'Review-bombing' seems to be becoming more and more popular these days, with Kunai becoming the latest game to receive such treatment from a disgruntled stranger. If you're unaware, the term refers to the act of giving games a very low and unjustified user score on websites such as Metacritic, lowering its overall user review score average and therefore indicating that it's a 'bad' game.
We've almost come to expect it with certain major releases - both major Pokémon releases have been targetted on Switch, with fans being quick to accuse developer Game Freak of every trick under the sun, and games like Astral Chain have also come under fire simply for being exclusive to the console - but the trend appears to be moving towards indie games, too.
Game programmer Benjamin de Jager managed to find out that, in Kunai's case, there was only one person to blame which is extra-unusual. In a blog post on Gamasutra, he presented evidence of a Reddit user almost boasting about their revew-bombing antics, explaining that they manipulated Metacritic's score system. The bomber said, "I made like 200 different accounts just to ruin the game's score".
Some of the negative impacts of an act like this are obvious - would you spend money on a game if you saw that lots of (seemingly real) users appeared to overwhelmingly dislike it? - but it goes much deeper than that. The folks over at GamesIndustry.biz have shared an interview with producer Bram Stege and Dotemu head of marketing Arnaud De Sousa, who explain the "very stressful" impacts review-bombing can have. We've shared some select quotes below.
De Sousa: "Review bombings are something we see from time to time. But usually not on indie games, and usually they have a message behind it. Because developers change something, because the online is really bad -- usually there's an agenda behind it. But here it's just a random dude picking a random game to review bomb because they can."
Stege: "It causes stress. You hope that the audience of Metacritic is smart enough to see, 'Oh, they got an 8.3 from the critics and a 1.6 from players, so there must be something up.' You hope it doesn't affect sales. I don't know if it affected sales. But it does generate a lot of stress. You've been working for two years on this game. You put all the blood, sweat, and tears into it. And then one guy on a Sunday afternoon with basically no effort can bomb your score from a big, positive score to a 1.7. It's very stressful."
It also has an effect on a studio going forward, especially when it comes to learning about what players like and dislike about certain game features.
De Sousa: "We're always looking at reviews. It's interesting just to have the feedback... When you're working on the game for two years, you get tunnel vision and you don't always see other points of view. Sometimes, we see reviews and it's just someone who played the game 20 minutes and gave it a 0, so it does depend on the quality of the reviews. But someone who played the game for 30 hours and gave good feedback, whether it's positive or negative, it's really interesting to read."
The full interview is an interesting read, so we'd encourage you to check it out here if you're interested.
[source gamesindustry.biz]
Comments 60
Tbh if you base what games u play on someone else's opinion then you shouldn't play games.
It's far too easy to press a few buttons and wreak havoc with people's lives these days. Let's be kind, supportive, and set a positive example for the rest of the gaming community, shall we? ❤️
@Darkyoshi98 So when your buddy tells you that you should try a game do you just tell him to f*** off?
review Bombing is beyond scummy. The people who do it always have this “buh I’m just Simply voicing my opinion, are telling me I can’t do that, mind police???” attitude. Lol everyone knows your goal is to take something down and tarnish it for the rest of the audience because it doesn’t line up with your expectations.
@Darkyoshi98 lol thank u, very wise
There’s some nasty human beings on this planet.
There is pros and cons to review bombing. The con is that when you have a single person out for one game for no reason or to review bomb game or when it of a certain Franchise or exclusive. Those to me are just the wrong way to go about it.
The pro for me is when developers lie about there game and release it (warcraft 3 reforged) or when they add in pay 2 win / loot boxes post launch to avoid backlash at the start of their launch. Those type of things deserve the review bombs.
"But here it's just a random dude picking a random game to review bomb because they can"
Which is a sad but natural evolution of any phenomenon like this.
And I'm not in a position to console people about financial losses for their creative work, but I still dare advise not to miss whatever sales they may lose from an audience explicitly fallible for such things. It takes nigh complete dismissal of own judgement to be guided by blatantly hypobolic resulting numbers, so how much of the purchase would have been influenced by genuine interest in and appreciation of the game's promises is another question.
At some point, this bubble of aggregated scoring will simply burst, and people will have to learn to use their heads and search engines again.
@Indielink no, you take it as an incentive to look the game up and learn more about it, then make your own decision if and when you're going to give it a try.
Me and my bestie have been doing it since middle school, it's hardly rocket science.
But why did this happen to this game?
