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[Terra]

However, this 'shillgate' have spilled over in many threads now. I wish it could blow over soon, that the consoles will be released.

Spoiler

not that i am buying anyone of them though

Is this your first spin of the cycle on Gaf? This sort of thing is going to keep going until it is obvious who the "winner" is.

Yes, actually it is my first go round here, and I can surely see it going for some time. It has really intensified the last 2 weeks, being close to E3 of course

 

[Terra]

Someone I used to work with is a Microsoft fanboy and he literally did exactly this (Made an account on polygon so he could post nothing but pro microsoft/xbo stuff) and is not on Microsoft's dime.

Reminds me of the Guns 'N Roses messageboards in the constant fan battles of Axl & Slash. Once or twice, It ended up with Axl Rose contacting the message boards owners, and joining the party for a Q&A.

 

[Ettie]

Someone I used to work with is a Microsoft fanboy and he literally did exactly this (Made an account on polygon so he could post nothing but pro microsoft/xbo stuff) and is not on Microsoft's dime.

What an exhausting way to spend your free time.

 

[bwrobins]

What an exhausting way to spend your free time.

Yeah, but gives his life a purpose...

 

[Cerebral Assassin]

Yes, actually it is my first go round here, and I can surely see it going for some time. It has really intensified the last 2 weeks, being close to E3 of course

Yeah it always heats up around E3, but this sort of thing will go on for years.

 

[Truespeed]

I have no doubt that if the mods banned someone for that then they had reason. It's the assumption that it is not happening on both sides and that MS or Sony would have corporate policies encouraging it that I find hard to believe,


A few employees who are passionate about their company posting their feelings does not automatically make them a paid shill and a marketing company doing a bad job of placing people on forums to act like puppets is stupid as well and I don't like seeing it....

but it happens on both sides....

I think you're confusing passion with promoting agenda's and trying to sway public opinions. Yes, there is a difference. If it is indeed happening on both sides then I eagerly await the mass banning of Sony shills. But, we already have proof of Microsoft astroturfing due to the business emails used by these pathetic RM shills so either the Sony RM shills are still dark or perhaps *gasp* they're not on here.

 

[kenjisalk]

Just because they don't have documentation to prove that said proselytizing was a corporate mandate, doesn't mean it wasn't. It's pretty standard procedure to go about unscrupulous behavior for the benefit of the company with off the books orders from on high.

That way, if word gets out, only those directly responsible for said morally gray actions will be hung out to dry, saving the company further bad press.

I'm sure Microsoft execs WANT you to think it's just 'a few employees who are passionate about their company posting their feelings', because that would leave the entity looking not like a greasy, morally bankrupt monster.

 

[Nome]

GAF is closed community where you need to wait months to get account here and yet in that infamous MS thread bans were given one after another and almost every new page contained banned juniors that started being alive just before or after MS fuckup.

My point is: If closed community have shills on almost every page in that thread then imagine what is happening on open forum when you can create account in 2 minutes.

Shills are not "minor occurrences" Shills are standard of industry and not even for gaming.

Did you hear about iOS reviews/buys shills ? book review shills ? That is part of industry which is constantly growing.

I'm well aware of industries that make use of shills extensively. I don't think you can get any worse than on Bodybuilding.com

Unfortunate outcome? That's kind of the entire point. There isn't a controlled message here so Industry types can be asked the tough questions if they do something shitty.

There's no point in hounding someone about an issue he has no control over. That's my problem with it. I don't ask a McDonald's cashier why Egg McMuffins aren't made from free-range eggs. I'll use the Sim City AMA again as an example. When the devs posted there, the intended result of the backlash was for them to reconsider the DRM. That didn't happen. It wasn't going to happen. Why? Because the way most publishing/community/marketing approach internet media and discussion--they view it as a highly visible, but small, portion of users. The actual result--EA will probably prohibit their studios from ever doing AMAs again. Actual results are obtained through poor sales and poor reviews.

You are either daft or being ridiculous, I want to think you're just being ridiculous, this is a gaming forum, and we talk about games, if you have a strong bias (a paycheck and career thanks to a particular company is a pretty strong bias toward said company) and spread a message favorable to the source of your income on a gaming forum, you are as much a shill as someone who is paid to shill.

lol, you'd be surprised. The vast majority of people I've met in the industry--especially those who aren't managers or stakeholders in a company or product--are there to do their job. They're enthusiastic because they enjoy the product, not because they're there to push the company line.

