What are your thoughts on companies paying for meat bots to infest forums?

[Nuvendil]

DonFerrari said:

Nuvendil said:

I would actually think it would be most common on the midtier level.  Companies that are well off but not big enough to do a marketing rush like Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, etc.  People often think that the biggest companies do all the worst stuff, but actually it's not normally the case.  Some do, but the majority are far more careful, shrewd, and indirect. 

Yep, bigger companies are bigger target and can lose a lot. So even though we like to hate big corporations, they are very strictly enforced on following ethics behavior.

Well let's not get too kind here :P .  They are very strictly kept away from stuff that would leave them with considerable legal exposure.  That's not the same as ethical behavior.  Basically, people who accuse Activision, Sony, Nintendo, Blizzard, or Ubi of bribing a reviewer and other reckless behavior are underestimating them considerably.  Late review embargoes, blacklisting, review boot camps, marketing deals, these are the tools of the trade among the big players who want to try to influence scores or limit their effectiveness.  They're subtle, but effective.  Bribes and review censorship are the tools of indies and smaller companies who are either that sleezy, that dumb, or part of that ignorant group who think "everyone does it" and therefore they can and should.