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.

View
23. Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Nov 18, 2011, 12:50 Ruffiana
 
Verno wrote on Nov 18, 2011, 11:15:
Prez wrote on Nov 18, 2011, 11:09:
Just because they are biased doesn't mean they can't post reviews in my view. Hell, most user reviews are just as biased, being written by either fanboys or haters. They used their real names, so it isn't like they were being sneaky. I don't see this as a big deal myself.

They are under no obligations to do so but they should disclose their status first thing in the text of the review. The reason they don't do this is simple, they want people to think it's from a potential consumer. If it was me I would never review my own game - it's in poor taste and smacks of desperation. Telltale Games is a great studio but just because they used their real names doesn't make it any less silly. The bioware thing blew up for slightly different reasons but I think it's the same principle.

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?

Otherwise, a half-dozen overwrought (and somewhat humorous) reviews from employees will get buried by other users and largely ignored in contrast to the official review scores. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see 10/10 from the users next to 40%-50% reviews from the media to think something might be up.

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.
 
Previous Post Next Post Reply Quote Edit Delete Report
 
    Date Subject Author
  1. Nov 18, 11:04 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Elf Shot The Food
  2. Nov 18, 11:05 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Tumbler
  4. Nov 18, 11:09  Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Prez
  5. Nov 18, 11:11   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting tony
  6. Nov 18, 11:14    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting nin
  9. Nov 18, 11:17    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Beamer
  11. Nov 18, 11:24     Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Prez
  12. Nov 18, 11:26      Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting CommunistHamster
  13. Nov 18, 11:27       Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Verno
  21. Nov 18, 12:13        Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Prez
  35. Nov 18, 19:59         Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Beamer
  14. Nov 18, 11:29       Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting nin
  15. Nov 18, 11:33      Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Darks
  10. Nov 18, 11:22    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting briktal
  7. Nov 18, 11:15   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Verno
>> 23. Nov 18, 12:50    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Ruffiana
  8. Nov 18, 11:16   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Dev
  27. Nov 18, 14:14   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting DeadlyAccurate
  28. Nov 18, 14:31    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting nin
  36. Nov 18, 20:10    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Prez
  3. Nov 18, 11:08 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting vacs
  16. Nov 18, 12:01 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting StingingVelvet
  17. Nov 18, 12:03 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Sho
  18. Nov 18, 12:05  Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting nin
  19. Nov 18, 12:09   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Sho
  37. Nov 18, 21:27   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Sepharo
  38. Nov 19, 00:41    Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Jerykk
  20. Nov 18, 12:11 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Cutter
  22. Nov 18, 12:33 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting saluk
  24. Nov 18, 12:58 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Verno
  25. Nov 18, 13:19 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Creston
  26. Nov 18, 13:59 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting DangerDog
  29. Nov 18, 15:16  Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting WyldKat
  30. Nov 18, 15:33 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting SimplyMonk
  31. Nov 18, 15:39 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Calwen
  32. Nov 18, 15:50  Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting wtf_man
  33. Nov 18, 16:03  Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Cutter
  34. Nov 18, 18:06   Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Halo
  39. Nov 19, 07:06 Re: Jurassic Park Metacritic Boosting Zadig


footer

.. ..

Blue's News logo