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[Africa's Toto]

i.e. do you think anyone not in the know (casuals, non-hobbyists, whatever you'd call them) actually uses review scores to gauge whether or not to pick up a game?

Prompted by the hitman 3/gog/drm thing


edit after some thought: So, yeah, this seems more and more straightforward the more I think about it.
It's basically "do low user review scores affect game sales"
Which is an obvious yes

Even as a "casual", If I didn't know that Hitman III was actually good and just saw the gog score and nothing else, then, yeah, I would probably skip it.

 

[MrS]

I think it does yes. People are extremely suspicious, and rightly so (see Deathloop reviews for a recent example of absurd scoring) about so-called professional reviews and will rely on user scores instead. I wish both sides could rise above it but rampant fanboyism won't allow that to happen anytime soon.

 

[Hari Seldon]

If I see a game with hugely negative steam scores I will definitely dig into them to see what is going on. If a bunch of the "professional" reviewers conspire to bomb a game, I don't think that matters as very little people actually consume that content.

 

[Sub_Level]

Of course it does. Devs have had to literally respond to it in the past, such as in Ion Fury's case.

 

[Gamerguy84]

Yea I think it has an effect. To what extent I don't know and it depends on the game. Review bombing Madden won't do anything but new IPs sure.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Every action has and effect whatever it's scale

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Cornbread78]

Yes it does, because normal people aren't nearly petty, childish and keyboard warriorish as "gamers" and their facinatingly studity sense of entitled and butthurt when they don't get their way

 

[Mikado]

It definitely makes me want to check out a game out more than I would have otherwise to see what the drama is about. If it's that enraging to a certain crowd, it just might mean that that the game is going to be right up my alley.

 

[ÆMNE22A!C]

Lol.

Ofcourse it goes without saying.

I was stuck between both sides of reasoning so thats what I said

 

[Swift_Star]

I don't think so. I was never bothered by it, I imagine average gamers aren't too.

 

[uncleslappy]

I feel like there should be a way if you give something one star, it should ask "what is your primary issue with the game?" and then provide a list of like

• Glitches
• Gameplay
• Visuals
• Political issue

And then you can sort the reviews by category, so you can see if the main reason people are tooling on it is a political issue and not necessarily related to the game.

 

[IntentionalPun]

Of course it does.

How much is the question. But people absolutely buy based on score; hell they often sort by score or an algorithm only shows them things with higher scores in the first place.

 

[zeorhymer]

Perhaps, once upon a time the reviews meant something. It takes 1 second to glance at the reviews and see people's remarks.

 

[vito_don_corleone_]

No it doesn't.
It's usually owners of one platform being salty that game isn't on their platform of choice. Or it's homophobes/snowflakes who can't deal with fact that their main character isn't a white hetero alpha male or skinny girl with huge tits.

 

[BlackM1st]

It works.

Genshin Impact being review bombed right now because of the laughable anniversary rewards:

Genshin Impact players review-bombing over "stingy" anniversary rewards

https://kotaku.com/ticked-off-genshin-impact-players-go-on-review-bomb-spr-1847768506 On September 20, miHoYo unveiled the rewards for Genshin Impact’s one-year anniversary. However, most of them were locked behind raffles and contests, frustrating players. Anger was further compounded when...

www.neogaf.com

As a collateral damage people also bombed Google's classroom and some banks apps.

So yeah, sudden announcement of improved rewards tells me that review bombing is quite effective tactic if you want to send a message to a company.

 

[Fbh]

If it didn't then places like Steam or the AppStore/GooglePlay wouldn't go out of their way to implement systems to counter review bombing.
I do however think places like Steam where user reviews are prominently featured are more affected by it than, say, the PSN store where there's just some small stars which most people ignore.

 

[BlackM1st]

AppStore

Only recently apple was forced to let people rate apple's apps. If it wasn't working, they wouldn't be so reluctant to make it possible.

You can finally rate Apple’s apps on the App Store

Tell Apple how you really feel.

www.theverge.com

 

[Captain Toad]

No. If anything, it just brings more attention to a game and has the reverse effect.

 

[MasterCornholio]

Voted no idea because while I do think it can affect sales I have no idea on the extent though.

Exit: Maybe I'm just thinking about review bombing with User reviews. I know that critics probably have a bigger impact on sales than user reviews.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

It should be plainly obvious that it does, if it didn't publishers wouldn't be bothering to put pressure on distrubution platforms to put a stop to it.

 

[Graciaus]

Unfortunately critic reviews are all that matter. User review bombs are useful for informed people to see a recent change that isn't well received. The casual market wouldn't even know about it. But it could also be something completely unrelated to the game causing it. You'd need to read and see if you even care.

 

[Braag]

I would like to say no but internet is basically one huge bandwagon a lot of times. If enough people hate or love something more people will also hate or love that thing without even having experienced it themselves. So I would have to say yes, it does.

