from Bethsoft for just trying to discuss the failing points of their game, and once in a comparing and contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of both Fallout 3 and New Vegas (which I was calling superior in nearly every case). A simple argument over why you dislike one of their games causes the forum staff to release the hounds.

Yeah them manipulating shit on their own turf is not new.

I've seen them exercise influence over fanboard anf fansites to.
For Civ 5 there was a big hush up against criticism on the civfanatics board that I heard from moderators was because they had a special relationship with the makers which gave them the goodies first.

But it wasn't really that bad.


Bethesdas forums are horrible. They are among the worst. The question is not who has been banned there but who hasn't if they have been critical of their games.

CoD's place is of course full of fanboys, I've not ever visited it but I can just imagine judging from the game community overall.

Overall I've seen very biased behavior from staff at the blizzard forum where they tolerate rule breaks (like trolling and flaming) if it flames people who dislike parts of their game but not the other way around. I really like Starcraft but when I tried to explain a theory on why they wouldn't include a search function for custom maps all hell broke loose and I got banned.


Still this is all expected in a world like this. The influence and corruption on "neutral" places is more frightening though.

I must say that EA is kinda rising in my opinion. Even though I hate those buggers for screwing up titles like Command and Conquering, pioneering adware and spyware on Battlefield 2142 and suing anyone who tries to make a NFL game they are quite lenient on their forums and the massive criticism of Spore was allowed to run free.

Dragon age employee reviews own game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... al-UPDATED

ekkaman wrote:Dragon age employee reviews own game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... al-UPDATED

That Kotaku link shows pretty much what level PR we're dealing with here. Notice the comments.

http://kotaku.com/#!5782097/dragon-age- ... imself-too

MEH

Bethesda and a google search:


http://www.google.com/search?hl=sv&clie ... =&aql=&oq=

ekkaman wrote:Dragon age employee reviews own game.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... al-UPDATED

Good call. I almost don't put it past them for hyping their own game, it's in their best interest.

What blows my mind is how readily, malleable, gullible and whorish the 'gaming media' are. When they start spouting shit off that's obviously from the press kit, in exchange for some exclusive shots or a fucking t-shirt, that's even worse in my opinion.

They are what in my profession are called "lay downs".

St. Toxic wrote:From experience, they just remove the threads and ban the user as a direct response. Not that it matters, seeing as they actually have masses of braindead fans who'll defend bad design free of charge, though I think some are unstable enough to hurt themselves when directly exposed to intelligent discussion. That's one possible reason for the insta-kick routine.

For forums outside of their jurisdiction though? Lets just say they got their money's worth of Original Gangsta Makeovers.

I know that is highly likely that many companies pay for people to give them good press in discussions but I have a hard time believing it's to the extent that many people here are making it out to be. I think it's more that it just a lot of idiots like you said who are fanboying what ever their latest obsession is.

There is lots of times in discussions on any topic where it feels like the general consensus about something is one way then all of a sudden you get a wave of the opposite that say stuff that is completely different than what other people are saying whether it's good or bad. For awhile I read a lot of reviews about dog food for my dog and I had a really hard time judging weather the people are just really stupid or have some sort of bias because if you go on a site like "reviews.com" and look at the dog food you will see tons of people talking about how this food is horrible and will kill your dog about a dog food company that has the highest standards in quality control. It's highly concentrated in one place and there are so polar in their opinion that there is no real pro and cons mix in them.

I don't feel like it has a huge presence in video game discussions since like toxic said the fanboys take care of it especially when your on their own turf that only allows their kind. I used to get really pissed of when moderators or people would use their powers to deflect opinions but I've just gotten used to it and don't really bother anymore, you can't really discuss anything of real merit on a company forum unless the forum is not moderated anymore or you deceive them into thinking that your actually a fan and start each post with "I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE FO3 BUTTTTTTTT...."

That's kinda the sad part to. That people are simply getting used to it (true bias or only fanboys don't matter) and accepting the indirect censorship and the notion of "well there ain't no free speech on MY forums".

Well, there used to be far more of it at least. Maybe like you said the responses you get on the boards are not in any way related to the company itself but the relentless pressure put on reviewers for sure is. And there are indications of direct involvement in forums as well.




Totally off-topic but why do people buy dog and catfood and babyfood?
All baby food is less energy per buck and contains more addatives.
All cat and dog food is the cheapest meat for a high price.

Why don't people just give dogs real meat or to cats maybe fish.
You can also simply mix what ever is listed on the dog food label.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE FO3

We all do.

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:I know that is highly likely that many companies pay for people to give them good press in discussions but I have a hard time believing it's to the extent that many people here are making it out to be. I think it's more that it just a lot of idiots like you said who are fanboying what ever their latest obsession is.

I held that notion myself for years. Hanging out at the same forums for a length of time though will reveal patterns. I know that sounds 'tin-foil hat' of me, and there's really no way to prove it, but there it is. It's always the same posters that swarm the same kind of dissenting threads, same subtle incitement, same tired arguments that have already been rebutted but they continue to perpetuate. Lately I've even noticed that usernames I've never seen before are jumping into these discussions boasting an obscene post count.

It just all points to the same thing. "Where there's smoke, there's fire" I guess.

Given the state of modern gaming I just find it easy to believe that AAA devs(and Codemasters:) ) would stoop to these levels.

Yeah, the Codemasters forums were pretty wacky alright. Never had much of a presence there, mainly due to the fact that they banned my ass for criticizing a mod. From what I remember, it was considered offensive not to end each and every post with at least one happy smiley, though often five or six were used.

You mean I've been doing it wrong all this time !?

I think you'd fit right in there, like a white man i Harlem.

I need someone to post an img of obscure sexual nature now.

Cimmerian Nights wrote:

+=





In other news Deus Ex 3 (or is it Desu Ex now?) is making DEx 2 look good.

I'd link the gameplay video but who the fuck wants to watch 2 minutes of gameplay and 23 minutes of cutscenes?
-CUTSCENE- Mission starts -CUTSCENE- walk around a bit -CUTSCENE- talk to a guy -CUTSCENE- walk around a bit more -CUTSCENE- kill a guy -CUTSCENE- crawl thru a vent -CUTSCENE- etc.

The. Fuck.