There’s a dark secret in the world of gaming computers… he who controls the money, controls the reviews from the magazines, media websites, Youtube videos, and even google listings.  This is especially true for a cutthroat niche such as gaming computers. StealthMachines has always been very conservative about advertising, primarily because our focus is on the customers we already have rather than attracting heaps of new ones.  Word of mouth has always been our focus.  Because of this, however, we were not there when an entire empire of advertising dollars changed hands over the past decade to take control of all forms of computer hardware media.

Money controls the world.  That’s not news for anyone.  But what may be news to some is that money controls sources of information which are supposed to be unbiased.  In other words, virtually none of what you read about from the review magazines is untainted by money.  It’s consequently VERY difficult to obtain the truth.

When I took a road trip to silicon valley last year to push for our flagship product, the NightHawk, to be reviewed I was shocked to find out just how far the rabbit hole goes.  Every single review company out there was entirely unwilling to even give me an audience until after I shelled out thousands of dollars worth of advertising dollars.  We got a plug from PC World due primarily to the kindness of their lead editor, and that was it.  Another reviewer took our computer in for a couple of days only to politely decline to write an article.  Wired Magazine wouldn’t even let us past the front door.  The list goes on.  It was really quite eye opening.

Had I shelled out the big bucks, I am quite confident that the NightHawk would have been featured.  Every review company who saw our product was quite impressed by its appearance, but when we talked about getting a slot with them, the story was always the same: which of our advertising packages would you like to purchase first?

Frankly, that’s very discomforting to StealthMachines.  With the highest customer satisfaction in the industry year after year, the review companies should be breaking down our front door to get a piece of the action, but the reality is that the security guard is the only person we manage to talk with the majority of the time unless our first point of contact is the advertising side of things.  The information you count on is a complete fabrication driven by advertising dollars, and the very best products don’t even get a mention if they’re not also backed by an advertising campaign with the media outlet.

So what is a consumer to do?

1. Don’t trust the media.  They sold out to the highest bidder long ago.
2. Do your own research.  The very best gaming computers are right here at stealthmachines.com, but the very best way to find that out is by participating in the hardware forums, NOT the media conglomerates who don’t care about getting the facts straight over getting rich.
3. Write a letter to your favorite media outlet asking them to stop sending out biased information.  The review companies already get paid by their subscribers to deliver the most accurate information, and anything less can only be defined as corruption.
4. Help us to advertise by TELLING YOUR FRIENDS.  The very best computer companies in the world are spending their money on improving the quality of the product, not deceiving their potential customers with reviews which were paid for.

We hope that by writing this article we open some eyeballs to the full truth of corruption in the computer review business.  Until then, StealthMachines will continue to manufacture the very highest quality custom gaming computers in the business.