Keeping with the tradition of highly frequent blog updates, here’s another highly frequent blog update! I’m heading to San Francisco tomorrow for the illustrious Game Developers Conference, a show that brings together loads of game-industry folks and those who would someday very much like to be game-industry folks for a few days of panels, lectures, workshops, drinking and drinking. It’s going to be great to catch up with some of the journalistic types I haven’t seen in a long time.

This year’s a bit different than in the past: I’m not actually being paid to go there! Instead, I’m heading down solely to fulfill my own selfish desires: yell at people in the halls to tell them how awesome Empire Avenue is; throw some free-game codes for GOG.com around like they’re going out of style (which they’re not); go hang out at the Paradox suite to mooch whatever freebies I can; and to try and drum up some more business for Evolve PR. That last one’s kind of an interesting one.

I have to admit that I’ve been ridiculously (perhaps even ridonkulously) busy lately. The prospect of bringing on even more business kind of makes me cry. But I do have a big, evil, master plan: I’m also going to spend my time trying to find someone to help out. That’s right — Evolve is expanding. I’ve got a few folks in mind, but really, if you happen to read this, are a highly experienced PR/marketing rep in the games industry, and will be in San Francisco this week, shoot me an email or tackle me on the street. Alternatively, if you’re a PR Director, VP of Marketing or whatever else, be sure to wear your best shoulder pads, because there’s a good chance I’ll knock you over and throw a business card in your face. It may not be the most effective bizdev tactic, but I’m not about to actually… you know… set up meetings, print out all sorts of fancy brochures, perfect a sales pitch and try to woo you with my eloquence. That shit’s so 1996.

I hope to actually do some blog updates from SF, as I should have plenty of time on my hands…. again, my highly effective business-development practices don’t take a lot of time… but if I don’t, try not to miss me too much.

Watch out, trolls. It's hammer time.

The apocalypse is surely approaching, as I ready my hands for another gripping blog post — the first time this has happened all year, and my fingers are struggling a bit with this new task, like a pubescent boy fumbling with a bra strap. So bear with me if I ramble a bit; like that boy, it might take some time for me to get to the goods. It doesn’t help that it’s barely past 6:30am and my coffee cup isn’t refilling itself without the intervention of my fumbling fingers… which are writing this blog post. Duh.

Okay, so yesterday a pillar of the tech blogosphere/websiteosphere (I don’t even know what to call websites these days anymore, since most of them are blog-like), Engadget, shut down comments on its stories. As explained to VentureBeat by Editor-in-Chief, Joshua Topolsky, the decision was made because of a recent shift in the tone of comments, spurred largely by an influx of new visitors who found their way to the site because of the iPad unveiling. Now, apart from concluding that the iPad is an inherently evil device created to brainwash hipsters the world over, I’m forced to think about whether shutting these abusive commenters out entirely is really the right decision for Engadget.

See, I’ve been working in video games for a long time. There aren’t too many game-related forums out there that don’t occasionally — or regularly — devolve into sixth-grade playgrounds, with personal attacks on other users echoing through the digital air. It’s possible that my time spent trying to rehabilitate trolls — or to otherwise peacefully coexist with them — while arguing whether Fantasy Creature X could actually take down Hero Y with Feat Z and Weapon of Awesome Power +2 has desensitized me to the more vile of commenters. I’ve come to accept that anonymity, when combined with a group of idiots, tends to create some new breed of superidiot.

Topolsky’s thinking is that by turning off comments, he’s, “hoping they’ll get bored and decide to stop commenting.” That’s absolutely a possibility; these superidiots, although exceptionally gifted at spewing verbal vomit, surely have short attention spans — I liken them to those fast zombies in Dawn of the Dead, bound to be distracted by some other target that zips past their view. They’ll go complain somewhere else (via @dsilverman), they’ll go be turds on Xbox Live, harass their fellow Tauren on World of Warcraft, push over seniors at the grocery store… whatever. Or let’s say these superidiots are, like, even more advanced zombies — they’re angered by Engadget’s efforts to thwart their attempts at intelligent conversation, and feasting on commenters on other websites just won’t sate their hunger.

