“Xbox Fans Are Paid”, Says Former World of Warcraft Designer

poppabk said:
Yeah how do we know he isn't being paid by Sony to say this?
But then how do we know I didn't get paid by MS to say this about what he said?
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Exactly. We're fully down the Matrix rabbit hole!
Be right back, looking for the woman in the red dress.

Crap, all I found was Sarah Bond.
 
Wait I've been shilling all these years for my favourite plastic box and you're telling me I could have been paid? I could've had a second house.
 
i mean it's pretty obvious if you even step foot on game oriented social media,

why the hell a jezzy poo poo pants and randal thor have any sort of popularity is kind of proof of this.

but I think what is kind of being missed here is that they ALL do it. I'm fairly certain that fox account is a PS plant and so on. Even if they aren't getting directly paid these arseholes receive care packages and gifts and so on from these companies.
 
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graywolf323 said:
oh man the point he raises about AI is something I hadn't even thought of…

Microsoft is definitely the type that's going to take advantage of that, why keep paying astroturfers when they can just have AI do it? 🤦🏼‍♂️


01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101001 01110011 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100010 01110010 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010
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This game warned us about the Ai danger
These things will be dangerous if it gets out of control
Billions of people will lose there jobs
Cuz big tech will start using Ai more and more
I anticipate the year 2024 will be the year of the Ai future
😣
 
Of course this happens. It is well known and a fundamental part of Microsoft's marketing strategy.

They resorted to this back in the early 2000s when, funnily enough, they were the subject of an anti-trust investigation:

12ft

12ft.io

They were caught again, a decade later, trying to confuse, via astroturfing, that same behaviour that led to the anti-trust investigation:

Microsoft caught ‘astroturfing’ bloggers again to promote Internet Explorer

Microsoft pitches a high-profile venture capitalist to write paid blogs about its new Internet Explorer browser experience.
www.pcworld.com www.pcworld.com

They relied on this to generate buzz for the Xbox One at launch, as outed on Reddit:



There are detailed reports about exactly how it works:

Former Microsoft Shill Openly Confesses, Alleges Microsoft Still Does This

techrights.org

Hell, there are detailed reports from Microsoft:


So be very, very suspicious of anyone trivialising, satirising, dismissing, normalising, equivocating or outright praising this process, and look very closely at anyone attacking or smearing it's source.

A reminder that FUD has defined Microsoft's marketing approach in the presence of a sting market leader since their inception, starting with IBM. Plenty of sources for that one on Wikipedia:

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

So yeah, any time you see a pro-MS post that is called out and then be doubled-down upon while the critic's integrity is called into question: that's a paid shill.
 
When Xbox first launched I was manager of a EB Games. In less than four years I had been given 3 Xbox consoles (full disclosure, one was Halo edition and won in a company sales contest). I can't even tell you how many Xbox Live Gold codes and games I was given. I was gifted things by Sony and Nintendo but the amount of Xbox swag was staggering. I saw it work first hand. We had some managers (more than not) in my district that swore by Xbox because they did not want to lose the "free" swag. Why would I doubt that in today's social media society MS would not go all in on paying influencers?

I don't mind people that are obvious like Colt Eastwood. Most of those types tend to be preaching to the same circle and probably have little advertising impact. However, I do take issue with ALL companies that use their advertising power to influence reviews and stories in gaming publications/sites.
 
cireza said:
Pretty sure that Sony pays people to pretend they are Xbox related, and ask them to pay internet users to say good stuff about Xbox. So that they can create a negative picture of Xbox.
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…an example of FUD (a joke, so cireza says, but unironically exactly what you will see elsewhere)
 
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Darsxx82 said:
1- The guy who has been creating a call effect for several days saying little less than MS is the devil and that he hates big companies because they want control and squeeze users with microtransactions...

2- A guy who worked for Blizard who was criticized for his policy of squeezing the user by showing his hopocrisy.

3- The Xbox community (it is clear that most of them are fanatics and trolls) responds with insults and points at him.

4- The guy reacts by accusing an entire community being paid fans and bots at the service of MS. Clearly showing his bias and anger to the Xbox community.

5- Someone in Neogaf sees fit to open a thread insinuating that the words of the ExBlizard guy is some kind of confirmation that MS pays all the fans that are attacking him.

6- Moderation sees this consolewars thread as appropriate even when several usual suspects here appear to attack and bullying to several of the users here with preferences towards Xbox.

7- At the moment my answer is filled with emoticons of laughter, shame and empathy...

