|
Viral Marketing Scandal: Atari publicists posing as forumites to promote Driv3r!
Efralope posted about this over at Opa-Ages.
It looks like Atari-contracted publicists at Babel Media have been caught posting undercover in the GamesRadar forum, defending Driv3R from criticism and talking the game up. One of their mods (Eighthours) was quite pissed! Gameradar thread: ATARI PEOPLE INFILTRATE GAMESRADAR!!!!!!! Check out a few examples of what the publicists posted: Quote:
Quote:
Seems their IP addresses traced right back to Babel Media's Website. The Gamesradar forum has been extremely critical of UK magazines inflating Driv3r review scores, so that's why Atari & Babel may have felt some "guerrilla marketing" was in order to counter all the negative exposure. Check out this mammoth thread for an example: Driv3r Reviews. Were PSM2 & XBW honest? (Part II) |
LOL this is crazy....
|
TRACE PROGRAM RUNNING...
|
yeah, I got this from a link on GAF (and I told them to make a new thread, but they didn't), oh how the forums go in circles...
anyway, I thought it was hilarious... HAVING CONVERSATIONS WITH EACH OTHER!  |
A different breed of mods in that place. I thought they would be keeping people quiet. :)
|
Fucking Atari
|
How many times i told myself "it cant get any worse" ? And i am allways wrong.
|
Check this out, Babel's website even touted invading forums as part of their "highly client-specific online marketing campaigns."
Here's the best part: after getting caught by the GamesRadar forum, they removed the bolded passages from the description below! Quote:
|
Lol. I knew something was wrong when I read through that thread a week ago.
Atari is quickly losing currency with hardcore gamers (however much they had left anyway). Unfortunately, it's behavior like this that won't be seen by the general gaming community that is putting the POS at the top of the charts. |
WTF?!
talk about sorry... I could never imagine a REAL game company like Nintendo or EA doing this, they don' t need to... I guess it's cheaper to pay people to evangelize on the web than to fund quality control of a product... |
Watch your back guys, its time for an old fashioned witch hunt!
|
Babel Media has been doing this for AGES.
|
Ok. I SWEAR I'm not with these guys!
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
Are you trying to justify this??????? I BET YOURE ONE OF THEM!!! |
Quote:
Anyone that liked, owned, rented, played, or even spoke the title DRIV3R is one of them... |
Quote:
I swear I saw efrain (efralope) taking cash from this guy in a back alley. I thought it might have been a sexual favor thing, but then I saw the guy's license plate as he drove off. Nin10do.* * j/k Efrain |
You know this means that I can no longer trust any of you bastards.
|
I don't understand why they would they think this is necessary? Isn't the game already selling incredibly well? Or do these postings pre-date the availability of the game?
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
o.... .k...... but really though, I have to admit having such rapid fans is saving Nintendo a ton of money, just look at how even though there is NO ONLINE on GCN, it seems (with the exception of GAF - leans Sony, and a few others like TeamXBox - Microsoft base), Nintendo fans totally hit the scene on online forums... I remember in The Vestibule (free IGN forum), posters getting upset that Nintendo games or systems always placed high in the user-made polls... that said, Nintendo deserves eveyone one of those fans because they aren't afraid to plunt down tons of cash on quality control (as Miyamoto made reference to spending a lot to make sure Metroid Prime came out good) to make sure their games are the best... |
Remember, Atari is expecting 10 million copies of this game to be sold worldwide. They're gonna need to do everything to achieve that number
|
Quote:
|
Maybe you guys are just imagining things. We're not sending out viral marketers to promote this awesome titl--oh shi-
|
Quote:
That must be a joke, right? The word of mouth is going to be atrocious, it's not like True Crime where at least the word "decent" got thrown around, people are really trashing on Driv3R... no way this hits more than 5 million sold through... this will hit the bargain bins quick, and I predict in the US and Canada, the Spiderman 2 videogame is totally going to overshadow this... |
I don't see how anyone could bash the glory that is Driv3r. Most of you probably have never even tried this superb game. Giving this game anything less than an 8 or 9 out of 10 is an injustice.