If you don't like a game and want to leave a negative review, that's fine! Go ahead and do it! But leave ONE negative review, so that it can be balanced out by others and the user score can still be an average of how everyone feels, not just you. Review bombing is basically deciding that your opinion is the only one that matters.
Some people really need to seek professional help. Asap.
User reviews on Metacritic will not effect sales one bit. Everyone knows they are utter BS. Hopefully this has actually bought some publicity to the game and if anything I hope it has helped the sales.
The score looks a lot different today. Did metacritic delete reviews? 7.7 user score for PC and 8.4 for Switch
As someone who’s actually played Kunai I really hope that this doesn’t hurt sales, as it’s one of the most unique Metroidvanias I’ve ever played
@Ooccoo_Jr
Not "everyone" knows
That is the point the person involved in this wanted to make. However, they have caused damage because this is an indie title
Many people saw it and didn't look back to see it was a stunt
Also I think there is a precarious edge between what the audience expects, and what the developer is promising. Pokémon SwSh is a great example of a misunderstanding on the part of both parties. While the developers totally bungled the idea of a console Pokémon game, the retaliation was beyond overblown.
@Ooccoo_Jr that’s like saying Yelp doesn’t matter
@jamesthemagi I meant Metacritic user scores in general, not just this stunt.
@Crockin I have heard American TV shows refer to Yelp but I have absolutely no idea what that is.
@Ooccoo_Jr it’s a site where you can post user reviews for restaurants mostly, but other stuff too. In the states, it’s kind of the standard when you are deciding on a new place to eat. It is a very useful tool, but can also be extremely cruel and unfair, and businesses do in fact shutter over bad reviews fair or not. While metacritic isn’t as influential as Yelp, it certainly is on the way.
Moral of story: People still suck.
That being said, I wasn't going to buy Kunai as I don't like metroidvanias, but I'll purchase it in support. Will pick up an eshop card today after work.
Metacritic shouldn’t allow User Reviews graded by a numerical score, simple. Just add a simple meter and make the User Reviews like “100 people liked this game” and surpress the dislikes. It is time to move forward.
This is why I always pay attention to both critic and peoples reviews, if one side is heavily leaning i check the other side usually, and make my own opinion based on the reviews or check reviews from people I trust with other games they've reviewed.
@Crockin Sounds like TripAdvisor which is in danger of becoming all powerful here in the UK (if it isn't already). As you say it is a fairly blunt instrument and takes any nuance away from critique. It doesn't do games though thankfully, yet......
Imagine how totally ****** in the head that person is. They must have had a terrible life of some sort to end up like that.
Plot twist the person that made 200 accounts to review bomb it is from the dev team hoping to get more marketing. Especially when people think it's review bombed review it positively and the review bombs are removed this resulting in the best reviewed game.
With Pokemon, people were actually upset. Okay.
With Astral Chain people also were actually upset. Okay.
Whether or not either was justified isn't important right now, people expressed how a game made them FEEL.
This person did it for no other reason than the fact he could do it, and I hope his gaming devices spontaneously catch on fire while all of his neighbour have loud rabbit intercourse.
The sad gamers still review bomb the Pokémon games even though they are amazing. They just have sad lives and try to makes others lives worst. They are the worst gamers. Thank goodness gamers to listen to their sad whining.
This tactic is dumb. When there is a huge discrepancy between the professional score and the user score, they should be automatically looking into it. And everybody who uses metacritic (I don’t, because I don’t care about the scores) to make up their minds on a game could probably notice that big difference and figure out why.
Are we back to plugging our ears and pretending all the negative press for Pokemon was just "review bombing"? Ok then. Like you could say it's justified or not, but at a certain point you're really just trying to blur the line between "review bombing" and "masses of people actually unhappy with the game".
But hey, it's a Ryan Craddock tradition at this point I guess.
@BLD If people are 'reviewing' a game before it's even out by looking at work-in-progress assets and rumours and giving it a score of 0 because 'uhh it looks bad', then yes, I'd class that as review bombing.
There are valid criticisms to be had of recent Pokémon games, of course, but they've definitely been targetted by people just jumping on a bandwagon, too.
@BLD lol you are a great example of the "Lorax" style review bombers
The game doesn't look very good, but I wouldn't review something I haven't played. I have no interest in playing it either.
I thought this game was fantastic? I haven’t played but it’s in my wish list. Most Youtubers are raving about this game.
On the other hand Warcraft 3 Reforged completely deserved it. I generally don't agree with review bombing especially with games what have done nothing wrong but games like Fifa, Fallout 76 and Warcraft all deserve it in my opinion.
