Gaming Sites Accuse Nvidia Of Shilling

Online gaming forums may have been hosts to shills paid by a guerilla marketing company to establish themselves in those forums and then post a marketing message delivered by Nvidia. Gawker Media's shopping complaint site Consumerist Nvidia prove true. Consumerist followed up on complaints posted on a couple of online forums, Elite Bastards, and contacted Nvidia about them. The complaints allege that Nvidia's marketing partner, Arbuthnot Entertainment Group, hired "employees to create personas' in various gaming communities, slowly building up the trust of other members by frequent posting unrelated to Nvidia, to later cash in that trust with message board postings talking up the positive qualities of Nvidia's products." An exchange between Consumerist and Nvidia eventually ended at a blank wall. Consumerist asked Nvidia if it or AEG were seeding fan sites with marketing people to develop a long-term reputation before posting entries favorable to Nvidia without disclosing their professional connections: [Consumerist asked] "Has Nvidia hired any companies, including AEG, to do this sort of undisclosed viral' marketing?" "May be best to talk on the phone," was [Nvidia's Public Relations Director Derek] Perez's reply. That was February 1st. We have yet to receive a phone call from Mr. Perez, despite trying to schedule one multiple times. We informed Mr. Perez on the 3rd that we would be running our stories with or without his comments. We feel at this point that the issue is being avoided by Nvidia. Consumerist noted one of the Nvidia isn't the only company to glowingly comment on AEG. Other companies represented on the testimonials page include Microsoft Games Studios, AOL, and the UnderGround Online entertainment site. Later, Consumerist noted the existence of a document.write("Email murdok here.") Drag this to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo My Web David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.