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Eurogamer: Firewatch review-bombed following PewDiePie racism incident
- Thread starter Coxy100
- Start date
RumbleHumble
Banned
One does so because of stupid pathetic bullshit, while the other did it to stop the proliferation of stupid pathetic racist bullshit.
Don't equivocate. These two actions are not the same thing. Context is important. And it's not like Firewatch is the first person to ever enforce DMCA whenever they like.
Prevolition
Member
I actually think I'll move up Firewatch on my to-buy list. Always looked good to me and now it looks even better. Hopefully more people support the dev after this crap.
Yeah, i was thinking about doing that.
I don't want Campo Santo / Sean Vanaman to be left with a net negative effect on their business after taking a strong stance against this kind of hate speech.
I'm very much willing to 'pitch in' - seeing as on the no-paywall-battlefield of steam reviews, the dickheads seem to be in the majority, i'd love to see them somehow 'counter' a wave of support of people purchasing.
If you don't wanna go for the 19.99 game, the soundtrack's only 5 bucks.
GhostTrick
Banned
Publishers cares about the review ratio on Steam. Hence why Batman Arkham Knight was removed and relaunched and Rockstar changed their stance on GTAV mods.
Come on, let's not start the "both sides" please.
Frank Jaeger
Member
Do you guys realize that most of his fans are kids? Like early teens and pre teens?
I'm not trying to compare them, I'm just saying they are both exploitable and there's nothing we can do to stop it without hurting people doing things the right way. If Valve deleted every Review by an account than then refunded the game, then if someone makes the worst PC Port I've ever seen, and I want to warn other consumers before they make the same mistake as me, should I loose 59.99 so my Review isn't deleted?
They're not really setting a precedent if you look at the history of DMCAs.
The system is inherently broken as a copyright protection tool, much like most of our copyright legislature. If you want to complain about the Firewatch devs' use of it, you need to realize this is not a new problem.
formasymphonic
Member
Likewise, DMCA takedowns should be reserved for cases of copyright infringement, not censorship. (I realize Let's Plays aren't covered under fair-use, so they had legal ground to stand on, but that wasn't what they were concerned about.) YouTube should have been the ones to take it down. I'm glad it's gone, regardless, because that kind of filth doesn't deserve a platform, but still, garbage like Digital Homicide might point to it and say, "Well, you let THEM do it."
RumbleHumble
Banned
I'll buy full price on PS4 later today. I finally got around to playing Tales from the Borderlands and loved the shit out of it, so now's as good a time as any to give this a shot.
James Scott
Banned
Would be nice if valve made an exception and made refunds for fire watch non applicable for a short while
Not comparable to taking down reviews or critical videos
Nah, DMCA takedown was used properly.
Not comparable to taking down reviews or critical videos
It wasn't a false DMCA claim. Video game developers have the right to take their content down for any reason they see fit.
:Motorbass
Member
Man, I would love to watch some TV show where the host, the target and a camera crew show up at peoples' houses that write shit like this and confront them (or their mom) with those quotes. You know, just discuss that.
BanjoLayleeYookaKazooie
Banned
Ugh, sad but not surprising.
But yeah as pathetic as this example is and as immature as it could seem in general review bombing does have a use and has lead to good things in the past.
Just don't look at this temper tantrum by teenage boys as an example of that.
But yeah as pathetic as this example is and as immature as it could seem in general review bombing does have a use and has lead to good things in the past.
Just don't look at this temper tantrum by teenage boys as an example of that.
Peroroncino
Member
I'd watch that, lol.
As for the review bombs, I'm not really surprised, people never react well to DMCA strikes on their favorite youtubers, no matter the reason.
That would require backbone; something Valve clearly lacks as demonstrated time after time again. They are Youtube/Google-level when it comes to shit like this basically.
James Scott
Banned
Leaving bad reviews for a game you didn't spend money on by getting a refund is likely never good
Alcotholic
Banned
That's a lot of work just because you're angry at someone.I'm guessing they are just refunding after leaving the bad review.
Deeke[VRZ]
Member
Did some maths:
45% of the reviews placed in the last 30 days are positive, which means 55% of them are negative.
