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Funcom CEO Would Like Steam Reviews to be Region-Locked - Conan Exiles - MMORPG.com

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
edited September 2017 in News & Features Discussion

imageFuncom CEO Would Like Steam Reviews to be Region-Locked - Conan Exiles - MMORPG.com

Conan Exiles News - Funcom CEO Rui Casais would like to see Steam user reviews to be region locked. He cites that sometimes games get "review bombed" by disaffected users who may be having issues that are not present in other regions. Casais spoke with GamesIndustry.biz about a recent spate of "review bombs" launched at Conan Exiles by Chinese users as his case-in-point.

Read the full story here



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Comments

  • TalulaRoseTalulaRose Member RarePosts: 1,247
    But hey, lets reskin TSW as a new game but use the old favorable reviews for the new game.

    FunCon logic...such a shady company.
    Ir1shguyPo_ggCapodecina
  • laseritlaserit Member LegendaryPosts: 7,591
    But hey, lets reskin TSW as a new game but use the old favorable reviews for the new game.

    FunCon logic...such a shady company.
    Meh

    I've never had an issue getting my moneys worth out of their products.
    cmacqAlomar[Deleted User]Ir1shguymgilbrtsn

    "Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee

  • ShadanwolfShadanwolf Member UncommonPosts: 2,392
    The ignorant peasants must have their news filtered and shaped. Sounds familiar.
    Raquisforcelimagearchin13
  • laxielaxie Member RarePosts: 1,118
    Review bombing has the potential to completely tank a release of a game. Fair enough if the players' concerns are justified, but people are becoming more and more sensitive as of late. I can see people tanking a sci-fi game because it only has blue, green and yellow alien species, lacking orange ones.

    The curator system Steam is pushing may be a good solution. This is where popular content producers (e.g. community leaders, YouTubers, media outlets) are able to recommend or not recommend games directly through the Steam platform. Many of these make more balanced arguments, or at least have a stable track record - if you usually agree/disagree with an outlet, you can trust their judgement on a new game.

    I'd like to see the curator system expanded, at the expense of the Steam review number generated by the community. As it stands currently, Steam places too much value on player's collective ratings, making it the primary visible metric of whether a game is good or not.
    [Deleted User]forcelima
  • SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
    @laxie Not all that long ago, people review bombed Sonic Mania because of DRM -- not because of the game or its quality, but because they were unhappy with DRM. 

    I totally agree on the curator system. I'd like to see them throw away the Metacritic-like user review system. 
    laxieJeroKane[Deleted User]


    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


  • DEXA88DEXA88 Member UncommonPosts: 175
    Funcom should be sued over refunds because even after so much time the game still dosen't run properly
  • AvarixAvarix Member RarePosts: 665
    I'm okay with this. In fact, I wish a lot more areas on the internet were region locked.
  • alkarionlogalkarionlog Member EpicPosts: 3,584
    SBFord said:
    @laxie Not all that long ago, people review bombed Sonic Mania because of DRM -- not because of the game or its quality, but because they were unhappy with DRM. 

    I totally agree on the curator system. I'd like to see them throw away the Metacritic-like user review system. 
    and I consider it a valid tactic, everytime someone think he can control things for his gain he learn he can't in the worse way for then
    FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
  • RenoakuRenoaku Member EpicPosts: 3,157

    SBFord said:

    @laxie Not all that long ago, people review bombed Sonic Mania because of DRM -- not because of the game or its quality, but because they were unhappy with DRM. 

    I totally agree on the curator system. I'd like to see them throw away the Metacritic-like user review system. 



    They got review bombed because of Denuvo, for one I don't trust Denuvo, I purchased Conan Exiles, and removed it from my drive as well as wiped my drive to be sure I got rid of it all together.

    Denuvo left their servers wide open to people to access private emails and other files as seen in this news article, anyone who contacted denuvo including myself within a certain time perioid had personal emails and files leaked.

    https://kotaku.com/report-denuvo-website-leaks-private-company-emails-1792023955

    This is why I don't trust Denuvo as part of a DRM in any game, and that is excluding performance issues and having Denuvo in a game itself causing a game to take more resources than actually needed to play a game.

    When it comes down to it I respect developers and I buy my games I don't pirate, but there is no way I am going to line the pockets of Developers by purchasing their games with Malicious 3rd party DRM, that said I know discussing piracy on these forums are not allowed but generally speaking I am seeing every Denuvo game get cracked within 5 days - 2 weeks of release at max so the only customers its hurting are those who are funding the developers, pirates don't have to worry about Denuvo because they can play it DRM free but us as customers are stuck with a game taking extra resources and having to have access to the internet to verify once in awhile among other things is not something I want to put up with.

