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Eurogamer in 'did they play it' review controversy

A

Atrophis

Member
The game? Darkfall Online.

Eurogamer posted their review of the long thought to be vapourware MMO this afternoon and it has received one of the lowest scores ever given to a game by Eurogamer.

Ive just come across this little gem on the Darkfall forum from one of the developers and he claims that the reviewer did not play more than 2 hours of the game...and most of those two hours were spent on character creation.

Now im normally one to defend Eurogamers usually excellent reviews, but even not having played the game, it reads like a poorly written fanboy rant. The review now has over 300 comments with many of them pointing out the factual errors they allege the review contains.

How many on GAF have actually played the game? Is the review accurate? Is it fair to review an MMO based on only 2 hours of play? Hell, should game sites bother to review them at all?
 
controversial review scores from Eurogamer? What a shock. I don't get the love for these guys, I tend to disagree with them quite often.

edit: maybe it's Edge I'm thinking of.
 
Jtrizzy said:
controversial review scores from Eurogamer? What a shock. I don't get the love for these guys, I tend to disagree with them quite often.

edit: maybe it's Edge I'm thinking of.
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This isn't about a score or agreeing or disagreeing. It's about whether the reviewer was qualified to review the game.
 
Jtrizzy said:
controversial review scores from Eurogamer? What a shock. I don't get the love for these guys, I tend to disagree with them quite often.

edit: maybe it's Edge I'm thinking of.
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same here . they also seem to spout a lot rumors and opinions as facts
 
Ouch and they have server logs too to prove them wrong. Eurogamer :lol . Didn't they say Resistance's MP was broken due to one weapon that wasn't even in MP? :lol
 
When we read the hostile review by Ed Zitron, one thing became apparent: he had not played the game at all. Eurogamer readers and Darkfall players are posting bullet lists of factual errors in the story. The reviewer hadn't even figured out the very basics of the game before he wrote about it. We checked the logs for the 2 accounts we gave Eurogamer and we found that one of them had around 3 minutes playtime, and the other had less than 2 hours spread out in 13 sessions. Most of these 2 hours were spent in the character creator since during almost every one of the logins the reviewer spent the time creating a new character. The rest of the time was apparently spent taking the low-res screenshots that accompanied the article. At no point did this reviewer spend more than a few minutes online at a time.
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:lol :lol

I'd love to see Eurogamer reply to that..I mean, the developers have the server logs as evidence of the reviewer basically not playing the game...
 
This is unfortunate if it is true, as I very much like Eurogamer as a site and enjoy their reviews. Even if I don't always agree (a rarity) I can usually see where they are coming from.

I'm not familiar with Darkfall, but I do hope Eurogamer either (a) responds to the questions regarding inaccuracies in their review, or (b) do an IGN and retract a faulty review with apology (though quicker than the week it took IGN would be best).

Either way, it seems a response is needed.
 
Pretty embarassing, hardly a first though. Seems like every review site has at least one of these little scandals at one point or another.
 
dasupremeone said:
how did eurogamer respond?
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An update: Eurogamer got back to us via their editor and said that their reviewer is a contributing writer rather than a staff writer, that he claims to have spent at least 9 hours playing the game and they will stand by their publication. We wrote back that this is a lie and that our server logs(which they already have) show the playtime down to the second and they are at their disposal. They offered to re-review the game and see if the second reviewer has a different opinion than the first one. We wrote back that it might be hard to find someone to confirm the first review, especially if they actually play the game.
Click to expand...

.
 
dasupremeone said:
how did eurogamer respond?
Click to expand...

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=185060

An update: Eurogamer got back to us via their editor and said that their reviewer is a contributing writer rather than a staff writer, that he claims to have spent at least 9 hours playing the game and they will stand by their publication. We wrote back that this is a lie and that our server logs(which they already have) show the playtime down to the second and they are at their disposal. They offered to re-review the game and see if the second reviewer has a different opinion than the first one. We wrote back that it might be hard to find someone to confirm the first review, especially if they actually play the game.
Click to expand...
 
Wait, Eurogamer did replied to them.. :lol


We sent the play-time information to Eurogamer and asked them to take down the article as it is damaging our game’s reputation but also Eurogamer’s reputation. We asked to get an unbiased reviewer on the case who will actually play the game before writing about it. They said that taking it down now would be more damaging to their reputation than if they left it up. After our reaction to publicize the play history of their reviewers to protect our game, they asked us to wait while they try to confirm what we already knew from our logs. We’re afraid that waiting any longer is unacceptable to us, because this review was designed to drive people away from our game and allowing it to remain without any kind of reaction is out of the question. Out of professional courtesy we’ve waited 5 hours longer than we said we would before posting this.
Click to expand...

Then later...
An update: Eurogamer got back to us via their editor and said that their reviewer is a contributing writer rather than a staff writer, that he claims to have spent at least 9 hours playing the game and they will stand by their publication. We wrote back that this is a lie and that our server logs(which they already have) show the playtime down to the second and they are at their disposal. They offered to re-review the game and see if the second reviewer has a different opinion than the first one. We wrote back that it might be hard to find someone to confirm the first review, especially if they actually play the game.
Click to expand...