At some point, Engadget will turn comments back on. Apple will eventually announce the iHat (a hat I just made up that beams movies directly to your head but still has no USB port), and the superidiots will once again catch a glimpse of a shiny “Comment” link at Engadget. What then? They could come back with greater fury. I’ll agree with the Houston Chronicle’s Dwight Silverman (yes, sir, you get two links in one post!) that moderating the comments is really the only way to go from here. It requires a commitment from Engadget, either to devote internal resources to monitoring all comments or by enlisting the help of trustworthy people within the community to police the superidiots. As Topolsky said himself in that VentureBeat piece, Engadget can handle the flamewars. If it’s just a matter of cutting off outright offensive comments and personal attacks, the resources required to moderate user contributions is minimal.

We’ll see how it all plays out over the next couple of weeks. It’s possible that the trolls will move on and find a new home. In that case, Engadget looks really smart, making a bold stand against internet idiocy and ignorance. But if these particular trolls are the grudge-holding type, they’ll likely be waiting for the minute comments are turned  back on. At that point, Engadget has to decide whether to abolish comments altogether or just to start moderating them more actively.

As always, I welcome your thoughts in our comments — don’t screw with me or I’m shutting them off — via email or on Twitter! Until summer, when I write another post!

Ah, what a great vacation that was. So relaxing. I can still hear the sounds of the waves crashing on the white, sandy beach, tropical birds singing their alluring songs in the lush forest behind me. I really meant to update the blog from my cabana, but the resort was having problems with their wireless intern– ah, who am I kidding? The muses just weren’t watching my back. I try to keep updates here interesting, and have to wait for inspiration instead of just picking a random topic out of a hat.

So I was listening to the always-entertaining Mobcast last week, and the guys got to talking about “staying on message” and I went through a series of emotions — first, excitement about the onslaught of inspiration. Then I grew very, very angry, remembering meetings about messaging and training game developers how to stay on message for hours and hours before trade shows and media tours. Then I laughed because my dog was trying to hump my other dog. Then I grew sleepy. And so the weekend passed, and I’m finally getting around to writing this post.

I don’t remember which of the handsome Mobcasters said it, but he cited an example of a PR rep being visibly upset during an interview in which some sports guy or developer just wouldn’t use the exact phrasing the PR team had decided on prior to the press event. Whether you see it or not, this happens all the time — PR reps around the world are probably about to blow a gasket at this very moment because their finely crafted corporate messages are being shredded by staff who — how dare they — just don’t get how important it is to executives.

Allow me to explain briefly for those unfamiliar with the concept of messaging: when a company is getting ready for any sort of press engagement — a product launch, trade show, media tour, press conference, investors meeting, etc. — the executives and the PR team — or the PR team alone — will sit down to come up with “key messages,” which will then be used to draft a guideline for responses to queries. These usually use very specific wording about a product’s features and why they’re important, the company’s stance on a controversial issue, corporate plans or any number of other topics. Straying from the exact wording often means not sticking to the message and is frowned upon.

Establishing key messages is an important part of any PR plan, and while it might seem like fiendish megacorporation territory, sticking to those key messages in most cases is also very important. Most importantly for those outside of the organization, it allows the product/company to maintain a consistent brand, so that consumers aren’t confused. I’ll invent a conveniently relevant scenario: imagine a movie studio promoting it’s latest film based on a Stephen King novel. In one interview the producer says the movie will be a suspenseful thriller. At a simultaneous press junket across the country an actor calls it a bone-chilling horror flick. If those people had both stuck to the message, the consumer who’s seen both interviews wouldn’t be confused. That’s a very simplified example, but I think you get the point.

