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Are there undercover agents trying to sway Neogaf's public opinion?

I

Illucio

Banned
Slightly misleading title is slightly misleading.

For a while the thought of companies like Microsoft, Sony, and EA hiring people to go on Neogaf in order to voice public opinions to sway customers to buy their products has crossed my mind.

There has been multiple times I've seen a large amount members flock to certain threads where I see a large amount of people sharing positive feedback on products that have universal negative feedback and found it unusual that there was a huge positive reaction for the first few pages. For example I've seen a thread about someone questioning whether they should upgrade to Windows 10 and the first 2 pages had comments within the span of 20 minutes that were all positive and encouraging the member to upgrade.
I just found it very unusual since the huge negative feedback Windows 10 had.
But these moments go on to many games and products on Neogaf with an unusual amount of comments or even threads being made asking questions that seem to be part of a survey for a company.

So gaffers do you think Neogaf has undercover agents trying to sway our opinion by trying to manipulate the gaming market through fake positive feedback?

In general, do you think it's a good thing that companies are trying to study Neogaf in order to market to us?

Isn't Thor 2: Dark World the greatest movie ever?
 
G

GamerJM

Banned
I mean, not often, but people have been busted for this before. IIRC a few years ago a poster was outed as being a Microsoft astroturfer (around the time of the X1 launch).
 
K

keakster

Member
Doesn't really impact me if there are, I make all my meaningful life decisions based on news people share on Facebook
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
1DUV52S.png
 
M

Mihael Mello Keehl

Banned
Probably.

I think companies are getting hold of where alot of news stories and popular opinions and stuff come from thats why you see neogaf in surveys and stuff.
 
Arkos

Arkos

Nose how to spell and rede to
pseudocaesar said:
I wouldn't be at all surprised really. I could see EA/Activision/Ubisoft doing it tbh.
Click to expand...

That's crazy! How would anybody even have time to do that? I'll be too busy playing my preorder collectors edition Watch Dogs 2 tm personally.
 
E

Echoes

Member
Some of the most critically acclaimed games of the year are incredibly boring and unplayable to me, while many of the average/divisive ones often become favorites. I personally don't find it strange to see a certain group attached to a game or a series even if it's deemed bad by the "public".
 
R

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
I remember there was one thread about the differences in XBO and PS4 performance that was kept open as a trap in 2013 while all others were locked. Every few days it would be bumped by an MS astroturfer clearly posting from a script and Bish would ban them.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Illucio said:
So gaffers do you think Neogaf has undercover agents trying to sway our opinion by trying to manipulate the gaming market through fake positive feedback?

In general, do you think it's a good thing that companies are trying to study Neogaf in order to market to us?

Isn't Thor 2: Dark World the greatest movie ever?
Click to expand...
The gaming market isnt going to be manipulated by what people on NeoGAF think

Or is it
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
The only company I'm aware of that has paid astroturfers is Sony. I was told they were hiring people to spread 'memes' (the person meant image macros, I think) and disinfo about the Xbox reveal event. Haven't heard anything since tho.
 
S

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Given the size of the site, there are almost certainly paid astroturfers present and posting. That being said, we have a lot of hurdles that help slow or prevent high volume automated account registration, and to detect it when it happens. Both because of the email requirements and registration delays, and because we have additional technological protection against alternate accounts more generally. We have banned people in the past that exhibit some or all of these characteristics. In general, the only slam dunk cases I've ever seen have been transparent self-promotion (like an indie dev shilling their game, or people promoting their podcast or their dumb blog). The times we have banned for virals/shills in the past, it's been suspiciously console warrior-y people affiliated with marketing firms, not the Russian Cyber-Troll Army thing where they're all independent astroturfers. My understanding has been that most astroturf bans have been this "suggestive but not conclusive" cases. These make up a very small number of bans.

Increasingly, btw, FCC regulations make it clear that this kind of activity is probably illegal in the US. And you might think "lol who cares, just break the law" -- except that the paper trail of having to pay astroturfers makes it harder than you'd think, not for the astroturfer, but for the company trying to hire them, which is why it seems less likely.

I think a lot of people think of the dumbest most annoying console warrior they see posting and assume "Oh he's gotta be a shill". No, reality is much more boring -- the most annoying console warriors are just emotionally overinvested people doing it for free. You can totally explain the worst dumbest posting without having to involve money at all in the equation. And yes, we've received reports about every dumb console warrior you can imagine being a paid employee, and yes we've investigated them all, and no we don't have any evidence to support the report, and yes we'd ban them if we did.

But the motivating example is really key here. The reason you got a hundred replies quick saying to upgrade to Windows 10 could be because of an advanced Microsoft viral marketing campaign, or it could be because it's a very simple question that 100 of the gazillion people reading GAF at the time know the answer to, and the reason they were all positive is because most people are broadly satisfied with Windows 10 and it's increasingly going to be required for new release PC gaming going forward. The easiest answer for why everyone responds the same way when you ask a question is because there's broad agreement on the answer, not because people are being paid.
 
L

Lindsay

Dot Hacked
I wouldn't get caught up to much in this kinda train of thought. Sure there are peeps on here an around the web paid ta do it. Theres also super defensive fans that won't let 1 negative be said without them trying ta chase people off. Telling the two apart isn't easy!
 
K

Kyoufu

Member
I'm willing to bet there are plenty of astroturfers here. The newly registered ones without avatars that go to all four corners of the earth to argue that <insert console here> is superior to <other console here>, usually around the holiday period.

And if those fresh members without avatars aren't being paid by Microsoft, they're alt accounts of fallen fanboys who went to all four corners of the earth to wave their flag of choice, but fell along the way. Basically astroturfing without actually being paid. The ultimate sucker.
 
K

kurahador

Member
There are some suspicious ones, like poster who actively shit on everything except for <insert company's name> product or output.
And whenever the <insert company's name> is widely trashed, they are nowhere to be seen despite being an active poster.
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
This is the exact kind of tinfoiled paranoia I would expect from someone incapable of recognizing how incredible it is that Vince McMahon is playable in WWE 2k17.
 
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