    Yes I would leave Sonic Mania, or any other game such as Conan Exiles negative reviews just because they use a malicious DRM, there are other legitimate DRM that can be used such as "Steam" "Origins" or "Uplay" these do not impact performance, or encrypt a game in a VM system the same way that Denuvo does which is the problem with Denuvo and why it raises concerns.

    Generally speaking "The Witcher 3" made millions and they didn't use any DRM, but also generally speaking about being a pirate, not naming any games to download a 30GB game for example with multi-layer Proxy's would take me no more than 8 Real Life hours which is why DRM is useless and why the developers need to drop Denuvo all together and support its paying customers such as myself.

    I respect developers are great people and without them we wouldn't have good games so I believe in paying for their works, talent, and time but I am not willing to pay for Denuvo.
    KyleranunfilteredJWGdemami
  • alkarionlogalkarionlog Member EpicPosts: 3,584
    Renoaku said:

    SBFord said:

    @laxie Not all that long ago, people review bombed Sonic Mania because of DRM -- not because of the game or its quality, but because they were unhappy with DRM. 

    I totally agree on the curator system. I'd like to see them throw away the Metacritic-like user review system. 



    They got review bombed because of Denuvo, for one I don't trust Denuvo, I purchased Conan Exiles, and removed it from my drive as well as wiped my drive to be sure I got rid of it all together.

    Denuvo left their servers wide open to people to access private emails and other files as seen in this news article, anyone who contacted denuvo including myself within a certain time perioid had personal emails and files leaked.

    https://kotaku.com/report-denuvo-website-leaks-private-company-emails-1792023955

    This is why I don't trust Denuvo as part of a DRM in any game, and that is excluding performance issues and having Denuvo in a game itself causing a game to take more resources than actually needed to play a game.

    When it comes down to it I respect developers and I buy my games I don't pirate, but there is no way I am going to line the pockets of Developers by purchasing their games with Malicious 3rd party DRM, that said I know discussing piracy on these forums are not allowed but generally speaking I am seeing every Denuvo game get cracked within 5 days - 2 weeks of release at max so the only customers its hurting are those who are funding the developers, pirates don't have to worry about Denuvo because they can play it DRM free but us as customers are stuck with a game taking extra resources and having to have access to the internet to verify once in awhile among other things is not something I want to put up with.

    Yes I would leave Sonic Mania, or any other game such as Conan Exiles negative reviews just because they use a malicious DRM, there are other legitimate DRM that can be used such as "Steam" "Origins" or "Uplay" these do not impact performance, or encrypt a game in a VM system the same way that Denuvo does which is the problem with Denuvo and why it raises concerns.

    Generally speaking "The Witcher 3" made millions and they didn't use any DRM, but also generally speaking about being a pirate, not naming any games to download a 30GB game for example with multi-layer Proxy's would take me no more than 8 Real Life hours which is why DRM is useless and why the developers need to drop Denuvo all together and support its paying customers such as myself.

    I respect developers are great people and without them we wouldn't have good games so I believe in paying for their works, talent, and time but I am not willing to pay for Denuvo.
    actually no DRM stop piracy, and all DRM leave some kind of backdoor to be used, that is just something company hope to do to "protect" they gains, but only thing I see is you are forced to register with you need to give your info, so then they sell this info, so all drm really do is not protect the game or program, but give a new form of revenue based on all the info the users are forced to give if they want to play legal, myself just to spite this kind of thing I don't pay for this games, and if the game really is interesting enough I will get the pirated copy of it finish it once then move on, you know what really make you lose my money? stupidity
    FOR HONOR, FOR FREEDOM.... and for some money.
  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,435
    Renoaku said:

    SBFord said:

    @laxie Not all that long ago, people review bombed Sonic Mania because of DRM -- not because of the game or its quality, but because they were unhappy with DRM. 

    I totally agree on the curator system. I'd like to see them throw away the Metacritic-like user review system. 



    They got review bombed because of Denuvo, for one I don't trust Denuvo, I purchased Conan Exiles, and removed it from my drive as well as wiped my drive to be sure I got rid of it all together.

    Denuvo left their servers wide open to people to access private emails and other files as seen in this news article, anyone who contacted denuvo including myself within a certain time perioid had personal emails and files leaked.

    https://kotaku.com/report-denuvo-website-leaks-private-company-emails-1792023955

    This is why I don't trust Denuvo as part of a DRM in any game, and that is excluding performance issues and having Denuvo in a game itself causing a game to take more resources than actually needed to play a game.

    When it comes down to it I respect developers and I buy my games I don't pirate, but there is no way I am going to line the pockets of Developers by purchasing their games with Malicious 3rd party DRM, that said I know discussing piracy on these forums are not allowed but generally speaking I am seeing every Denuvo game get cracked within 5 days - 2 weeks of release at max so the only customers its hurting are those who are funding the developers, pirates don't have to worry about Denuvo because they can play it DRM free but us as customers are stuck with a game taking extra resources and having to have access to the internet to verify once in awhile among other things is not something I want to put up with.

