Astroturfing/"Shills" on /tg/

Almost certainly OP, we're in the age of memetic combat online.

I'm also pretty certain Rune Wars is getting shilled, more threads than similar sized new games.

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>>52648420

>>52648583

I'm just curious, a lot of companies and governments are into this sort of thing, does it extend as far as selling plastic toys?

>>52648420
>Tom Kirby insisting they don't need to advertise because "word of mouth" works.
To be fair, they announced Shadow War at like to cons and word spread like crazy, leading to it selling out in minutes.

Viral marketing is definitely practical these days, and GW seems to be trying to tap into it with meme videos, close-up model teasers, and "leaks" to generate hype.

>>52648420
see
>>52648613
>>52648596

>>52648420
If we have Hasbro/WotC shills they're super fucking shit because their products can't catch a break.
It's not even ironic, they've always been shit at digital stuff.

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>>52648420
>Do you think there are actually paid marketers on /tg/?

I doubt it. Do you really think any of those companies is willing to pay someone to attempt to sift through all our bullshit and make a thread about their product where we will tell them why it sucks for the better part of an hour?

I wish we were that important...

>>52648420
We know RPG devs use /tg/ because we've seen them reference our memes and writefaggotry. We know that the Clinton campaign tried social engineering on /pol/ (and got caught). We know the RNC tried similar.

The question is just whether or not a given company wants to allocate the money, but some have in the past.

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>>52648420

A lot of AoS fans are suffering PTSD from all the relentless trolling they've suffered every since the game came out. So when they see even the slightest of slights against AoS they will respond in force. I've even seen them discussing what they should do about the negative remarks in /40kg/ and other threads. A few definitely come across as GW store employees, those ones that respond with 'aos is fun here is why' posts

As someone who personally knows a couple of staff members at Gw, and has had plenty of conversations with their boss, I genuinely just don't think GW would give enough of a shit about this shady corner of the internet. I know they keep half an eye on the bigger threads in leddit, as well as some of the bigger forums.

Simple fact is not enough of /tg/ actually buys GW products to warrant them looking here.

>>52648720
>Simple fact is not enough of /tg/ actually buys GW products to warrant them looking here.

Citation required.

I've seen dudes posting on /tg/ with 50 Stardrake armies or Steel Legion dude with 500 steel legion models and just as many tanks.

I'm a paid shill.
Not in this board, but if I get paid to shill my company in one board, I can easily see someone being paid to shill in this one.

Media companies are delving super hardcore into the whole "influencer" bullshit and while some bucks go to high-visibility youtubers and shit, most of the money is spent on randos with dispossable accounts to inflate mentions.

Do they exist? Almost certainly. Are they as common as people seem to think they could be? Probably not. That said, /tg/ is a pretty slow board, so it's not inconceivable to think they have one or two people whose job is to skim the AoSG/WHFBG/40kG/SWAG threads and drop some good ol' corporate lovin'.

That said if >>52648613 →
&
>>52648596 →
are actually paid shills, then I want that job. I'd definitely be down to get paid to shitpost and call everyone who disagrees with my opinions an autist.

>>52648742
I have over 600 GW minis, including 300 empire soldiers, a good 150 40k minis including 40 vostroyans and tanks, plus lizardmen, undead and dark elves

>>52648720

I was a regular at a GW when one of the big cheeses came in with the area manager.

In small talk he asked the only full-timer working if he played "Orcs or Goblins", as if they were the only two factions they sold. Watching my mate Rob try to explain they also made Dwarfs without trying to sound patronising was quite funny.

>>52648420
Probably not with /tg/. Its defiently true for some of the other boards on here but i dont think /tg/ is popular enough for it in all honesty.

>>52648742
I doubt those steel legion dudes were bought any time recent.

There's some people who buy GW. They aren't much compared to the volume of /tg/, considering that a large part of it are RPG or CCG players and, of those that are into wargames, a good bunch are into everything NOT GW.

>>52648742
While I can't provide a hard source, I can say what I pick up from my GW staff buddies, which is that the majority of their income comes from new people who often never pick up again, or grow bored.

To compare: regular buys full army over the course of a couple months £600-700 total maybe. All proper painted and based so, maybe £80 a month from the customer.

A newbie walks in, gets hyped, buys starter box, white dwarf, painter starter kit and brushes. Easy £120 or more in one day, and you may get 5-10 of these a day, if you're not in some lone ass one man store.

Even better. Newbie comes in with friends, who get hyped or just get peer pressured in. another £100~ per friend on that day.

