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Topic: Mass Effect. (Read 23209 times)
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meep-eep
Forum Admin
Enlightened
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Posts: 2847
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Star Control 2 is not Star Control 3. Maybe you should read the whole post from him..... "Awesome, I'll pay big bucks for any rip off of Star Control! Wait. They're using the plot of Star Control 3: Cat Turd Editon? Uh, yeah. I think I'll wait another few years until Ninja Gaiden 2 comes out before I buy a NextBox."
I'll accept your "different people using a single computer" for now. But I will keep an eye on you (two?).
I find it very suspicious when someone who isn't a regular here suddenly starts a thread asking about another game, with the only other person who's enthousiastic about the game being another non-regular from another account from the same IP address, and who as soon as there are some comments which he/she perceives as negative about the game proceeds with trying to lock the thread. Yeah, but the thing is I was already posting here before he made that Mass Effect thread. Granted, i'm a non-regular, but the time I posted the questions was pretty close to the creation of this thread. Plus, if I wanted to make multiple accounts, i'd use a proxy.
There are companies that pay people to get involved with forum communitities just so they can insert astroturfing remarks when the time comes. See here (and a followup here) for example.
A few 2 line postings made before bringing up Mass Effect aren't really that convincing.
As for why a shill would not be using a proxy, it would have to be an anonymising proxy, and most of them are unintentionally run by the owner of the computer, which would bring with it all sorts of legal issues. And ofcourse the shill may not even know how to use a proxy.
Then again, posting from the same PC twice to pretend you're two people is indeed a pretty stupid thing for a shill to do. But "being smart" would not have to be on the job description of a shill (unlike "lack of morals").
In my experience, when people start off-topic postings, they do that only if they feel part of the community, or if they have something to advertise. Now it is possible that you're a long-time lurker and already feel like you're part of the community, even though you haven't engaged in any discussion and just asked a few help-desk questions (which isn't a bad thing in itself). But more often than not, such a person just has something to advertise. At the very least, it is a red flag.
I'm not saying that you (two) definitely are part of some astroturfing campaign -- you wouldn't have an account here anymore if I was convinced. But I am not convinved you aren't one either.
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
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swbf
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 29
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Doesn't that read to you that he says that a Star Control rip-off is good, as long as it isn't SC3? And weren't you claiming that this game feels like a spiritual successor to SC2 (before anyone pointed out the similarity of the story to SC2)?
Nope, that was LORE saying it's a spiritual sequel!
There are companies that pay people to get involved with forum communitities just so they can insert astroturfing remarks when the time comes. See here (and a followup here) for example. A few 2 line postings made before bringing up Mass Effect aren't really that convincing. As for why a shill would not be using a proxy, it would have to be an anonymising proxy, and most of them are unintentionally run by the owner of the computer, which would bring with it all sorts of legal issues. And ofcourse the shill may not even know how to use a proxy. Then again, posting from the same PC twice to pretend you're two people is indeed a pretty stupid thing for a shill to do. But "being smart" would not have to be on the job description of a shill (unlike "lack of morals"). In my experience, when people start off-topic postings, they do that only if they feel part of the community, or if they have something to advertise. Now it is possible that you're a long-time lurker and already feel like you're part of the community, even though you haven't engaged in any discussion and just asked a few help-desk questions (which isn't a bad thing in itself). But more often than not, such a person just has something to advertise. At the very least, it is a red flag. I'm not saying that you (two) definitely are part of some astroturfing campaign -- you wouldn't have an account here anymore if I was convinced. But I am not convinved you aren't one either.
Using an anonymous proxy is easy. Hell, I could just use Torpark to disguise my IP. But as to your whole "hired to spread the word of X product." Bioware doesn't need that kind of advertising. It's a big name in the gaming industry, and the game won best RPG at last year's E3. Trust me, Bioware doesn't need such shills, and they sure as hell wouldn't hire me to do such a thing anyway.
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« Last Edit: November 14, 2006, 07:28:34 pm by swbf »
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Shiver
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I'm thinking Meep-eep's conspiracy theory isn't too far off base. But if Lore and swbf are the same person and that person is a "shill", couldn't he just include tons of info about the game in the first post like I frickin' told him to? That's a better post, and a better job of shilling.
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swbf
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 29
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I'm thinking Meep-eep's conspiracy theory isn't too far off base. But if Lore and swbf are the same person and that person is a "shill", couldn't he just include tons of info about the game in the first post like I frickin' told him to? That's a better post, and a better job of shilling.
Nah, it's way off base. Lore and me aren't the same person, we just use the same computer. I should have used torpark to post here....now I regret not using it. But as you said, if he wanted to whore out the game, why not include the summary of the game in the post, along with reasons why he thinks it will be an awesome game. Lore's original post is bad advertising if it was meant to be advertising. Plus, he tried to lock the topic.
But oh wait, maybe that's Bioware's plan, get people to think that they are bad at shilling when it's really SHILLING! Oh let the conspiracy theories flow!
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swbf
Zebranky food
Offline
Posts: 29
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He's not an Ilwrath, Ilwrath's don't care about PROFIT! He's a Druuge. Us three are Druuge's. Damn, my cover has been blown!
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meep-eep
Forum Admin
Enlightened
Offline
Posts: 2847
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But as to your whole "hired to spread the word of X product." Bioware doesn't need that kind of advertising. It's a big name in the gaming industry, and the game won best RPG at last year's E3. Well, I never heard of it. And noone here who has spoken out on this topic seems to have either. The gaming industry is a a competitive one, and I've never known big businesses to be particularly shy of dubious practices.
Trust me, That's what we call begging the question.
Bioware doesn't need such shills, and they sure as hell wouldn't hire me to do such a thing anyway. Why wouldn't they hire you? Or rather, why wouldn't they hire a marketing company that employs tens of people like you for specifically purposes like this?
But as you said, if he wanted to whore out the game, why not include the summary of the game in the post, along with reasons why he thinks it will be an awesome game. Maybe he wanted to apply that this game is so big that everyone should know the game already? (So you better go learn about it.)
Maybe he didn't want to make it too obvious that he was shilling?
Maybe he had 20 more boards to shill for today?
Lore's original post is bad advertising if it was meant to be advertising. Why is it bad? He advances awareness about the game, and noone would blame Bioware for one of their fans being too lazy to find a link.
Plus, he tried to lock the topic. That's a reason against him (you two?) being a shill? That he tried to lock the thread when the thread was not providing good publicity?
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“When Juffo-Wup is complete
when at last there is no Void, no Non
when the Creators return
then we can finally rest.”
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