Assassin's Creed Lawsuit Author Gets Amazon-Bombed

[Andy Chalk]

Assassin's Creed Lawsuit Author Gets Amazon-Bombed

Reviews of the novel behind the Assassin's Creed lawsuit have taken a sudden turn for the worse.

I am, for the most part, a lawful good sort, but I must confess to occasionally feeling a flash of glee in my heart when the internet inflicts justice upon those who truly deserve it. Does John Beiswenger, the author who Link [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116842-Author-Claims-Assassins-Creed-Set-Up-Was-His-Idea], truly deserve it? I don't know, but it looks like he's feeling the love anyway, at least on Amazon, where his novel is very suddenly getting a lot of attention, none of it good.

A few of the one-star scores are accompanied by comments that pretend to be actual reviews but in what I think is a new twist [it's not something I've noticed before, at least], a lot of them come right out and say that the bottom-of-the-barrel rating is in response to Beiswenger's lawsuit. Adding to the chaos are a small number of new five-star reviews posted by people fighting back against "angry gamers," one of which states that the writer neither knows nor cares whether or not the book is any good, he's just tired of people causing trouble.

The Amazon-bomb is a simple but well-known internet combat tactic in which products for sale on the internet are deluged with negative reviews, the idea being to convince those who don't know any better than it's a piece of crap and thus to be avoided. It most commonly happens when the collective gets angry over some perceived slight or counter-bombing [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107684-Videogames-Cause-Rape-Author-Gets-Amazonbombed] when word of its sleazy behavior got out.

The moral of the story? Amazon-bombs are fun, but giving too much credence to review scores is a fool's game.

At last look, Link had 63 ratings on Amazon, all but one of which were posted within the last two days. [The first and only "real" review, a five-star rating, was posted in July 2007.] Its average rating currently sits at 1.5 stars.


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[RJ 17]

I love how "the internet" is officially a living, breathing thing with a massive hive mind. It's crazy to think that the internet has a will of its own, but I think it's quite clear that it most certainly does.

The moral of the story? Amazon-bombs are fun, but giving too much credence to review scores is a fool's game.

This has been one of my major points about reviews in general, as I explain here:

If she didn't like it then fair enough, and I can't form an opinion yet cause I havent seen it

This is actually how I feel about reviews in general. If you ask me the only good reviews are ones that are mostly supposed to be taken for entertainment value (i.e. Zero Punctuation). In the end just because someone else says it's crap doesn't mean that YOU'LL think it's crap. Reviews are, after all, nothing but opinions. People shouldn't let others color their perception of movies/games/books etc. They should experience those things for themselves and make their own decision about whether or not they liked it.

Case in point: Dark Souls is considered to insanely hard but otherwise a fantastic game by most people. I, however, thought it was absolutely retarded. My opinion won't change other people's opinions on the matter, nor will their opinions change mine.

As I said, to me critics and reviews are absolutely pointless as their purpose - to persuade or dissuade someone from watching/reading/playing something - is indeed a fool's errand.

People make up their own minds, sheep just follow the herd.

 

[gigastar]

That was fast...

Such is the fate of those who lash out against something they apparently dont understand.

 

[Yopaz]

I wish Amazon would just stick with a system that only let people who had purchased the item got to review it. It wouldn't take a lot for that to happen. Still, authour is an idiot now people hate him. That's the way the world goes I guess.

 

[DustyDrB]

Errr...not a fan. Let it get sorted out in court.

 

[Beautiful End]

Called it.

I'm glad, though. I hate people who try to leech off other's success. For his own good, he should just learn a lesson from this and let it go. Otherwise, he might end up losing more than just some constructive reviews and ratings.

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Well the game DOES have a few similarities to the dudes book.

Is it really THAT inconceivable that a the Assassins Creed writers took "inspiration" from this guys book?

Oh what am I saying? This is the INTERNET. There's no room for rational arguments in cases like this. Just pick up your pitchforks and torches and blindly march forward.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

I love how "the internet" is officially a living, breathing thing with a massive hive mind. It's crazy to think that the internet has a will of its own, but I think it's quite clear that it most certainly does.

Much like the notion of a Living Constitution [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Constitution]

Errr...not a fan. Let it get sorted out in court.

I vote we have Phoenix Wright on the defense.

OT: Doesn't shock me in the slightest. But I agree. Let's see what the courts have to say

 

[Kopikatsu]

Way to be mature.

The point of doing this was supposed to be...what, exactly?

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Didn't his book come out before? Just wondering there.