When someone doesn’t stick to the message and an unapproved and often somewhat incorrect statement hits the enthusiast news scene, the PR team has to scramble to resolve the confusion. Maybe that person talked about a feature that hadn’t yet been announced — the always-awesome unintentional leak — and the execs need to start getting involved. Particularly in a publicly-traded company, the ramifications of someone straying from established messaging can be rather significant.

I’ve eschewed the virtues of messaging enough; it’s not all Skittles at the end of the tasty rainbow (what?). Most “corporate” companies — you know the ones, most commonly associated with fearlessly arrogant fancy-pants executives and utter inaccessibility — take “sticking to the message” to extremes. I’ve gone through email interviews written by game developers, for example, into which I’ve been urged by execs to insert more key messages to ensure the company’s brand is sufficiently represented. Whether we actually answered the question or not was, ultimately, irrelevant, as long as most of our company’s core philosophies, competencies and product features were presented at every single opportunity.

I think that if you have a good relationship with a journalist, you should feel comfortable straying from the company line once in a while, though (almost) never on major company issues that could cause harm. If those off-the-record comments make it to print, you’re screwed. In a trusting relationship, though, the journalist will appreciate the difference between something that is fair to print — a more subjective version of the message or a freely shared inside scoop — and a bit of knowledge that could cost someone their job.

Messaging won’t go away. I’m sorry, journalists, but if you’re in an interview with one of my clients, I hope they’re sticking to the message. They can have opinions, you guys can talk all day long about some unrelated topic… but as soon as you start asking questions about business practices, why our product is better than the competition or whatever, I want them to say what they’re supposed to say. If they stray from messaging and it’s wrong, I’ll speak up right there — I may ask you not to print something because it’s a feature we haven’t talked about. If you still print it, you’re a jerk. But then I have to deal with that. And I’ll probably be upset because some guy just couldn’t stick to the message.

It’s time for another entertaining installment of PR Shorts, our highly informative — if somewhat basic and embarrassingly infrequent — look at a particular aspect of this job we do. Today I’ll discuss the daunting task of pitching a journalist.

The last PR Short touched on the press release, a vital weapon in the PR rep’s arsenal. The press release, however, is ultimately a rather passive way to secure media coverage; yeah, you have to do some legwork with follow-ups, but you’re really just carpet-bombing media with a subject you hope they’ll find interesting. You’ll largely end up sitting at your desk, drinking coffee, updating your Corey Feldman fansite and waiting for responses and inquiries. The pitch, on the other hand, requires a different approach.

Be relevant

With a press release you can sometimes get away with topics that are only tangentially relevant to the writers receiving it — though it’s worth noting that you can quickly piss off even the most patient of journalists by constantly sending them irrelevant press releases. Your pitch, however, has to be highly relevant to the writer and the publication you’re pitching, or else you’re just going to a) not get the coverage, and b) look like an idiot.

Put yourself in the journalist’s shoes. Is the story you’re pitching actually interesting to the publication’s audience? Did you pitch the right person? It’s important to actually read past articles from the writer; don’t just assume that “Tech Writer” means the guy (or gal) is interested in every little tech story. Maybe even more importantly, read recent articles — the writer’s interests may have shifted, he may have been assigned a new beat, whatever. You can show that you’ve done your homework by citing a recent story from the journalist — this won’t guarantee coverage, but it’ll reduce your chances of looking like an idiot, and will also increase the chances that the writer will pass along your pitch to the right person if, by chance, the one you pitched isn’t interested.

Be concise

Alright, I’ve been guilty of channeling Tolstoy in my pitches, with an endless cascade of words I was sure would woo the writer into loving me — and by extension, the story I was pitching. Then I smartened up and realized that journalists, like me, don’t like reading novel-length emails. Get to the point — you can get your story idea across in a few sentences, and if a writer just isn’t interested, she’ll know within a few sentences.