:lol :lol :lol :lol
 
Good thing it's one of Eurogamer's no-name freelancers. Had that been Kieron Gillen or so, shit would be hitting the fan to a much greater degree.
 
FlyinJ said:
Uh oh. Didn't the same thing happen to one of the EDIT:GameSPOT reviewers a few years ago?
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Yes, on... Sacred? I don't think it was an MMO but something more akin to Guild Wars, but more action-y.

Also, IIRC Eurogamer (or IGN? GS again? Team Xbox?) got semi-nailed on the Space Giraffe review when Minter posted the scores or whatever and it was obvious the reviewer didn't attempt to understand what he was playing.
 
cjelly said:
I think I could play a game for 2 hours and realise if it's shit or not, as could most.
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Yeah, but spending those 2 hours basically creating characters and not playing the game?:p
And in the case of an MMORPG, which like many RPGs in general..start really slow.
 
TheCardPlayer said:
Ouch and they have server logs too to prove them wrong. Eurogamer :lol . Didn't they say Resistance's MP was broken due to one weapon that wasn't even in MP? :lol
Click to expand...

Yep.
 
RedRedSuit said:
This isn't about a score or agreeing or disagreeing. It's about whether the reviewer was qualified to review the game.
Click to expand...

Well, my point is that this doesn't necessarily surprise me.
 
They once did something similar with Resistance 1. The reviewer basically panned the multiplayer and then commented about using a weapon while playing that was never in the multiplayer to begin with.
 
cjelly said:
I think I could play a game for 2 hours and realise if it's shit or not, as could most.
Click to expand...

You can't play any MMO for only 2 hours and get a good enough idea of what it's like to write a detailed review, especially since many of them start off so slowly.

Hell, Eurogamer has been known to re-review MMOs after a few months have passed, since fixing tons of shit via countless patches over time is a staple of the genre. This is why this is surprising coming from them, albeit it is a freelancer, so perhaps not as much.
 
TheCardPlayer said:
Ouch and they have server logs too to prove them wrong. Eurogamer :lol . Didn't they say Resistance's MP was broken due to one weapon that wasn't even in MP? :lol
Click to expand...

hailstorm in Multilayer.
 
NinjaFridge said:
Yep.
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They also started the RE5 racial controversy by describing how a white woman was dragged away by several black men...when it's a white woman dragged away by a single white dude. :lol

Journalism at it's finest.
 
Even 9 hours is ridiculously short for the usual MMO (though I admit not being familiar with the actual game being reviewed and whether it does things vastly different). I wonder if special cheat codes or advanced characters are usually offered to MMO reviewers so that they can also experience mid & end games.
 
TheCardPlayer said:
They also started the RE5 racial controversy by describing how a white woman was dragged away by several black men...when it's a white woman dragged away by a single white dude. :lol

Journalism at it's finest.
Click to expand...
Oh, they were the ones that started that shit?!
Fuck them! :lol
 
ghst said:
altogether folks...

games journalism!
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I think the people who spend months if not years working on the products we discuss here deserve good journalism.

Hesemonni said:
Was this before N'Gai Croal cried bitter tears?
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Nobody cared about N'Gai for some reason. Shit went down when Eurogamer cried ''racism''.
 
Yes, on... Sacred?
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Savage was the game. Gamespot reviewed it and gave it like a 5.5 and then it was later revealed the person reviewing it barely spent any time with it. The game was later re-reviewed and given a 7 or something if memory serves.
 
Googling the reviewer reveals another MMORPG review

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=161365&skip=yes

Though I've never heard of, or played the game (or any other MMORPG for that matter) I can't help but notice how lacking the review is in, um, specifics. Doesn't appear to be a reasoned criticism in there, just generalisation after generalisation.

Interestingly, his 2/5 review of Guitar Hero 2 is significantly lower than the Metacritic average. Not that there is anything wrong with going against the grain, but it is an interesting deviation.

EDIT - has a blog where he says EDGE are not fit to review first-person shooters. Good lord.
 
TheCardPlayer said:
Nobody cared about N'Gai for some reason. Shit went down when Eurogamer cried ''racism''.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it was N'Gai who was first crying about racist imagery and it was pretty widely discussed here. Can't really remember the Eurogamer bit. But anyway, I guess it's irrelevant to the question at hand. /OT
 
Madman said:
In their defense, the hailstorm would have broken the online if it was actually in there. :p
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To attack them further, the reviewer never said that hailstorm ruined the game. He said the multiplayer was basically crap but using the hailstorm was one of the only parts he really liked.
 
Tempy said:
Even 9 hours is ridiculously short for the usual MMO (though I admit not being familiar with the actual game being reviewed and whether it does things vastly different). I wonder if special cheat codes or advanced characters are usually offered to MMO reviewers so that they can also experience mid & end games.
Click to expand...
I've been noticing that on the major sites usually MMO reviews don't come out until about three to four weeks after release, so it seems they actually just have to play from the start.
 
TheCardPlayer said:
They also started the RE5 racial controversy by describing how a white woman was dragged away by several black men...when it's a white woman dragged away by a single white dude. :lol

Journalism at it's finest.
Click to expand...

It's a white dude who drags her away?
 
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