>>52648793
That's a thing called roll playing that staff do to train each other iirc. They pretend to be retarded or difficult or angry customers so that they can get gud at the more rare scenarios.

Of course the general manager could have just been a retard.

>>52648420
GW strongly encourages Redshirts to post on social boards like this one. They have quotas and financial incentives, as well as making you sign a NDA.

Source: Was a Redshirt 14-15.

>>52648420
>word of mouth
Kirby was telling us there were shills all along....

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>>52648420

>>52648900
>They pretend to be retarded

For example:

"hi, have you tried age of sigmar, it's really good"

>>52648923
>GW strongly encourages Redshirts to post on social boards like this one.

When, on your free time?

>>52648742
>50 Stardrake armies
I'd bet anything they were unpainted.

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>>52648709
>AoS fans are suffering PTSD
Those poor babies.

>>52648742
I'm pretty sure /tg/ is the LAST place that still buys GW products. Their games are dead in the real world.

>>52649026
Lot of down time in the store in the middle of the day. We usually used our phones.

>>52648860
>never pick up again, or grow bored.
Not surprising, given that it is a GW game.

>>52648420
Of course, but what are you going to do about it?

Just keep calm and soldier on.

>>52648420

You can pretty safely assume that anyone saying anything positive about anything online is a paid shill for what they're speaking about. That applies to everything from gaming products to presidents.

>>52648709
>>52649100
>>52648673
all I see are Fantasycucks getting triggered lmao

>>52648420
>Rune Wars
>Do you think there are actually paid marketers on /tg/?

No, I believe that most threads/posts you're complaining about are created by genuine enthusiasm but are easily shutdown by /tg/'s usual cynicism.
That's also why most small games don't get out of /awg/, every time they do, /tg/ shits on them relentlessly.

>Would GW, for example, do such a thing?
If they were to do it on dakka or warseer where the majority of the userbase is dedicated to their games already, sure.
On a chinese imageboard that is in a constant turf war between various games, where piracy is rampant and shitting on GW is a general past time? Fuck no.

Sometimes I monitor AoS vs FB shit flinging threads when I am bored at work and I often notice quick successions of short answers praising AoS without change in the poster count.

I'd say there may be a shill but he is most likely doing it for free.

>>52649325
Did you just make this thread to start another fucking skubtasy vs age of skub discussion?

>>52649370
It's science.

>>52648923
>Was a Redshirt 14-15.
Wait, what country.

I recall my mates applying at GW around school leaving age for weekend work, they had to be 18 because of certain products - blades, solvents, etc.

I could definitely see FFG shilling, but I don't think the rune wars is necessarily them. Everyone who bought the pass upgrade for like 25 bucks at adepticon got a free box for the game, so I think a lot of people are now pitting it together and playing. Haven't tried my copy yet but the minis look cool.

>>52648420
I think FFG/GW might have at one point had people here, as evidenced by the canonical aknowledgements of BooneQuest and Love Can Bloom.

Of course, that was back when the board was a lot less angry at itself, and we could post stupid Shit because we knew it was stupid.

Now... I'm going to get that they like us about as much as we like ourselves, and avoids us like the plague. I mean, can you imagine if they tried to cater to us, the angry minority?

>>52649484
2014-2015 lol.

A European one.

On one hand a million unique visitors visit 4chan a month, and so the idea that there are not simply 40 genuine fans discussing a new game out of a million is silly.

On the other hand, a million unique visitors visit 4chan a month, and so the idea that there are not simply 40 paid posters shilling a new game out of a million is silly.

>>52648420
Games Workshop doesn't even have a PR department. Do you think they'd have their shit together enough to pay people to shill anywhere online?

Oh, and who the fuck markets to 4chan?

>>52648777
>"Spots the Space Marine"
Obviously the lack, and practical impossibility, of proof is a factor, but it's odd that you have no (you)s.

I'd assume that any board on 4chins is worth ten hours of minimum wage pay a week to just about any company, especially now that GW has it's position of dominance being challenged byt far more media-savvy competitors.

I think there are shills about, but that most of the apparent shilling is down to the fact that, as a user-base, we are fanboys of our shit, and autistic as fuck.

Jeeze if there is paid shilling, where do I go to get paid for it? I've been doing this shit for free and constantly get accused of shilling.

>>52648788
>Over 600 miniatures!

I'm not trolling, or trying to start an argument, I mean this - you are barely out of the casual zone.

>>52648923
I think this is probably the main extent of the shilling - 'encouraged' employees, and then enthusiastic players of the games.

