Nvidia viral marketing with AEG exposed !!! *UPDATED* *Poll Added*

[Ronin]

Some things here, and then I drop it:

1. Who am I has no bearing here
2. Who I work for has no bearing here
3. Game developers work as a whole company, from Customer Service, to Development (Coders, Artists, Producers), to Quality Assurance. They are all an important aspect of the process, and any given one of them can't be lost.
4. Having been on all 3 sides of the coin (so it's a funny coin, sue me), I can most certainly tell you that your department doesn't dictate your skill set. I carry a Master's Degree in International Business with minors in Psychology and International Law with post grad studies at Harvard Law. I'm hardly some lightweight.
5. If you expect me to confirm or deny my employer, don't waste your time. I said I didn't work for EA because I think what they did to their employees was assine, and something I would never support. Beyond that, anyone choosing to delve into my personal life has way too much time on their hands, and should reevaluate.

I post here from a simple perspective on a very basic level. Am I a hardware enthusiast? You're god damn right I am. Does the fact that I show some of the hardware I get off bother some of you? Tough sh!t. Some people enjoy it. Do I lean more towards green than red? Yup, I do, but it has nothing to do with the TWIMTBP program, or whatever the hell ATi's is called (or was called, I suppose at this point). My reasons are wholey personal, but I call a spade a spade when either one screws up or should be praised.

As far as my job description is concerned, it goes well above and beyond anything any of you could or would conceptualize, even if you've been in the business. I am highly talented at what I do, and I value my company as much as they do me. As I type this, I am still in the office working, as a matter of fact, and I've been here since 8am this morning (it is now 12:25am). Don't presume to judge me, no matter what you think you *might* know about me.

That being said, I've never hid what I did in a general sense (I have never NOT said that I was employed in game development). Beyond that, it's none of your god damn business.

If you have anything further to bring to the table, or comment about, or question about me, keep it to PMs. Leave it off the boards, because it's not the place for it. There are a select few who know exactly where I work. Beyond that, you can think what you want. It makes no difference to me, until you start lumping me in with 'marketing companies' and other stupid conjectures.

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: Ronin
Some things here, and then I drop it:

1. Who am I has no bearing here
2. Who I work for has no bearing here
3. Game developers work as a whole company, from Customer Service, to Development (Coders, Artists, Producers), to Quality Assurance. They are all an important aspect of the process, and any given one of them can't be lost.
4. Having been on all 3 sides of the coin (so it's a funny coin, sue me), I can most certainly tell you that your department doesn't dictate your skill set. I carry a Master's Degree in International Business with minors in Psychology and International Law with post grad studies at Harvard Law. I'm hardly some lightweight.
5. If you expect me to confirm or deny my employer, don't waste your time. I said I didn't work for EA because I think what they did to their employees was assine, and something I would never support. Beyond that, anyone choosing to delve into my personal life has way too much time on their hands, and should reevaluate.

I post here from a simple perspective on a very basic level. Am I a hardware enthusiast? You're god damn right I am. Does the fact that I show some of the hardware I get off bother some of you? Tough sh!t. Some people enjoy it. Do I lean more towards green than red? Yup, I do, but it has nothing to do with the TWIMTBP program, or whatever the hell ATi's is called (or was called, I suppose at this point). My reasons are wholey personal, but I call a spade a spade when either one screws up or should be praised.

As far as my job description is concerned, it goes well above and beyond anything any of you could or would conceptualize, even if you've been in the business. I am highly talented at what I do, and I value my company as much as they do me. As I type this, I am still in the office working, as a matter of fact, and I've been here since 8am this morning (it is now 12:25am). Don't presume to judge me, no matter what you think you *might* know about me.

That being said, I've never hid what I did in a general sense (I have never NOT said that I was employed in game development). Beyond that, it's none of your god damn business.

If you have anything further to bring to the table, or comment about, or question about me, keep it to PMs. Leave it off the boards, because it's not the place for it. There are a select few who know exactly where I work. Beyond that, you can think what you want. It makes no difference to me, until you start lumping me in with 'marketing companies' and other stupid conjectures.