It’s sometimes difficult to provide evidence that a story is compelling in such a short amount of time — particularly if you’re working with a relatively unknown company or product — but if you absolutely must include lengthy details, be sure to get your most important info out within the first paragraph. You can always provide more information later, but it takes years of training at imaginary schools I made up in my head to learn the telepathy skills necessary to force a journalist to read a crappy, long-winded pitch.

Be timely

There’s only a brief window in which a news story is interesting; once you’ve crossed that invisible line, you’re going to have an incredibly tough time getting useful coverage. Keep time lines in mind when you’re pitching — particularly if you’re working with print publications, you need to push your stories early to ensure that you have enough time to coordinate any interviews or product viewings, and to let the journalist actually write the story. If you sent out a press release two weeks ago about a product launch and only then start pitching writers on a related story, you’re not likely to get a bite. The perception of exclusivity — the notion that the writer is finding out about something before anyone else — will only help your cause, and even if it’s somewhat obvious that you’re simultaneously pitching multiple writers, the fact that you’re giving them some lead time will always be appreciated.

Be realistic

This is somewhat related to relevancy as cited above, but it bears repeating: you have to be realistic about your expectations. While you feel your story about — oh, I don’t know, your new underpants technology — may be relevant to the people who read Popular Science, is it realistic that you’ll get coverage? If you have a good story, pitch it; there’s no harm in that. But think about how realistic the odds of getting coverage are; if it was a long shot, don’t pester the writer and beg for reasons why the story wasn’t written.

Let’s take GOG.com — it’s an amazing site with the noble and ambitious mission of creating a DRM-free marketplace for digitally distributed games. I think that the very concept of the site is relevant to Wired, for example. I’ve pitched them, too. However, being realistic with my expectations, I anticipated that the writers there — who spend a lot of time talking to big-wigs at global industry players like Microsoft and Google — might not see things my way. While I was disappointed to fail in my quest for coverage, I didn’t cry about it. Instead, we’ve focused a lot of energy on more realistic media hits, and things have gone well. At some point in the future the situation may change, and I’ll revisit the idea of pitching Wired.

There’s certainly a lot more to be said about pitching, but these things are supposed to be short. Err… mission failed. If there are topics you’d like to see covered in future PR Shorts, just leave a comment, send me an email or hit me up on Twitter!

I’m hoping to extend my streak of success with awesome PC-game developers — having thoroughly loved working with CD Projekt RED (The Witcher) and Stardock (Sins of a Solar Empire, Galactic Civilizations II) — as I announce the addition of Paradox Interactive to the Evolve family of clients. Join me in welcoming these wonderful Swedes to our intentionally small roster!

This project will once again allow me to flex my community-outreach muscle (eww, gross), as it’s no standard “here, promote this full-priced boxed game” deal — I’m working on two community-driven projects aimed squarely at the company’s devoted fanbase of strategy gamers. For the Glory and Arsenal of Democracy are uber-mods for Europa Universalis II (yes, II, not III) and Hearts of Iron II, respectively, that Paradox is going to publish through their GamersGate service. I love to see devs and publishers supporting their communities like this, and I hope that I can help the games succeed.

It’s also a fun opportunity to work alongside some other PR folk at TriplePoint, as well as Simon Callaghan, with whom I worked on Neverwinter Nights way back in the day. Anyway, keep an eye on this site and on games sites everywhere for more info! And, of course, if you’re a journalist interested in talking to the devs or getting more info, just let me know.

For years, big-name PR agencies — and sadly, most game publishers, movie studios, record labels, plywood manufacturers, etc. — have focused most or all of their publicity and marketing efforts on scoring the big kahuna: coverage, big or small, in top-tier media. A small column on the fifth page of USA Today’s Money section was — and still is, to some extent — a glorious achievement, to be pursued at any expense.

Quick digression: the Internet’s been around for a while. I remember having a Geocities site back in 1997 or something. Since the birth of the hideous Dancing Baby there have been countless sites run by enthusiasts — for free, simply maintained out of love for the subject matter. You could say these guys were the low-fi ancestors of today’s blogging elite. There were chat rooms, message boards (BBS anyone?), and generally a ton of places where consumers gathered to learn about products, talk about them and share their love for them.