>>52650216
>but most of the apparent shilling is down to the fact that, as a user-base, we are fanboys of our shit, and autistic as fuck
I can agree on that.

>>52650302
>I'm not trolling, or trying to start an argument, I mean this - you are barely out of the casual zone.
That's if yo are assuming he only has GW minis

>>52650324
>I have over 600 GW minis, including...

Assuming nothing.
The context is "we don't buy enough GW miniatures specifically to count".

But yes, he might also play nine other systems and, in the general sense, be a true autist.

The end result of yelling shill being an acceptable dismissal is that everything one dislikes is labeled shilling. There is no valid counter argument to shilling accusations, because denying shilling is what you'd expect a shill to do. Therefore, shilling accusations are either culturally discouraged or they are meaningless - because if everything is a shill, nothing is.

All the shill accusations I've seen boil down to this:
>I hate thing
>I see someone who loves thing that I hate
>I cannot comprehend someone loving thing that I hate
>the only logical explanation is they are lying because genuine enthusiasm for something that I hate is an impossibility
>the only reason people will purposefully spend effort to lie on the internet is if they are getting paid to do so
>Therefore they are shills

>>52650476

There's a clear difference between admirable, genuine enthusiasm and one-line posts about whatever system though.

Hey guys, what's going on in this thread?

This thread has a 3:5 unique posters to post ratio
Most generals have a 1:3 ratio.
The age of skub vs skubtasy thread has a 1:4 ratio.

I'm pretty sure there's a correlation.

>>52650254
Work as a redshirt. You can get free product for "social media exposure."

>tinfoil hat on

The one conspiracy theory I have is that there's continuously a "I'm new to D&D, help!" thread on.

Despite it being a LOT easier to just google the answer.

Or look in the archive.

Or post in the /5eg/.

Like, do you want me to believe that someone from another board (nay, someone entirely new to 4vhan) would come to /tg/ just to ask "how do I roleplay"? And there's always someone stupid enough to make a new thread for it, instead of lurking for like 5 minutes?

I swear it's a WotC drone. It's got to be.

>tinfoil hat off

>>52650302
>'encouraged' employees
Thats still shilling, just done incompetently and cheaply.

Holy shit, that's GW!

>>52650554
This.

"AoS is great" is over 90% of the pro AoS posts I have seen. I should write an algorithm to try to identify average unique words in the AoS thread vs other threads.

>>52650476
It is weird that I go to 3 different game stores (NE) and have seen maybe 3-4 games played in last 3 months, compared to 100+ games of other systems.

>>52650774
Honestly while I see some AoS minis at my LFGS's painting contests the only time I saw it played was by two 8yo who got bullied by a 40k player.

I doubt any serious game companies actually pay anyone to astroturf, at least on /tg/. Has anyone here ever bought a game because they read about it on /tg/?

With that said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if individual employees try to get people talking about games they work on.

Oh, and as far as Rune Wars goes, I've only seen maybe 3 threads specifically about it since it was announced (and I've been looking for them), and one of those I created because I wanted to get other fa/tg/uys' thoughts. I'm genuinely interested in the game, but I want to know if there will actually be players for it before investing my time and money in it.

>>52650843
I saw people play it for maybe 3-4 weeks. Haven't seen it since.

>>52650554
Is there though? Is it really that clear? From what I've seen, paragraph long posts of reasoning and objective thinking toward something gets bombarded with shill accusations.

I don't think it's as clear to you as it is to most other people. It all boils down to "I don't like thing, and anyone who does is clearly a shill"

>>52650859
>Has anyone here ever bought a game because they read about it on /tg/?
yes

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>>52650569

>>52650859
>Has anyone here ever bought a game because they read about it on /tg/?
Yup, KDM, Malifaux and Infinity.

Pretty pleased with all three.

>>52648420

>Do shills roam /tg/

Of course they do, anyone not agreeing to my personal opinion on the matter is a fucking shill. And I got proof of it, as I know Im right in everything!

Just joking around, but to be frank, many anons on /tg/ acts as I described above.

>>52650754
>>52650554
Is that evidence of shilling though?. I'd have thought people being paid to post would be more wordy not less

>>52650712
I gloss over virtually all the DnD content here, but you're absolutely right - 4chan is not where you come if you know nothing of RPG, and I don't think /g/ is the first board I'd go to if I wanted a good off-the-shelf PC recommendation, or /ck/ for banana bread recipes.

>>52651101
I find the million Space marine chapter or IG regiment creation threads to be pretty suspicious.

But I guess there are a lot of retards out there.