The latest Pokemon games deserved to be review bombed as the game were bare bones and the post game is hidden behind a paywall. I have just recently returned to ultra sun and can't believe the difference in quality.
It wouldn't be such a bad thing is horrible people ceased to exist. I'm not calling for anything other than a magical chaotic twist of the universe to simply make sinister, evil people just irreversibly teleport to another dimension all of their very own never to bother the rest of us ever again.
Anyone that looks at user reviews on metacritic is a moron. Anyone who writes user reviews on metacritic needs to reassess their life.
Once again, a user shows why the user scores for Metacritic can't be trusted. 200 accounts all going for the same game and the site didn't find it suspicious at all? Seriously?
@SilentHunter382 No game deserves review bombs. There are plenty of ways to show your disproval.
I bought this game and didn't love it. Lost interest a few hours in, bought Bloodstained, and can't stop playing it. With that said, I'd never review bomb a game as this was just my opinion and I've heard others liked it. Reviews should be left to the professionals who have a wider scope of reference.
@Dwarfette Plenty of ways to show your disproval. Social media exists for a reason
I think ultimately this little incident may have garnered them more publicity than they could have done so on their own.
Certainly there is more people looking into the "why" of the review bomb, and some of those may even consider buying it where they probably wouldn't have before.
I mean, it is on my wishlist now, but I skipped over it when it came out cause I thought it was a Ratailaika game trying to schmooze me again.
@Entrr_username Did you delete your absolutely dusgusting and pathetic reply to me? I still got the e-mail. Clearly so obsessed with your hobby that no one should have a different opinion than you. The bad reviews for Pokemon were just in my opinion, and that of others. A game is only review bombed when it dies not deserve the bad reviews. Pokemon did deserve the less than stellar reviews in my opinion.
@Darkyoshi98 Fair enough, I'll stop basing my purchase decisions on other people's opinions. Now, based on the descriptions and screen shots on the e-shop, I'm going to spend my hard earned money on the switch versions of Ark: Survival Evolved and WWE 2K18. What could possibly go wrong?
Only stupid people use a score alone to tell if a game is good, I literally never use metacritic and am a big gamer.
@Ryu_Niiyama buy it for meeeeee lol, it is my favorite genre.
@Darkyoshi98 Tbh if you base what games u play on someone else's opinion then you shouldn't play games.
I see, so we should just buy everything and decide which games we like and do not like only after we have paid for them?
The thing is that companies only care about what sells even if the core fans hate the changes made. Take Pokemon for example, all the people speaking out in the proper way didn't make a difference because the game sold well anyway. Final Fantasy 13 and 15 are other examples.
Review bombing seems to be something that companies care about so it will continue. Not that I do it, I am far too lazy for that.
Metacritic is a paid critic site. If you want real reviews they are not the place to go to.
@Crono1973 that's what you do with everything. Metacritic is nothing but paid reviews and if they are not then they give bad scores. If you rely on metacritic to decide what you should play then no your not a gamer you are nothing but a sheep follower.
I have only ever joined in a review bomb once and that was on steam but that was because of lies the Payday 2 devs said when they released the game.
They said there would be no micro-tractions in the game then later on they released loot boxes which had weapon skins. Now that is bad enough that they broke their promise but they also added random stat changes to those skins. That is a Pay 2 win. Sure it is a co-op game but those are still pay2win elements.
Without the review bombs the devs wouldn't have updated the game without the loot boxes. Not all review bombs are the same.
@Dirty0814 I look at many reviews before deciding on a game but I can’t help but to laugh at the idea that saying someone is not a gamer is some sort of insult. It’s not.
You have to be a very pitiful individual to waste your time in this world review bombing a game by yourself, but it takes a special kind of patheticness to gloat about it.
@Dirty0814 Just cause you disagree with the critics review doesn’t mean it’s paid. Who’s to say the negative scores aren’t paid hm?
@LinkSword Not really his fault that Metacritic has no protection against this. They don’t even block all temporary email sites and you don’t even need to verify if you own the game
@Entrr_username Why did you quote me, I said nothing about paid reviews.
@Crono1973 Sorry. Thought those comments by Dirty0814 were by two separate users
@Entrr_username
Metacritic being shite isn't even relevant to my point. Doesn't make the person any less of a no-life.
@Crockin
Yelp doesn't matter. At all.
@sethharris1191 lol
I feel bad for the guys. Sadly there are a lot of morons in our world.
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