MW3 Dev Manipulates MetaCritic, Gets Flamed to Death

[Greg Tito]

MW3 Dev Manipulates MetaCritic, Gets Flamed to Death

Sledgehammer Games lead called for Modern Warfare 3 fans to reverse its paltry Metacritic user score.

Even though Modern Warfare 3 is making more money than the Second Coming of Michael Jackson would [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114249-Modern-Warfare-3-Breaks-Every-Sales-Record-Known-to-Man], it seems that wasn't enough for Glen Schofield the general manager of Sledgehammer Games, one of five studios that contributed to the game. Critics seem to like MW3 with scores averaging out to 89/100 on review aggregate site MetaCritic, but Schofield took umbrage with the 1.7 average user score on that website though. To combat the rash of 0 out of 10 scores, he beseeched his Twitter followers to head there to raise the bar today. He didn't anticipate the huge backlash against such a request - even from his fans - for manipulating the user score that way, and he quickly deleted the offending Tweet.

"I don't usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score," Schofield said in his Tweet. "It's suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree."

Fans cried foul at the manipulation, but the user score average did start to climb up. It now sits at a respectable 3.2 out of 10.

While there's nothing inherently wrong with rallying your fans using social media tools like Twitter - indie developers do it all the time and they are called being marketing savvy - I think the problem with Schofield's action is the timing and the fact that MW3 is the big target in gaming right now. It's generally not a wise thing to call for more support when you are making a boatload of cash.

That's like the Yankees asking for more money so they can buy more World Series championships.

Source: Industry Gamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/call-of-duty-developer-calls-for-metascore-boost/]

Permalink

 

[Blind Sight]

Just balances out some of the over bloated reviewer scores. But to each his own I guess. I thought that Dragon Age 2 was pretty good and Metacritic's dozens of zero and one reviews didn't bother me.

 

[hazabaza1]

Better for people who have actually played the game and thought it was good to say it's good rather than a bunch of idiots going "HURR DURR IT'S COD IT SUCKS DURR"

 

[Xeraxis]

While I do promote the motive of this guy in trying to raise its own bar with honesty, there's no point in trying to up the score set lowered by all the trolls and haters who vote it down with their hurp-a-derp mentality of "The game's terrible, because I don't like it, so others shouldn't like it".

 

[Catalyst6]

He was asking them to be honest. Yeah, he was hoping that honesty would be a high score, but still. If anything I'd have to question the "honesty" of the people giving the game a 1/10, because I'm fairly sure I played it without losing any major organs, which puts it at least at a 2.

 

[imnot]

HURR DURR IT'S COD IT SUCKS DURR

OT: Who actualy listens to metacritic anyway, it just seems to be fileld with people who spend their time downrating things for fun.

 

[RandV80]

Yeah no problem here. Getting you're developers to add a bunch of 10/10 scores is scummy, asking your fans to go give it an honest review is perfectly fine.

 

[Frost27]

HURR DURR IT'S COD IT SUCKS DURR

OT: Metacritic's user ratings are a troll pit with explosions waiting to happen. Most of the 0 reviews were probably all EA employees but still. I can't blame him for asking for honest scores to bring up the average from the trolling.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

That's like the Yankees asking for more money so they can buy more World Series championships.

The Joke ------> (^^)

My Head ------->(-.-)

OT: Nothing wrong with this I see. The hatred for MW3 is rather undeserved. It's a damn good game, and I don't think it's fair that it deserves a lower user score than Duke Nukem Forever. Heck, I didn't think that Duke Nukem Forever is that bad a game, but I do still have tastes in what games are better than others, and I think it's fair to say that MW3 deserves a bit better of a score.

On the other hand, the sales make up for this.

Calumon: If they don't like low numbers, shouldn't they make better things?

 

[uppitycracker]

While I do appreciate the accurate low score it HAD before this tweet, I fail to see the issue here. He asked fans of the game to take a moment to stop playing the game, and go give an honest review of the game. Sure, he's hoping for GOOD scores, but still... he did say be honest. It's not like he started some secret drive to get people to give it 10's. Gamers lashing out over pretty much nothing, as usual...

 

[Soviet Heavy]

So in order to combat review bombing by people who don't say anything about the game and mark it as zero, he's asking people to lie and give it the opposite score?

 

[samsonguy920]

"I don't usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score," Schofield said in his Tweet. "It's suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree."

I see nothing wrong with this tweet at all. He doesn't ask them to do it just for the score, but to be honest about it.
Frankly the fans giving such a kneejerk backlash like that are being the douches, here.

In the end, though, it doesn't really matter as I highly doubt Metacritic matters one iota to affecting sales in the slightest. I wish Steam would drop them from its client.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

And this is why Metacritic is dumb. Yes, asking your customers to give your game a good review if they liked it is fine. But aggregating scores from a million random guys just doesn't work, it gives you a skewed picture. Only the people who really hated it or really loved it are going to give it a score. Nobody thinking rationally at the time is going to put up theirs.

 

[Seieko Pherdo]

I don't see the need for a fan metacritic uprising, considering how this games sells. It's not like Call Of Duty Dev are poor or something. Then again if a Dev doesn't want there game to have bad scores by the people who complain Call Of Duty is a rehash of sameness and over dramatic patriotism then they can change that and add more than just multiplayer maps and whatnot but I digress.

 

[lacktheknack]

HURR DURR IT'S COD IT SUCKS DURR

I wasn't aware that people took Metacritic very seriously anymore, seeing how much fury it generates. Everyone knows that review bombing happens to games that cause any sort of major opinion split, so the devs should have just rolled with it...

 

[xxBucdieselxx]

3.2 is respectable out of 10? Really?

 

[AudienceOfOne1]

meh, you balance the haters out with the fanboys which then gives a fairly accurate score...

 

[Ferrious]

What, exactly, did he do wrong here?

"I don't usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score," Schofield said in his Tweet. "It's suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree."

That's not manipulation, that's asking for support and honest reviews.