NVIDIA Denies Seeding Forums with Hired Posters

Hardware forums are in a fever over accusations that graphics chip maker Nvidia paid people and gave them gifts to salt message boards with endorsements of its products. Nvidia outright denied that accusation this morning. It neither pays users nor gives them gifts, said a representative.

Several sites said Nvidia hired Arbuthnot Entertainment Group (AEG) to do the salting and pointed to a couple of postings they considered were a tad dodgy.

the Inquirer – Nvidia denies it seeded forums with chums

About a week ago, The Consumerist stumbled upon claims made by various gaming websites (specifically, Elite Bastards and [Update: a poster on the forums at] Beyond3D) that graphics chip manufacturer Nvidia, in cooperation with the Arbuthnot Entertainment Group (AEG), had seeded various gaming and PC hardware enthusiast sites with pro-Nvidia shills.

That is to say, that AEG would hire employees to create ‘personas’ in various gaming communities, slowly building up the trust of other members by frequent posting unrelated to Nvidia, to later cash in that trust with message board postings talking up the positive qualities of Nvidia’s products.

The Consumerist – Did Nvidia Hire Online Actors to Promote Their Products?

Prompted by our questions about Nvidia’s marketing practices, Public Relations Director Derek Perez sent us this response…

The Consumerist – Nvidia’s Derek Perez Responds
The Consumerist – Nvidia’s Perez: “They act as our ‘voice’”