From, obviously, Penny-Arcade
Go to Metacritic, which is destroying the video game industry, by the way, and check out the Tomb Raider: Underworld’s metascore. Right now it’s 78. That’s not good enough, apparently.
It’s like this: Eidos, which publishes the game, instructed its PR firm to ask sites to hold off on publishing Underworld reviews before Monday (yesterday) if they were less than 80 percent. The idea, I guess, was to maximize sales before too many people found out about the game being good or bad (I haven’t played it, so I can’t comment either way). It’s like how in the movie industry, the opening weekend is key because, after that, people will have found out if the movie is good or bad, and whether or not it’s worth their time and money to see it.
Now there’s a controversy regarding Eidos, the PR firm and magic bullets. It’s very meta. Also boring.
My advice to those of you reading game reviews: ignore the number. Ratings are an archaic practice that are largely irrelevant nowadays, what with reviews being a dime a dozen online. Read the actual content of the review and decide from there.
Metacritic is destroying the video game industry? Yeah, focusing on game quality is the problem.
Will this be as quite a scandal as cain and abel. I haven’t played the latest Tombraider yet but how bad can it be, the engine was really polished on Legends and Anniversary. I wasn’t too happy with anniversary as the plot kinda sucked, but it was a rehash. But legends was great and I’m sure there hasn’t been any major deviations. I just hope the specs weren’t raised higher.
Dude, are you supposed to be a professional writer?
Looks like this already backfired at them. When GamesRadar was renamed to TombRadar for a day, http://www.tombradar.com/ popped out, showcasing the article about Eidos stopping the non-positive reviews.
I wonder if they’ll ever learn.
How exactly is Meta critic “destroying” the game industry?
You cant just state something like that and not explain it in any way.
At the same time I saw a top editor about a year ago lose his job because he wouldn’t conform to the developers requests.
I think this practice by publishers will bite them in the ass before long.
another shout for why metacritic is destroying the gameindustry.. :)
I guess your premise is that since “ratings are an archaic practice that are largely irrelevant nowadays, what with reviews being a dime a dozen online” and since Metacritic is built on aggregating scores across that “dozen”, that Metacritic is destroying the industry? Is it doing the same for movies, books, etc?
I would actually go so far as to say a “collective” review score carries more weight than any individual’s score and that Metacritic provides you a single space to then link out to the original content/reviews.
Anyway….the practice of Eidos here should be in question, not the value of a utility site that isn’t even part of the story.
Really? Destroying the games industry by aggregating scores? Wow. So what is metacritic doing to the movie,music and Tv industry. please do tell.
How is Metacritic “destroying the video game industry”? A sweeping statement with no explanation.
A proper explanation of the Metacritic statement would have made a far more interesting article than the one above which is, frankly, just unsurprising.
I think maybe the author of this entry meant to say that companies who practice this sort of thing are helping to destroy the industry rather than the site Metacritic – let’s hope so!
Lame post — recommending that people read the reviews? The whole idea of a rating is that it’s a concise evaluation of the product’s appeal/quality. I don’t have time to actually read reviews — I could be gaming.
Yeah, what he meant is simple people like you ruin the gaming industry.
Whether it is games, movies or music. We as consumers need to step up and start making our voices heard. Most major production companies have the asinine idea that their product has value simply because they created it, that the time and money spent to produce something, justifies its cost and its success.
Nonsense. A song is good because people like it, it is AS good as the number of people that actually take the time to listen to it, no more no less. Effort, craftsmanship, cost? All completely, and I mean COMPLETELY, irrelevant when it comes to a products actual value.
Here is a simple solution to companies who want to make money off of media…
MAKE BETTER PRODUCTS.
Consumers are no longer limited to what you buttholes tell them is good, we live in an age of infinite choice…
Get used to it.
Can I too ask the author to qualify the statement that Metacritic is destroying the video game industry… I use Metacritic all the time and would like to know how people like me, while looking up review scores for games, are somehow contributing to the downfall of the industry.
Seriously, this sounds completely ridiculous. Comment please Nicholas?
Media powerhouses like Fox haven’t been destroying our nation for decades.but thats besides the point.
If honesty prospers so be it. If it doesn’t then let the dishonest publishers be weeded out. If a game is rated bad for whatever reason, eventually the power of the internet will help restore that balance.
I can’t wait for this system to collapse, frankly speaking. Consumers demand higher quality. I mean have these people not read blog posts for the last 4 yrs? It’s cool how the younger generated cares more about this stuff. let the weeding begin
me too wondering why metacritic is destroying the industry. doesnt make a whole lot of sense too me (ie none).
thanks for clarifying.
God damn you people are dense – he was being sarcastic.
Fine, then at least give us some background… you can’t expect people to pick up on sarcasm when they don’t understand what the target of the sarcasm is.
Metacritic scores are directly tied with the steam ecommerce engine {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/nJReRZ7Fh6_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”Metacritic scores are directly tied with the steam ecommerce engine ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/mkyht3CUOc”}}}
Why can’t Eidos just make better games?
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Games nowadays are rated WAY higher than they should be. Mediocre, unoriginal and boring games are pulling 8/10’s. Reviewers and sites everywhere are complete and total vaginas. I stopped going to gamespot because of the kane and able fiasco. Where have the true gamers and reviewers gone? Apparently it’s bad for business to give a sh!t game the sh!t score it deserves, but I would contend that pulling this retarded pump and dump bullsh*t is much worse in the long run.
It’s become so commonplace that, if a half ok game gets a 7/10 or lower (such as the newest zelda), you’ve got fanboys screaming their faces off at review sites for reviewing the score so low because they are conditioned to seeing sh!t games with high scores.
Yeah, eidos sends you a copy of their game along with a nice coffee cup, and you want to keep sucking their d!cks by rewarding their freebie with a good review. It’s influenced, and it’s bad journalism.