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Infinium to Infiltrate Gamer Forums
Opposable Thumbs, over at Ars Technica, points out something we have have overlooked last week when Infinium Labs opened its books. Besides dropping the Phantom in favour of getting the keyboard to market, one of their business plans calls for the company to "infiltrate best-in-class video game communities with simple, easy to understand message and seeding on tech blogs, gaming sites and on-line player forums with compelling imagery and links to lapboard eye candy." Because that's sure to net them some goodwill and customer loyalty.
This won't end well.
Forum administrators hate it when people go into their forum and start shilling for some company.
For their ad campaign to work, they're going to have to subvert members of the forum who have some credibility. A new account full of "this is teh c00l" posts is going to be ignored.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/8233/phantomwi
What a joke, even their Press Pic don't jive with the product they're selling.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I used to accuse companies of such trickery, but then I got the all-new Infinium Labs Lapboard. What makes the Infinium Labs Lapboard very unique is that the keyboard can be angled upwards to create a surface for the mouse to operate on underneath. The Infinium Labs Lapboard is also wireless and can operate at a distance of up to 30 feet. That's more than nine metres of connectivity, which is great because I can play games like Battlefield Earth 1942 with my Infinium Labs Lapboard on my Microsoft Windows Media Centre Edition Personal Computer Powered by Gateway on my Gateway Enhanced Definition Plasma Television whilst sitting on my exquisite Ikea Spruengvar leather sofa. Check the Infinium Labs Lapboard out right away.
For more information, click here.
I think you are not giving Infinium Labs(TM) a fair chance. The company, founded in 2002 by Tim Roberts, is a shining example of what a gaming company should be. Take a few examples: When the company first announced a gaming console the entire community took notice gaining mention by many such luminaries as www.penny-arcade.com and www.hardocp.com They later developed a keyboard which is currently poised to change the way in which all people interact with computers; namely by allowing them to keep their mouse UNDER their keyboard. Sirs, we are living in a new century. An Infinium Labs(TM) century. Also, check out some of the sweet shots of both the lapboard AND the upcoming phantom at: http://www.infiniumlabs.com/
I frequent one of these "best-in-class" forums (BeyondUnreal), and we get the "HAY CHEK OUT MY SITE" posts all of the time. They usually get banned and culled within five minutes as the community mocks them mercilessly.
Thing is, these are probably not the paid shills. The real shills, you don't even know about.
It is true that companies occasionally get caught for this - it happened to Midway pretty publicly on Usenet about 5-6 years ago, for example. But take it from someone who used to both do it and recruit others to do it as part of my job; you don't know who's shilling and who isn't. Good shills are undetectable, and *every* game developer with a half-decent understanding of the internet and viral marketing does it.
I've been posting stuff on BBS's, blogs, usenet newsgroups and web forums for probably 20 years. So I know the etiquette. And I post on a whole bunch of different topics. When I was tasked with promoting games through forums for the company I worked for, it was with the stipulation that I would continue posting (both positively and negatively) about other subjects - including other games - just as I always did. I might write a post just like this as part of my job. (I could be shilling right now for all you know.) Then five minutes later I'd write another reply somewhere else that subtlely promotes my company's game. If you went back and looked at my posting history, you'd have no idea that I was a company plant.
I have zero doubt that a not insignificant percentage of the top posters on all of the most popular gaming-related web forums are "online street team" members. Sometimes they're obvious, although they don't usually get called out as company shills, just as fanboys. It's very hard to really unmask even the most blatant shill; it's not like you get to see anyone's paychecks. But those who are the best at it aren't even obvious fanboys; their job is simply to plant ideas, not to constantly hawk their company's games. My company kept a really careful watch on street team members, because if the company got caught, they knew it'd be a PR nightmare. It was way more important for street team members to stay anonymous than it was for them to constantly be hawking the company's wares.
And I guarantee that this happens all the time and you don't even know it. Because I used to be one of the people doing it, and I never got called out for it.
A skilled manipulator can make you desire a feature(set) without mentioning any products by name or company. I can mention my desire for an on-demand on-line game distribution service because it would free me from physical game media, without saying that such a product is a good thing, nor mentioning that any particular console product claims to be able to give me that benefit.
Did you assume that I was talking about Infinium?
There are 1.1... kinds of people.