Some games pay to appear on Conan's Clueless Gamer segments

After highlighting a totally uninteresting game like Injustice, along with pre-release DLC and a custom in-game Conan character, how could anyone think that they're just pulling these off the shelf?

I still love the segments, just as long as it doesn't become pure promo for junk games. So far they've kept it to relatively interesting stuff, Injustice aside.

If someone wanted to know whether some people would be aghast at Conan O'Brien and Red Barrels like they would at Microsoft or Electronic Arts, that person just learned that. ;)

Really, Microsoft and Electronic Arts have terrible public image - people would jump on any reason to bash them. The recent disclosure on their promotional deals happened to give some people very conveniently (self-)righteous reasons to bash them.

This is not the case for Conan O'Brien and Red Barrels apparently. Conan seems to be popular enough that this disclosure would be glossed over by some (namely those that are amused by his brand of humor), and Red Barrels has the "little guy" image to shield themselves with.

I suppose that people who still believe in the notion that "hypocrisy" is bad would be thinking the phrase "double standards" by now when they regard some of their fellow gamers' reactions. ;)

I knew they were paid when the games I saw (for the most part) where big titles like halo4, hitman whatever, new tomb raider, gta5, skyrim, resident evil 6 and such. I still enjoy the segment though cause at the end of it all he gives the games bogus "score points" by making body gestures or sounds or weird stuff like that which basically means nothing.

D'uh. People make money.

Again, like Microsoft & EA, it's not the idea of getting paid to showcase a game that's the problem; it's when you say/give an impression that you're giving an honest review/evaluation of a game, and you leave out/lie about whether you've been financially compensated by that company. Is this hard to understand? BE HONEST/FORTHRIGHT...*smh*

In this instance I'm not bothered by it. Those skits are pretty funny and whether the game company paid to have their game shown or not is irrelevant. It's not like Conan O Brien knows much of anything about videogames. And it's not as if someone out there is basing any purchases of a game based upon his recommendations anyway. If this happened with more legitimate reviewers on game magazines and websites then it could be an issue, but to have their game shown and then just made fun of, I'd say is relatively harmless in that manner.

I'm just surprised that they weren't all paid.

He's been doing these for a while now, it's getting harder to believe that he's clueless about games. Nevertheless he does sometimes ask good questions, challenging a lot of gaming tropes that don't really make sense. I like to ask questions when I see my friend playing a game, "why are you killing those trolls? They were just chilling out in their cave & then you came into their home & started killing them. Aren't you supposed to be the good guy?"

Clueless Gamer is brilliantly hilarious...when I first heard of the sketch I thought it HAD to star Tom McShea.

It feels like this article was written to jump on the current "paid reviews" controversy. Watch ANY one of these videos and you'll see it's all just him being silly, I've never seen one say a game was good or bad.

I like how advertising something that has been going on forever is now like some sort of taboo and needs to be reported on 24 7. Anybody who dosen't think things like this are happening all the time and from ALL companies is naive.

Given the insults here, I'd imagine he'd quote SCP-682 about the SCP Six Eight Two game, Of course, However, l wonder what he'd have to say about SCP Containment Breach.

I enjoy these segments, and thought they were genuine. Oh well.

See, the difference is you expect talk show hosts to be total shills and everything appearing on their show, from product placement to hollywood actors showing off their newest trailers to be advertising.

They are paying for advertising?! *SHOCK HORROR FACE*

The fact that he is only paid for some is a surprise to me since i was under the impression that he was paid for every review seeing as his reviews are on a popular tv show. And besides he is obviously not a professional (or amateur for that matter) reviewer. He gets a game and uses it for a comedy segment.

In short this example does not excuse the recent leak EA and Microsoft have been found guilty of paid/biased reviews.

Sure Conan should definitely take steps to be more transparent but i don't think anyone can really compare the 2 scenarios and say they were the same thing therefore secret youtube paid reviews should be excused. It's just a smokescreen.

Next!

terrible idea, Of course I don't think he's funny...

Shouldn't they be paying to be on Jay Leno instead?

Clueless gamer is the best segment of his show and it is brilliant. I don't think it's an issue that games pay to be there.

conan is hilarious, no issues here

Some ads are brilliant and smart while others just suck.

I dont care. Fck advertising, but it keeps TV shows and documentaries and movies going. So on the one hand its evil, immoral, sht, grose, bad for you and you shouldn't listen to a lot of it because it subconcsiously screws with your head , but on the other hand it pays for things we like.

Why anyone listens to things like Bill O ' Reilly however i have no idea and advertising is spent on sht grose programs to it seems. Why anyone listens to that guy or watches anything hes on , is mind boggling to me.

er, I thought this was well known and generally how all the games were chosen to be featured... I don't really care though.

It's an awesome segment though, and I hope they continue to do it!

I assumed all games featured in that were paid advertisement. I'm actually kinda surprised that some of them weren't, to tell the truth.

Anyway, companies paying for this kind of exposition in the mainstream media is totally ok to me. What is shameful is what happened in Machinima where they wanted it to be under the covers. Seriously that's PRECISELY the thing that every paranoid commenter accuses reviewers of doing and Microsoft just goes ahead and does it. Really stupid move.

Here's money, promote me.

Mind blown.