[Quixzlizx]

Great post. Especially this part.

It's only the same if Activision employees were giving the game 0s and 1s to stick it to an EA-published game.

If you're going to review your own product, you should at least identify yourself to avoid looking skeezy, even if it's just a pointless user-review.

[graywolf323]

the difference between the user score and the critic score is pretty damning

[Rollo Larson]

this is surprising? i dont find this surprising. not to say anything about bioware in particular, just the idea of a company planted user review. not surprising at all.

[Alastor]

What are you guys talking about? Avanost is a highly respected polish video game magazine! Seems legit to me [IMG]http://i56.************/2v1ro86.png[/IMG]

:\

This is fake, and not in Polish

(well, it is, but only if you consider "Me like Dragon Age very great best" english)

On topic: My respect for BioWare: -1, currently all-time low with no signs of any change.

[bigdaddygamebot]

what do you expect them to say about their own game? Does anyone honestly believe any game company(or any company selling a product) doesn't do this

I expect them to be more subtle.

[water_wendi]

This is fake, and not in Polish (well, it is, but only if you consider "Me like Dragon Age very great best" english)

i dont know. Sounds legit to me. Lots of English reviews sound like that. im pretty sure thats the line that The Escapist used.

[EmCeeGramr]

You guys are also ignoring that a bunch of other suspect accounts which apparently linked back to BioWare employees were registered on the same day... and all gave DA2 a 10 and wrote PR-like reviews as their only ratings.

When users got pissed off at DA2 and wrote 0s in protest, BioWare's PR then talked up about how Metacritic user reviews didn't matter, and while they don't matter, it's hilarious that you can say that while your own employees apparently care a lot.


There was also something (I don't know all the details), but somebody posting on a Russian BioWare site who allegedly had a connection to BW, exhorting fans to give high reviews to DA2... before the game was even out in Russia.

[MustacheBandit_]

this is the exact reason why i do not take reviews seriously.

[DaBuddaDa]

I foresee Dragon Age 3's twitter account next year tweeting:

"If we have 1000 people give Dragon Age 3 a 10/10 score on Metacritic before Friday we will release this badass new Dragon Sword DLC and new wallpapers!"

[Confidence Man]

The surprising thing is that there are people at Bioware other than Mark Laidlaw that actually want to defend the game.

I'd bet that some of those 0/10 scores are from disgruntled Bioware employees.

[Haunted]

Bioware :( You used to be cool.

I love detective-GAF.

.


I know some companies who write their own Amazon user reviews.

[Steve Youngblood]

I'd bet that some of those 0/10 scores are from disgruntled Bioware employees.

Why? Were there post-release layoffs?

[Haunted]

To OP: Get a life. Christ, it's a user review.

Sorry Chris, the jig is up.

[Nirolak]

The number of people who thought Sealda's magazine photoshop was real kind of boggles my mind.

[Dyno]

It's a hurting move and Bioware seems to be becoming a hurting unit as well.

[water_wendi]

There was also something (I don't know all the details), but somebody posting on a Russian BioWare site who allegedly had a connection to BW, exhorting fans to give high reviews to DA2... before the game was even out in Russia.

Yea.. on Bioware.ru there is a news item asking people to vote on Metacritic to combat the low review scores lol

Page in Russian: http://www.bioware.ru/2011/03/10/dra...etacritic.html

Page translated to English: http://translate.google.com/translat...c.html&act=url

[practice02]

This guy is so dumb for liking a product the company he works for put out. What an arrogant bitch.

[Finalow]

lol Bioware, good job.

[Brazil]

So what? Big fucking deal.

Finding reasons to hate on BioWare is the new finding reasons to hate on Kotick.

[water_wendi]

This guy is so dumb for liking a product the company he works for put out. What an arrogant bitch.

shill (shl) Slang
n.
One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.

[MustacheBandit_]

This guy is so dumb for liking a product the company he works for put out. What an arrogant bitch.

its called business ethics. or lack thereof on his part.

[water_wendi]

So what? Big fucking deal. Finding reasons to hate on BioWare is the new finding reasons to hate on Kotick.

Haha! You are right. If this was another developer nobody would care. Since its Bioware, however, people are taking them to task.

Please.

[bigdaddygamebot]

The number of people who thought Sealda's magazine photoshop was real kind of boggles my mind.

Well...I'm not polish. I don't read polish. I've never been to Poland.

Bet I could spot a fake North American magazine though...

Your boggled mind boggles my mind.

shill (shl) Slang n. One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.

You're forgetting how cool it is these days to not care about...stuff.

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Pretty shitty move, yeah. On the other hand, the laughable 0 and 1 user reviews are every bit as illegitimate. There's a good reason they're never taken seriously.

