Cutter wrote on May 21, 2012, 18:42:

ASeven wrote on May 21, 2012, 18:09:

Creston wrote on May 21, 2012, 18:01:

ASeven wrote on May 21, 2012, 17:45:
Dude, you do know there is more than enough proof out there that publishers do hire shills to post in forums, right?

There is a MASSIVE difference between paying shills to sing your praises, and paying people to actively call your customers who are suffering from a legitimate issue a "moron" and telling them "it's your own damn fault."

There's not a single human being alive who would think that the latter is doing smart business. And for all how we hate Bobby and his ilk, and for all how he's basically ruined Activision from a gamer's perspective, the man DOES know how to make money, and he's a fairly savvy business man.

He would not hire people to actively antagonize his own customers.

Actually shills do that. Trolling is a valid tactic of misdirecting attention from a game's problems. Heck, remember that shill that was caught a few months ago, was even news here? He primarily trolled TOR threads that were negative and he wasn't gentle about it.

Trolling has become a valid shilling tactic because a) it diverts attention from the problem at hand and b) it makes people talk about the game more than just complementing. Is it smart business? Not by a long shot but it's the awful corporate world we have today.

That's entirely correct. The idea being to shift the blame away from the developer/publisher and make it seem as if its the originl complainant's fault. Anything but but admit culpability or take responsibility for the problems becuase that legally puts them behind the eight ball. Far cheaper and easier to just hire shills instead to sing your praises and attack your detractors. Oh yes, it's very much par for the course with companies like that these days.