Yes of course it's happening dumbshit. But no dev would PM someone asking them to lay off their shillers.
Hate it, avoid devs that do that at all cost. They know it though, they know that for every 3 people they fool, 1 person will never buy another game from them. However, that's an acceptable ratio, so, they do it anyway. Makes me sick.
You know... the PM SarcasticGamer sent me was fake. The username "VividGames" exists but has no posts whatsoever. How can I trust you?
A song for sarcasticgamer: Where'd you go? I miss you so. Seems like its been forever since you've posted bullshit on an ipod/iphone forum.
This is the PM that SarcasticGamer received was talking about... you guys can make your own judgments. SarcasticGamer, I think these guys should see it so they can form their own opinions.
Well I just looked at all vivedgame's threads. NONE of them involve members with under 10 posts, infact many are common people around here. Freedog, DG, jak56, vester, negamaki, etc. Also none of them have sarcasticgamer posting in them. Odd isn't it?
In all fairness, shilling is a form of marketing, but it falls into a gray area. We may not like it, but it happens more often than you know. From opinion sites to mainstream news articles, shilling is an often used marketing tool. Many justify it by classifying shilling under the advertising category, and there's nothing illegal or even immoral about it. From an ethics standpoint, this is often discussed, and you'll find that even the marketing community is split on this topic.
Regardless of the post's authenticity-it's a good topic for discussion. I hate shilling-whether from an indie dev or not, it's a good way to lose customers. I know I'd never buy from a dev I knew who did it, no matter how much I like their games. Sadly, though shilling isn't limited to apps. Look at any review on Amazon, Barnes and NOble etc, and you'll find plenty of shill reviews there as well.
Well that's fantastic. But I'm sure we can all deduct that SG's main reason for making this thread was imply that indies shill and that's why we shouldn't buy their games. Please reread his post, then dig into your mind for his history. Put two and two together.
I used to hate shills but now I just laugh at them. At this stage in the iphone business. Really now its more about how stupid are you as a customer? I think the only people being fooled by shills are brand new people who just got their iphones/ipods or people who don't care enough to educate themselves and check out the forums to learn how to spot one out. A fake is a fake and if a customer can't spot it out then its their fault for being naive/stupid.
but yes its still a shady form of marketing if you wanna call it that. I certainly wouldn;t trust anyone after I suspect or believe they're doing it.
