Support NeoGAF

[Draugoth]

Popular review aggregation site Metacritic has pledged to introduce stricter moderation, after Sony’s Horizon: Forbidden West Burning Shores DLC was review bombed by users.

Spoiler: Plot Spoilers;Rant

A New plot point seeming inspired many users to give the game a critical rating on the site, with many still-live comments criticising developer Guerrilla’s decision to add the romance option.

“Visually look awesome, but what about storytelling? Aloy lesbian! What are you doing Sony & Guerilla really? Stop doing it with your characters,” reads one user review.

“Hey Sony PlayStation, this is enough,” reads another. “You must see a solution to the issue of the agenda. We are in a world of entertainment, not in a world full of deviant and misguided ideas. ”

In response to the review bombing, Metacritic and Fandom told Eurogamer they were aware of the “abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores,” and claimed they were “currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.”

“Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic,” the statement reads.

“Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use.

“Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed. We are currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.”

 

[64bitmodels]

about fucking time. so many review bombs in the last 3 years and they're just NOW taking action

 

[Bonfires Down]

I don’t know or care what happened but they might as well remove user reviews altogether.

 

[SantaC]

review bombing from metacritic has always been a thing. Battlefield 2042 has 21 even though it has 68 at MC.

 

[AlteredForms]

I'm surprised it took them this long to incorporate this moderation. Review bombing on Metacritic has been going on for years and it's one of the reasons why people turned to RottenTomatoes for movie reviews as the idiots are annoying. Hopefully Steam will implement something similar, but that would mean they'd have to get off their asses and do some work.

 

[AV]

Just delete user reviews altogether. Utterly and completely useless. Have a thumbs up/down and leave it at that if you must.

 

[64bitmodels]

Just delete user reviews altogether. Utterly and completely useless. Have a thumbs up/down and leave it at that if you must.

Steam reviews are far better and a great example of user reviews. i trust steam's reviews far more than any paid critic.

Metacritic's lack of moderation and basically allowing people who didn't even play the game to make a review is why the user reivews are so damn toxic. They should force you to connect a Playstation/Nintendo/Xbox/Steam account and ensure you've played it for more than 30 minutes before you write a user review on any game

 

[noise36]

What is the point of user scores if someone can just decide they dont like the scores and delete them?

 

[TheGodfather07]

Yeah just remove user reviews unless you can verify that the user actually owns the game.

 

[nowhat]

Steam reviews are far better and a great example of user reviews. i trust steam's reviews far more than any paid critic.

Isn't there a requirement in Steam that you have to have actually played the game to review it? So it's completely unlike what MC does.

 

[Black_Stride]

Right.

Console warriors have been using User Reviews for years....literally years.
Whenever you see an exclusive Xbox/Playstation game with pretty much any 0/10 review......quickly look at those users other reviews.....you will see a trend quickly.

 

[Saber]

Just delete user reviews altogether. Utterly and completely useless. Have a thumbs up/down and leave it at that if you must.

That won't do because theres definitively people there who have valid reasons for giving that score, even to the point to explain the game in details.
Steam reviews also have reviews which are useless, but also people who give s specific and well contructed context for not liking a game.

"Review bombs" aways existed. Aways. It's not news, it's only a thing when it has strange themes behind it and when it's convenience for the fanboys.
What they need to do is filter the people who have valid concerns, are giving valid criticism or have good reputation/well behaved and delete the ones who they investigate to be trolls, console war fanboys and etc. You know, something they should have done decades ago.

Isn't there a requirement in Steam that you have to have actually played the game to review it? So it's completely unlike what MC does.

Yes, but also means a person can just play for an hour and can review.

 

[nowhat]

Console warriors have been using User Reviews for years....literally years.

 

[64bitmodels]

Isn't there a requirement in Steam that you have to have actually played the game to review it? So it's completely unlike what MC does.

not even play it once but you're prompted to review it after playing for like 3 or 4 hours straight. It's why so many reviews there are positive and accurate to the game's quality, even the short 1 sentence meme reviews are more authentic than the review bomb trash on metacritic, because even the 1 sentence meme reviews have extraordinarily long playtimes.

That's another thing, the playtime is displayed next to the review on steam. Therefore it's far easier to see that a review with a long playtime is more trustworthy than a review with only 2 hours in.

 

[GHG]

Isn't there a requirement in Steam that you have to have actually played the game to review it? So it's completely unlike what MC does.

You have to have owned it and your playtime is displayed as part of your review along with how you acquired the game (e.g. if you received it for free then that is displayed).

It's the most robust user review system out there and renders all other attempts useless.

 

[The Alien]

Oh no!!! The body positive, multicultural, lesbian space Incas are being review bombed?!!!

That goes against our agenda.
We must do something...NOW!!!

 

[L*][*N*K]

User reviews is an open invitation for abuse, and they are really useless I don’t know who takes them seriously

 

[Luigi Mario]

They won’t do anything meaningful, because review bombing increases traffic to their website.