All right in this healthy community. Proud to participate in this forum 😏

Enough ingredients for open a tread here against Xbox and its entire community...
Click to expand...
1- The moderation team on neogaf has done several purges of xbox astroturfers before. Evillore can confirm or deny, but it was well known that xbox astroturfers were found out by one of the mods and banned.
2- This isnt some hidden program. MS fanboys are known to have been invited to xbox events. We have seen pictures of them hanging out. they are flown out by MS which is a form of payment.
3- Judge, a former well known neogaf poster, now an era mod is an XBox MVP who regularly bans sony fans on era and has been for the last 6 years.
4- It's not console wars to point out facts. Facts that have been proven time and time again as posted in this thread. Here is one more from the astroturfing wikipedia page:
Email, automated phone calls, form letters, and the Internet made astroturfing more economical and prolific in the late 1990s.[26][42] In 2001, as Microsoft was defending itself against an antitrust lawsuit, Americans for Technology Leadership (ATL), a group heavily funded by Microsoft, initiated a letter-writing campaign. ATL contacted constituents under the guise of conducting a poll and sent pro-Microsoft consumers form and sample letters to send to involved lawmakers. The effort was designed to make it appear as though there was public support for a sympathetic ruling in the antitrust lawsuit.[36][49]
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5. For once in my life, I would like to see xbox fans call out each other on these forums. I have seen people defend microsoft's every move, and while not all will agree, i have never seen one xbox fan call out the most obvious biased fanboys. I see a lot of Sony infighting but xbox team sticks together. It is very odd and a very poor look.
6- Back on gamespot forums, I saw this guy come out of nowhere around the x1 reveal and started defending them like no other. This is back when they were getting shat on from their own fanbase for their tv and kinect focus but this guy made everyones life on gamespot miserable. Some users remembered him from the xbox 360 launch era. Quite obvious that he was paid. We never saw him again a few weeks after launch.
7- Instead of getting upset over some kind of perceived persecution, maybe you should call out this shitty fucking practice for what it is.

We spend hours on forums discussing things, and it is an insult to find out that the person you were arguing with was a fucking paid actor.
 
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adamsapple said:
Why would I throw money in the trash, I'd rather use it to buy Xbox™Game Pass Ultimate™ for consoles and PC, featuring Xcloud™ and enjoy hundreds of fantastic games, including the upcoming blockbuster space RPG Starfield™
Click to expand...

Psst, you forgot "...where I can have fun with a diverse and inclusive community of gamers who care about the gaming experience of all!"

Don't make me send you to Ambassador reeducation. :messenger_squinting_tongue:
 
It's obviously not just xbox.

Professional astroturfers / shills are rampant in forums, reddit and twitter. They can be very effective at stifling discussions that follow undesirable narratives and promote features in products that wouldn't get as much attention otherwise.

There are companies dedicated to astroturfing, and I remember back in ~05 Nvidia was caught hiring the services of one of them.
Of course, Nvidia were simply the ones getting caught at the time. I have little doubts almost every major vendor engages in these practices.
 
Bumblebeetuna said:
Every company does it. Back when I worked retail, Nintendo and Sony had programs where they would literally give you free games and merchandise to sway customers their way. I'm sure MS had the same thing, they just never bothered to send my store a rep. This was back when internets was in its infancy, but I know the Sony program lasted until a year or two ago. No doubt they've all switched to the internet shills now, way larger reach and probably cheaper.

Of course, the sad thing is a vast majority of the people who spend hours on twitter and YouTube engaging in console wars aren't even paid at all. They're just fanboys.

edit, they aren't paid at all by the big three I mean. I'm sure they make money off of their social media accounts.
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There's that equivocating I was talking about.

Normalising: Everyone does it, don't worry about it.
Equivocating: Sony does it too (they do), just the same (it's not)
Deflecting / whatbaoutism: Whatabout…?

You notice it more and more when you look for it.
 
ToTTenTranz said:
It's obviously not just xbox.

Professional astroturfers / shills are rampant in forums, reddit and twitter. They can be very effective at stifling discussions that follow undesirable narratives and promote features in products that wouldn't get as much attention otherwise.

There are companies dedicated to astroturfing, and I remember back in ~05 Nvidia was caught hiring the services of one of them.
Of course, Nvidia were simply the ones getting caught at the time. I have little doubts almost every major vendor engages in these practices.
Click to expand...
I mean yeah it's here too, almost impossible to prove I guess but I see some people on this board that I refuse to believe are always onesided with hype for one side and downplaying for the other side without getting payed. What would be the reason for such behaviour? It's just $500 for another box and they could save their sanity and spend their time playing games instead.
 