 

[ReBurn]

I ignore user reviews just like I ignore critic or professional reviews. These days I'm more likely to watch gameplay on YouTube from randos to get a feel for how the game is. Too many people are emotionally or financially invested to trust them. But someone who just plays the game and tells you what it's like for them is what I find the most helpful. Idiots who haven't bought a game and review bomb in protest are idiots.

 

[Fare thee well]

If it's a game I want, I do all the research myself. User reviews on steam, etc. do very little to sway my opinion. I'm having a ball with my guild in New World right now. However, if you bought all the queue fears over 2-3 rough days of sorting new servers, you didn't want the game badly enough or you didn't dig deep enough. Anyone informed should know mmorpgs release rough and that starting with overpopulation is far better than underpopulation. But hey believe what you want. I don't really give a shit what you believe. I'll be in my games having fun.

 

[skit_data]

Worst trend in gaming atm, fucking kindergarten level of behaviour.

Edit: I’m of course talking about doing it for console war purposes, doing it for actual legit bad games/dev/publisher behaviour is somewhat legitimate.

 

[Stuart360]

I think it probably has a small effect, probably with the more casual gamers who just glance ar user reviews and just see the nagativity and go for something else.

I think its only a small effect though, on PC anyway, as NBA2K every year gets review bombed because of their awful MTX riddled games, and it always sells very well. Same thing happened with one of the Football Manager games that got review bombed for some reason on Steam (cant remember why) and it ended up like the second best selling FM on Steam.

 

[Dream-Knife]

I voted no, thinking of people review bombing a game that didn't come out on their plastic box of choice.

But where there is user reviews maybe. I only really pay attention to user reviews anymore as gaming "journalism" is corrupt. I will also watch a YouTube video of the gameplay if I'm not sure.

 

[Fake]

Look at Playstation Store and take your conclusion.

 

[Pejo]

For me, it either shows that a game has problems that aren't properly handled through the PR/Development teams via expected channels, and are unlikely to listen to feedback

-OR-

That their fanbase is mostly made up of immature children. Either way seems like a fair warning to disengage from the game, so I think it helps a bit at its general purpose to dissuade me from buying or playing the game.

 

[Marty-McFly]

I don't know how it works nowadays but a fair bit of time ago I reviewed for a fairly prominent site (included on Metacritic), and one of the reasons I quit is because of lack of control over what scores I could give certain games. That and the shit pay.

I'm sure some sites have a more credible process, but yeah, review scores are bullshit.

 

[BusierDonkey]

At the very least I'll look into why the review bomb is happening.

If it's because of reasons I don't care about I'll proceed with my purchase. Sometimes these things are tied to something minor that set off a very vocal subset of video game fans, or idiot fans of brand A who feel the need to knock down brand B's latest release, etc.

Sometimes though it's because someone did something genuinely stupid towards their own base to appeal to people that don't even play their games and will never be happy anyways. In that case they're just getting exactly what they deserve.

 

[EDMIX]

It could, but I believe the majority don't really even care about such things.

I mean think about it, Call Of Duty isn't winning all the GOTY awards, its not getting 10s every year, yet it moves massive units even with many people review bombing and spewing the same "copy and paste" bs all over the place, same with the AC series.

I don't buy that neck beards control the majority, they are simply a small group that tries to force some narrative on something they hate, but I've never really see that actually TRULY hurt a game that didn't already have massive issues to begin with.

They review bombed Far Cry 5.....yet

Far Cry 5 is Ubisoft's best-selling game this generation, Rainbow Six Siege revenue tops $1 billion

Ubisoft shared an update on two of its biggest games, Far Cry 5, and Rainbow Six Siege.

www.vg247.com

They review bombed Star Wars Battlefront, wasn't it suppose to FLOPZ guys? yet....

Star Wars Battlefront (2015) Remains the Best-Selling Star Wars Game in the U.S.

hardcoregamer.com

They review bombed Mafia 3, i'm sure it will fail now right? Yet it went on to be the fastest selling in the series and the best selling Mafia

Mafia III Sales Top 7 Million Units, Mafia Franchise Remains 'Meaningful' to Take-Two - PlayStation LifeStyle

Mafia 3 sales have topped seven million units sold worldwide, according to a recent update from Take-Two Interactive.

www.playstationlifestyle.net

The Last Of Us 2, suppose to flopz right? I mean the bombs MUST have helped right? Yet

The Last of Us Part 2 sells 4M, becomes fastest-selling Sony game for PS4 ahead of Spider-Man

In one week, Sony sells 4 million copies of the postapocalyptic survival game.

www.cnet.com

The Last of Us Part 2 is the third highest-grossing game in the US in PlayStation history