 

[nowhat]

not even play it once but you're prompted to review it after playing for like 3 or 4 hours straight. It's why so many reviews there are positive and accurate to the game's quality, even the short 1 sentence meme reviews are more authentic than the review bomb trash on metacritic, because even the 1 sentence meme reviews have extraordinarily long playtimes.

That's another thing, the playtime is displayed next to the review on steam. Therefore it's far easier to see that a review with a long playtime is more trustworthy than a review with only 2 hours in.

Right, so all that's required is for the console manufacturers to get with the program with a singular website of disputable reputation (there's a reason why OpenCritic exists). Should happen any day now. Especially with Nintendo.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

This issue does definitely need refining.

I also don't take it all too serious when it comes to movies because some (or apparently lots) of people review based on emotion and not merits.

God bless the republic of Lake Titicaca.

 

[In Cold Blood]

Actually I think user reviews have a place. We have instances where so called Gaming Journalists downgrade a game, yet the player experience is vastly different.
It's important to keep that.

 

[kingyala]

Popular review aggregation site Metacritic has pledged to introduce stricter moderation, after Sony’s Horizon: Forbidden West Burning Shores DLC was review bombed by users.



In response to the review bombing, Metacritic and Fandom told Eurogamer they were aware of the “abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores,” and claimed they were “currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months.”

always smells of fascism, whenever a company says ''moderation'' goodluck

 

[STARSBarry]

Steam reviews are far better and a great example of user reviews. i trust steam's reviews far more than any paid critic.

Metacritic's lack of moderation and basically allowing people who didn't even play the game to make a review is why the user reivews are so damn toxic. They should force you to connect a Playstation/Nintendo/Xbox/Steam account and ensure you've played it for more than 30 minutes before you write a user review on any game

In before some one goes "but steam gets reviewed bombed too" which is true... but as below...

Isn't there a requirement in Steam that you have to have actually played the game to review it? So it's completely unlike what MC does.

This is indeed true and makes all the diffrence. I have had someone argue that thousands of users will buy a game, review bomb it and then refund it. Which is funny because its very hard to find a review below 2 hours, and that's your refund window so...

Thing to keep in mind, steam reviews are not the review of piece of art, they are a review of a product someone has bought. If the product has shitty DRM or a terrible MTX store that negatively effects the user of the product, that's why it's being review bombed... except its not because people are just reviewing the product they bought.

For example

Company of Heroes 3 on Steam

Company of Heroes 3 combines heart-pounding combat with deeper strategic choices in a stunning Mediterranean theatre of war. In Company of Heroes 3, every battle tells a story...what's yours?

store.steampowered.com

Release a broken game with missing features... 56% but what's this the very next update instead of adding those missing features you add a cash shop to sell skins and a Halo infinite challange system everyone hates?

Boooooom 36% positive review score... oh no a review bomb... except its not, its just a review, lots of them, about how much the product they bought sucks.

And yet...

Company of Heroes 3 Reviews

Bigger and better than ever, Company of Heroes 3 combines heart-pounding combat with deeper strategic choices in a stunning Mediterranean theatre of war. In Company of Heroes 3, every battle tells a story...what's yours?

www.metacritic.com

It's an 80% game on meta and no one is playing it.

This is why when you review a game built as a product user reviews by the product owners is better. It's when you need to review games that are clearly a piece of art that things get dicy.

I think most people can feel out the diffrence, at least I hope so.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Steam reviews are far better and a great example of user reviews. i trust steam's reviews far more than any paid critic.

Metacritic's lack of moderation and basically allowing people who didn't even play the game to make a review is why the user reivews are so damn toxic. They should force you to connect a Playstation/Nintendo/Xbox/Steam account and ensure you've played it for more than 30 minutes before you write a user review on any game

Spot on. It's the only way it will logically work in any sense.

 

[Tomi]

Lol who even takes seriously those user reviews on that site
I never ever watch userscore on it because i know haters gonna hate

 

[GHG]

Right, so all that's required is for the console manufacturers to get with the program with a singular website of disputable reputation (there's a reason why OpenCritic exists). Should happen any day now. Especially with Nintendo.

Well that would depend on what json entries the playstation/xbox/Nintendo apis have. If it doesn't allow the client to fetch the necessary data (games owned, time played, maybe even achievement %, etc) then something like this isn't happening any time soon.

 

[Aenima]

Just remove user reviews, or create a system where users need to link they PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, etc to be able to review a game, if the system detects the game was actually played. Just moderation dont stop trolls from giving 0's and 10's for games they never played just because they are exclusive to certain platforms.

 

[Tsaki]

About time they did something about it. Aggregate user scores have become borderline useless the past few years.

 

[ADiTAR]

who cares she's a lesbian? These people are such hyporcites, if she was into dudes it'll be totes fine, but godforbid they do something different. and they prob did it for the press.