OK Ryan,

They figured out who you work for... big whoop. No need to blaspheme, lol.

Might be time to go home and go to sleep.

Kevin

 

[apoppin]

Ronin, i don't think anyone is attacking you . . . i may not like your tactless posts, but never lumped you in with 'marketing' other than your obvious bias for nVidia.

i think you might have been blindsided by Rollo's confession tonight . . . i was rather surprised myself [that he would confess] . . . and then you did start that ridiculous guessing game about your employer

anyway, most of us posting here are "highly talented' people . . . in our own fields . . . and to get respect you have to also give it.


anyway, i am done and i hope you don't misunderstand.

 

[Rage187]

I will gladly give up my account for a Dell 3007, AEG please get in touch.



Free LCD FTW!!!!

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: apoppin
Ronin, i don't think anyone is attacking you . . . i may not like your tactless posts, but never lumped you in with 'marketing' other than your obvious bias for nVidia.

i think you might have been blindsided by Rollo's confession tonight . . . i was rather surprised myself [that he would confess] . . . and then you did start that ridiculous guessing game about your employer

anyway, most of us posting here are "highly talented' people . . . in our own fields . . . and to get respect you have to also give it.


anyway, i am done and i hope you don't misunderstand.

Agreed. You were accused of being a member of AEG, you could have just responded that you worked in software development (or whatever) and left it at that.

I tried to stay away from posting in the video forum for one particular reason in the past, Rollo.

He has always been quick to attack ATI products. Branding anyone who had anything positive to say about ATI a fanboy. Sure I often read his threads for the entertainment value but I tried not to post in them.

So on the topic at hand has anyone considered the Nvidia has been planting a new team among the forums, which could even include members whose job it was to attack the current shills. This could be used to "establish credibilty." Then when they have what they believe to be a sure fire product, they throw the old team to the dogs and bring in the new "fair & balanced" team to start touting it.

Just a bit of paranoid speculation.


EDIT As Stephen Colbert would say, "Apoppin, you are on notice." j/k
Guess we know who goes from "on notice," to "dead to me" and who here values their "truthiness"

 

[golem]

Being a fan is OK. There are many football fans that live from Sunday to Sunday. As long as you know who they are and what color they are.

But lying for freebies. I think it's wrong.

So lying for freebies is wrong. Deceiving because your bias prevents you from see the whole truth is okay? Either way, the person who followed their advice is screwed.

 

[BFG10K]

3. Rollo (AT, nvnews, B3D)

Where is the confirmation that Rollo is a member of the AEG? Did I miss a link somewhere?

 

[SilentRunning]

Umm, he admitted in this thread.

EDIT By admitted, I mean "admitted" in the long sort of drawn out way that we have all come to expect.

 

[BFG10K]

Thanks, I just saw the forum issues post.

I am not all surprised.

 

[Nirach]

You'd have to give me more than just a free card for me to even consider pimping it. For anyone.

Back to the topic. Eh, who cares. Let the uninformed buy what they want, and the informed buy the best for their situation, if you don't like someones opinion about a graphics card.. Eh. Don't listen to them, it is only the internet, after all.

 

[BFG10K]

So after repeated denials, in public and private, Rollo now comes out of the closet and confirms what I'd stated here in this forum several weeks ago.

I thought there was something wrong with him back in 2002 when he first registered, much less several weeks ago. Of course I knew nothing about the AEG back then.

 

[BFG10K]

Xbit have put up their AEG article.

 

[EndGame]

Nothing new, been going on for years...

 

[Topweasel]

You know I last posted about 9 pages back on this and boy has the world changed.

Rollo- I am disapointed in you, Not because your part of this AEG thing. But because you let people defend you as not being part of this group when you really were. People like me Ronin and Keys all defended you since the first thread while some (Keys and Ronin) were attacked for doing so. As some one who doesn't have a problem with AEG I think some of us, if you really weren't under NDA about being part of the Group deserved to know even if by PM that you were part of this.

To everyone else, this is turning out to be more of the same thing I said. Free prodcut have fun, tell people about it. In fact this NDA that everyone was yelling up and down the street about, turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be, an NDA about products unreleased.