Darsxx82 said:
1- The guy who has been creating a call effect for several days saying little less than MS is the devil and that he hates big companies because they want control and squeeze users with microtransactions...

2- A guy who worked for Blizard who was criticized for his policy of squeezing the user by showing his hopocrisy.

3- The Xbox community (it is clear that most of them are fanatics and trolls) responds with insults and points at him.

4- The guy reacts by accusing an entire community being paid fans and bots at the service of MS. Clearly showing his bias and anger to the Xbox community.

5- Someone in Neogaf sees fit to open a thread insinuating that the words of the ExBlizard guy is some kind of confirmation that MS pays all the fans that are attacking him.

6- Moderation sees this consolewars thread as appropriate even when several usual suspects here appear to attack and bullying to several of the users here with preferences towards Xbox.

7- At the moment my answer is filled with emoticons of laughter, shame and empathy...

All right in this healthy community. Proud to participate in this forum 😏

Enough ingredients for open a tread here against Xbox and its entire community...
Click to expand...

ManaByte said:
Shhh don't rain on the confirmation bias.
Click to expand...

People can't recognize that they sound like conspiracy theorists when they accuse everyone here of being shill or astroturfer. The mods are happy because they only have to feel that they are "better than resetera".

thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
I'll DM Phil to write you a check. He desperately needs some good PR and this could be his ticket.



Yes.

Which is also at least half of the ResetERA Xbox people paying for Game Pass with MS Reward points.
Click to expand...

Half of the people here, including Topher Topher , GHG GHG and many of the sony guys pay their gamepass subscription through Microsoft rewards. Are they paid shills?!

The Fuzz damn you! said:
Of course this happens. It is well known and a fundamental part of Microsoft's marketing strategy.

They resorted to this back in the early 2000s when, funnily enough, they were the subject of an anti-trust investigation:

12ft

12ft.io

They were caught again, a decade later, trying to confuse, via astroturfing, that same behaviour that led to the anti-trust investigation:

Microsoft caught ‘astroturfing’ bloggers again to promote Internet Explorer

Microsoft pitches a high-profile venture capitalist to write paid blogs about its new Internet Explorer browser experience.
www.pcworld.com www.pcworld.com

They relied on this to generate buzz for the Xbox One at launch, as outed on Reddit:



There are detailed reports about exactly how it works:

Former Microsoft Shill Openly Confesses, Alleges Microsoft Still Does This

techrights.org

Hell, there are detailed reports from Microsoft:


So be very, very suspicious of anyone trivialising, satirising, dismissing, normalising, equivocating or outright praising this process, and look very closely at anyone attacking or smearing it's source.

A reminder that FUD has defined Microsoft's marketing approach in the presence of a sting market leader since their inception, starting with IBM. Plenty of sources for that one on Wikipedia:

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

So yeah, any time you see a pro-MS post that is called out and then be doubled-down upon while the critic's integrity is called into question: that's a paid shill.
Click to expand...


SlimySnake said:
1- The moderation team on neogaf has done several purges of xbox astroturfers before. Evillore can confirm or deny, but it was well known that xbox astroturfers were found out by one of the mods and banned.
2- This isnt some hidden program. MS fanboys are known to have been invited to xbox events. We have seen pictures of them hanging out. they are flown out by MS which is a form of payment.
3- Judge, a former well known neogaf poster, now an era mod is an XBox MVP who regularly bans sony fans on era and has been for the last 6 years.
4- It's not console wars to point out facts. Facts that have been proven time and time again as posted in this thread. Here is one more from the astroturfing wikipedia page:

5. For once in my life, I would like to see xbox fans call out each other on these forums. I have seen people defend microsoft's every move, and while not all will agree, i have never seen one xbox fan call out the most obvious biased fanboys. I see a lot of Sony infighting but xbox team sticks together. It is very odd and a very poor look.
6- Back on gamespot forums, I saw this guy come out of nowhere around the x1 reveal and started defending them like no other. This is back when they were getting shat on from their own fanbase for their tv and kinect focus but this guy made everyones life on gamespot miserable. Some users remembered him from the xbox 360 launch era. Quite obvious that he was paid. We never saw him again a few weeks after launch.
7- Instead of getting upset over some kind of perceived persecution, maybe you should call out this shitty fucking practice for what it is.

