Duke Nukem Forever PR Agency Threatens Sites Over Bad Reviews - UPDATED

[Continuity]

I can sympathize. It's got to be hard to watch a project you put a lot of work on become the subject of a thrashing. At least he had the sense and grace to apologize. GameSpot never went as far after the whole Kane and Lynch debacle.

Whch is why I dont use them to this day, and one of the reasons I ended up here

Silly Redner. You dont threat the reviewers, you buy them.

That's how it used to work back in the 90's, game magazine's "reviews" of games were basically just sponsored advertising. These days that modus operandi seems to have gone out of fashion thank goodness, at least I haven't seen any blatantly bought reviews on any of the sites I frequent.

 

[samaugsch]

Did anyone even take note that the guy apologized later? Or did the person who wrote this article edit it later?

 

[Lionsfan]

That's how it used to work back in the 90's, game magazine's "reviews" of games were basically just sponsored advertising. These days that modus operandi seems to have gone out of fashion thank goodness, at least I haven't seen any blatantly bought reviews on any of the sites I frequent.

Well I think it's because of the Internet that it's that way. I mean it would be impossible for companies to buy out every single site that reviews games as compared to just buying out a magazine or "making a donation to the publication"

 

[Alucard788]

So the juvenile developers of a juvenile game act juvenile when that game isn't well received?

We're surprised?

Not only immature, but have some seriously disturbing issues with women...like severely disturbing...like the really should talk to someone about it.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/reviews/2011/06/duke-nukem-forever-review-barely-playable-unfunny-and-rampantly-offensive.ars

This one of my favorite verbal skewerings of the game so far.^

That's another thing. So many people got their panties in a bunch about the whole "capture the babe" and woman-slapping, and their public relations and supporters put a great deal of effort into convincing the public that the game wasn't misogynist... And then what do I see in Russ Pitts video supplement? A bunch of big-titted, bound, tortured, writhing, women hanging from the ceiling, and disembodied slappable tits.

I mean, it's one thing to have a couple hot school girl twins give your character a blow job. Sure, it's trashy, but it's also kind of funny, and not necessarily misogynist (though definitely a little sexist). But I take serious issue with presenting tortured women as sexy. Women in pain are not "hot", nor should they be. That's fucked. And disembodied slappable tits? As if women aren't reduced to mere body parts often enough.

Exactly! Not to mention the entire hive with sexual moans overplayed with the sounds of crying...on and the exploding pregnant women.

It's not gallows humor..it's not Silent hill horror...it's not even Amnesia style disturbing...it's just plain sick.

Seriously? Reading that article... it made me realize just how much this game really shouldn't have come out at all, let alone sell as much as it did. The part where your forced to kill women just to advance while they beg for their lives just sounds horrible. How could anyone find that funny? Maybe there's some context to it that makes it better, but I highly doubt it. I can deal with slappable disembodied breasts, and throwing feces around for fun, and I can even understand the whole "capture the babe" thing to a degree, but that... it just seems to go too far, and will likely be a stain on gaming like Postal 2.

It is going too far...really I was watching a play through of the hive and I had to turn it off and just...shudder and think on what I had seen and heard.

Understand that I've played Amnesia and Silent Hill and while I've been scared and disturbed...the hive hell the whole game... disturbed me in a way that made me numb.

There are some lines that we really really shouldn't cross. I know some here might argue different...but exploding pregnant women and sexual torture that portrayed as 'funny' is something we gamers need to say no to.

We need to say 'enough is enough'. Some might say "Oh just learn to handle it." And to them I say "How in hell can you handle THAT?!"

Oh this game will be a stain on games for a long time...and a stain on any man who finds it 'funny' or 'entertaining'.

 

[Lionsfan]

Seriously? Reading that article... it made me realize just how much this game really shouldn't have come out at all, let alone sell as much as it did. The part where your forced to kill women just to advance while they beg for their lives just sounds horrible. How could anyone find that funny? Maybe there's some context to it that makes it better, but I highly doubt it. I can deal with slappable disembodied breasts, and throwing feces around for fun, and I can even understand the whole "capture the babe" thing to a degree, but that... it just seems to go too far, and will likely be a stain on gaming like Postal 2.

snip

I don't know how it happened, but I think it mistakenly gave that quote to me instead of Kapol, the guy who actually responded to you.

 

[airrazor7]

what kind of mentality can you expect from a guy who heavily marketed poo flinging, pissing and drawing penises more than the actual gameplay?

Just sayin'

 

[Artina89]

For a man in charge of public relations, he isn't that good at reaching out to the said public is he? Reviewers didn't like your game, but so what? chances are that people are not going to like everything that you publish and develop, and you can't throw your toys out of the pram because they didn't like your game, its unprofessional and rude, and shows a great deal of immaturity. I am not surprised he is no longer hired by 2K. I would drop him too for making an outburst like that.

 

[Ian Caronia]

Is throwing a big temper tantrum when people don't like your game the new it thing for the industry? It's been happening quite often recently.

Too true, but then again, it's always happened.

Let's not forget Rockstar has done the same in the past, also reportedly getting one reviewer fired.
Then there's Bioware, whose employees seem to REALLY want their games to have a high grade. So much so that they're willing to go undercover and post reviews about the same games they themselves worked on.

It's no big surprise, really. I mean it's already a well known fact that the games with the highest grades and biggest marketing have more often than not recieved high grades due to pay-offs. It's real. It happens in every industry.
Example (Aside from other one I can't name right now): Halo 3 ODST. Every review at the time gave it 9/10 to even godly 10/10.
_It's widely regarded as dogshit due to several factual issues you can read about anywhere or hear from anyone, not the least of which is the fact that it was DLC that was given a basic multiplayer thing, given pre-existing Halo 3 map packs and then sold for full price.

Pay-offs happen and so does bullying. It's business...sadly. :/

 

[mxfox408]

If he planned on not giving reviewers games he should have just done it without going public about it.