More BF3 Norway Follow-up

[Oct 20, 2011, 10:35 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

We've received another follow-up to the recent report alleging EA was attempting to manipulate review scores of Battlefield 3 by putting pressure on Norwegian gaming sites. We already got word from Gamereactor that the article's references to them were inaccurate, and we just received a similar note from Gamer.no:

This is not true. EA have never refused to give Gamer.no access to a early review copy, and we did not need to answer any leading questions from EA to obtain it either. In fact our copy is shipped already, and should be in our hands tomorrow. There have never been any disagreements between EA and Gamer.no on this case.

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18.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 21, 2011, 08:13

Beamer

InBlack wrote on Oct 21, 2011, 04:19:
The news outlet from the original story should write a big coloumn about the relationship between the dedicated gaming press and industry publishers.

Why?
Everyone should know that, and there's really no way to change it. Press needs funds to survive. No one is paying for advertising to gamers except for gaming companies. It's an ugly relationship where the gaming press can't survive without the gaming companies.

Like I said in my giant rant in the other topic, this is pretty obvious. It's also pretty damn easy to see and live with. This doesn't make the mainstream gaming press useless, but it means you take everything with a couple grains of salt. They're still useful for making educated decisions.




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17.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 21, 2011, 04:19

InBlack

Everything that you said Beamer holds water, but Im thinking with these extra news blurbs they just want to divert attention from the original fail.

You are right they dont need questionaires for gamer.no, they are already in their backpocet.

The news outlet from the original story should write a big coloumn about the relationship between the dedicated gaming press and industry publishers.




I have a nifty blue line!

16.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 19:21

ColoradoHoudini

Beelzebud wrote on Oct 20, 2011, 12:20: The truth accidentally leaked out, and now they have to do damage control or never get another EA game, to review again. Unfortunately, that's my initial gut reaction. Not that I matter, and not that it really matters to me because I don't pay attention to review sites anyhow, i pay attention to what you guys say when it comes to reviews.

15.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 17:04

TurdFergasun

how can any website claim objectivity in the first place when their entire existence is dependent on advertising revenue from the same publishers who could pull that money from the result of bad press. the whole industry of game reviews seem to be at a conflict of interest from the get go.

14.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 16:23

entr0py

Also, as mentioned earlier, EA has already admitted to and apologized over it. It's only the details of exactly who was sent the questionnaire that are in question, not that EA-Norway sent one out. So, no it's not an Activision conspiracy. Sounds like either the reporter, Alexander Fuller of NRK, or his source, Snorre Bryne of Dagbladet, made an incorrect assumption about which sites got the questionnaire. The article describes gamereactor and gamer.no as "sister sites" of dagbladet, whatever that means in business speak. This comment was edited on Oct 20, 2011, 16:38.

13.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 15:44

theyarecomingforyou

Jackplug wrote on Oct 20, 2011, 14:07:
I think its activomit trying to stir up shit on BF3 so MW3 will get more buyers.

As much of a shitty company as Activision is you have to remember that EA is more than capable of fucking things up on its own without any assistance.




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12.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 14:35

Teddy

Jackplug wrote on Oct 20, 2011, 14:07: I think its activomit trying to stir up shit on BF3 so MW3 will get more buyers. I highly doubt that. Activision may not be my favorite company, but they're simply not stupid enough to risk charges of libel, fraud and anti-competitive behavior over something as completely inane as this. Nor are they stupid enough to give a competitor free advertising by manufacturing such a minor debacle. It's not significant enough to cause any number of people to boycott, so all it's doing is keeping BF3 in the news even more than it was before.

11.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 14:07

Jackplug

I think its activomit trying to stir up shit on BF3 so MW3 will get more buyers.

10.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:52

eRe4s3r

Well PR people have to justify their pay with SOMETHING ,p

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:34

Beamer

I also don't get what you guys think they are covering up. EA admits they sent this to the newspaper. Would having sent it to a few game sites be so much more damaging that it's worth lying about it, and having the small sites lie about it, when there are physical pieces of paper floating around?

Lastly, seriously, you think it's more likely that the sites told the newspaper "hey, we got this, too" and are now backtracking, again something pretty easy to get caught in, rather than the newspaper making a mistake, as they do daily?




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:31

Blackhawk

Wow. Lay off the Deus Ex, polish up your tin foil hats, and go back to bed.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:25

Beamer

eRe4s3r wrote on Oct 20, 2011, 12:22:
Or maybe they just wanted to make sure that the newspaper that receives the preview copy actually has someone in staff that has any clue whatsoever about BF3.

Otherwise why should EA send them a free copy of a game? And by the way, if the newspaper doesn't agree with this, theres this funny option called "buying it" ;p

This was the intention I'm sure, but some of the questions were absolutely unnecessary.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:22

eRe4s3r

Or maybe they just wanted to make sure that the newspaper that receives the preview copy actually has someone in staff that has any clue whatsoever about BF3. Otherwise why should EA send them a free copy of a game? And by the way, if the newspaper doesn't agree with this, theres this funny option called "buying it" ;p

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 12:20

Beelzebud

The truth accidentally leaked out, and now they have to do damage control or never get another EA game, to review again.

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 11:05

Beamer

No.
EA apologized for this, remember?

It got sent to non-gaming sites, i.e. the newspaper that reported it. It did not get sent to gaming sites.

This isn't a hard thing to piece together. Let's look at the facts:
1) A newspaper reported that they received a query regarding how familiar they are with a franchise before receiving a copy to review. The query had some fairly inappropriate questions
2) The guy at EA that sent this out immediately apologized and admitted it was wrong
3) The newspaper claimed gaming sites received this
4) Gaming sites deny this

You can either draw the batshit "OMG THE GAMING SITES ARE IN ON THIS" conclusion or draw the "Well, EA doesn't really have a relationship with the paper and papers aren't typically familiar with gaming so they wanted to get an idea of what was going to happen before sending the game out, which is stupid and a dick move but the gaming sites aren't in on some massive conspiracy against consumers" notion.

Honestly, stop and think for a second. If the gaming sites had no problem lying about objective facts why would EA need to send them a condemning piece of paper to get them to lie about subjective opinions? If they trust them enough not to leak those slips shouldn't they trust them enough to score boost?




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 11:00

InBlack

Beamer wrote on Oct 20, 2011, 10:45:
No it doesn't.

If these gaming sites were so in bed with EA that they'd cover all of this up then why would EA need to send them some kind of flimsy survey to get a copy of the game?
If they're so close that they bend at every whim the survey would seem entirely unnecessary, no?

So Beamer what would be the logical answer to all this? The whole original story was made up, and we should trust the official EA and Gamer.no sources?




I have a nifty blue line!

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 10:45

Beamer

No it doesn't.

If these gaming sites were so in bed with EA that they'd cover all of this up then why would EA need to send them some kind of flimsy survey to get a copy of the game?
If they're so close that they bend at every whim the survey would seem entirely unnecessary, no?




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

Re: More BF3 Norway Follow-up

Oct 20, 2011, 10:42

Mad Max RW

Smells like a coverup.

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