Take a look at Fragdolls.com. Take a good, hard look. Read their blurb, "Enter the Frag Dolls, a group of girl gamers out to have a little fun."
Of course, game companies have sponsored Gaming Clans before. And there is nothing inherently wrong with the idea, or even making them a professional looking website, such as that which the Frag Dolls enjoy. Some have even provided their sponsored clans with computing equipment. But before, this has always been done quite openly.
What initially sparked my suspicion was the calendar, so you could PLAY games with this "clan". Not perhaps the typical behaviour of a gaming clan...and a quick search found the "catch" - a post on FFWD, which further links to Geek.com – which links to the now-absent Ubisoft advert for female “gamer” contractors. If there was any real need for further confirmation, Frag Dolls is a registered trademark of Ubisoft.
The "Frag Girls" are no more and no less than paid contractors of Ubisoft. The entire site has been constructed and run by Ubisoft and the Girls features - if they ARE gamers at all - are given equipment and games by Ubisoft. And Ubisoft are not making the relationship at all clear.
Looking at the main website in 1280*1024, you have to scroll down to see the "sponsored by Ubisoft" logo in the bottom right - and only that logo. Reading their blogs, once you know they are paid to write it, the Ubisoft bias - already none too subtle - becomes somewhat cloying. The same blogs have comments like "But now I am on SOCOM II for PS2 and no matter how hard I try, I can not play more than 1 hour without getting nauseous". Negative comments, made by what would appear to be an amateur gamer...who is, in fact, a paid contractor of Ubisoft.
Certainly not a case of "I disagree with what you said", and more "hey you, competitor, your products really suck ahahaha" I think I can leave it to your imaginations how acceptable this is.
And my opinion on them?
Shill n., "One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle"
So, Fragdolls, how much are you paid to shill for Ubisoft?
Brief update: Thanks to several people for pointing out that the whois for Fragdolls.com shows Ubisoft as the owner.
And yes, there WILL be a follow up article. Probably tomorrow.