The Last of Us Part 2 is the third highest-grossing game ever on PlayStation in the US.

www.eurogamer.net

The Last of Us 2 Was the Best-Selling PS4 Exclusive of 2020 in the US

Four Sony games in the top 10

www.pushsquare.com

So i don't really see enough to really say review bombing will hurt sales for a game. The majority simply don't use this information to buy games and I'd argue people getting triggered over shit that has nothing to do with the actual game itself has even hurt their own cause. If someone reads some religious or political or fanboy shit in a 0/10 review 2 min after the game comes out, how likely are they to even believe any of those reviews going forward? They might feel that the person making those reviews can't be taken seriously, which means EVEN THOSE who might read it before buying a game, can't take that review at face value if its saying shit like "I can't believe the box art be BLUE bruh", so someone not buying a game based on that? Are you sure folks?

Think about the kids who are playing Fortnite RIGHT NOW, do we really believe they are quickly going to review sites like MC before playing the next big MP game? Probably not. I'd argue Twitch stream and their friends playing it or them seeing other friends play it off of XBL, Steam, PSN is a greater influence on a sale vs a 0/10 review put in 4 min after the game released filled with triggered reasons.

 

[CitizenZ]

Bombing happens usually for just a few reasons:

Politics
A change no one asked
Continued neglect to fix issues
Some sort of monetization implemented
Performance is usually #1 though

 

[Soodanim]

I think review bombing is much more relevant on Steam or GOG than Metacritic. No one gives a shit about MC really, customers least of all.

With Steam/GOG it makes a difference because they’re integrated into the store itself, and that store is how you’re buying the game the vast majority of the time. Especially Steam with its review recent and all time averages. You can very quickly see what the issue is by checking user reviews, then one click later you’re in the message board seeing posts about what’s wrong. If you’re a GOG customer, same applies.

But console stores? They don’t do all that. TLoU2 undoubtedly suffered some decrease, but that was a special case with the leaks. The review bombing won’t have done a damn thing to stop the average consumer. YouTube is the only real influence there, and they’ll only have heard about the TLOU2 controversy from people summarising it there.

 

[NahaNago]

For the most part I would say no or at least not to a great degree. By the time a game is review bombed you would already have tons of trailers or gameplay videos and critics review of a game so most folks would already be interested enough to buy the game.

 

[10101]

I voted yes as I think overall it probably does for people that just give the score a cursory glance.

However, I stopped caring about reviews user or otherwise a long time ago as it’s just someone else’s opinion. Usually just take a punt if I like the look of something, might watch a random video on YouTube or chat with gamer friends - haven’t been burnt too badly over the years

 

[sublimit]

Lol no. Unless you're some super nerd that lets review scores from complete strangers to affect your buying decisions.

 

[Fortress of Regrets]

Depends on the reason.

Politics, no.

Technical abomination, yes.

 

[MrJTeera]

Review bombing gets call out all the time, so no!

 

[Northeastmonk]

Brand new games tend to only be popular for a week or two. A month at most. Those who get it early are listened to regardless of their taste in games. Reviewers come off like they made the game because they value their own judgement so highly. It’s like when someone congratulates a person for buying a game. There’s that, which is already in place before the review bombs start coming.

Review bombs can either be a one short sentence that adds nothing of value or they’re this lengthy explanation that doesn’t focus on why you’re there. They focus on whatever brought them there to degrade the value of the game. Which shows us that a lot of ignorant people also play video games. This is when they put a 0 and “this game sucks”.

I don’t think it matters with how games are perceived by people. You can weed out the opinions that don’t matter. You must really be out of the loop if you value a bunch of people marking a game a 0. You will more than likely look for a more in depth opinion.

We are at this point where we value the critic because they’re talking about a game we all want to know more about. That’s normal if you consider that it’s a retail product that gets sent out just for reviews. We are ALSO at that point where we value streamers, influencers, and the like. To me, you’re focusing more on people for having a retail product that you aren’t exactly benefiting from. I think the state of where gaming is at and the ways in which we judge video games causes all this crap to happen. We aren’t waiting to pick up the latest issue of EGM and read a review about a game we already played or maybe a game that’s been out for a week already. What did people do when they saw a bad score in EGM or GamePro? They typically made a decision before they read it or decided to not buy it. There wasn’t much else to do at that point. It’s the result of having dedicated outlets like Metacritic to b*tch and wine about a product.

 

[Blendernaut]

I dont think so. If you see a bunch of people reviewing a game with 0 scores you always know they are trolls or just furious fanboys. So, Noone would normally take into account those "reviews" when deciding whether to buy a game or not. At least that's what I think. User's reviews are normally trash and untrusty

 

[Tschumi]

Steam review bombing might stop me making a purchase, but metacritic review bombing means little to me

 

[JapaneseGamesRULEZ]

No.