NeoGaf user outed as EA/Maxis plant.

[spiritbw 111]

Seems that over on NeoGAF they banned a user who they found was actually working for Maxis/EA and trying to do damage control.  Article about it  here.

The thread where he got found out is here

 

[Charizard 284]

Is it bad that at this point I'm not even remotely surprised? They can't even do damage control correctly, let alone the game itself.

[macvirt 361]

Pretty common method. I'm more surprised to see it at a place like that, it is much more useful for this franchise in community hubs. And I am very surprised by the amateurism displayed, if accurate.

 

If accurate indeed, I do have my doubts. It would be a case of severe amateurism, because there are pretty standard methods and best practices for these efforts. Most publishers use them to maintain influence points on messaging generally for review and more mainstream media sites.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I wonder if it was actually a frustrated maxis employee.  There are times when the user defended maxis but there were other posts about game industry stuff and then some off topic posts about current events in the city near the maxis studio.  There was also a post about not liking the way that the marketing team forces bad ideas on to the game development team and how marketing gets a higher budget and has nicer computers and gets paid more and stuff like that.

 

The user was also named glassbox and wasn't especially sneaky, and I feel like if it was a PR spammer they would have been better at it.

 

 

Although that thread also links to information about EA hiring people (over 500) to actually do that.  I guess that joke article from before, about EA hiring Chinese sweatshops to do damage control wasn't far from the truth. 

[el.lopan 54]

I think we got EA/Maxis agents working undercover in this very community. 

[Board_Marshal 104]

I wonder if it was actually a frustrated maxis employee.  There are times when the user defended maxis but there were other posts about game industry stuff and then some off topic posts about current events in the city near the maxis studio.  There was also a post about not liking the way that the marketing team forces bad ideas on to the game development team and how marketing gets a higher budget and has nicer computers and gets paid more and stuff like that.

 

The user was also named glassbox and wasn't especially sneaky, and I feel like if it was a PR spammer they would have been better at it.

 

 

Although that thread also links to information about EA hiring people (over 500) to actually do that.  I guess that joke article from before, about EA hiring Chinese sweatshops to do damage control wasn't far from the truth. 

 

LMAO, username: GlassBox.

 

I love it.

[cirugo 1,889]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?  This happens all the time on message boards for everything.  What shocks me is that people don't notice and call them out more often.

[Board_Marshal 104]

Is anyone actually surprised by this?  This happens all the time on message boards for everything.  What shocks me is that people don't notice and call them out more often.

 

Suspect everyone.

 

In all seriousness, if somebody makes a valid point then it doesn't matter who it came from.  The bigger problem is how easily people accept invalid, irrelevant, purely subjective, and unsubstantiated posts as the opposite; I hope I'm wrong though.

 

The truth is out there (squinty, shifty eyes back and fourth)

[john2218 8]

There everywhere

[Superbacon 380]

Hah. Called it, it was bound to happen some time, somewhere. It's a typical strategy for EA to do. They send out anonymous agents out to fansites and forums of a game that's coming out, or that's in trouble. And they tout every possible thing that's toutable. Some people who literally have jobs to troll you and tell you how awesome their company or game is. It's part of how they over-hype things and part of their marketing strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if this forum had at least one EA agent. 

[cirugo 1,889]

Hah. Called it, it was bound to happen some time, somewhere. It's a typical strategy for EA to do. They send out anonymous agents out to fansites and forums of a game that's coming out, or that's in trouble. And they tout every possible thing that's toutable. Some people who literally have jobs to troll you and tell you how awesome their company or game is. It's part of how they over-hype things and part of their marketing strategy. I wouldn't be surprised if this forum had at least one EA agent. 

People do it for free and have been doing so for as long as games have had message boards and "communities."  I have no idea why.