For one thing, advertorial is now so common in the publishing industry that it’s become a grudgingly accepted survival tactic. However, advertorial is always explicitly marked as such. Otherwise, it’s Payola.

I’ve heard of these paid blogging/Digg-ing networks before. And in an imperfect world where Forumwarz didn’t already kick so much ass, who knows? I might’ve considered buying into one of these schemes just to get our name out there.

Now, there’s no denying that it’s all rather cheesy/sleazy, but part of me accepts that this kind of thing will always exist. As we discovered in early marketing of Forumwarz, it’s impossible to just _request_ coverage — we contacted hundreds of sites suggesting our game as review fodder, and got crickets. So it stands to reason that sometimes, the only way to get some publicity is to grease a couple of palms.

For the most part, however, I always suspected that the pay-to-play-and-subsequently-evaluate model wouldn’t work too well, simply because nobody visits the sites blatantly offering such services. But those are just the ones we _know_ about. I’m sure there’s plenty of Payola going on in the blogosphere, it’s just happening behind the scenes.

It’s unfortunate. As a journalist, you want to uphold the truth. But I would argue that the people who run these kinds of businesses are not journalists, and wouldn’t even consider themselves as such. So you have to ask, exactly what kind of principles guide them, if any?

I really doubt I would have gone along with paying a service like this in the beginning if we’d never gotten mentioned on any sites though. I’m sure that would have been a heated argument in the Forumwarz meetings

Glad to know that you focus on the people than the money.

Could you drop me an email about this, please. I’m the deputy editor of PC Gamer UK, and I’m a bit miffed about this guy pumping himself up using our name. I’d like to get in contact with him.

Cheers,

Anyway, my only comment is that, for the sake of web advertising, you do consider hits (though more specifically CPM rates.) Though, I think you already know that.

If it wasn’t for that ad, (which I have never seen again, oddly) I would probably never have learned about this site.

Whether that is a good or bad thing is debatable.

But yeah, it’s cool that you kept your integrity, rather than whoring out your sense of decency.

I’ve got the feeling that this type of ‘we’ll give you a good review’ thing happens a lot more often than people would think.