According to a Reddit administrator, moderators on the website were asked by an EA representative to remove negative Star Wars: Battlefront posts in exchange for early access to the game, tickets to the Star Wars festival, and other benefits. Reddit administrator Sporkicide made this allegation after stating that the website was looking for new people because these individuals grossly violated their duties.
Sporkicide said, “There was a representative from EA directing moderators to remove posts and prevent certain links from being posted. In exchange, moderators were given perks including alpha access. This had been going on for a while and is completely unacceptable, whether you were personally the moderator to yank the post or not. It appears to have been clear to all moderators what was being asked and what was being provided in return.
Following this statement, another Reddit user by the name of Unwanted_Commentary said that he reported his colleagues for accepting bribes. Unwanted_Commentary added, “I’m the ex-moderator that finally found the time to report them for all of the shady shit they have been doing over the course of the last year. They originally demodded me due to my suspicion that the subreddit was filled with paid reputation management accounts. Since this has gone down, these accounts have been assaulting my character nonstop, trying to drag my name through the mud. Here’s the basic rundown regarding the moderators: They accepted favors in return for moderator actions. They farmed the subreddit nonstop for YouTube revenue by stickying videos made by the moderators and adding referral links in the sidebar. They tried to cover up the bribery by banning users who tried to expose them. They willingly suppressed criticism of the game through moderator action. They turned a blind eye to the massive astroturfing operation that is underway in the subreddit. They exposed personal details about users that were confided in private.
Had these allegation been made by some regular user it would’ve been easy to dismiss but considering that they’re coming from an administrator and another moderator, they have to be discussed. What gives further credibility is that people were removed from positions. Let’s see what EA has to say about this. This just shows you we need more transparency when it comes to video games.
Source: PlayStation LifeStyle
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.