I can't wait for Nathan Drake to come out.

 

[mrmustard]

User score has 3 problems:

1. 'Controversial' games attract weirdos
2. Fanboys downvoting exclusive games they didn't play
3. Fanboys upvoting exclusive games they didn't play

You can click through the first 20 red scores of any Sony or Microsoft game and you'll find immediately plenty of shit like this:

MetaPlayer6969

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

GioOneX

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

User score is sometimes useful if a game gets patched, because the pro reviewers don't retest. But it's mostly a quagmire full of sick people. They should remove it completely.

 

[01011001]

Just delete user reviews altogether. Utterly and completely useless. Have a thumbs up/down and leave it at that if you must.

^

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Isn’t it interesting that they finally decide to do something about the ridiculous review bombing now after it’s been going on for so long? Hmmm……

 

[Umbasaborne]

who cares she's a lesbian? These people are such hyporcites, if she was into dudes it'll be totes fine, but godforbid they do something different. and they prob did it for the press.

I can't wait for Nathan Drake to come out.

Its because now they cant pretend its them kissing aloy, so they feel threatened

 

[Warnen]

I only trust 0 or 10s, nothing in-between matters.

 

[Art The Clown]

as long as they remove critic scores that stray from the path and shit on a game for “reasons”

 

[64bitmodels]

User score has 3 problems:

1. 'Controversial' games attract weirdos
2. Fanboys downvoting exclusive games they didn't play
3. Fanboys upvoting exclusive games they didn't play

You can click through the first 20 red scores of any Sony or Microsoft game and you'll find immediately plenty of shit like this:

MetaPlayer6969

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

GioOneX

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

User score is sometimes useful if a game gets patched, because the pro reviewers don't retest. But it's mostly a quagmire full of sick people. They should remove it completely.

another reason why steam reviews are best, since it's all PC there's almost no fanboyism to be found

 

[The Cockatrice]

Of course the mindless gaf corporate consumer will say they should be removed, because they would eat any trash the corporations feed them. Bombing does not impact sales, if people want to do it then let them do it. Freedom and all that. Your choice if you want to actually take at face value the user scores, you'd be an idiot if you do, just as the "critics" scores.

 

[AlteredForms]

I only trust 0 or 10s, nothing in-between matters.

 

[TheDreadLord]

Tbh, I feel scared with so many people here asking for censorship just because the game belongs to a beloved brand… Anyway, instead of deleting or blocking user reviews, why not improving it first?

 

[Fake]

Review bombs are all the place since ages. Game journalisms, Game media and even neoGAF fanboys keep saying they don't care about user score review and you shouldn't care too, but somehow suddenly they started to care now?
Talking about snowflakes.

I hope this is not some selective bullshit. If you gonna remove trolls/useless reviews, make so in every other user score from every game inside Metacritic, not just HFW.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

why not improving it first?

you mean.....improve like human beings or what?

 

[FalsettoVibe]

Just remove user reviews, or create a system where users need to link they PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, etc to be able to review a game, if the system detects the game was actually played. Just moderation dont stop trolls from giving 0's and 10's for games they never played just because they are exclusive to certain platforms.

That's a pretty good idea. Sony, MS, Nintendo and Valve would have to buy into it though and allocate development resources to expose game playtimes to an API.
It would be pretty cool. User reviews would probably be more reliable than media reviews....lol

 

[cormack12]

about fucking time. so many review bombs in the last 3 years and they're just NOW taking action

Exactly. Why was this the watershed lol. They just need to link reviews to xbox/ps/steam accounts. If the game ain't in your library, don't publish the review

 

[Kvally]

I just follow OpenCritic reviews. No users reviews, and they put all platforms of a game into a single score instead of individual platforms.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Should have to sign in with your xbox, steam, nintendo or psn network Id to post a review...

Edit oh shit, great minds and all that

Just remove user reviews, or create a system where users need to link they PSN, Xbox Live, Steam, etc to be able to review a game, if the system detects the game was actually played. Just moderation dont stop trolls from giving 0's and 10's for games they never played just because they are exclusive to certain platforms.

 

[DeepEnigma]

They had no issues when people tried to review bomb or "professionals" spoiled Bayonetta because she did not fit their homoerotic head canon and complained that she was straight. Wasn't disrespectful then, eh?

 

[64bitmodels]

I just follow OpenCritic reviews. No users reviews, and they put all platforms of a game into a single score instead of individual platforms.

that's gonna bite you in the ass one day. We need user reviews, just a good system for them to be trustworthy and reliable rather than useless and troll bs

 

[E-Cat]

Aloy always struck me as a lesbian, she's not exactly feminine

 

[thefool]

By moderation they mean to allow only positive reviews about games with certain subjects.
If you dislike it, its review bombing

 

[Banjo64]

What is it with the left and oppressing speech? fuck metacritic.