There were 2,120 reviews placed in the last 30 days from verified purchasers, as per Steam. So 45% of 2,120 = 954 positive reviews vs 55% of 2,120 = 1166 negative reviews.
45% of the reviews placed in the last 30 days are positive, which means 55% of them are negative.
There were 2,120 reviews placed in the last 30 days from verified purchasers, as per Steam. So 45% of 2,120 = 954 positive reviews vs 55% of 2,120 = 1166 negative reviews.
James Scott
Banned
The guy with the Nazi avatar might be on to something
the two sides are: people that like to say the n word vs decent human beings
Poodlestrike
Banned
Just went ahead and bought it, at full price. Was gonna leave a review too but it looks like they're having issues lol.
As for people concerned over DMCAs, the reason why companies don't already abuse them in the way you're fretting about (crushing negative reviews) is because they know that'd hurt them as much as it helps. Just takes one YouTuber with a decent audience for that thing to backfire, hard. The reason the devs used it here was a matter of principle, not advantage, and a good one at that. So no slippery slope silliness pls.
As for people concerned over DMCAs, the reason why companies don't already abuse them in the way you're fretting about (crushing negative reviews) is because they know that'd hurt them as much as it helps. Just takes one YouTuber with a decent audience for that thing to backfire, hard. The reason the devs used it here was a matter of principle, not advantage, and a good one at that. So no slippery slope silliness pls.
Samir Sedlar
Member
Pretty much this. The end result is a "tool" misused, regardless of intent. The ramifications are always going to be huge, and no one will care about why a certain party did it.
They used it to block commentary. Just because it's disgusting, hateful commentary doesn't mean it's not comparable. YouTube should be the ones to remove this kind of stuff.
GhostTrick
Banned
good summary of this shitty sitaution
Poodlestrike
Banned
But YouTube isn't. So what do you suggest happens?
Of course it's not a new problem, every new instance of something sets a precedent, that's how law works. This is a unique situation in that most people who would usually be throwing a fit over this are more keen to ignore it because it's putting a little nazi prick in his place which sounds all well and good except that this pretty much has 0 real impact on PDP and only hurts other content creators in the long run.
yukimeans_snow
Member
yeah, that's not exactly new information
James Scott
Banned
We have a thread on this so i don't want to derail, but LPs aren't seen as fair use yet.
Not really fair for the developers with consumers abusing the refund system
I barely have enough hours in the day to get my work done and spend time with my family.
I don't see how people have time (or desire) to defend bratty, racist millionaires.
They didn't want a piece of shit to continue to be associated with their product and make money off it. They were 100% in the right. I already said it on this page but I'll say it again, developers have the legal right to take down their content.
Man Called Aerodynamics
Member
How about just using reviews to, you know, review the game in question?
The Steam Community, ladies and gentleman. Creating "Value" for other "Consumers" while Valve works on God knows what since 2010.
No it wasn't.
BanjoLayleeYookaKazooie
Banned
As has already been pointed out, the immense amount of negative reviews Arkham Knight received certainly contributed towards WB taking unprecedented steps to rectify the situation. There was then nothing wrong with those people getting a refund of course, they'd been misleadingly sold a broken game after all.
Yeah, it's a powerful tool, and like all powerful tools it can be used either positively or negatively.
That doesn't mean that the tool is at fault.
Lightning_Roller
Banned
Sadly, this.
I stand with the developers on their decision to demonitize the videos of their gameplay on PDP's channel. He racist as shit and they don't want anything to do with him.
Hari Seldon
Member
I'm not fine with review bombing in general. But a DMCA takedown of a video that probably moved THOUSANDS of units for these devs is a total shit look. If these devs are serious about hating PDP, they should calculate how many thousands of units sold in the immediate 24 hours after PDP made his first video and donate 100% of that money to some charity.
Review Bombing should never be used. It's a shit thing to do no matter the cause and it makes user reviews even more useless.
It's not a shit look at all. The only shit thing is PDP and fans reactions.
It's absolutely at fault and it's a tool that should never be used. Review bombing is never a good thing.
Dubbedinenglish
Banned
We can see why the reviews drop, yet Valve does nothing. By allowing it, they encourage this behavior.
That seems like the easiest solution