The problem is somewhere in the middle here, alot of people, RED fans for the most part are trying to turn this into more then it really is. And some people Green fans seem brush it off as nothing at all.

Here I sit, to a lot of you Rollo's words will have very little value, for some of you they never did in the first place. For those people Gloat that you knew all along because for you chances are this will be your lifes crowning achivement. For the other I myself am wondering how to deal with Rollo from this point on. Not because he is in the Group but because of how he let peole denie his involvement right up to the point where he finally fessed up to all. That sir is a lack of ethics that Apponin was looking for. But I would like to comment right now and say this, people who refer now or before that Rollos Threads were FUD, I ask that you look over it again. He did have a slant in his threads. He made several threads about Nvidia success' and several about ATI Failures. That is where the slant I saw ended, most of the topics were true. The biggest problem with it was Rollo was a Drama Queen and especially the ATI threads, the topics came off worse then they actually were.

I still don't have a problem with this Viral Marketing, it not only standard practice and most of people who have an issue with it seem to have this price limit in their head that makes impossible for them believe that a company would give anything away that worth more, and therefore must be considered payment for undercover work. On the other hand Rollo by the denial to both stone throwers and supporters alike has given everyone in this marketing program a black eye.

 

[g3pro]

What's funny is that ATi is doing the same with a different undisclosed advertising company.

Hypocrisy bites.

 

[imported_malcontent]

Marked for a later read

 

[Conky]

Originally posted by: g3pro
What's funny is that ATi is doing the same with a different undisclosed advertising company.

Hypocrisy bites.

So disclose the company if you know this for a fact. I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say we are tired of lies at this point in time. It's time for some truth in this forum.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: Crazyfool

Originally posted by: g3pro
What's funny is that ATi is doing the same with a different undisclosed advertising company.

Hypocrisy bites.

So disclose the company if you know this for a fact. I think I speak for a lot of people here when I say we are tired of lies at this point in time. It's time for some truth in this forum.

id imagine ATi does do a similar deed, maybes its on a much smaller scale working with the in house PR and marketing boys, but obviously no one really knows what ati get up to in this area.

they may do it, they may not, but i dont think any one can make a definate yes or no on it

 

[Ackmed]

How people take anything the exposed AEG members say as truth, I wont understand. Its obvious they have an agenda, as I and others have said many times in the past.

Originally posted by: g3pro
What's funny is that ATi is doing the same with a different undisclosed advertising company.

Hypocrisy bites.

Got any facts to back that up?

 

[Gstanfor]

ATi have Baumann, Beyond3D and all the Baumann worshippers in their pocket.

Futuremark were several hundred thousand dollars worth of "membership subscription fees" (BribeMark03).

Valve was five million dollars.

I wonder how much Baumann is worth...

 

[Ackmed]

Always an attack on B3D, pretty sad.

There are no facts to back up any bias in 3dmark from ATi, or NV.

The 5 million to Valve, was for HL2 to be bundled in their cards. Just like lots of others. You think Farcry, CoD2, etc that were sold with some NV cards was done for free? No. Again, there are no facts to back up any sort of bias in HL2 performance for NV cards.

 

[g3pro]

Originally posted by: Ackmed
The 5 million to Valve, was for HL2 to be bundled in their cards. Just like lots of others. You think Farcry, CoD2, etc that were sold with some NV cards was done for free? No. Again, there are no facts to back up any sort of bias in HL2 performance for NV cards.

There were payments made to Valve which were not based on sales of ATi cards. Something known as a side-commission. What could possibly be the reason of nVidia cards showing half the performance of ATi cards in Half-Life 2 benchmarks, and why on earth would Valve force benchmarkers to use old versions of the nVidia drivers in their tests? This is just small-time for ATi though.

The details on ATi's other advertising deals could be made available soon depending on how far-reaching the AEG stuff spreads.

 

[Ackmed]

Originally posted by: g3pro

Originally posted by: Ackmed
The 5 million to Valve, was for HL2 to be bundled in their cards. Just like lots of others. You think Farcry, CoD2, etc that were sold with some NV cards was done for free? No. Again, there are no facts to back up any sort of bias in HL2 performance for NV cards.