    Yes I would leave Sonic Mania, or any other game such as Conan Exiles negative reviews just because they use a malicious DRM, there are other legitimate DRM that can be used such as "Steam" "Origins" or "Uplay" these do not impact performance, or encrypt a game in a VM system the same way that Denuvo does which is the problem with Denuvo and why it raises concerns.

    Generally speaking "The Witcher 3" made millions and they didn't use any DRM, but also generally speaking about being a pirate, not naming any games to download a 30GB game for example with multi-layer Proxy's would take me no more than 8 Real Life hours which is why DRM is useless and why the developers need to drop Denuvo all together and support its paying customers such as myself.

    I respect developers are great people and without them we wouldn't have good games so I believe in paying for their works, talent, and time but I am not willing to pay for Denuvo.
    Off topic and lost in the weeds...again.

    You have presented no evidence the Steam review bombs are due to Denuvo, in fact didnt you say Steam doesn't use it?
    [Deleted User]

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  • AlomarAlomar Member RarePosts: 1,299
    That's actually not a half bad idea. If the Chinese can't steal your intellectual property online, they do it in video games while you sleep, if they can't do that they review bomb your game lol.
    Haxus Council Member
    21  year MMO veteran 
    PvP Raid Leader 
    Lover of The Witcher & CD Projekt Red
  • AnirethAnireth Member UncommonPosts: 940
    So the Chinese don't like his game (as evident by the reviews), and probably don't buy it as much and certainly less things from cash shop etc., and he's surprised they didn't make much revenue?

    And often, especially with MMOs, issues in one region do affect regions that are behind. I don't know how western devs do it for asian releases, but many asian games suffer from bad maintenance procedures, not enough servers etc. And they care this *over* to the west. Nothing has changed.

    I also think it's impossible due due fair region locking. In his example, the guy from New Zeland gives the game a bad rating because the servers are far away, and the one in Gemany gives it a good rating because the servers are close. So far so good. But what if they actually play together? Or at least on the same *physical* servers, even if the game instances are different?

    He also forgets to say that it works the other way round as well. Game is *the bomb* in one region - "overwhelmingly positive". Gets released with half the content, double the price and still uses the overseas servers in another region? Well, reviews say "overwhelmingly positive"; so no one will even try to find out that stuff.

    I vastly prefer a simply majority vote like Steam does, or the user reviews on Metacritic. The opinion of any single person is unlikely to always be my own. And major gaming magazines have shown over the last couple of decades (!!) that they are not capable on giving earnest reviews. Whether it's because they can only afford to play each game 2-3 hours, they are incapable of seeing faults, they don't want to..no idea. But i know that it doesn't work.

    Replacing these people with Youtube stars doesn't change anything.

    12k votes might not actually meet my personal opinion either, but especially over time it averages out. And if they just pulled a fast on in China it might not affect me directly and/or immediately, but it's certainly good to know.

    At best i can imagine seperating the votes (Which i still don't like) but the moment they hide other regions votes, it's over. If they can get away with doing shit in one region and repeat it in another because nobody knows, they'll do it. I've seen *price differences* of 400% between Germany and the US. Heck, i've seen it between Germany and the UK. I've seen the UK paying less than e.g. Romania. Thats not taxes, spending power or anything. It's greed, and knowing they can get away with it.

    Tl;dr: Worst idea ever.
    AlomarTheScavenger

    I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
    And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
    Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
    And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore

  • ElsaboltsElsabolts Member RarePosts: 3,476
    Why not just stop reviewing Funcom games here ?
    " Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who  Would Threaten It "
                                            MAGA
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    I was ready to rip them a new one. But if they have to use a chinese company to run those servers and they mess it up. It probably is quite unfair to lump them in with all other countries. Maybe a title difference should be used if that's a concern.
  • ShaighShaigh Member EpicPosts: 2,142
    Its not like the game had good reviews to begin with.
    forcelimaTheScavenger
    Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
  • RobbgobbRobbgobb Member UncommonPosts: 674
    I disagree with region lock though a filtered by the region of a person looking at the reviews probably would be ok. I think besides just a general review score that having one show what each region is reviewing a game at would be nice. Reviews in a region say it is bad so I go to look why that it is so bad there and see the reason. Then I know if the reason is valid, if it affects me, and so on. I disagree if just region locking so others can't be influenced because things are bad in one place.
  • SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
    edited September 2017
    Maybe one way to do it would be have the default review rating / written reviews be those from your region. However, there could be a drop box, perhaps, that allows you to see a different region.

