![]() ![]() Imagine spending six years of your life working on something, only to have it preemptively tarnished with a ridiculously low user review score. There needs to be some form of vetting in place, not just for fans, but for the developers, as well. Unless the thousands of speed-runners pre-ordered the game, these reviews are clearly bogus. “Players” submitted over 5000 negative user reviews just six hours after launch. Some form of screening process or manual reviews need to be implemented. I understand that Metacritic most likely benefits from these controversial stories with increased traffic, yet it needs to do more if the site is to be taken seriously. As soon as we learned that the game would centre on Ellie and Dina’s relationship, people were going to give the game an “SJW” branding. With a title as controversial as The Last of Us Part II, everybody saw the “review bomb” coming. Metacritic Need To Vet User Reviewsĥ000 Metacritic negative user reviews were posted just six hours after launch. ![]() This is almost certainly the case with The Last of Us Part II. I genuinely enjoy Metacritic, but have become increasingly distant due to the site allowing anybody and their mothers to post a review whether they have legitimate criticism or not. Metacritic does very little to try and curb these obviously bogus reviews, and it hinders the site. It’s because of this that vitriol buries all of the genuine reviews. This vast difference is because people preemptively brand these games as “SJW”. Games like Gone Home and Battlefield V (that dared to offer a bit of inclusion) have ridiculously low user review scores compared to the critics. In fact, any game where there has been controversy over a homosexual/woman character being included, you can bet your life savings that the game has been “review bombed” on Metacritic. People have labelled The Last of Us Part II as an “SJW” game for simply having a lesbian main character. Many claim that video games are apolitical, but political issues end up contributing to low user review scores. However, The Last of Us Part II is a prime example of people using Metacritic user reviews to attack something they don’t agree with.Īnd this is where the real issues begin. It can be a useful tool to give players a voice when a studio does something genuinely anti-consumer. If a studio does something controversial, the first thing people do is head to a game’s Metacritic page and leave a scathing review. It’s been made easier by sites like Metacritic, who have seemingly no entry requirements to leave reviews on products. “Review bombing” allows anybody with an opinion to score a game 0 with little reasoning or explanation. This sort of fan backlash is what makes user reviews so unreliable. The entire Borderlands series was “review bombed” because of Borderlands 3’s Epic Store exclusivity deal. To this day, you’ll find people still arguing over which ending is better, and the game’s Metacritic page will always be tarnished with subpar user review scores as a result. However, by then, the damage had already been done. The backlash pressured BioWare into creating an option to ignore the game’s intended ending with an “Extended Cut” DLC package. ![]() Despite commercial success and a score of 93 on Metacritic, user reviews were significantly worse. Whilst I didn’t mind the conclusion myself, many people found the original ending of Mass Effect 3 to be lacking. At the time, Obsidian were a studio on the verge of collapse, and missing out on crucial funding by a single point was a punch to the gut.Īnother notable controversy surrounding user reviews was concerning Mass Effect 3. The game garnered an impressive score of 84 on Metacritic, but the studio were denied further payments from Bethesda as they didn’t meet their previously agreed upon score of 85. One of the more infamous examples is when Obsidian were denied royalties for Fallout: New Vegas. ![]() There have been a number of instances where Metacritic has contributed to gaming related controversies. 4) Why So Serious? Review Score Controversiesīefore we get into the problems with user reviews, it’s important to remember how review scores affect the games industry. ![]()
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