Re: LOTR beta open at Fileplanet


Mark Morrison wrote:

> >Stealth marketing

> I never realised it was so well organised - of course, whether or not
> you'd take the game/drink/clothing adives of a stranger on a web forum
> is debatable.

You're more likely to buy, say, a game based on a review you read here
than on an ad in a gaming mag, or a banner on a website, simply because
you don't realize that the review here is an ad. I frequently see posts
here I'd bet good money were posted by shills - usually a new poster
posting a glowing review (or pre-release hype) of a game or hardware.
Often of a game/hardware long-time posters have already reviewed as
being crap.

The point of stealth marketing isn't so much to convince you,
personally, to buy the product, as to produce a generally positive
'vibe' about the product, a buzz. Traditionally it's mainly been the
console companies which've spent huge sums on stealth marketing, but it
seems to be spreading to PC. Possibly as a result of the increased
dependence on console gaming.

What puzzles me is that they target usenet, though. Personally I
thought usenet was just a fossil of the 90's with all the relevance of
a Star Trek convention, and that the web fora is where all the action
is now, but apparently the shills find it worthwhile to drop some stuff
here too. Possibly because google indexes it.

.