Backpedaling to where?
You need to tell me with 100% honesty right now, and I'm not looking for a politician's answer either.
Do you honestly believe that AMD/ATI does not have a single solitary affiliate posting in this video forum? That they never have? If you honestly believe they do not, I'd like an explanation on how you think that one of the biggest computer tech sites on the planet has ZERO AMD/ATI affiliates posting in this HUGE video cards and graphics forum? That is impossible, and so being impossible means that they are hidden. Which means....?
Hi Keys, I was going to quote something you put previously in this thread (about buying with one's heart instead of one's mind), but I think that we fundamentally disagree about ethical bases, and perhaps we can cache out the disagreement in the following way. This might be a bit long, but I think that it's on point as this thread is about whether or not Nvidia is a positive influence in the PC gaming industry, and some people might want to take a look at so-called moral or ethical aspects.
It is proven that Nvidia has hired at least one agency to do viral marketing. I'm not sure if they still do so, in fact you (as a focus group member) rarely partake in discussions that lead to 'buy a 460 for this rock bottom price now <link>! discussions. Kudos to you for that that. I find that sort of thing quite crass but hey, if it works...
Let's look at this though:
1) Nvidia hires people to market their products (say, hyping up their features, specific game affinities, constantly mentioning Nvidia-specific phrases (to get the name out more) like PhysX, TWIMTBP, etc. Conveniently reporting 'omg AMD has driver issues' en masse on a forum as soon as a few threads about the 6XXX series crop up, and so on.
2) AMD has (at least) two options:
1) They can hire people to do the same thing, because let's face it, casting Nvidia's products in a positive light through additional marketing is one way of competing on the market, so why wouldn't AMD do this in response? or
2) They can do nothing, and let messageboards become dominated by pro-Nvidia sentiment.
Now, I have been reading (though not posting on) this board for many, many years. I am an enthusiast because I am interested in truths behind the advertising. User benchmarks, user opinions and so on are all beneficial to me as a consumer in terms of finding the truth about a product or...seeing half-truths or lies about products being put forward by marketers, enthusiasts, the ill-informed and so forth.
From an enthusiast standpoint alone, I can see how some people who honestly believe that Nvidia products are great (happy_medium callout here) post what they think to be the salient advantages of having Nvidia products in their systems. Also, the same for so-called AMD fanboys. There are people who debate that the NY Jets are better than the NO Saints, because people develop an affinity for a certain brand/team/company and want to validate their current, past, future purchasing and affinity patterns. These are enthusiasts, zealots, whatever you want to call them. They have an intellectual and emotive interest in arguing and believing that their affinity is the correct one.
The issue with viral marketers is that their opinion becomes undermined by the affiliation. Do I trust the guy in the Sony Store that Sony's X tv is the best thing since sliced bread, or should I rather go online to look up hundreds of reviews/debates/comparisons on the product to try to find a more unbiased opinion, say, that another monitor company uses trinitron tubes and it's the same thing minus the Sony markup. There was a recent home audio scandal about a simple rebadge/vendor move that commanded thousands of dollars in markup, though I forget the companies involved. Some research likely saved and saves people in that market thousands of dollars. Now, if the Sony Store rep goes to the forum I'm on and starts to aggressively push the Sony products, using half-truths and whatnot (I'm thinking Rollo here, sorry to bring up a dead horse), shouldn't I balk as an enthusiast per se to see the previous discussions unfettered by economic incentives being swayed by someone who is paid (in salary, in products, whatever: there is compensation that can be tracked) to present the details in a light that only favours Sony?
I personally think that it would be stupid for AMD to not have viral marketers to combat Nvidia's, because market presence/penetration and so on happens in so many different fora these days and it would be silly not to 'lower yourself' (if you see it that way) to your competitors. Why? Because people like you, Keys, don't care about 'immoral business practices', and I say this not to slight you, but because you dubbed this 'voting with your heart, not your mind' and implied that this wasn't very smart earlier in the thread. I'm not calling you out here, but you likely represent the vast majority of consumers on the planet. AMD would be stupid to not engage in the same tactics as Nvidia with respect to marketing, but that does not necessarily entail that they do the same thing that Nvidia does. The issue I have in this thread is that:
a) Some people do care about ethical business practices, and I'm glad to see some sentiment of that in this thread. However (as my earlier post points out), if both companies are unethical, then there's really no ground gained in buying one over the other (ethically speaking).
b) It's not impossible that AMD does the same thing. Nor should it comfort the person who has an ethical issue with viral marketing in the case that both companies did it. I said I thought it would be stupid if AMD doesn't do what Nvidia does here but it wouldn't be the first time, right?
Do we think that a thread like "Nvidia and AMD moral and immoral business practices" deserves its own thread? I think it does. A number of people have a lot to say about that, and perhaps we can put the halos in place, or bury them as is necessary after a topic like that.
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