Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Is mmorpg.com and some of the same kind of sites paid to overhype big budget MMOs
palulalula
Member UncommonPosts: 651
I don't believe anymore any review about any game what is published on the web. Just look reviews on mmorpg.com about any big mmo title and you will see in most of the reviews only good things. AOC is super awesome, WAR is fantastic, WOW is forever, SWTOR is amazing, GW2 is best what is created by human hand. What you think? Do money paid by big companies affect credibilities of some major gaming websites? Maybe i got banned after this but who cares 
Comments
I think the people writing the reviews are humans, and as humans, we do have a tendency to get a bit excited when something new comes around, especially if we've been looking forward to it for a while. That is in effect hype, but not necessarily something people are being paid for in order to sell a product if you know what I mean.
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Yeah i agree with you that is why the only review i trust is of my own.
i remember one of the staff members blogg become like a ad for f2p games. after that i stop care what this site staff says
According to MMORPG.com and all other sites, SWTOR is a good game and GW2 will be amazing...
With these gaming websites you really need to read between the lines to see the criticisme.
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
After the games are out, there are almost never articles about negative aspects of a big recent game, the only one I think of on SWTOR is MikeB not liking the new dysfunctional clown outfits BW believe are Star Wars-y.
No articles on whether the population is tanking, lack of server merges etc.
I think you have to assume that the advertising dollar does play a part in that, but then it keeps the site open and allows us to spew forth our myriad opinions on everything.
It would be nice though to even have some slight sense of balance.Not everyone is so specific about finding difference between what is good and what is amazing. Most of the time the excitement, structure and method of such articles is almost the same.
As someone who's played all of the above mentioned games here's something you might want to bear in mind! All of the games where really good early game! Tortage in AoC was really fun, Playing through the first 20 levels of WAR was also really fun. SWTOR had tons of fun things to do but they all failed in longevity (I think that's a word...) meaning that they did not last in the long run.
As a reviewer you are rarely offered three months of playtime before writing your review therefore they are all more or less first impressions of the game. And first impressions have a tendency to just see the good points because it feels new and fresh (call it the honemoon) but after a while you start seeing all the cracks and which lead to the inevitable breakup.
PS. Of course they are going to hype new big realeases! They need money to keep the site going and articles about big games = more readers = more money!
I think gaming websites that offer reviews and pre-views of video games have lost there objectivity due to publisher pressures and threats.
Its rather evident when you compare the glowing reviews that games are given constantly now, and then the complete opposite from the average player reviews.
One caveat to this, the hype for Guild Wars 2, for some reason people have taken the recent deluge of information about GW2 and its positive views as a form of hype. I am not sure people are looking at this correctly. This is information most of it in video form, and from that information we the player have had the chance to see how well the game is coming along. Contrast this with how SWTOR was before release, CGi movies, boiler-plate information sent to media outlets from the developers. Really not alot of pre-launch information was allowed to get out.
Anyhow, if i could find someone who reviews games based on how the game actually plays not on how much crap they get from a publisher/developer, then i would pay alot more attention to that site/reviewer.
Lolipops !
Big companies will grant select sites "exclusive" interviews and previews. Such publications generate traffic, which in turn generates revenue. Advertisement money and other perks (flying people over to demo a title) play a major role in how a new game is spinned. I consider sites like these third party advertisement platforms more than unbiased information locations.
It really isn't hard to add one and one together and come up with the answer.
Don't listen to anyone
Trust no one.
The truth is not out there.
Or, loosen the tinfoil hat.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
The answer to the question in your thread title is, "Yes".
Game companies might not blatantly pay for good reviews but they buy a lot of advertising on sites like this so even if they don't specifically make a deal for good reviews there is going to be an unspoken understanding between the Game companies and review sites. You know, its a, "You scratch my back and I'll scratch your back" sort of thing.
On the other hand maybe it is done blatantly where they openly discuss with each other how much money will be payed for good reviews. I don't know, but either way you can't trust any reviews from anyone who is being paid by the company whos' game they are reviewing.
That's why I only put any weight on what people say in forums and even that has to be taken with a grain of salt. Because there most definately are shills in forums as well.
But to give an example of how I feel about this sort of thing: I am planning to buy GW2 but all the gushing, sticky sweet reviews on this site about that game are actually starting to put me off of the idea of buying it. Honestly, the more of that type of obviously bought-and-paid-for reviewing I see the more doubts I have about the game.