    OR -- instead of a single review rating breakdown at the top of the page, put regional ratings together:

    NA - xxx recent reviews mostly positive
            xxx overall reviews mostly positive

    CH - xxx recent reviews mostly negative
            xxx overall reviews neutral

    Or something like that. Then people could dig around and find out why there are discrepancies, if any.
    [Deleted User]


    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


  • BruceYeeBruceYee Member EpicPosts: 2,556
    Or make it so you can't leave a review unless you have played over the refund mark.

    This region locking proposal by Funcom is with hope that in your area you won't see negative reviews and buy the game.

    If they change it for Funcom they should change it for all games cause it would be unfair if they don't.
  • ShaighShaigh Member EpicPosts: 2,142
    SBFord said:
    Maybe one way to do it would be have the default review rating / written reviews be those from your region. However, there could be a drop box, perhaps, that allows you to see a different region.

    OR -- instead of a single review rating breakdown at the top of the page, put regional ratings together:

    NA - xxx recent reviews mostly positive
            xxx overall reviews mostly positive

    CH - xxx recent reviews mostly negative
            xxx overall reviews neutral

    Or something like that. Then people could dig around and find out why there are discrepancies, if any.
    You can look for reviews ratings written in your language, handy when it comes to translations and localized games.

    The real problem here is that they are selling copies in a region where people can't play it.
    SBFord
    Iselin: And the next person who says "but it's a business, they need to make money" can just go fuck yourself.
  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    Torval said:
    I was ready to rip them a new one. But if they have to use a chinese company to run those servers and they mess it up. It probably is quite unfair to lump them in with all other countries. Maybe a title difference should be used if that's a concern.

    What if you could easily filter ratings results by region? So instead of them being unavailable you can choose and shape the results how you want. That sort of filtering can add quality and depth to data making it more useful information.
    filtering only works if the person knows about it and knows that the clients/servers have major differences.
  • kitaradkitarad Member LegendaryPosts: 7,885
    I actually bother to read steam reviews and I find some of the reviews are written with a good grasp on what a player is looking for in a  review. Even if I may not agree with what the reviewer is writing it is important if you want to find out about a game to not just look at the number of good or negative ratings but to actually check why it is given a good or bad rating.

    Ratings based on the presence of Denuvo is rubbish in fact there should be a rating section where they should place those Denuvo ratings because they have nothing whatsoever to do with the game quality itself.

  • AkulasAkulas Member RarePosts: 3,004
    Ignore all reviews. Find a YT video from an unknown random. Scroll half way through the video. Press mute. Watch for 5 minutes. Make your own judgement. That's how I decide if I want to buy or not.

    This isn't a signature, you just think it is.

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    So he's yelling "review bomb" for 40% of negative reviews coming from the 2% of total sales... wait, for years in TSW an even larger ratio of bashing came from the 0% of sales, aka non-players, and they could easily ignore it, hell at the end they even embraced it and zombified the game for those voices :smiley:

    Not to mention the "rebranding" shenanigans and using TSW ratings and reviews for the new crap on all over the internet, as @TalulaRose said above. Oh, the irony...
    (who knows, maybe 2-3 years from now one of their beancounters recognize how's the population of China, do the similar calculations they did last Spring with TSW, according to Tilty, and they will make a Conan Exiles Legends China edition :lol: )
  • ShinamiShinami Member UncommonPosts: 825
    I blame Funcom for the following reasons: 

    Developers who have their games published on Steam are free to choose the availability of their game by region. They are even able to make available multiple versions too if need be. 

    Had Funcom released an Eastern Version and a Western Version restricted to their audiences, they would have gathered the opinion needed from its gamers. However, they stuck with the idea of releasing a single version and that is exactly what happens when a nation of over a billion people make their opinion over a western-released game. OF COURSE it is going to APPEAR TO be like a Bomb! 

    Realize that the population of Men and Women in China who are part of the working class... Each Gender = More than the total population of people living in the U.S. 

    So yes! 
    Congratulations on being THAT GUY!!!

    The guy who says "I can't stand how Asians deliver to the West such games with BAD PING and crappy localization!" and then turn around and DO IT YOURSELF by finally making a game available to the East and finding that their main complaints are server performances that Eastern Gamers have......

    I couldn't find fault in blaming Chinese people as a whole as they were given the same basic rights as others on steam. Since MMORPGs are Guild-Based and Cultures of the Far-East are more Group-Oriented in their recreation and work within their culture, it is only COMMON for ENTIRE GROUPS that would have launched as GUILDS playing from their own NET CAFEs and LAN Parties connecting to the net.... Would LOGICALLY complain together...

    So the question is "What is NOT to understand?" 
    The choice to make a global release means that opinions received will be at the global level.

    A piece of advice: 

    "If you want to make friends in this world, let go of all your damned preconceptions and start to learn how a people truly are... forget the worthless stereotypes and do some soul searching. You might be surprised." 
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