Meet Thomas Brooks. He's a viral marketer for Microsoft.
Nick, our kick-ass reviews intern, sends me links to new user reviews this guy posts every day before he goes and deletes them. They're awesome. Some of my recent favorites:
"I bought the Xbox 360 version of NCAA College Football 2008! Best College Football I've EVER Played! 60 FRAMES PER SECOND of high-speed smoothness! It makes the gameplay and
graphics SO MUCH BETTER! Only Xbox 360 offers this level of performance. It is FUN and Gorgeous!"
"Bomberman is a FUN game in the Party genre of videogames. If you have a family and enjoy playing together, you will LOVE Bomberman! It's great to play online, too. The game has so many different modes that it's a good idea to read the "How to Play," part of the game. The Super Revenge mode is AWESOME, because if someone blows you up, then you can go for REVENGE! Bomberman for Xbox Live Arcade is FUN!"
Now I look forward to Thomas' new user reviews each day. What Xbox 360 game will he find FUN and AWESOME next?! His comments on news stories have been fun to watch, too.
On the 360's hardware...
"This is a PERFECT example of how the Xbox 360 GPU can display 500,000,000 polygons per second compared to only 275,000,000 polygons per second on the PS3. These 3 games have TWICE as many polygons displayed each second in the 360 versions! Xbox 360 games ALWAYS have better lighting, too!"
On VF5...
"Sega has just confirmed that the Xbox 360 version of Virtua Fighter 5 will include Online Play in the versus mode! It will include better graphics and Artificial Intelligence than the PS3 version. There will be a new Quest mode and rumble in the controller!"
On Gears for PC...
"Epic says the PC version will let people design their own custom maps, and design custom levels! Epic says that each month the 10 best maps could then be put on 360 for only $3! Those extra maps will be GREAT!"
On Mass Effect...
"Mass Effect is the game I want to play more than any other. That is why I named myself after the race of aliens called Solarians. I would help Commander Shepard of the Normandy ship if I could. He is SO COOL!"
On Sony's Jack Tretton...
"Tretton AVOIDS questions. He LIES! Answers make PS3 look bad! Tretton get his BUTT KICKED for dodging questions and telling lies"
On Xbox 360 disc scratching...
"There are always people who try to make lawsuits for no good reason. This happened with other game systems in the past. Actually, Blu-ray is the type of disc that has a HORRIBLE reputation for problems with scratched discs."
I've also been enjoying his 1UP page, where he points out Halo as his favorite music ("The music in Halo is used in amazing ways that add excitement to the game!") and his blog, where he talks about how "Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 is the best videogame I have ever seen. I seriously have never been more excited about a game." Really? He goes on! "The graphics and sound of Mass Effect are absolutely amazing. The way that Mass Effect takes Action style gameplay, and combines it with all sorts of Role-Playing Game elements is incredibly awesome!"
Anyway, since he's a relatively new member of the community, you should say hi to him. And tell him you love his user reviews (though, somehow I doubt he'll be submitting as many new ones going forward).
It's unfortunate that paid blogging is becoming all the more prevalent in communities like 1UP. And it's not just the blogs or reviews, it's also the message boards. Microsoft, for instance, also has a person (or people?) who is paid to post on some of the popular gaming boards (and no, Jeff Bell wasn't part of that plan). But it's not just Microsoft -- I know of a few other game publishers who pay users to blog. They don't necessarily require bloggers to say positive things about their products, but it's certainly implied with the paychecks.
What bums me out about all this viral stuff is that, to some extent, you don't know who to trust anymore. There was a time when, if you no longer believed in what the professional editors where saying, you could at least count on your fellow gamers for honest opinions. Not anymore. In a sense, perhaps that helps elevate the importance of the professional word once again, which I suppose is a good thing for us. But I'm still not happy about it.
Update: Apparently Thomas Brooks (a made up persona) is not actually paid by Microsoft (though he sure as hell ought to be). However, thanks to many of your responses, we've discovered this problem is even more widespread than even we imagined. Perhaps I'll follow up this blog with some testimonials soon. Bottom line? Be cautious with what you read online.
AFP - At least 18 people were killed and 22 injured on Saturday when dozens of homes in northern Cairo collapsed after being hit by a massive rockslide, Egyptian emergency services said.
