Bioware employees creating fake DA2 reviews on metacritic

[Phokus]

LMAO, this is getting so sad:

So, some fun facts about Metacritic.

Apparently, on day 1, a few hours after the game released, several people immediately jumped in and gave it glowing 10 reviews. Nobody thought anything of it ( but 4chan ), but now, somebody actually went back and checked these people.

Every single account but one was made that day.

He then went and started tracing the usernames, and lo and behold, most of these usernames are names many members of the Bioware staff use as handles.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g3td7/dragon_age_2_conspiracy_highest_rated_metacritic/

And then, someone found out that on one of the Bioware Comunity sites, one of the Russian mods was asking for members to vote high on DA2 due to the low scores. At the time, nobody really thought anything of it, it was just a mad fan, right? Until some people started taking a look, and noticing that the guy who was asking for this? Was a Russian dev. The worst part about this? When this post was made, Russia still didn't have the game yet, which is probably the reason why they asked them to do this.

http://translate.google.ca/translat...=B8R&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=ivns

Not going to say anything about Gaider telling us that 4chan was breaking the review score, because I can't find any evidence either way, and this isn't about that. Its about the fact Bioware has been cheesing the Metacritic score since before day one, and thats kind of a new low for a AAA developer. You'd think they'd have more respect for their game that they wouldn't feel the need to go all out trying to fix up any bad reviews the day of release, before the metacritic even went low. And when that failed, they asked the Russian fanbase to fix it for them by lying about how they felt before they could even get the game to try it.

Reddit Link:

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g3td7/dragon_age_2_conspiracy_highest_rated_metacritic/

Russian Dev asking users to astroturf the game:

http://translate.google.ca/translat...=B8R&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=ivns

 

[Phokus]

LMAO!

 

[Liet]

Wow. How low they've fallen.

 

[Red Hawk]

While it's dishonest for them to do that, it's not like the Metacritic user rating was anywhere near accurate. I'm sure Metacritic was just bombed by a bunch of angry hardcore RPG fans who give 0s when a fair critic would give a 7.

 

[zinfamous]

I'm sure they all do this crap. not shocked.

 

[Maximilian]

lmfao... thats so sad haha

 

[mmntech]

How the mighty have fallen, though they probably all do it.

 

[Drako]

While it's dishonest for them to do that, it's not like the Metacritic user rating was anywhere near accurate. I'm sure Metacritic was just bombed by a bunch of angry hardcore RPG fans who give 0s when a fair critic would give a 7.

This.

If you look at the number of "0" scores, it's pretty clear that most of these people are just spamming.

 

[postmortemIA]

game ratings are nonsense. so many "great" games that are not. we need badly system where gamers rate games not-for-profit.

 

[n7]

/sigh

 

[Bateluer]

game ratings are nonsense. so many "great" games that are not. we need badly system where gamers rate games not-for-profit.

Make the website yourself and mod it with a heavy hand, and be sure not to sell out when EA drives a dump truck full of cash up to your trailer.

 

[zinfamous]

Make the website yourself and mod it with a heavy hand, and be sure not to sell out when EA drives a dump truck full of cash up to your trailer.

I would sell-the-fuck-out on the first chance i get!

:awe:

 

[Drift3r]

A rogue and lone Russian dev/forum moderator does not a conspiracy make IMHO.

 

[postmortemIA]

Make the website yourself and mod it with a heavy hand, and be sure not to sell out when EA drives a dump truck full of cash up to your trailer.

sad truth, either money or sued for libel but nothing forbids us here to make polls with ratting for games.
After all, that is why user ratings are more realistic - lower.

 

[Sulaco]

game ratings are nonsense. so many "great" games that are not. we need badly system where gamers rate games not-for-profit.

Isn't that what Metacritic is?

 

[JSt0rm]

lol. EA made them into retards.

 

[NoSoup4You]

I'll go create an account under the name "Mike Laidlaw" and rate the game a zero on Metacritic. See? Even the project lead thinks the game is bad lulz.

Wake me when there's actually something here worth worrying about.

I can imagine working as a programmer at Bioware and half-joking coming up with a plan with other staff members to write glowing reviews on Metacritic, the fact they didn't use anonymous handles suggests even further that it was harmless and in good fun. Get a grip.

 

[Pia]

This sounds like lulz with fake accounts rather than well-known Bioware guys actually doing 10/10 reviews under their own names/handles.

Some foreign office dude getting a brilliant idea to request astroturfing from customers seems much more believable.

 

[Via]

This happened with Dragon Age as well. I remember watching the user reviews on Gamespot because I was interested in buying it.

For a time after release any review that was even lukewarm about DA was immediately spammed off of the front page by some "10 out of 10 - best game evar!!!" entrys.

Got a smile out of that.

Seriously - I think this happens with almost all newly released games anymore.

 

[Rhezuss]

Is this what they call pathetic?!?

 

[zerocool84]

game ratings are nonsense. so many "great" games that are not. we need badly system where gamers rate games not-for-profit.

That's what the user score is for.

 

[Red Storm]

I'm calling bullshit on this. Anyone with half a brain would use any other name. Not believing this at all, more likely someone did this to create a story.

 

[Attic]

Anyone who played the demo for 15-20mins should have known the game was crap.


Sad to see this going on, but we all know how far off a lot of game reviewers are from anything close to a fair representation of the actual game these days. It's hard to write an honest review with your right hand while balancing a wad of cash and moral ambiguity in your left.

 

[Red Hawk]

Just because a game you didn't like, or several games you didn't like, got good reviews doesn't mean the critics were bought off.

 

[thujone]

when there's such a HUGE disparity in the critic review vs. user review... and it was a HUGE difference even before the 4chan spamming... there's a problem.


and who knows... maybe the critics aren't getting paid for glowing praise. maybe they're just REALLY out of touch with the average gamer. even then... it's still a problem.