Send News. Want a reply? Read this. More in the FAQ.   News Forum - All Forums - Mobile - PDA - RSS Headlines  RSS Headlines   Twitter  Twitter
Customize
User Settings
Styles:
LAN Parties
Upcoming one-time events:
Redding, CA 06/22
Tampa, FL 06/26
Tampa, FL 10/04

Regularly scheduled events

Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting

GameSpot reports on some shenanigans on the Jurassic Park: The Game Metacritic Page, where they spotted what they cleverly call "telltale signs" that Telltale employees submitted user reviews giving the recently released movie tie-in perfect 10/10 scores. GameSpot, no stranger to review controversy, explains what aroused their suspicions: "Between the reviewers' constant lionizing of Telltale Games, complete sentences, proper punctuation, and paucity of spelling errors, we began to suspect that the user reviews were not the product of actual players, but of Telltale representatives. Sure enough, a cursory Google search on the reviewers' user names backed up our suspicions. One of the reviewers was a user interface artist at Telltale; another was a cinematic artist. According to their LinkedIn profiles, both were relatively new to the studio, but they should have more than enough experience in the industry to understand this was a bad idea."

This recalls a controversy earlier this year when a BioWare employee submitted a positive user review for Dragon Age II, and GameSpot received the following explanation from Telltale on their policy in matters like this: "Telltale Games do not censor or muzzle its employees in what they post on the internet. However, it is being communicated internally that anyone who posts in an industry forum will acknowledge that they are a Telltale employee. In this instance, two people who were proud of the game they worked on, posted positively on Metacritic under recognizable online forum and XBLA account names." Both GameSpot and Metacritic are properties of CBS Interactive.

Post Comment
Enter the details of the comment you'd like to post in the boxes below and click the button at the bottom of the form.

24. Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Nov 18, 2011, 12:58 Verno
 
User review are a farce anyway. I trust a 10/10 review about as much as I trust a 0/10 review.

Unless users want to start identifying themselves for any potential bias...employees of other companies, working for other publishers, really hated Jurrasic Park, molested by Stephen Spielburg (KotCS debacle), thinks Michael Crichton is a douchebag, etc...where do you draw the line. Aren't our opinions based on biases? Isn't the simple act of buying and playing a game in the first place based on some sort of bias?

If you honestly rushed out and bought this game because you truly believed it would be like "Heavy Rain" directed by Stephen Spielburg, then you've got bigger problems you should get help for.

Those are all fair comments but the point is transparency is better for consumers to weigh all options and make up their own mind. I distrust perfect review scores almost more than "hater" scores but unfortunately those user reviews seem to often get the most weight on metacritic so they get a lot of eyeballs. As for where the line is drawn, ideally companies would have internal rules for PR but often times its in their own best interest if employees skirt them and try to influence reviews.

Is it realistic to expect the industry not to try with money on the line? Probably not. Should that stop people from calling them out when they do? No way.

This comment was edited on Nov 18, 2011, 13:07.
 
Avatar 51617
 
Playing: Super Mario 3D Land, Tales of Graces F, Fire Emblem 3DS
Watching: Hannibal, Community, Life
Reply Quote Edit Delete Report
 
Subject
Comment
     
 
      ;)   ;)   :(   :(   :o   :o   %)   %)   :)   :)   :|   :|   ;P   ;P   X|   X|   :D   :D   More
 
Login Email   Password Remember Me
If you have a signature set up, it will be automatically appended to your comment.
If you don't already have a Blue's News user account, you can sign up here.
Forgotten your password? Click here.
 
          Email me when this topic is updated.
 

Special Codes

  • b[bold text]b
  • i[italic text]i
  • u[underline text]u
  • -[strikethrough text]-
  • c[code text]c
  • +[bullet point]+
  • q[quote text (indented)]q
  • [quote="Author"]quote text (indented)[/quote]
  • [url=Link]text[/url]
  • r{red text}r
  • g{green text}g
  • b{blue text}b
  • m{maroon text}m
  • s{secret text (shows in the background colour)}s

Forum Rules

  1. Disagree all you want but attacks of a personal nature will not be tolerated.
  2. Ethnic slurs and homophobic language will not be tolerated.
  3. Do not post spam, links to warez sites, or instructions on how to obtain pirated software.
  4. Abusing the forums in any manner that could be construed as 'griefing' will not be tolerated.


footer

.. ..

Blue's News logo