: Faking Fakers That Fake
The latest episode of Cheap Ass Gamer's CAGcast podcast featured a segment where host Cheapy D railed about all the rumors originating on video game forums that make their way to gaming blogs as legitimate news (this starts around the 50:48 mark if you want to listen for yourself - thanks to![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif)
cloudandtidus on LJ for the info). He complains that since online game journalists are paid by the post and typically have a quota, they have an incentive to post rumors, no matter how dubious the source. Then co-host Wombat makes the following proposal (transcribed as best I could):
Wombat: This is what I think, I think our listeners need to do. I think they need to post things in our forums (...) that, that are complete bullshit, and see if it gets picked up by the blogs (...) And if someone gets picked up, I think you should send them a free game.
(some chuckling)
Wombat: A free game of their choice.
Cheapy: Yeah, I will do that. Well, okay (...) I'm not gonna encourage that, but Wombat will.
Wombat: (...) That's fine, I'll arrange the contest, you'll pay for the prize. So what you need to do is you need to go into the game forums on Cheap Ass Gamer, and post something that is completely made up. Now if one of the three major blogs - we'll say Joystiq, Kotaku, and Destructoid - if they post it as legitimate news, then - Cheapy (...) if you make two, we wanna say two of the three?
Cheapy: Any.
Wombat: Any one of the three, you will get a free game of your choosing from Cheapy D, of a $60 value or lower.
Cheapy: Or if you get it to hit on Digg. Actually, no, I'm against this contest, so you have to say that, Wombat.
Wombat: Or get it to hit a lot on Digg.
So, with the contest in place, CAGcast's listeners start posting all manner of fake rumors. One such rumor is desz's "XBOX's New Name?". It's notable that even the earliest few comments on the post strongly hint at its fakeness, but, as if proving Wombat's point, several well-known gaming/tech blogs do pick it up. Among them are Xbox 360 Fanboy (correction since appended) and Gizmodo (correction since appended), but some of the biggest butthurt came from Kotaku.
( CAG has lost all credibility as a reliable news source! )
ETA: Cheapy D speaks about the whole kerfluffle.
The latest episode of Cheap Ass Gamer's CAGcast podcast featured a segment where host Cheapy D railed about all the rumors originating on video game forums that make their way to gaming blogs as legitimate news (this starts around the 50:48 mark if you want to listen for yourself - thanks to
cloudandtidus on LJ for the info). He complains that since online game journalists are paid by the post and typically have a quota, they have an incentive to post rumors, no matter how dubious the source. Then co-host Wombat makes the following proposal (transcribed as best I could):Wombat: This is what I think, I think our listeners need to do. I think they need to post things in our forums (...) that, that are complete bullshit, and see if it gets picked up by the blogs (...) And if someone gets picked up, I think you should send them a free game.
(some chuckling)
Wombat: A free game of their choice.
Cheapy: Yeah, I will do that. Well, okay (...) I'm not gonna encourage that, but Wombat will.
Wombat: (...) That's fine, I'll arrange the contest, you'll pay for the prize. So what you need to do is you need to go into the game forums on Cheap Ass Gamer, and post something that is completely made up. Now if one of the three major blogs - we'll say Joystiq, Kotaku, and Destructoid - if they post it as legitimate news, then - Cheapy (...) if you make two, we wanna say two of the three?
Cheapy: Any.
Wombat: Any one of the three, you will get a free game of your choosing from Cheapy D, of a $60 value or lower.
Cheapy: Or if you get it to hit on Digg. Actually, no, I'm against this contest, so you have to say that, Wombat.
Wombat: Or get it to hit a lot on Digg.
So, with the contest in place, CAGcast's listeners start posting all manner of fake rumors. One such rumor is desz's "XBOX's New Name?". It's notable that even the earliest few comments on the post strongly hint at its fakeness, but, as if proving Wombat's point, several well-known gaming/tech blogs do pick it up. Among them are Xbox 360 Fanboy (correction since appended) and Gizmodo (correction since appended), but some of the biggest butthurt came from Kotaku.
( CAG has lost all credibility as a reliable news source! )
ETA: Cheapy D speaks about the whole kerfluffle.