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Publisher Blacklisting on Review Scores


deanb
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I was gonna stick this on the news feed but it's both broken on RSS (Sterling needs to learn to add in the "more>>" on his stuff) and I thought it's a topic worth expanding on:

http://www.destructoid.com/allegations-sleaze-treachery-a-tale-of-two-worlds-194521.phtml

 

Basically the guys with Two Worlds II are supposedly fucking over any publication that dare to give it less than a 70% score. (I say "supposedly" cos I take Sterlings stuff with a pinch of salt. It's all "anonymous source this, anonymous source that")

 

Eidos have been known to do it in the past, though I've not heard much on them since they got taken over by Square Enix. Last I heard they did the whole no-embargo for good scores thing on Batman, which many folks were surprised with since Batman got rave reviews. Then there was the old Kane n Lynch n Gertsmangate stuff.

 

So what are your thoughts on the matter?

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Honestly, in the case of Topware I'd tell them to go ahead and blacklist me. Who gives a fuck about their craptastic games except fringe European gamers anyway?

 

I'll add this much though. Reading through that list of allegations, I'm more than certain that most of the major publishers out there do some of those things -- notably the posing as members of the public on forums, etc.

 

Seriously, I see posts all the time around the internet that I could swear were written by someone on a company payroll.

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part of why I don't pay attention to reviews with scores.

 

Metacritic can eat a bag of dicks, I'm not looking at that for a metric on quality.

Well, you do get an arrangement of well-known and obscure sources, and I would say (with the buffering) that the Metacritic score is the median rating, not the average(mean).

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part of why I don't pay attention to reviews with scores.

 

Metacritic can eat a bag of dicks, I'm not looking at that for a metric on quality.

I like using gamerankings.com a lot actually. I have a handful of sites that I like for reviews, but if there's a game that I'm interested in making a purchase decision on, I like to open two of the lowest scoring reviews and two of the highest scoring reviews for that game.

 

That tends to do a good job of showing you the game through the eyes of two people that really liked it, and two people that will focus more on the game's flaws. Basically, I want to see the cons of the game, and what might get in the way of me enjoying it, and see what people who liked the game felt it's main selling points and strengths were.

 

(That was one thing I really liked about the old liked/hated format over at Kotaku, as they'd deliver both pretty clearly. Haven't read a good, helpful review there in a long while.)

 

So, to go back to the idea of scores...I don't make a decision on a game's average or site specific review scores, but I do find the scores useful in having a rough idea of how the game was appraised by reviewers, and look for unusually high and low scores for the game to get those specific perspectives on the game. I find it works well for my purchasing decisions. :)

Edited by peteer02
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if there's a game that I'm interested in making a purchase decision on, I like to open two of the lowest scoring reviews and two of the highest scoring reviews for that game.

 

Hah. That's how I buy things in general on places like ebuyer n Amazon.

 

As for reviews on games, I tend to ask about for those I know with the game. Your friends aren't on commission, if it's a shit game they'll lay it out bare for you, if it's good you'll rarely have to even ask what it's like.

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Feh, tired of score based reviews, it's just a way for people with short attention span to skip the written review and goes right to conclusion or even only saw the scores.

 

I've met with someone who only play games that popular and get great scores from sites like IGN and Gamestop (after the K&L debacle) and brag about it, long story short, I rarely talk about games around him anymore after he decided to diss my choice of games and belittling me.

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Two Worlds II, to me, was okay. Not good, not great, not fantastic. They had a lot going for it and fell short on just about everything.

 

Also:

 

I've met with someone who only play games that popular and get great scores from sites like IGN and Gamestop (after the K&L debacle) and brag about it, long story short, I rarely talk about games around him anymore after he decided to diss my choice of games and belittling me.

 

1. Find awesome game he doesn't know about with relatively low review score compared to his standard

2. Play it in front of him and have him revel in its awesomeness

3. Let him play it and revel in its awesomeness

4. Show him the score

5. Profit

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Two Worlds II, to me, was okay. Not good, not great, not fantastic. They had a lot going for it and fell short on just about everything.

 

Also:

 

I've met with someone who only play games that popular and get great scores from sites like IGN and Gamestop (after the K&L debacle) and brag about it, long story short, I rarely talk about games around him anymore after he decided to diss my choice of games and belittling me.

 

1. Find awesome game he doesn't know about with relatively low review score compared to his standard

2. Play it in front of him and have him revel in its awesomeness

3. Let him play it and revel in its awesomeness

4. Show him the score

5. Profit

 

Heh, I don't want to waste my time to try to convince him, with the 50/50 possibilities I prefer to spend my time with like minded friend online.

 

Bad Company 2, here come.

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