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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mephistopheles" data-source="post: 4026824" data-attributes="member: 4460">If marketers are in a position to determine whether outsiders are allowed to spread negative press then I think the status of the latter as outsiders is questionable. That seems to be the issue that some are offended by. While I'm not one of them I can understand why they might feel that way even if I don't agree that there was any intent to deceive.Outsiders are more likely to be considered independent and unbiased as they are not directly associated with the source company. When you have independents commenting under undisclosed conditions it's not surprising it would cause an upset when it comes out and people get the idea that maybe they were deceived. It's not terribly unlike the situations that come about when radio personalities endorse products on their shows and it later comes out that it was a "cash for comments" scenario.Having said that, I'm not in any position to say whether the non-WotC staff at the heart of this benefit from the success of 4E, or whether the comments made were deceptive (and seriously while you could call it selective I doubt there was any real intent to deceive people) so I'm not implying anything like that. However I'm certainly not surprised to see the kind of reaction we've seen when it's been revealed that independent commenters have been commenting under orders to keep it positive. Seems like it may have been more prudent not to go down that road to begin with.</blockquote>

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