So, I'll probably wait untill some other suckers have played the game for a month or so and see what they are saying before I buy it.
Objectivity, most of them forget about it. Those companies might not pay you directly but you do get free stuff, games to review, shirts, giveaways. All the stuff they give you, lets you get more people to your website. They think its a win win, you as a website get more traffic and they get near free advertisement. I mean, they gave you the stuff for free, why would you write bad things about them.
Untill, you write bad things about them and you get blacklisted. This is a quite common use amongst publishers and PR related agencies. You write things they don't like, they basicly ban you from the free stuff pool. You as a site don't want that to happen, you need the stuff, you can't go ahead and pay for the servers, the non voluntary staff and the games they need to review. Thats like minus everywhere (ad revenue is declining since years
). You can't even really blame the sites for it (not talking IGN and the few super huge sites here, you can blame them ofc), they do need to survive in the end.
Don't let your judgement by the excitement (or lack ther of) for the game cloud your reviews, if you can't do that you're simply not fit for the job, you have to evaluate a product, be honest and always think about your readers that you let down in the end.
EDIT: oh wow, I suck at english
Ive seen some video's of MikeB and i must say he give a good gameplay preview of GW2 it seems open and objective.
Also should a themepark lover or biased WoW fan not review a game like Darkfall witch happend on EUROGAMER and MMORPG.COM while they are themeparkfans and haters of sandbox free for all pvp, a sandbox free for all should review such games not themepark fan.
But i disagree with most reviews here as for most major sites i depend on my own observation almost all reviews a BOLLOX and way out of touch
Hope to build full AMD system RYZEN/VEGA/AM4!!!
MB:Asus V De Luxe z77
CPU:Intell Icore7 3770k
GPU: AMD Fury X(waiting for BIG VEGA 10 or 11 HBM2?(bit unclear now))
MEMORY:Corsair PLAT.DDR3 1866MHZ 16GB
PSU:Corsair AX1200i
OS:Windows 10 64bit
One thing I've learned over the years is that even if something gets stellar reviews and those reviews are completely justified because it is that good, there's no guarantee that I will like it. Likewise, even if something has received very poor reviews and disliked or even hated by most people, there's always the chance that I might like it for the very same reason why so many hate it.
An exmple of the first is pop music. Billions of people listen to it, talk about it, love it and it dominates the music charts - so it must be good, right? Well, I hate it for the most part. I don't get it - pure and simple. Most sports would be another example. Football? Soccer? Basketball? Why are all these people chasing a stupid ball? Where gaming is concerned - most first person shooters. I just don't get the appeal either, despite all the good reviews.
An example of the latter would be hardcore flight simulators. Most people don't get those. "Oh, so you like spending hours reading a 500+ page manual on how to operate a single aircraft, spend more countless hours making a realistic flight plan, spend a crapton of money on very specific hard- and software, only to watch the darn thing fly for 8 hours on autopilot. How can that possibly be any fun... at all?". Well, to me and the other 40,000 (which is less than the number of people playing even a single of those half crappy MMOs) estimated hardcore flightsimmers it's fun.
So yeah, I always take reviews with a big bag of salt... 'coz I most likely won't feel the same way, even if they're all perfectly honest, well written, reasearched and in no way influenced by money (which they rarely are since anybody can write reviews these days).
I'm a big ol' fluffy carewolf. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Nice to see that you have all almost same opinion about this:)
I dont read game reviews either. I might scan to the list of features page but that is it. I do read the opinions of other gamers on forum pages. So yeah, they are writting a lot of words many of us just ignore.
The last Gamespot review I read that I can recall described GTA as a 'sandbox'. that is when I was done
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I stopped reading game reviews from ANY mainstream site after AoC scored 8.5-9 at release all around the intertubes...and from what I heard in this forum from time to time, the rest of reviews of upcoming games (WAR, Rift, Aion, SWToR) were equally embarrassing every single time...
If you want to know the truth about a game, always pay attention to the small, barely known sites, usually run by really small staffs ( 2-3 guy), which arent plagued by ads.
The kind of people who give 2 flying damns about publishers blacklisting them because they review games for fun or out of interest, not for a living.
and just accept the rest are what they are: paid advertisement.