It's much easier for me to trust someone giving positive news about a studio WHILE working there than it is for me to believe someone giving negative news about a studio AFTER working there, especially if the split is not amicable. I've seen, firsthand and secondhand, far too many accounts of people outright lying about conditions after being fired. Now obviously there are many (confirmed) accounts to the contrary, but most of the real ones are corroborated by people still working there.

Just because they don't have documentation to prove that said proselytizing was a corporate mandate, doesn't mean it wasn't. It's pretty standard procedure to go about unscrupulous behavior for the benefit of the company with off the books orders from on high.

That way, if word gets out, only those directly responsible for said morally gray actions will be hung out to dry, saving the company further bad press.

I'm sure Microsoft execs WANT you to think it's just 'a few employees who are passionate about their company posting their feelings', because that would leave the entity looking not like a greasy, morally bankrupt monster.

That's a strong accusation at the industry, and I'd love to know where you're getting this assumption from. Given how rough games industry work hours are, I don't know where most would get the time to troll around forums. Even among the company I'm at (~1000 employees), the majority of the development side has never heard of GAF, and doesn't even frequent Reddit. Our free time is spent playing games

 

[CouldBeWorse]

I think you're confusing passion with promoting agenda's and trying to sway public opinions. Yes, there is a difference. If it is indeed happening on both sides then I eagerly await the mass banning of Sony shills. But, we already have proof of Microsoft astroturfing due to the business emails used by these pathetic RM shills so either the Sony RM shills are still dark or perhaps *gasp* they're not on here.

Opiate had an interesting post that confirmed that its not just Microsoft, but he didn't go into details.

 

[kenjisalk]

That's a strong accusation at the industry, and I'd love to know where you're getting this assumption from. Given how rough games industry work hours are, I don't know where most would get the time to troll around forums. Even among the company I'm at (~1000 employees), the majority of the development side has never heard of GAF, and doesn't even frequent Reddit. Our free time is spent playing games

I'm basing it off of wider trends among corporations, regardless of the type of product they output. Obviously I don't think it's going to be game designers, coders, artists etc doing this crap, but you can't tell me there aren't plenty of administrative staff members at publishing companies and hardware manufacturers that have a LOT of downtime.

It wouldn't be hard for people within the Microsoft entity who don't have a whole lot going on day to day to be asked to go put some good vibes out there from time to time (all on the hushhush), considering how badly they need it.

We hear about this crap every once in a while, from fake Amazon.com reviews, to forums being covertly invaded by third party marketing people. The only reason we don't hear about it ALL THE TIME is because there's typically not enough press draw for such stories unless the entity in question is in a lot of PR hot water (ie Microsoft).

 

[rpmurphy]

Opiate had an interesting post that confirmed that its not just Microsoft, but he didn't go into details.

Even in general, it would be very naive to believe that businesses, while understanding the importance of social media and public sentiment on their bottom line, would idly sit by as an observer rather than making active efforts to shape discussion, particularly when it comes to competitors' products or their own public image. It's not just about putting out ads on TV or magazines anymore. Marketing has changed.

 

[NullPointer]

Even in general, it would be very naive to believe that businesses, while understanding the importance of social media and public sentiment on their bottom line, would idly sit by as an observer rather than making active efforts to shape discussion, particularly when it comes to competitors' products or their own public image. It's not just about putting out ads on TV or magazines anymore. Marketing has changed.

You can shape discussion without hiding or misrepresenting yourself.

 

[Gvaz]

Sleazy if true. The console should speak for itself.

 

[watership]

Friend txted me about this topic, saying MS got caught sending hundreds of fake fans to reddit and then sent me to THIS thread . Sheesh.

 

[watership]

Sleazy if true. The console should speak for itself.

It's probably not true tho. This is why we need a thread title change.

edit: Looks like there is a new thread I missed. No change needed.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=580925

 

[PedroLumpy]

There's no point in hounding someone about an issue he has no control over. That's my problem with it. I don't ask a McDonald's cashier why Egg McMuffins aren't made from free-range eggs.

... There's totally a point to asking questions like that. A person may have not made that decision, but we rarely get to talk to the person who did make that decision. We raise issues to who we can. Often that's PR/Community Mods who had no hand in developing the game, but I'm pretty sure a shit ton of people telling them something is fucked can influence things.

