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EIDOS BUSTED AGAIN - Now Blocking Tomb Raider Underworld Scores Under 8/10
- Thread starter h3ro
- Start date
SlasherJPC
Banned
Haunted said:
Thats because we have "raised and trained" everyone to just look at a review score immediatly. Hell even I fall for it. I remember looking through Play Magazine one day, and I turned to the review pages and started scanning for the score. Granted I read the articles anyways but becaues I couldnt just look and see that 8.5 or 4.5 on the review, I was sorta annoyed. Yet it would be so much better if games didn't get scores and we just learned what was good and bad about the game and then make our own call on the game.
Visualante
Member
They just don't learn do they?
BravoSuperStar
Member
Fuck this shit. No more Eidos games for me I guess, I cannot support them any longer.
I AM JOHN!
Banned
smhJDSN said:
Blast Processing
Member
It baffles me that companies think they can pull this shit and not get called on it. We may be the hardest of the hardcore, but this shit trickles down, even to the level of GameStop employees advising customers not to support companies that pull crap like this.
Unrelated, but just the other day I saw a GameStop employee, one of the manager or assistant manager types (I think this particular guy is like 2nd in command at my local store), tell someone not to buy CoD: WaW, because it wasn't developed by Infinity Ward, and Activision is basically trying to pull the wool over customers' eyes by alternating devs on the series.
Unrelated, but just the other day I saw a GameStop employee, one of the manager or assistant manager types (I think this particular guy is like 2nd in command at my local store), tell someone not to buy CoD: WaW, because it wasn't developed by Infinity Ward, and Activision is basically trying to pull the wool over customers' eyes by alternating devs on the series.
The Democratic People's Republic of Eidos's state-run newspaper gave it a 10/10 so it must be a good game...
To the posters who are trying to downplay the significance of this stunt by stating "They are only asking people to hold off on bad reviews, not *all* reviews..."
I imagine Kim Jong Il, The Third Reich, Saddam Hussein, and whoever the hell is running China these days all said similar things to journalists over the course of history: Don't print anything that portrays us or our interests in a negative light or you will be shot/imprisoned/tortured/have your license revoked etc etc. That is, they are only permitted to say nice things.
Journalistic integrity is what I look for in a game reviewer, or in anyone who is writing an informative article. Don't lie to me, don't sugarcoat, don't sweet talk me out of my $60 just because the game maker might pull it's advertising or shitlist you for previewable copies of their *next* game. The minute sites and mags begin to comprise their integrity due to the bullying of publishers (cough, Gamespot) is the minute gamers start looking elsewhere for their information.
To the posters who are trying to downplay the significance of this stunt by stating "They are only asking people to hold off on bad reviews, not *all* reviews..."
I imagine Kim Jong Il, The Third Reich, Saddam Hussein, and whoever the hell is running China these days all said similar things to journalists over the course of history: Don't print anything that portrays us or our interests in a negative light or you will be shot/imprisoned/tortured/have your license revoked etc etc. That is, they are only permitted to say nice things.
Journalistic integrity is what I look for in a game reviewer, or in anyone who is writing an informative article. Don't lie to me, don't sugarcoat, don't sweet talk me out of my $60 just because the game maker might pull it's advertising or shitlist you for previewable copies of their *next* game. The minute sites and mags begin to comprise their integrity due to the bullying of publishers (cough, Gamespot) is the minute gamers start looking elsewhere for their information.
godofcookery
Member
Eidos is basically a worthless publisher/developer at this point, and many of their franchises don't have the brand power they once did. So if a more high profile pub/ dev had done the same thing, and got called out on it, what would the outcome be...? Can anyone help me with some examples?
Freedom = $1.05
Banned
I see that Eyedos is at it again. The fools! If only they would have mustered up the courage to give Lara breast cancer...
I AM JOHN!
Banned
Wtf :lolFreedom = $1.05 said:
Tempy said:
I think that would be better also, but people want scores, so it's scores they get.
I can't think of a lot of websites that have experimented with this policy, but I know that GFW gave it a shot for a while before they were forced to backpedal due to negative feedback.
Scores are a kind of crutch that people use to let them quickly determine a game's quality, but people read a lot of things into it that simply aren't there. In many ways, they almost seem more misleading than they are helpful, considering how subjective they are.
A well-written review should let someone have a sense of how they will feel about a game before they buy it, whether they have the reviewer's tastes or not. Scores are completely unable to do this.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
What does this even mean? Think about this.