Is that really any different than the current situation?

Even today, a lot of — if not most — PR departments spend all of their time chasing rainbows with those top-tier outlets, sacrificing a huge potential audience. We’ve long been taught that, while quantity of coverage is important, the quality of that coverage is of the utmost importance. So let’s think about this for a second: if you’re a major player in your industry or have a truly exceptional new product, then it’s quite possible for you to get great placement and positive editorial tone — high-quality coverage. If you’re repping a company that doesn’t have those things — that could still be an excellent company with a tremendous product, but one which may not be interesting to the mainstream audience — you’re going to be in for a tough climb to get to the peak of media notability. I’m currently focusing a lot of my time on GOG.com, which is in just that sort of situation: it offers an amazing product — a slick website, a great offering of games for a particular audience, and a fairly revolutionary outlook on digital distribution (DRM-free and all that jazz). However, can we really compete for media coverage with companies like Activision, with their billion-dollar-and-then-some revenue?

So what do you do? Well, back in the day we’d focus heavily on enthusiast media, and that’s definitely still the case today. You’ll always have better luck with journalists who are active in the industry in which you’re operating. But even back when I first got into the PR game with BioWare — at a time when the company was still working hard to make a name for itself — in 2000 or so, I realized that we could work with the websites and other outlets that didn’t necessarily get a million hits a month — the ones that were usually overlooked by bigger companies and agencies — to not only secure a significant amount of coverage, but also to ensure that coverage was incredibly positive.

You see, people who aren’t used to being treated as “special” — and no, I’m not talking about that kind of special — appreciate the effort that much more. I’ve long believed that, through personal attention and caring about everyone’s needs and desires, you can effectively create a massive network of evangelists to help spread the word about your products. This general concept birthed “viral marketing,” which became a big bullet point on big agencies’ service offerings a few years ago when YouTube rose to prominence and when ilovebees put Halo on the map.

Even then, a lot of marketers didn’t catch on. They pushed out some half-assed attempts at engaging fans on a more individual level. And they still spent most of their time chasing the holy grails of coverage — magazine covers and whatnot. Don’t get me wrong — that coverage is still important. But should you sacrifice close interaction with your most vocal supporters — the people who pay for your products, love them and are loyal to your company?

With the recent rise of Twitter and Facebook and other forms of social media, once again companies are hopping on the “individual people are awesome” bandwagon. They still don’t “get it,” though, and spend most of their time simply pushing info to consumers without realizing that it’s a two-way road. Check out this short post by Derek Sivers about companies’ inability to use social media effectively, equating a bad date with many companies’ social media policies. Get with the program, folks — people (as opposed to media) have always been the primary influencers. When Jimmy started his Geocities site in 1997, the 20 people who visited his site were still there to hear what he had to say. When I hopped on an IRC network in 1998 to talk about Diablo II, I was still talking to people who were passionate about the product and gaming in general. Social media has simply offered a handful of convenient and well-publicized places for individuals to convene in order to discuss their lives, their passions and their favorite products and companies.

“Public relations” isn’t “media relations,” folks. The definition of PR seems to have moved away from its literal meaning — relating to and interacting with the public. If I focus my attention on individuals — or any number of “second-tier” websites and blogs (or third-tier or fourth-tier or even the guy who only gets 3 hits a year) — I can reach a massive audience. Those individuals appreciate even a moment of your time — particularly if you’re working for a company they adore — and will become extensions of your PR efforts (not necessarily your media efforts, of course), telling their friends, Twitter followers, and everyone else about your company and its products. They want to help you succeed. Let them do that. It just takes a bit of your time.

