Bioware Are Dicks

[Dragonium]

I imagine some of you have seen this already.

Bioware haven't been averse to the murder of good game franchises with excessive "streamlining", or putting intrusive DRM into their games that they specifically said they wouldn't, but apparently they're now resorting to bumping up the Metacritic user reviews of their own games. In my opinion, this is pretty unacceptable.

So do you think this is cause for much frowning, or not a big deal?

_{This could of course have been avoided had Dragon Age II been anywhere near good.}

[fruckert]

I blame EA.
Because I just can't be bioware, man.
it just cant

[/denial]

[Archem]

Hey, it's whatever.

[Osmose1000]

LOL DISCLAIMER: I've interned at Electronic Arts twice under the Sims Label in California. Bioware is in Edmonton, Canada.

Although yes, it is annoying that Chris Hoban did not give a disclaimer for his review, keep in mind that the people who work at game companies are gamers as well. Mobygames, one of the best resources for finding out credits and other info of that nature, lists Chris Hoban as only having worked on one game: Dragon Age: Origins. The credits page for one of the Dragon Age games he worked on lists him as "Application Support". This most likely means that he provided technical support to either the development team themselves or as some sort of support on troubleshooting the game install process or dealing with isssues in the game.

Now, if Chris Hoban was in marketing, or if he was a high-profile developer or producer, then yes, this would be highly suspicious. As it is, it looks to me like he personally made a mistake in reviewing a game that he liked, and tried a bit too hard in writing his review well. I highly doubt Bioware knew anything about it (of course, I could be wrong, but this doesn't seem like something they'd do), and if they did, they're not dumb enough to let it happen.

[Archem]

See, that's why I don't buy in to the pissy attitude when things like this surface until all the details are fleshed out. From the sounds of it, there's no crime here, and it's just a somewhat bad decision made without thinking about the results. But, of course, whatever media ran into this is likely just trying to drum up some attention (and page views).

[HobomasterXXX]

They also banned someone from playing Dragon Age 2 for badmouthing EA on the forums. Once word got out to news sites they went back on it saying it was a "glitch".

[Archem]

Yeah, it seems that they banned the account, forgetting that it affected everything tied to that account, not just forum access. Seems like an accident to me. Although, the post that got the guy banned suggested that Bioware sold their souls to the EA devil, but didn't really contain any vulgarity. That seems a bit extreme, but by no means is it underhanded.

[Prpl_Mage]

Well this isn't special.
I'm pretty sure this happens all the time seeing the scores things get over here in magazines and stuff. Games that pretty much sucks get a solid 5 out of 5, albums that works better as doorstops than listening to ect.
DA2 have received pretty high scores wherever I've looked, maybe it's good or maybe people like to praise it, I don't get what difference the person's job makes though.

[SaiKar]

One would think that the era of the official game reviewer should have ended some time in the past decade. Back when the internet was nonexistant / unpopular, gaming magazines served a decent, if self-service, purpose. But nowadays anyone can just ask gamers directly on the internets what they think of a game. It shouldn't matter if official joe shmoe thinks it's 5/5 stars great game if the people that bought it aren't happy.

[Cerebus]

I personally don't buy a game just because a review says it's good. Doubt it's the first time something similar happens.
Look at Black Ops. 9-10/10 everywhere, yet many, many people were disappointed by the game.

[Prpl_Mage]

I don't watch/read a lot of reviews either beside Zeropunctuation, and that's mostly because of that guy's boldness, so I don't buy games based on ratings. I usually download DS games before purchasing them to make sure that my time in the backseat won't be wasted though.
Got a friend who visits all the sites such as gamereactor to see what's new and hot, he always buys the latest high rated games. He gets all hyped while waiting for delivery and the opening movie then he gets bored or disappointed mostly. Especially FFXII/XIII.

I must admit myself guilty to fanbasing though. I keep buying the next game of a series only because I liked one of the previous games. Trying something completely new kinda demands a visual appeal; like Monster Hunter Tri for me, ,Borderlands or dragon age. Otherwise I stick to what I know (although FF is slowly slipping away).

[zuhane]

Bioware games always get good reviews. They could release anything and it'd get 90%+

I personally think every Bioware game I've ever played has been excruciatingly boring
and dragged out. Dragon Age 1 was a complete catastrophe.

[Dragonium]

I don't think it's entirely the same as an "official" review being paid off. Yeah, that happens all the time. Most people with sense know to take official reviews with a pinch of salt. This isn't really a major crime (unless you're in one of those countries where astroturfing is illegal), but in a way it's a betrayal of trust. Companies can shill for themselves, but they shouldn't. User reviews exist so that people who aren't sure whether or not to buy a game can see whether other human beings enjoyed the game.

Consider this: if you looked at reviews for a game, and it had twenty 11/10 official reviews and a hundred user reviews saying it was mediocre, what conclusion would you draw?

At the end of the day though, I guess Moose is right in that this is mostly harmless. It's annoying, but as far as I'm aware user reviews are largely ignored by developers, so the guy most likely just wanted to give a game he worked on some good rep. It still looks bad on Bioware, but then again they don't do much worthy of praise these days.

[Osmose1000]

User reviews exist so that people who aren't sure whether or not to buy a game can see whether other human beings enjoyed the game.

Developers are human beings. Bioware didn't write that review, Chris Hoban did. That's the mistake that people are making.

[Dragonium]

Alright, point taken.