Gaming Updates : Why Even User Video Game Scores Can't Be Trusted Any More

Source : 

https://www.howtogeek.com/why-even-user-video-game-scores-cant-be-trusted-any-more/

Apple Intelligence : 

• Review Bombing Definition: A coordinated effort to flood online review platforms with negative reviews, often unrelated to the game’s quality.

• Impact of Review Bombing: Skews game ratings, damages reputation, and influences public perception, making it difficult to assess a game’s true value.

• Consequences of Review Bombing: Erodes trust in user review systems and hinders objective evaluation of games.

• Review Bombing Definition: A coordinated effort to lower a game’s average rating by posting a large number of negative reviews, often using bots or automated tools.

• Review Bombing Motivations: Driven by various factors, including backlash against developers’ comments, controversy surrounding game content, or dissatisfaction with gameplay changes or microtransactions.

• Review Bombing Impact: Drowns out genuine criticism, negatively impacts sales, and can hinder future projects.

• Review Bombing Impact: Review bombing undermines the trustworthiness of negative reviews, making it difficult to distinguish genuine criticism from orchestrated attacks.

• Review Bombing Example: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, despite being an improvement, faced a wave of negative reviews likely due to organized efforts, highlighting the issue of review bombing.

• Importance of Reviews: Early reviews are crucial for informing purchase decisions, but review bombing raises concerns about their reliability.

• Review Bias: Reviews are often influenced by external factors like the company’s reputation, overshadowing objective evaluation of gameplay, story, and design.

• Impact of External Factors: Negative public opinion towards a game’s publisher, unrelated to the game’s quality, can unfairly lower review scores.

• Ethical Dilemma: While holding publishers accountable for unethical practices is important, manipulating review scores based on external controversies is not the solution.

• Game Sales Importance: Sales are crucial for a game’s success, even for critically acclaimed titles, as exemplified by Guardians of the Galaxy.

• Review Trustworthiness: Both professional and user reviews are increasingly viewed as untrustworthy due to potential bias, manipulation, and review bombing.

• Review Interpretation: It’s important to consider the content of reviews over just the scores, as high scores on professional sites might gloss over issues.