We live in a very competitive world, and this is apparent in the video game industry where publishers and developers are constantly trying to get a leg up on their competition, whether it’s through clever marketing or brilliant feats of engineering. But what is NOT acceptable is when a publisher or developer uses bribes to gain an advantage. [shal]Che Chou[/shal], the community manager at Turn 10, has done exactly this, and we feel compelled to inform our readers about the dishonest tactics that the [shal]Forza[/shal] Motorsport developer has chosen to carry out.



Here is Chou’s post on the Forza forums:

“Hey all. Apparently, CNET.com is having a face-off between Forza and GT. We all know which game is we’d like to see win, so go here: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10256571-48.html And vote for Forza Motorsport 3! Afterwards, come to this thread and post a message letting us know you’ve done it. We’ll gift you a random unicorn! It’s that easy. Do it now!”

So what’s a “unicorn”? It’s a very rare type of car in Forza 2 that can only be found in the game’s Auction House. Some of them are sold for millions of credits, and are comprised of a handful of vehicles, including the 2005 Lotus Exige Espionage, and 2000 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI TME. So the fact that Turn 10 is giving these out for free to users who vote for Forza over [shal]Gran Turismo[/shal] in CNET’s poll is a very big deal.

You can check out the Forza bribery forum thread here, where you can literally see feedback on how the poll’s results steadily turned in favor of Forza 3. Here are just a few of the comments you can find from the thread’s posters.

MorroidaZico:

“Done voting for Forza. But man, honestly, us Forza lovers know how better Forza is as a game, but for those who have no idea what a racing simultator is or what the two franchises are all about, the GT video looks a lot more appealing.”

LightnigWarr:

“Ha ha, you’re bribing us with a nice car …. I like it.”

Trystan Spyder:

“What are we basing these votes on? I’m not sure CNET would be happy to know that the developer of Forza were bribing people for votes.”

Lnin0:

“I voted Forza 3 but I have to say based on the trailers GT looks more impressive.”

Here’s what we’d like to know at PSLS: What’s your opinion on this matter? Is it fair to give out freebies in order to skew poll results? Let us know in the comment section below.