We spend hours on forums discussing things, and it is an insult to find out that the person you were arguing with was a fucking paid actor.
Click to expand...
There is huge issue with equating that Microsoft pays for influencers and ambassodors, and then painting that all the xbox fans (including people here) are on Microsoft payroll. It is just adding to the polarization of this forum and is not helping anyone. Keep doing that and they only people who will stay here are those who are actually paid to do it.
 
The Fuzz damn you! said:
Nearly half a century of exactly this behaviour and admissions from Microsoft themselves not enough?

FUD looks like this, people.
Click to expand...
Mostly agree, just remember there's a lot of people that are entrenched enough to do it for free as they think it's part of their identity and feel they belong to some group. So both aren't mutually exclusive.
 
What number is this Microsoft hate thread? I lost count.

Don't act like the other gaming companies have plenty of shills. You guys just think Xbox is not organic because you have insatiable hate boners.
 
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Vognerful said:
People can't recognize that they sound like conspiracy theorists when they accuse everyone here of being shill or astroturfer. The mods are happy because they only have to feel that they are "better than resetera".



Half of the people here, including Topher Topher , GHG GHG and many of the sony guys pay their gamepass subscription through Microsoft rewards. Are they paid shills?!




There is huge issue with equating that Microsoft pays for influencers and ambassodors, and then painting that all the xbox fans (including people here) are on Microsoft payroll. It is just adding to the polarization of this forum and is not helping anyone. Keep doing that and they only people who will stay here are those who are actually paid to do it.
Click to expand...

For the record, I'm just here for the memes and gifs. Folks take this shit too seriously.
 
Setsuna Mudou said:
Mostly agree, just remember there's a lot of people that are entrenched enough to do it for free as they think it's part of their identity and feel they belong to some group. So both aren't mutually exclusive.
Click to expand...
Oh, absolutely. MS (and others) wouldn't pay the obscene amounts of money they do if they didn't get these kinds of results. Some are paid, others are too stupid to think critically. I like to be generous and assume they're all shills, though.
 
TheRedRiders said:
I mean one does start to wonder how such an incompetent brand has somehow mustered an extremely "loyal" fanbase with an aggressive online presence.
Click to expand...

That's not entirely fair... them burning loads of cash into a cheap service that lets people play an enormous library of recently released games has probably made them a number of loyal fans as well.
 
Gobjuduck said:
Remember when Sony used fake reviews and had to settle in court.
Click to expand...
Equivocation.

Yep, Sony do it too. No, it not as widespread nor as blatant under them.

Sony have done plenty of other criminal shit too. Rootkits on CDs. Bait-and-switch with Linux on PS3. I'm sure there are plenty of threads on their mis-steps, and if there aren't, feel free to make them.

I will criticise Sony just as much as I do MS when it is warranted. Will your do the same?
 
Fredrik said:
Well. It is. Unless you pirate or play everything late through sales it's the cheapest way to play the biggest number of games.
Well, at least it used to be... I don't know how many tricks there is left. I got 2x3 years at $5/month by prepayment of XBLG and EAP. Is there something else to trick the system? that don't include using Bing
Click to expand...
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So it's standard practice. That means MS, Nintendo, and Sony participate in this practice. After lurking in gaming forums for 24 years, I can believe this. While I never would outright accuse anyone without evidence, it would be fun to provide our individual lists of who we think are legitimate shills :)

SlimySnake SlimySnake you mentioned Xbox flying fans to events and using that as evidence of some immoral payment scheme. I reject the assertion that MS having amazing outreach programs for their fans is in anyway nefarious. I wish Sony and Nintendo valued engagement with their fans in a similar manner, because you better believe I would be signing up for just as many contests through them, as I have with Xbox

As someone who won tickets to Xbox fanfest and E3 in 2015 and fanfest 2023 (I couldn't go this year), it was an amazing experience that I wish everyone could participate in. In my case, I entered into the contest just like anyone else, they don't know who I am, nor do I carry any influence. The fact that they also extend these opportunities to their largest social media influencers is just how advertising is done in 2023. It also doesn't mean that a particular influencers fandom is somehow inauthentic. Undoubtedly, those memories absolutely influence my ability to have a more optimistic view of their decisions, but their isn't anything wrong with that. That's what engagement does.

Of course it is marketing, but the experience participants get to have is very real. I was never coerced into sharing anything on social media, nor made to feel pressured into doing anything other than enjoy myself. Yes they receive good publicity out of the event, but I still can't draw the connection to it being some sort of low handed tactic.

edit: What has you triggered Griffon Griffon ?
 
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Just me but I'd rather not even joke about named or general members being not a real part of the community.

It should really be talked about more but not like that.
 
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