Here's my favorite:

Mar 9, 20111 I bought this yesterday and i'm already upset how horrible it is. I felt like developers trolled me with a videogame. To punish myself for wasting money on this piece of **** i forced my parents to marathon Strike Witches anime with me to further destroy my reputation. Afterwards my dad was beating me while mom was crying and shouting she will disown me. Now i'm going to destroy my baby brother's brain with my penis so i will get death punishment at court, all thanks to Bioware's antics

[Coen]

You know, if my paycut depended on the average on metacritic of my game, I'd probably try to find a way to influence it too. I'd just be a bit more subtle about it.

[Rollo Larson]

Pretty shitty move, yeah. On the other hand, the laughable 0 and 1 reviews are every bit as illegitimate.

i believe this too. as fake as they are though, theres still no reliable proof that this was even that bioware guy. it would take ip addresses and such...not just name association. all the names could be anybody

[Steve Youngblood]

Finding reasons to hate on BioWare is the new finding reasons to hate on Kotick.

I understand a sentiment of regretting that there might be a certain degree of disproportionate vitriol levied at BioWare in response to perceived slights against their fanbase, but at the same time, I don't understand how people can assume that nothing egregious is happening here. Sure, maybe the employee acted alone. Yeah, it's just a user review, and we all know what a joke those are (though, ideally they shouldn't be). But in relation to that last point, one either needs to concede that this -- at the very least -- should not be praised or condoned. Obviously, someone involved in or invested in the creation of a consumer good should be disqualified from offering objective criticism about the product in question. To disagree on the grounds that user reviews are no big deal is simply an argument for abolishing user reviews entirely.

Mind you, I don't think this is the crime of the century. That doesn't mean that it isn't laughable all the same.

[Makoto]

You know, if my paycut depended on the average on metacritic of my game, I'd probably try to find a way to influence it too. I'd just be a bit more subtle about it.

I'm sure EA doesn't care about the user review average on Metacritic.

i believe this too. as fake as they are though, theres still no reliable proof that this was even that bioware guy. it would take ip addresses and such...not just name association. all the names could be anybody

Yup. We have to remember this originated from reddit where r/gaming has been duped before. This could easily have been someone posing as a BioWare employee.

[Haunted]

You know, if my paycut depended on the average on metacritic of my game, I'd probably try to find a way to influence it too. I'd just be a bit more subtle about it.

This was not to influence the bonus, it was to influence people into buying it.

Bonuses are not determined by the user score.

[Sotha Sil]

Holy hell. I love Bioware games, but the "creator liking his creation, news at 11" posts are painful to read.

Such a pathetic move.

[Enosh]

while punishing truly great games from small developers

such as?

[megalowho]

This happens all the time. I'm sure they've paid off a good amount of those media reviewers as well. Nothing new or shocking. But it is disgusting.

Yeah, I'd be more surprised if it wasn't happening for nearly every release in some respect. Forum posts, user reviews, critical coverage - if it has the ability to influence purchases, PR will try to game it. This guy is not PR, and while I'd be wrong to assume rationale I'd be willing to guess he's not getting paid to make the game look good on the internet. Probably just trying to combat 0.0 trolls. I'd love to see these people exposed every time it happens though, and not just when a game is under the microscope of the community like DA2 has been.

[SRG01]

I'm actually surprised at how many people held Bioware up on a pedestal for all these years. I'm from Edmonton and they're not that great of a company from what I hear about it.

[Brazil]

Haha! You are right. If this was another developer nobody would care. Since its Bioware, however, people are taking them to task. Please.

You seriously think people would stalk the creator of a positive Metacritic user review if it wasn't for a game by a company they're actively hating right now?

Please.

I understand a sentiment of regretting that there might be a certain degree of disproportionate vitriol levied at BioWare in response to perceived slights against their fanbase, but at the same time, I don't understand how people can assume that nothing egregious is happening here. Sure, maybe the employee acted alone. Yeah, it's just a user review, and we all know what a joke those are (though, ideally they shouldn't be). But in relation to that last point, one either needs to concede that this -- at the very least -- should not be praised or condoned. Obviously, someone involved in or invested in the creation of a consumer good should be disqualified from offering objective criticism about the product in question. To disagree on the grounds that user reviews are no big deal is simply an argument for abolishing user reviews entirely. Mind you, I don't think this is the crime of the century. That doesn't mean that it isn't laughable all the same.

I won't say that user reviews in general are not a big deal, but one review among those doesn't mean anything. If all the developers were giving the game 10s en masse, I'd pick up the pitchfork. But, as it is, one good review among tons of bad ones is nothing. People will look at it and just think "Ok, it's just a fanboy" or something like that.