I’m going to try to put together a series of brief posts about PR practices, and thanks to my current diet of cold medication and coffee the best name I could come up with is PR Shorts. I know that sounds like a pair of cut-off jeans that will never give you a straight answer, but maybe you guys can suggest something better… or I’ll wait until the medicine wears off.

Today’s PR Short is about press releases. There’s definitely an accepted standard for the format of a release, so let’s talk about that quickly. In most cases your press release should look something like this:

Title
Subtitle

Intro paragraph

Detail paragraph(s)

Quote(s)

Boilerplate

The Title should grab the journalist’s attention. Usually you’ll want this to quickly explain the main point of the release, but in some cases you may want to just put a potential story headline in there. Let’s say you’re pushing a new emergency-diaper technology that cleans the baby’s butt if it drops a deuce (again with the underpants theme… curse you, medicine). Your title could be, “Hankypants Introduces New Diaper Technology to Avoid Poopy Accidents” (the straight-forward one) or, “Never Clean Baby Poo Again” (the less direct option). I probably could have avoided a poop joke there.

The Subtitle is optional, but I’d recommend making use of it. It allows you to briefly offer more info about the announcement. If you were to use the Never Clean Baby Poo Again header, for example, your subtitle could be something like, “Hankypants Introduces New Diaper Technology that Cleans Infants’ Bottoms.” A lot of journalists will really only read your title and subtitle; if they’re not interested at that point, they’ll likely just move on, so you may as well give them as much info as possible in those lines.

The Intro Paragraph gets to the point. It will usually begin with “Edmonton, AB, Canada – September 9, 2009.” — the location and the date of your announcement. Then you’ll want to explain what the announcement is about — “Hankypants, the leading creator of leading-edge diaper technology, is excited to announce its latest model, the PooFree 3000.” You can provide a bit more info, including availability, pricing, etc.

The Detail Paragraph(s) will just include some more info. In some cases you may not even want to provide more info — your intro may have already provided enough detail, but I’d recommend using this space if you can. It allows you to talk more about the product itself, your company, unique features of the product, etc. Don’t get overly verbose with this or any other paragraph, though — the more you write, the more time the journalist has to just stop reading.

The Quote is also optional, but it allows you to show off your executive team to the world and to push your corporate messaging a bit. Particularly if you’re announcing a partnership of some sort, quotes might allow you to include an external perspective on your company. Having someone else (preferrably someone reputable) in your release saying, “We’ve evaluated the PooFree 3000, and the product is, without a doubt, the pinnacle of diaper technology” will add some legitimacy to your announcement, and makes it a bit less about patting yourself on the back.

Your Boilerplate is just a description of your company. Talk about past products, your strengths, corporate ideals, etc. And be sure to include a URL for more info.

Pretty simple, right? If you have any questions about writing effective press releases, feel free to comment or email me!

In a sure sign that this is not just a blog on which I post insightful commentary on the ins and outs of public relations and marketing, I’m actually writing something about a client! Beware, for this can only end badly — shilling kicks all kinds of ass.

This week we’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of GOG.com’s launch. A little later today or tomorrow I think I’ll put together a post about the first year — it’s definitely been a roller-coaster ride, as the cliché goes, with a fair share of struggles and successes on the PR and marketing fronts. But that’s not the point of this post!

This one is just to talk about the wicked bargains we have on the site this week. Okay, so we have the Buy One, Get One Free promo on the Interplay catalogue. Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics, Freespace 1 and 2 (pretty much the best space sim without the Star Wars license), MDK 1 and 2 (look for my first credit — a huge contribution I made to that game, of course… not!), Shattered Steel (another great BioWare game), Kingpin, Hostile Waters (awesome) and more for $5.99 each, then you get a free one. Pretty good.

