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Law about posters disclosing whether or not they are employed by game companies
ArcAngel3
Member Posts: 2,931
The Federal Trade Commission has stated that people who work for companies and engage in the kind of "word of mouth" marketting you often read in forums must publicly disclose their relationships with their employers.
In essence, posting here or anywhere else for that matter, as if you're simply a player of a game, when you are in fact in the employ of the service provider is illegal. It's misleading marketting.
In light of this reality, I'd like to see all such persons posting here to be required to disclose their relationship with any MMO game company in their signatures.
If they don't disclose this in the sig, and this is discovered, I think it would be appropriate for them to be banned and reported to the FTC.
I don't mind people plugging their own product. I do mind when they do this in a way that is intentionally deceptive, and so does the law.
Comments
Who cares?
Here is one!
Here is one!
Probably all the people that don't like salespeople misrepresenting themselves to try to get their cash. I'm one of those also.
This FTC initiative was based on national research that found people didn't like it when supposed customers reported being happy with a product, and then it turned out that they were in fact salespeople in the employ of the company providing that product or service.
seriously...
/tinfoilhat
no, seriously...
/tinfoilhat
-Would you like cheddar or swiss cheese?
-Yes.
-...
On a more serious note: i care, not that it will do anything, but i hate all the pseudo marketing fan posts...
_________________
Senhores da Guerra
Try not paying attention to grass-roots hype. Then this is a non-issue for you.
All it takes is a tiny pinch of common sense and objective thinking to separate the partisans from the honest critiques. You don't need a degree or special education to accomplish this.
Why do you even bother with this kind of stuff? You will NEVER know if someone works for a company, never, there is no point in even trying to search for those kind of posters.
FTC rules require disclosure of paid "word-of-mouth" marketers.