But this totally getting away from the original point. If you're in the Industry, and you want to post about anything remotely related to anything you've worked on, you should fully disclose your involvement. It doesn't necessarily mean you're biased, but you have to leave that judgement up to others. To do that, they need the full disclosure of that information.

 

[Nome]

... There's totally a point to asking questions like that. A person may have not made that decision, but we rarely get to talk to the person who did make that decision. We raise issues to who we can. Often that's PR/Community Mods who had no hand in developing the game, but I'm pretty sure a shit ton of people telling them something is fucked can influence things.

But this totally getting away from the original point. If you're in the Industry, and you want to post about anything remotely related to anything you've worked on, you should fully disclose your involvement. It doesn't necessarily mean you're biased, but you have to leave that judgement up to others. To do that, they need the full disclosure of that information.

Sorry, I wasn't referring to PR/community/marketing when I was talking about developers. I generally consider them "publishing". They're certainly equipped to handle these sorts of conversations. That's their job, after all.

 

[Telepathy]

Could someone pls. tell me the commentators for all the MS/Sony news at theverge.com are MS astroturfers?

I mean, some of those people literally makes me depressed.

I sold my play and an going to buy………..Xbox One. Its the future of the house communication, entertainment and information center.

Yeah, even if the XBox One is just a pass through to do PIP for my PC to my TV it’ll be worth it with Kinect. Think of the Xbox as a really high end voice controlled receiver and it’s worth the cost without games. The games are an added bonus and, in my opinion, Sony’s presentation was largely a really brilliant piece of misdirection.

Not sure what they were watching. If Sony never announced the no restrictions, MS had a better keynote. About an hour into sony’s they didn’t show anything except ps3, vita, indy games and the japanese guy for about 30 minutes.

Games vs games, MS had a better lineup

What put sony over the top is the no restrictions and pricing which really isn’t about the game lineup.

 

[JMalerich]

I guess this type of situation speaks about the marketing industry as a whole. Regardless of whether this scenario is true, it belays the levels to which businesses are now going to in an attempt to promote their product, as well as their "brand". This type of marketing is deceptive because the point of gaming forums (at least, in a hypothetical vacuum) is to provide a place where gamers are allowed to express honest opinions about a brand or product. This type of "social management" prevents honest discussion and can cause corporate blindness because companies are more concerned with changing opinion, rather than improving upon their product. Regardless of whether Microsoft has fallen into this mode of thinking, the methods described in the OP are faulty business practices because (at least by appearance) the corporations are more concerned with product perception than product quality. A real shame.

 

[BigDug13]

Why did you bump this?

 

[Woody Invincible]

I've done it before. You search for an older thread and you have a few other threads open and after a while, you goof and post your thoughts and make it wise fwum its gwave.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I am in line with everyone else who believes many of these junior NEOGAF members flooding the threads with pro Xbox comments are Microsoft employees.

 

[GobFather]

So I read all these forums and posts about Microsoft employees in the forums and thought it's "crazy" or just a conspiracy BUT then I was reading in the forum about "Gaikai vs Xbox Cloud" and this one forum person was defending the xbox very strongly and to prove that he knew about "cloud"... he posted a picture of his badge... surpringly his badge said "Microsoft" lol The USERNAME is marcthemagicbum. I will provide the link and the picture that he posted.

The link to the forum:
[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/691087-playstation-4/66266878?page=4

ONE OF HIS QUOTE by
marcthemagicbum posted...

"Ah, good old proof by intimidation. That'll show them!


Yes, shame on me for asking for credibility when people stubbornly talk out of their ass.

BTW, here ya go!

http://i.imgur.com/xkniSkK.jpg

Now, like I said. If you do not currently work in the industry or with cloud technology, I ask that you completely remove yourself from the conversation, because it is absolutely possible to track and alter game state via cloud computing, with more processing power than on a single machine. It's called wide-computing."

I'm just posting what I saw, that the person willingly posted, I hope I'm not breaking any forum laws. IF so sorry

 

[RedNumberFive]

So I read all these forums and posts about Microsoft employees in the forums and thought it's "crazy" or just a conspiracy BUT then I was reading in the forum about "Gaikai vs Xbox Cloud" and this one forum person was defending the xbox very strongly and to prove that he knew about "cloud"... he posted a picture of his badge... surpringly his badge said "Microsoft" lol The USERNAME is marcthemagicbum. I will provide the link and the picture that he posted.

