It seems like just yesterday that we wrote this post warning readers to think twice about who they trust down in the wild and wooly Joystiq comments section. Well, how prophetic of us. We just caught an IGN staffer clumsily pimping IGN (without disclosing that affiliation) this very evening.
IGN staffer "GSI" has been trolling the comments here on Joystiq for quite some time now, leaving 699 comments as of this evening. (How do we know? All Joystiq comments are verified via an email sent to the address commenters enter into the comment form, and "GSI," aka "Jago" has been verifying all of his comments through his official IGN email address.) We were content to leave him be so long as he was serving up a daily dose of the usual fanboy diatribe (examples of which follow), but a post this evening crossed the line.
When one Joystiq commenter wrote about the "writers and editors at Joystiq," "GSI" responded, "CORRECTION: The bloggers of Joystiq. Don't give them too much credit. This isn't a real gaming media site such as 1Up, IGN, GameSpy, Gamespot, etc."
Hey, if these are the tactics of a "real gaming media" site, GSI's done us a favor by counting us out of that list. But to be fair, this is likely the work of some low-level employee and not a marketer with a mandate to sway opinion. At least, that's the charitable interpretation.
Advice to IGN: put a leash and a muzzle on him, he's doing you no favors. More comments, by our new favorite IGN staff member follow after the break.
[Update 1: At GSI's request, we've removed any mention of his name from both the post and the comments below.]
- In response to another reader, who suggested anti-American sentiment retards the sale of the Xbox in Japan: "You are a complete moron. Ignorance must be bliss huh? Sorry but the Japanese DO buy American...go there for one day and you see it everywhere you go."
- In response to readers who question whether the price of the Wii might be too high: "If you (and the other people complaining about a measly $250) think $250 is too much then sure as hell better not buy a 360 or PS3. IF you do then you are a god damn hypocrit and a 100% biased fanboy."
- In response to a reader who shared his age: "Jeez...if you really are 31 then you are a pathetic human being b/c I would expect posts like yours to come from little snot nosed teenagers. Let me guess? You also live in your parents basement too right?"
- There are many hundreds more comments not unlike these. We'll spare you.