Ecstacy, thy name is Driv3r. Buy it, love it, play it. |
Quote:
IT'S AN AGENT! |
Quote:
Quote:
|
Quote:
This man speaks the truth. All companies do this type of marketing. The company who does it for Atari is named Electric Artists and they also list Konami,Activision,Sony online Entertainment and XBox as their clients. www.electricartists.com This company actually tried to cut a deal with a forum I moderate at. They would have basically used our forum as a marketing playground and we would have gotten free stuff. When they came to us I started looking into it and found that it's pretty widespread across all entertainment industries. Here's an old article about Electric Artists specifically. There's no point chastising the publishers listed here because every single other publisher is guilty as well. Quote:
|
"I heartily endorse this event or product."
(And no, Disco Stu does not advertise. He does, however, quote liberally from The Simpsons.) |
I thought people knew about this already. But then again most people tend to act like it doesnt happen whatsoever.
|
What happened to the viral marketing from lazy8?
|
Quote:
I got tired of perpetually making him look foolish, so banned him for his own mental welfare ;) Freeburn. |
So, BOE, tell us how much Sega has been paying you to help clear their warehouse full of unsold NiGHTs copies.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
I remember that we used to get "whisper marketing" posts on the GameSpot forums for some game a few years ago. It's pretty obvious, though.
New forum member + flattering praise of a shitty game's features in a bulletpoint manner - rabid fanboy enthusiasm = guerilla marketing. |
heh.
|
Most users ever online was 621, Today at 07:44 AM.
Looks like this thread attracted some lurkers |
I like Driver3.
*waits for check* |
Talkin' Gaming Age Forum Paranoid Blues
Well, I was feelin' sad and feelin' blue, I didn't know what in the world I was gonna do, Them marketers they wus comin' around, They wus in the air, They wus on the ground. They wouldn't gimme no peace. . . So I run down most hurriedly And joined up with the Gaming Age Forum Society, I got me a secret membership card And started off a-walkin' down the road. Yee-hoo, I'm a real GAFer now! Look out you guerilla marketers! Well, I wus lookin' everywhere for them gol-darned marketers. I got up in the mornin' 'n' looked under my bed, Looked in the sink, behind the door, Looked in the glove compartment of my car. Couldn't find 'em . . . I wus lookin' high an' low for them marketers everywhere, I wus lookin' in the sink an' underneath the chair. I looked way up my chimney hole, I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl. They got away . . . Well, I wus sittin' home alone an' started to sweat, Figured they wus in my T.V. set. Peeked behind the picture frame, Got a shock from my feet, hittin' right up in the brain. Them guerilla marketers caused it! I know they did . . . them hard-core ones. Well, I quit my job so I could work alone, Then I changed my name to Sherlock Holmes. Followed some clues from my detective bag And discovered they wus next-generation graphics on the American flag! That ol' Betty Ross . . . Well, I investigated all the books in the library, Ninety percent of 'em gotta be burned away. I investigated all the people that I knowed, Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go. The other two percent are fellow GAFers . . . just like me. Now Eisenhower, he's an Atari spy, Lincoln, Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy. To my knowledge there's just one man That's really a true American: George Lincoln Rockwell. I know for a fact he hates guerillas cus he picketed the movie Tomb Raider. Well, I fin'ly started thinkin' straight When I run outa things to investigate. Couldn't imagine doin' anything else, So now I'm sittin' home investigatin' myself! Hope I don't find out anything . . . hmm, great God! |
Has this kind of thing happened before? I mean, this might be the first time it drew such large attention, but is this video game playola common?
I rememer this site Netjak gave Earth and Beyond something like a 6.4 or the like, and then the review went away and suddenly came back a 7.6 with none of the review text changed. Did the reviewer have a change of heart? Or did EA have something to do with it? |
Who's more to blame for the Driv3r fiasco anyway, Reflections or Infotari?
|
Quote:
"If you put the 60 hours into Kirby's Air Ride that I did, you could be having fun too!" |
Quote:
Yes! LOL |
seriously guys, is driv3r THAT bad? i havent played it myself, but i loved the first driver (the only one i've played) and i think the graphics look fine (i watched it being played at e3). is it really that fucking terrible?
|
Quote:
BURN HIM! Actually, I don't know. But I tend to trust the couple of reviews that I've read, and will steer clear. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
POTD |
:::waits for Oli's reply:::
|
| All times are GMT. The time now is 08:15 AM. |