The link to the forum:
[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/691087-playstation-4/66266878?page=4

ONE OF HIS QUOTE by
marcthemagicbum posted...

I'm just posting what I saw, that the person willingly posted, I hope I'm not breaking any forum laws. IF so sorry

Posting a pic of your work badge on a gaming forum?

That's an Orthian level of career suicide.

 

[GobFather]

Posting a pic of your work badge on a gaming forum?

That's an Orthian level of career suicide.

Yes, I was very surprised anyone would do that but I think he wanted to make his point so much that he forgot? lol Did you notice that to confirm it was HIM talking to the user on gamefaq (and not a random badge photo), he wrote on the yellow piece of paper with a message for that user? lol

 

[Raymo]

Yes, I was very surprised anyone would do that but I think he wanted to make his point so much that he forgot? lol Did you notice that to confirm it was HIM talking to the user on gamefaq (and not a random badge photo), he wrote on the yellow piece of paper with a message for that user? lol

So, what's the point? Was he saying something outragious? I don't understand.

 

[AdvanS13]

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1fv5yj/i_saw_microsoft_employees_monitoring_this/



One such employee doing just that, apparently.

"xbox one (owner), you're the microsoft employee"

 

[Graphics Horse]

What is BeaconEngine and why is he posting his MS(?) project on the website to win a Gamefaqs argument? Sounds like his software is advertising related anyway (Real time bidder)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding

 

[Delusibeta]

So, what's the point? Was he saying something outragious? I don't understand.

It turns out Microsoft employees are indeed shilling for the Xbone after all.

 

[Mistouze]

Stahp Microsoft employee, staaahhhp.

Also, this should be its own thread imho.

 

[Mlatador]

Pretty pathetic attempt by Microsoft to improve their XboxOne image.

 

[sheamus]

But the Xbox One truly is a remarkable piece of hardware. Ask me anything, what would you like to know? I'm all ears.

Spoiler

I'm not a Microsoft employee

Spoiler

No really, I'm serious

Spoiler

Trust me, that was a joke and I think Xbox One is a piece of shit

so you working for sony then

 

[GobFather]

Stahp Microsoft employee, staaahhhp.

Also, this should be its own thread imho.

I couldn't start a new thread, so I just searched and posted on this topic. Feel free to start a new thread.

 

[Liha]

That's an Orthian level of career suicide.

a financial suicide

 

[Amneisac]

banned, not sure if its a perm.

looking at the xbox thread is like a graveyard. kinda feel sorry for them. there must be at least some genuine people caught in the crossfire.

(I know this post is over a month old) - But I guess this is in reference to the "XBOX One Satisfaction Thread"? I feel kind of bad if so, because I actually created that thread. Not because I'm an XBOX fanboy, far from it. I just seriously wanted to have one thread where I could see what people were actually excited about. All of GAF was whipped into a fury tearing the XBOX apart, which I completely understood and agreed with mostly. Anyways, the thread spiraled out of control pretty quickly. Sad to see I was indirectly responsible for some many GAFfers getting the axe (if it was 'my' thread).

 

[FStop7]

That's an orange badge. He's a contractor, not an employee. He is filthy and unclean.

 

[moai]

I remember that thread. After the bannings and the astroturfing accusations, people that wanted to post something positive about the xbox one or complain about the backlash that produced on gaf, always ended with "but i agree with the trolling or i agree that Ms deserves it".
Fear of being accused of being a schill i guess.

 

[ari]

It turns out Microsoft employees are indeed shilling for the Xbone after all.

Is he shilling or defending the Xbox one's cloud infrastructure where he know a thing a two about? I think this is non news honestly.

I don't think ms are paying or allowing anyone to go on reddit to boost Xbox one news. I think employees are just willing doing it on there own. Meh

 

[GobFather]

What is BeaconEngine and why is he posting his MS(?) project on the website to win a Gamefaqs argument? Sounds like his software is advertising related anyway (Real time bidder)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_bidding

whoa, I never "looked" at the screen but you're right, it says Beacon Engine and software is "Real time bidder" and he says hes working with Microsoft for the cloud ( I could be wrong) but could that mean hes working on these type of advertisement for XBL as well? Sorry if I sound confused.

