Key Takeaways
1. Trap Plan admitted to using astroturfing tactics by creating 100 fake posts to promote the game War Robots: Frontiers on Reddit.
2. The marketing strategy involved crafting content that mimicked genuine player feedback, using various formats to engage users without direct promotion.
3. The campaign was uncovered by Reddit users, leading to significant backlash and accusations of undermining trust in online communities.
4. Trap Plan’s CEO distanced the company from My.Games, claiming the marketing initiative was not endorsed by them, despite earlier implications.
5. This incident raises concerns about the reliability of information on platforms like Reddit, highlighting the potential for manipulation in user-generated content.
Video game marketing firm Trap Plan has quickly removed a number of its blog entries that praised their detailed astroturfing tactics on Reddit. Users on the platform discovered their plan to generate free organic traffic for the free-to-play game War Robots: Frontiers, produced by My.Games.
Astroturfing Tactics
Trap Plan created and shared around 100 “organic-style posts and comments” across various subreddits to imitate genuine player feedback. According to the company’s website, one part of its campaign included more than 40 crafted posts, which have since been erased.
The marketing messages were posted in several subreddits, such as r/pcmasterrace, r/PlayStation5, r/Mecha, and r/gaming. In a February entry, retrieved from the Internet Archive, Trap Plan’s CEO Pavel Beresenev stated:
“We published over 40 posts across major gaming subreddits… Each post was designed to fit the tone and culture of its community. The content ranged from short clips and GIFS to ‘I found this game…’ style posts, screenshot threads, and casual discussion starters about tactical mech combat and movement mechanics.”
Crafted Content
Beresenev mentioned that the team played the game to gather “fresh footage” and produce posts that “mirrored actual gameplay and experience,” all while steering clear of feeling like overt advertising.
He further noted, “We steered clear of direct promotion and instead emphasized natural conversion formats. Players were engaging in conversations about the game—asking questions, comparing it to Titanfall and MechWarrior, and sharing thoughts on tactical mechanics.”
In a later post from May 2025, the claims became even bolder, with the company stating they had “strategically seeded 100 organic-style posts and comments across relevant subreddits.” Users interacted with these posts, unaware they were part of a marketing initiative.
Community Backlash
The marketing effort was eventually uncovered on r/Games, where users highlighted the previous posts, leading to 404 errors on Trap Plan’s website. The gaming community is now furious, with users accusing companies of damaging trust within online communities. Beresenev attempted to do damage control by denying any affiliation of My.Games and War Robots: Frontiers with the campaign.
When Kotaku reached out for a comment, he stated:
“When we published the case study on our website, we incorrectly mentioned MY.GAMES and War Robots: Frontiers, which led to a misleading impression that these activities were conducted on their behalf. This was entirely our initiative and not endorsed by MY.GAMES in any manner.”
In today’s world of AI-generated or improved content, users might already be skeptical about the reliability of reviews or comments on social media, many of which can be influenced or manipulated as part of marketing strategies. However, it remains rare to find an executive openly discussing such practices, even if they have been engaged in damage control since.
This situation raises questions about the reliability of information found on anonymous platforms like Reddit. Modern AI systems, including Google (which has a partnership with the platform), are trained on user data, causing such ‘impressions’ to affect more than just users on the platform, which many may see as deceptive marketing at the very least.
War Robots: Frontiers currently holds a 63.58% positive review ratio on Steam, resulting in a ‘mixed’ recommendation on the storefront, a stark contrast to the glowing reviews that were seen on Reddit previously.
Source:
Link