In the past few weeks we’ve been trying out a Hidden Gem of the Week promo, which basically spotlights one game that people may have overlooked — something really good, unique or otherwise interesting — and doing a little write-up and a 10%-off discount for the week. For the editorial bits, we brought some great writers on board – Pete Davison and David Craddock – who should certainly be in consideration for any sort of freelance writing gigs you people have! The past few weeks have featured Descent 1 & 2 (the two are bundled as one in the Interplay promo) and Shogo, an early Monolith creation… and this week it’s all about Rise of the Triad – particularly timely, given the recent indication of a franchise reboot.

As if compelled by the mythical Dealosaurus, we also just released Might and Magic 6 Limited Edition, which includes six games (Might and Magic 1 through 6) for $9.99. I haven’t played through most of the games in that package, and will do so at my earliest convenience… I get it for free, though, muahaha.

Check out Treevenge on Twitch!

“Fortunately, iTunes allows you to see other reviews posted by the same reviewer. So, we clicked on the reviewer “Vegas Bound” (iTunes link) and started to look at his reviews. He reviewed 7 applications, and gave each one of them 5 stars. Each review was short and sweet, and extremely positive. These reviews represented 6 different developers. A quick Google search revealed an infuriating truth: every single one of these developers was a client of one PR firm: Reverb Communications.”

The evidence looks pretty damning, but ultimately Reverb denies any wrongdoing in a response that states its ” interns and employees write their reviews based on their own game play experience, after having purchased the game by themselves, a practice not uncommon by anyone selling games or apps and hardly unethical.” This is where things get a bit fuzzy, of course. Have I given games I’ve worked on 10-out-of-10 reviews on sites where I had the ability? Yeah, it happens. But hey, guys, I also review other games and give them high scores if they’re deserving. I’ve given games I worked on mediocre reviews if I didn’t like them (well… nothing lower than an 8, of course, or I’d give them no review at all ). So maybe these interns just need to wisen up a bit and start reviewing other stuff. Only kidding. Of course that wouldn’t get to the root of the problem and would probably just make it a little bit worse.

MobileCrunch point out an excerpt from a pitch doc provided by a developer, alleged to be from Reverb, in which it’s stated that it “…employs a small team of interns who are focused on managing online message boards, writing influential game reviews, and keeping a gauge on the online communities.” Seems that their interns may also be going around to message boards and hyping their clients’ products. To me, that’s just as upsetting — at least if they’re doing it under some pseudonym and trying avoid being outed as PR reps.

I was in a situation a few years ago when I was working for an agency on the NVIDIA community account, as we were accused of essentially shilling, paying shills or planting shills for the video-card manufacturer. I don’t know where the NDAs and such stop, so go ahead and read the statement we (I) sent to Shacknews back in the day. I still stand by it and am sure that we weren’t acting unethically. You’ll have to trust me on that, I guess, but even so, it was already getting too close to OMG VIRAL MARKETER territory for my liking at the time. Now, though, I see that our practices of just working really, really closely with the community — talking and interacting with them on a very personal level (IM, phone and whatnot), hoping that they’ll appreciate our clients and us even more — is what we do on a wider scale now thanks to Twitter, Facebook, etc.

After all, the fans are out there. They like reviewing games. Games they like will probably earn at least a 4 rating, unless the player is holding onto his stars as if they were a rare commodity; so why even bother putting your own reviews up? For one game quoted in the MobileCrunch article, HydroTilt XL, there were over 300 5-star reviews (of 900-something total) — clearly any cover shilling tactics need not be employed here. Ah yes, the quality factor. Well, I think that any sensible person in this industry realizes that, especially these days, if you offer a quality product, people will buy it. With the rise of social networking, we have a huge connected audience that wants to share its love of games or music or movies or plywood manufacturers. Give them something they want to talk about.

I should finish off by saying that we really don’t know if Reverb has done anything wrong. It may just be unfortunate levels of zeal on the behalf of its interns, who really did love the game they were working on — and as it may have been their first experience with the iPhone App Store, their first review inevitably raising questions about the motivations. I do hope it’s not true — being accused of being greasy when you think you’re being clean sucks, and the people I do know at Reverb are good, honest people.