Is he shilling or defending the Xbox one's cloud infrastructure where he know a thing a two about? I think this is non news honestly.

I don't think ms are paying or allowing anyone to go on reddit to boost Xbox one news. I think employees are just willing doing it on there own. Meh

He probably does know alot about it, but I just thought it goes along with people who thought there were employees out there defending their company and it's policies?

 

[Akuun]

I imagine just about every big company does this. Doesn't make it right, but I wouldn't single out Microsoft for it.

 

[jediyoshi]

It turns out Microsoft employees are indeed shilling for the Xbone after all.

If this isn't sarcasm then the entire plot has been lost at this point.

 

[Zatoichi's Cane]

I don't see any problems with an employee posting his/her badge if they are willing to accept the consequences from their employers.


The guy has a right to defend the product he is working on...

 

[StudioTan]

It turns out Microsoft employees are indeed shilling for the Xbone after all.

Classic shill behaviour, tell people you're working for the company. Then no one will suspect!

 

[GobFather]

I imagine just about every big company does this. Doesn't make it right, but I wouldn't single out Microsoft for it.

That's true, other companies probably do it too, but I just never saw anyone show a badge and it happens to be microsoft

 

[Trogdor1123]

Why cant a MS employee post pro xbox things if he honestly believes them? I hardly see it as a big deal. They likely know more about it than most of us do.

 

[Rogue_Ledr]

This kind of thing has been popular lately.

3rd parties have been doing it too apparently.

 

[Fornaximus]

This is absolutely happening, regardless of whether or not it's Microsoft. The only reason I think it wouldn't happen is if they knew they could get their fans to do it for free on the kind of scale they'd otherwise pay for.

 

[TheD]

So I read all these forums and posts about Microsoft employees in the forums and thought it's "crazy" or just a conspiracy BUT then I was reading in the forum about "Gaikai vs Xbox Cloud" and this one forum person was defending the xbox very strongly and to prove that he knew about "cloud"... he posted a picture of his badge... surpringly his badge said "Microsoft" lol The USERNAME is marcthemagicbum. I will provide the link and the picture that he posted.

The link to the forum:
[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/691087-playstation-4/66266878?page=4

ONE OF HIS QUOTE by
marcthemagicbum posted...

I'm just posting what I saw, that the person willingly posted, I hope I'm not breaking any forum laws. IF so sorry

That guy is a complete moron, he claims that a data packet sent from New York to China only takes 10ms!

Why cant a MS employee post pro xbox things if he honestly believes them? I hardly see it as a big deal. They likely know more about it than most of us do.

Because he is flat out lying and/or stupid.

The guy has a right to defend the product he is working on...

Not if it involves lying.

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

So I read all these forums and posts about Microsoft employees in the forums and thought it's "crazy" or just a conspiracy BUT then I was reading in the forum about "Gaikai vs Xbox Cloud" and this one forum person was defending the xbox very strongly and to prove that he knew about "cloud"... he posted a picture of his badge... surpringly his badge said "Microsoft" lol The USERNAME is marcthemagicbum. I will provide the link and the picture that he posted.

The link to the forum:
[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/691087-playstation-4/66266878?page=4

ONE OF HIS QUOTE by
marcthemagicbum posted...

I'm just posting what I saw, that the person willingly posted, I hope I'm not breaking any forum laws. IF so sorry

That badge looks nothing what id expect an Ms employee badge to look like. I wouldn't be surprised if he printed that out himself.

 

[Bsigg12]

So I read all these forums and posts about Microsoft employees in the forums and thought it's "crazy" or just a conspiracy BUT then I was reading in the forum about "Gaikai vs Xbox Cloud" and this one forum person was defending the xbox very strongly and to prove that he knew about "cloud"... he posted a picture of his badge... surpringly his badge said "Microsoft" lol The USERNAME is marcthemagicbum. I will provide the link and the picture that he posted.

The link to the forum:
[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/691087-playstation-4/66266878?page=4

ONE OF HIS QUOTE by
marcthemagicbum posted...

I'm just posting what I saw, that the person willingly posted, I hope I'm not breaking any forum laws. IF so sorry

Aren't red badges part time/contracted employees? My friend who's full time on the Windows Phone team has a blue badge.