We have a rat among us?

Mark

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/show/21589
We received the following from a young man who we will call "Mr. Smith."

(CW)TB

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

Didn't take the job. It was a ****ing mill.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/
Many people were curious about the revelations of one Mr. Smith we posted recently, revelations authorized only for agents whose sec-prot threshhold is Delta or higher. His seismic expose rocked the very foundations of the thing that we are talking about. I cast my net again recently, and came up with this tasty little cracker:

[Begin Message]
Wanna know about marketing, ask a Marketer. Here's a couple nifty bits for ya:
1) I have in my possession a marketing plan for NBA LIVE 2004 (don't ask how I got it... ). This marketing plan actually refers to "Hiring viral specialists to advocate NBA Live online via chat rooms targeting gaming fan sites" and "Placing offensive, defensive and PR shills into common gaming chat arenas." It goes on to outline a full page of tactics for said "Guerilla Online Marketing for Core Gamers."
2) I actually hired a company called Hype Council (http://www.hypecouncil.com). These guys do a TON of gaming related stuff -- I actually wouldn't be surprised if it's the company referred to in your news post. Their technique is quite insidious. Let's say they were hired to pump up PA (not like you need the buzz, but whatever...). Using one of the hundreds of shill accounts they have across the net, they post a new thread that says something like "hey guys, I've been looking for some new web comics to read. Anybody have any recommendations?" This is non-threatening, and gets the community engaged. They then wait a couple days and post again, this time with "Well, I asked some friends and they suggested I check out Penny Arcade <insert link>. I thought it was pretty funny, although I didn't like all the cuss words. What do you guys think?" Again, seeking engagement, they now have stealthily inserted the client's link, thereby encouraging trial. It's all very measurable and very effective. You should see the monthly reports you get from these guys: everything is detailed. Spooky.
It's all very insidious and, I'm sure, widespread. So much so that I don't trust anything I read. Unless it's a board where I "know" the posters, I always assume everyone on the board is a shill.

[End Somewhat Terrifying Message]

KILL THE RAT

KdjaCL

Mark wrote:

KILL THE RAT

So then im busted



kdjac

eyerer

i was gonna make a similar comment to that above

its the internet though, nothing is to be believed

magick

its the internet though, nothing is to be believed

Exactly, oh and by the way i played a cool awesome game called battlefield 2 from those great guys at EA GAMES! "challenge everything"tm
which of course recommends microsoft XP!

its easy as d/ell!

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Cake Fiend

Mark wrote:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/show/21589

...

http://www.penny-arcade.com/

He's advertising! :eek:

GETTIM!!

eyerer

Solitaryman666 wrote:

This post has been deleted.

hes in the reconosance (sp) period
he likes to do things right btw, he wont post a day too soon



speaking of pimping things, not only does trackmania world cup install starforce but it also blatently pimps nvidia at the install, gah.
gah i say.

the_syco

eyerer wrote:

it also blatently pimps nvidia at the install, gah.
gah i say.

I think so does BF2, and I think GTA does so as well.

monument

So, nvidia are on your books then?

madrab

hey guys, have you seen those rad new flicks from the kool Uwe Boll, he's rad!!!

he makes real edgy movies about dope games like blood rayne & house of the dead, did i mention he's RAD!!!!

yaeh Uwe Boll is kooool!

koneko

Yes. I concur. I think that Uwe Boll is a visionary, I would highly recommend viewing BLOODRAYNE at your nearest theater!




I feel durty

humanji

lol, it reminds me of the character from The Secret Of Monkey Island with the "Ask Me About Loom!" badge.

Cake Fiend

koneko wrote:

I feel durty

Sarky

I just don't know who to start flinging wild accusations at. It's terrible.

RobertFoster

Awww, now you can't trust the newbies, nor the "well known" posters?

I think I'll go out to McDonalds to cheer myself up, cos unlike the atmosphere boards.ie, I'm Lovin' It at McDonalds...

flogen

shill? pfft. Talk about Paranoia.

by the way; has anyone played the game Fifa 06? I like the way it has soccer in it, but all the crappy regurgitation of the same basic idea from 20 years ago makes me want to pull my own eyes out just so I don't have to be patronised any more.

Did I get the job?

eyerer

RobertFoster wrote:

Awww, now you can't trust the newbies, nor the "well known" posters?

I think I'll go out to McDonalds to cheer myself up, cos unlike the atmosphere boards.ie, I'm Lovin' It at McDonalds...

you can trust 'well known' n00bs like me though


i would hire you flogen

projectmayhem

many people suspect i work for sony with my fanboy spouting round here.... the jigs up i believe.

koneko

Sico wrote:

Retr0gamer

projectmayhem wrote:

many people suspect i work for sony with my fanboy spouting round here.... the jigs up i believe.

That would explain you being the only person I've heard say anything good about Killzone. Ban him!

Capt'n Midnight

Just wondering - how much do they pay ??

Would it be enough to cover the cost of, oh say 100 forums ?

Then get a bot to pull entire threads from other forums tweak them a bit, so google don't twig and regurgitate them.