There were payments made to Valve which were not based on sales of ATi cards. Something known as a side-commission. What could possibly be the reason of nVidia cards showing half the performance of ATi cards in Half-Life 2 benchmarks, and why on earth would Valve force benchmarkers to use old versions of the nVidia drivers in their tests? This is just small-time for ATi though.

The details on ATi's other advertising deals could be made available soon depending on how far-reaching the AEG stuff spreads.

Where is the proof that there was a side payment made, other than the money for the bundled game?

NV cards didnt show half the performance of ATi cards in HL2. The 6800 series was very playable in HL2, and not far being the X800 cards at all. If you're talking about the FX cards, thats because they generally sucked in DX9.

I would be just as upset if ATi was supporting the same kind of activity. And would want the people doing it, banned as well. I dont think it has any place in here. Some people are very ignorant about video cards, and come here looking for help. Having some agenda driven person trying to sway them to one side of the fence, just isnt right. You claim ATi is doing the same thing, with no facts to back up your allegation. Either put up, or shut up.

 

[ayabe]

While I've skipped a lot of the posts since this exploded lastnight I can honestly say that this doesn't change my opinion of anyone. Most of the people who read and post in the video forum know the major players on both sides of this equation and we know to take everything they say with a grain of salt and tend to ignore some of the tongue in cheek comments made about the company they don't prefer.

Whether someone prefers NVIDIA to ATI or vice versa it doesn't matter to me whether they derive their preference from strictly personal reasons or if they are getting rewarded to "feel" the way they do, it's an agenda either way and should be handled as such. While Ronin and Rollo usually show some favor to NVIDIA either directly or indirectly in almost all of their posts, I haven't seen any of their posts that are absolute FUD(none that I can remember at least), as long as what people post in here has some basis in fact it should be treated with respect. The difference lies when out and out falsehoods are presented as the groundworks for an opinion; that is a problem.

Stealth marketing has been around for a while and isn't going away anytime soon, movie studios do this on movie message boards to promote their films, alcohol and cigarette companies send people to bars to strike up "random" conversations with people about their products. It's part of being in a consumer society, you are being marketed to in on fashion or another just about every second of every day. If you can't filter this stuff out and discern what is marketing and what is truth, then you are doomed to make poor consumer choices and have noone but yourself to blame.

 

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally posted by: ayabe
While I've skipped a lot of the posts since this exploded lastnight I can honestly say that this doesn't change my opinion of anyone. Most of the people who read and post in the video forum know the major players on both sides of this equation and we know to take everything they say with a grain of salt and tend to ignore some of the tongue in cheek comments made about the company they don't prefer.

Whether someone prefers NVIDIA to ATI or vice versa it doesn't matter to me whether they derive their preference from strictly personal reasons or if they are getting rewarded to "feel" the way they do, it's an agenda either way and should be handled as such. While Ronin and Rollo usually show some favor to NVIDIA either directly or indirectly in almost all of their posts, I haven't seen any of their posts that are absolute FUD(none that I can remember at least), as long as what people post in here has some basis in fact it should be treated with respect. The difference lies when out and out falsehoods are presented as the groundworks for an opinion; that is a problem.

Stealth marketing has been around for a while and isn't going away anytime soon, movie studios do this on movie message boards to promote their films, alcohol and cigarette companies send people to bars to strike up "random" conversations with people about their products. It's part of being in a consumer society, you are being marketed to in on fashion or another just about every second of every day. If you can't filter this stuff out and discern what is marketing and what is truth, then you are doomed to make poor consumer choices and have noone but yourself to blame.

that is an awesome conclusion to this thread, though saddly i can see this getting dragged across the desert like a corpse.

i dont see the big deal about any of this, it doesnt suprise me one bit, theres ruthless marketing everywhere and if your smart enough you just wont let it influence you. a fanboy is a fanboy, a guy who likes to pimp, no matter what, his chosen company....an AEG mole is a paid/gifted fanboy who ends up getting free hardware to pimp his chosen company. at the end of the day....theyre both fanboys and i wont listen to either of them