According to Kotaku, Trap Plan CEO Pavel Beresnev posted an article on November 9 detailing how his marketing agency used multiple fake Reddit accounts to create over 40 posts across subreddits like r/pcmasterrace and r/PlayStation5. The campaign for WarRobots: Frontiers used “discovery-style posts” and pretended to be authentic players discussing the game’s mechanics while comparing it to titles like Titanfall and MechWarrior. Beresnev specifically noted they avoided direct promotion and focused on “native conversation formats” to make the content feel credible. The CEO claimed most players didn’t realize they were part of a marketing effort before the post was deleted within the last 24 hours, redirecting to a 404 page. However, the Internet Archive preserved the original article, revealing the full extent of the astroturfing campaign.
The brazen admission
Here’s what’s truly wild about this situation. Marketing agencies do this kind of stuff all the time – we all know that. But they don’t usually write detailed case studies about it and publish them on their official websites. Beresnev’s post wasn’t just an admission; it was practically a tutorial. He explained how his team played the game, recorded footage, and specifically crafted content to match Reddit’s “organic tone.” They created what he called “a wave of organic visibility” before a Twitch activation. Basically, they were building fake momentum to make the real marketing push seem more legitimate.
Why this matters
Look, we’ve all seen suspiciously enthusiastic posts about games we’ve never heard of. But seeing it laid out so explicitly makes you question everything. How many “OMG I just discovered this amazing hidden gem” posts are actually written by someone getting paid to say that? The Trap Plan CEO’s confidence in sharing these tactics suggests this isn’t some rogue operation – it’s considered standard practice in certain marketing circles. And that’s concerning for anyone who values authentic community discussion.
The broader context
This isn’t even close to the first time we’ve seen astroturfing in gaming communities. Reddit users were quick to point out this is a recurring problem across the industry. What’s different here is the sheer transparency from the marketing side. Most companies caught doing this would issue denials or stay silent. Trap Plan initially treated it as a success story worth sharing. That tells you something about how normalized these tactics have become in the game marketing world.
What happens next
Now that the post is gone and Kotaku has reached out to both Trap Plan and developer My.Games, we’ll likely see some damage control. But the cat’s out of the bag. The Reddit discussion about this is already pretty heated, and it’s going to make users more skeptical of similar posts in the future. The real question is whether this will actually change anything or if agencies will just get better at hiding their tracks. My guess? They’ll be more careful about what they put in writing, but the practice will continue. After all, when the original case study brags about how effective it was, why would they stop?