Anyways, the whole thing seems dumb. He shouldn't have opened his mouth/sued and people shouldn't amazon bomb him. The whole Amazon bomb thing only reinforces the idea that gamers are a bunch of self-entitled man-children...

 

[dyre]

Well, that's pretty childish. Though, I assume that guy didn't actually expect good publicity to come from his stupid stunt.

Well the game DOES have a few similarities to the dudes book.

Is it really THAT inconceivable that a the Assassins Creed writers took "inspiration" from this guys book?

Oh what am I saying? This is the INTERNET. There's no room for rational arguments in cases like this. Just pick up your pitchforks and torches and blindly march forward.

It's fairly inconceivable that Ubisoft copied this guy specifically, as this book is hella obscure and, as one reviewer pointed out, older, more popular books have had similar ideas. So, it's possible that Ubisoft got its ideas from other works, but probably not this one.

Besides, it's not like the animus is such a creative, amazing idea. It'd be like an author who happened to use time travel in his book suing a developer for putting time travel in their game.

 

[praetor_alpha]

I don't give a crap about Ubi or its bad times.

Disclosure: I'm a PC.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I don't like his lawsuit but I can't say I think any better of Amazon-bombing him for it. If a group of people are giving a game a one star rating because it has DRM they don't like they have a complaint about the product itself.

Chances are they'll just be removed anyway, so this has only served to drawn more attention to him and his ridiculous lawsuit.

 

[Innocent Bystander]

Well the game DOES have a few similarities to the dudes book.

Is it really THAT inconceivable that a the Assassins Creed writers took "inspiration" from this guys book?

Oh what am I saying? This is the INTERNET. There's no room for rational arguments in cases like this. Just pick up your pitchforks and torches and blindly march forward.

Way ahead of you boss.
*Raises pitchfork and torch*
"I am came here to burn shit and cyber-lych, and I am fresh out of burnables!"

 

[Nojh]

I think this is a sad state of affairs. Rating bombing an author's book has more direct financial consequences for an author than rating bombing a video game.

Regardless of if the author's lawsuit is valid or not, that is for justice system to decide, attacking the author's work via a review system is not unlike going into a bookstore and stealing or otherwise defacing all of their books. Books selling, especially on websites like Amazon, rely heavily upon ratings. Books don't have huge media outlets like The Escapist or IGN to pimp them out to potential readers and even critical book reviewers have been slowly fading from existence thanks to sites like Amazon and Goodreads. Another way to look at it, should a book that otherwise might bring entertainment and interest to many people, be judged because of the actions of its author years after it was written instead of the quality of its content?

And honestly, does Ubisoft or Assassin's Creed really need the internet's protection?

 

[beniki]

Wait... people are defending Ubisoft? What madness is this?? This is a company that actively dicks all over it's consumers every chance it gets. Shouldn't the internet hate machine be sending this author donations to fund his law suit?

Not that I care either way. I'm just commenting on what an irrational creature the webbed mass consciousness is.

And I'm pleased as punch that I spelled consciousness right on the first go!

 

[Astoria]

Well the game DOES have a few similarities to the dudes book.

Is it really THAT inconceivable that a the Assassins Creed writers took "inspiration" from this guys book?

Oh what am I saying? This is the INTERNET. There's no room for rational arguments in cases like this. Just pick up your pitchforks and torches and blindly march forward.

Just because there are similarities doesn't mean you can scream out LAWSUIT! People have been taking ideas and making them their own since the beginning of creativity. This guys just trying to make some easy money, probably because he's pissy that Ubisoft used the idea better than he did.

 

[rob_simple]

As I said, to me critics and reviews are absolutely pointless as their purpose - to persuade or dissuade someone from watching/reading/playing something - is indeed a fool's errand.

People make up their own minds, sheep just follow the herd.

I think you have far too much hate for reviews, although most of it is justified.

While I'd never let a review change my mind about a game, if I read one and it describes the precise experience I don't look for in a game/film/whatever then I usually avoid it or wait until I can pick it up cheap enough to not care if I hate it (as was the case with Dragon Age).

 

[dyre]

Wait... people are defending Ubisoft? What madness is this?? This is a company that actively dicks all over it's consumers every chance it gets. Shouldn't the internet hate machine be sending this author donations to fund his law suit?

Not that I care either way. I'm just commenting on what an irrational creature the webbed mass consciousness is.

And I'm pleased as punch that I spelled consciousness right on the first go!

Ubisoft as a developing group is just fine; it's the publishers that are jerks (or incompetent morons, depending on who you ask).

And they're not really defending Ubisoft; they're just calling out an idiot for being an idiot. Just because people dislike a company doesn't mean they'd ally with any asshole just to oppose that company.