[Instro]

This happens for almost everything, not just video games. Companies write their own reviews on Amazon, film companies have people inflate the IMDB score of a movie just released, etc etc. Nothing new.

It doesnt really matter because its basically just balancing out the really stupid 1's and 2's.

[Steve Youngblood]

It doesnt really matter because its basically just balancing out the really stupid 1's and 2's.

Well, ideally those would be filtered out as well. However, in the grand scheme of ethical dilemmas, I hold kneejerk-reacting fanboys less accountable for their actions than I do business professionals.

[bigdaddygamebot]

This happens for almost everything, not just video games. Companies write their own reviews on Amazon, film companies have people inflate the IMDB score of a movie just released, etc etc. Nothing new. It doesnt really matter because its basically just balancing out the really stupid 1's and 2's.

Then Bioware's employees need to be more subtle.

Bioware might also want to deal with websites that are capable of showing some subtlety in their mid-embargo early reviews. The Escapist's review was about as subtle as a brick to the face.

[water_wendi]

You seriously think people would stalk the creator of a positive Metacritic user review if it wasn't for a game by a company they're actively hating right now? Please.

Stalk? :LOL Someone saw a post that read like PR and they Googled his name.

And yes, if any other company got caught doing something like this the responses would be the same. Even the corporate defenders like you would be present, just for another company.

[Enosh]

the difference between the user score and the critic score is pretty damning

yes people who never played the game giving out 1s and 0s just beacose it isn't a carbon copy of the original tend to make this hapen

user reviews are probably one of the most useless things on the internet when it comes to games

[EmCeeGramr]

But, as it is, one good review among tons of bad ones is nothing..

Did you miss that multiple BioWare employees were involved, while BioWare at the same time was saying that user reviews didn't matter?


Please stop supporting unethical shilling, especially when a lot of these reviews came in one the very first day you could, before the wave of negative reviews came in.

[dralla]

you think bioware is the only one who does this? it's just another marketing tool

[bj00rn_]

Eh, ok? And? Who cares about user reviews? Everyone knows they are fucked by fanboys and shills. What a waste of "investigative journalism".

[Gooster]

I am impressed by the detective work, but I still feel like this kind of thing happens all the time and user reviews tend to be too idiotic to take seriously in the first place.

Reminds me of that Sony employee who wrote glowing review headlines for A Knight's Tale and a bunch of Rob Schneider movies.

[water_wendi]

yes people who never played the game giving out 1s and 0s just beacose it isn't a carbon copy of the original tend to make this hapen user reviews are probably one of the most useless things on the internet when it comes to games

i trust user reviews much more than paid reviewers. At least with user reviews there is a chance for a genuine opinion. Such a thing is impossible with professional reviewers as long as gaming companies pay their salaries.

[Patryn]

Haha! You are right. If this was another developer nobody would care. Since its Bioware, however, people are taking them to task. Please.

It's a perfect storm. A lot of long-time Bioware fans have increasingly been feeling alienated, and here comes a flawed game that exemplifies many of their criticisms. Add in a mildly insulting PR campaign, and it's all the ingredients for a massive backlash.

[Lothars]

I'm actually surprised at how many people held Bioware up on a pedestal for all these years. I'm from Edmonton and they're not that great of a company from what I hear about it.

I still think they should be help up to a higher standard because the quality of games they release are pretty high.

[Cheech]

I'm actually surprised at how many people held Bioware up on a pedestal for all these years. I'm from Edmonton and they're not that great of a company from what I hear about it.

The reason *I'm* pissed off really has fuck all to do with the company itself.

Dragon Age Origins was a great, great throwback RPG. I played through it on 360 and PC, plus most of the DLC. It reminded me of the Baldur's Gate games, and I enjoyed it every bit as much.

Dragon Age II is such a miscalculation on Bioware's part as to who the userbase was for the original game, it is just stunning. Not all their IPs need to play exactly like Mass Effect.

DA2 is so bad, I am questioning what exactly we're getting with Old Republic. Day 1 purchase on that hoss, I think not.

[VibratingDonkey]

Metacritic user reviews are useless garbage anyway. Who cares if someone tries to pollute a cesspool?

[Lothars]

i trust user reviews much more than paid reviewers. At least with user reviews there is a chance for a genuine opinion. Such a thing is impossible with professional reviewers as long as gaming companies pay their salaries.

I don't trust either but especially user reviews tend to be just as bad as any professional reviewers.

[DaBuddaDa]

"Intentionally hiding behind a fake name to mislead people with a disingenuous review of a product you worked on is absolutely fine!"

"This doesn't affect me and I don't personally look at user scores, so I don't care."

"Everyone else does it too, so it's OK."

A very, very sad day for GAF and a huge eye opener.