Happens in every form of entertainment (sadly) so I wouldn't be too harsh on the games industry.
Music magazine writers get taken out for drinks with bands' PR people, get free tickets to gigs etc.
Film magazines get exclusive interviews with directors they've probably masturbated about at times and also get invited to big award shows.
It's not handing cash for reviews, but it may as well be. Plus we have to take into account that people who run these sites are massive fanboys. They'll, rightly sometimes, get really excited about a release because they've been waiting for it for ages.
Primes example of this was the once respected Empire magainze giving Star Wars Eps 1 & 2 five star ratings. The games industry is no different from any of these
Good critical analysis is simply rare. Period.
And since these guys are journalists or amateur journalists the chance of you getting real critical analysis even if they call themsleves "critics" is about 0.01% chance.
Finally MMOs simply do not lend themselves to traditional reviews. First we must stipulate that game reviews are typically shallow to begin with. Second we have the fact that many issues in MMOs take long term analysis and foresight. Third the fact reviewer's hands are tied in some regards because many things are about preference and are therefore very hard to review.
Finally the marketing people and the game designers understand the ways in which reviewers are limited and in which ways they operate. They are EXTREMELY predicable and therefore extremely easy to manipulate.
The premise here in the OP is of course that since almost all reviews suck and are wildly inaccurate there must be a quid pro quo involved. But this is not correct. There is vast manipulation going on, yes. But its simply because reviewers are both simple minded and too limited by their own fears and are therefore incredibly easy to get what you want out of them if you take any effort at all.
Bribing is the last sort of manipulation you go to. Its very expensive. You only bribe someone who is smart and prepared. You shouldn't need to bribe fools.
Agree with the above. You get reviews in all aspects of the entertainment business. And games ARE entertainment. Do you always agree with movie and music critics? I don't. Sometimes they say this album is great and that movie is the best ever and I've watched them and thought eh? REALLY? And sometimes they are slated so bad and you watch it and obviously enjoy it far more then whoever it was that reviewed it. As far as games, anyone who has done beta testing for a long time and across multiple games or has tried many different games learns pretty fast that hype is a unique critic all by itself with many voices some informed, some hearing or reading things second hand, much based on opinion or personal taste. I've pre purchased 3 games in the past 7 or 8 years, I've only pre purchased one that I have ever beta tested. I've played more then these 3 games, but I prefer to wait for release and to let the hype settle a bit. I have found myself from time to time just about to jump on the bandwagon for this or that game and then I snap out of it and try to be more objective.
I do not think mmorpg.com is payed beyond advertisement like any other website. Maybe they receive items anyone else would receive from the press. Beyond that, I don't believe they are given back-handers tooverhype a game. Fans do enough overhyping all on their own for free.
the poster formerly known as melangel :P
simply put yes.
Pretty much my opinion also. The writers get paid to write, and Games pay for ads on this site. One doesn't want to kill the goose that lays the golden egg so one keeps the articles postive towards the games. Sad but the bills do have to be paid. My opinion.
Currently bored with MMO's.
Exactly what i was gonna write..
Ofc they can't write negative reviews on AAA games that come out. No one would ever invite the site's staff to the betas and exclusive interviews anymore and the entire basis of the site is gone.
Sites like these should be used to get a look at new titles through beta vids and stuff like that, nothing more.
I can understand that people cant afford buying all games that comes out but the only review thats any good is the one you make yourself.
The only thing worse than trusting a review from a site like these is trusting the forum users... They (including myself) are amongst the most critical people in the world and no game is ever good enough.. ever! Because 99% of the people that enjoy a game dont spent time here trolling about how crap a game is.
Example: If i trusted these forums SWTOR is the worst game published since Hellgate and tbh im pretty sure thats not true. I actualy know quite a few people that really enjoy that game..
https://www.ticketsolutions.com/blogs/intentional-foul/images/keyboardsmash.gif
All you need to do is look at this site from when it was founded to what it is now. The answer is there!
The site is kind of in a hard spot. They live off advertising and want to get exclusive interviews, so that can not be pricks to games. Issue they run into is when they promote games with broken mechanics.
Some of the stuff they listed as negatives in TOR were so unbelievably watered down from the truth it was insane. Take the reivew they did of TOR and compare it to the one they did of Rift. The one of Rift was straight and too the point and made clear about what was positive and what worried them.