Tempy said:
It's not like mags and sites are held accountable by most readers for what they write in their reviews, so basically they can be spreading crap and there's still nothing you can do about, even if there are no scores attached. It's like the thing with gamespot and you guys about the whole destructable environment thing, yeah they got called out but so what? It's not like you guys can blacklist them permanently, publishers/developers have to try to maintain a good relationship with media outlets and media outlets often respond to games from publishers based on their relationship with said publishers even if it's not explicit. Gaming "journalism" is simply so far from objectivity that there's really no point in anything anymore.
VanMardigan
has calmed down a bit.
-Rogue5- said:
But they're saying they aren't censoring anyone. So, short of that, how DO you manage review scores to "ensure the launch scores of Tomb Raider Underworld are in line with our internal review predictions over the launch weekend"?
Kaako said:
They learned that the millions of average casual gamers who buy Tomb Raider don't read media outlets like Gamespot, ign, or EGM, so they apparently don't need to give a rat's ass.
VanMardigan said:
Touche. Maybe they're just trying to nudge people in their direction, I guess. I would have at least spun a BS reason like, "we feel reviewers may need the extra time, as the game is so big and awesome if they're pushed to race through it, they won't get the full, totally awesome, experience of the game. Yeah, that sounds good, right?"
Kaako said:
Yes. They learned that they can do stuff like this and still sell a million copies of said game (K&L).
Seriously all you people saying that Eidos will get burned are going to be disappointed because nothing will happen to them and people will still buy their games in droves. The videogame media will blow this off in a few days, maybe even after denouncing Eidios a bit, and go back to obeying their masters.
In 6 months there will be another scandal and again it will be quickly forgotten, and the cycle will continue. Nothing is going to change and the media aren't going to give up their paychecks or previews.
It's like people who don't go to movies that don't score well on the Tomtato meter.
Frequently, I'm one of those people. If 109 out of 115 people say a movie is awful .. it's probably bad. At the very least, it's probably not all that good and almost certainly not worthy of my time and money.
I can't say what the general population of gamers out there considers a "cut off" point for buying a game.. but lets use the new Need for Speed as an example. I like driving games.
Need for Speed has been hit or miss over the years, mostly miss lately. But if the new one had scored around 90 on metacritic I'd have probably considered picking it up since I don't really have a driving game atm.. But with TR actually getting mostly favourable reviews, Eidos' "damage control" is doing way more damage than a small percentage of sub-8.0 reviews could ever do.
Frequently, I'm one of those people. If 109 out of 115 people say a movie is awful .. it's probably bad. At the very least, it's probably not all that good and almost certainly not worthy of my time and money.
I can't say what the general population of gamers out there considers a "cut off" point for buying a game.. but lets use the new Need for Speed as an example. I like driving games.
Need for Speed has been hit or miss over the years, mostly miss lately. But if the new one had scored around 90 on metacritic I'd have probably considered picking it up since I don't really have a driving game atm.. But with TR actually getting mostly favourable reviews, Eidos' "damage control" is doing way more damage than a small percentage of sub-8.0 reviews could ever do.
McBradders
NeoGAF: my new HOME
Gerstmann-gate continues to echo throught the hallowed halls of gaming over a year later.
Eidos, you have learned nothing and thusly deserve nobodies money. I will not be buying your most likely delightful Tomb Raider installment. I feel sorry for Crystal Dynamics whose name you are hurting with this shitty stunt.
Eidos, you have learned nothing and thusly deserve nobodies money. I will not be buying your most likely delightful Tomb Raider installment. I feel sorry for Crystal Dynamics whose name you are hurting with this shitty stunt.
Then how the fuck do you take mainstream journalism seriously? It hasn't grown a big enough backbone to stand on its own two legs and tell the government to back off. They have a similar relationship with similar issues. You just don't know about it because your area of interest and expertise is in games.speedpop said:
thirtytwoutside
Member
Here's a novel idea: you won't need to do that if you make a game that will have a high ranking on Metacritic based on... *gasp* the game itself!
See: Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, Gears of War, etc.
See: Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, Gears of War, etc.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Amon37 said:
the Jackass answer: to do some actual journalism, the horror.
Sadly, this does explain the very odd 8 from Edge though.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
I thought this was common practice with all publishers. Are there any examples of high profile games that got below 80% being published before the game came out? The only games I can think of appeared after the game was released and not before.
Woops? Looks like Future forgot to register some domain beforehand. TombRadar.com is taken, too bad they don't use it in their PR materials :lol
JonathanEx
Member
:lol :lolDatrio said:
SonOfABeep
Banned
This kind of shit is going to cost them more sales than any "under 80" reviews could.
Fuck that. Fuck Eidos. The game looked slick but fuck them in the ass.
Fuck that. Fuck Eidos. The game looked slick but fuck them in the ass.
thirtytwoutside
Member
SonOfABeep said:
:lol Yes, because most of the people who buy Tomb Raider games use the internet for videogame news. Keep living in your nice insular bubble!