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

[koroem]

I'm betting that the PR group thinks the only thing they did wrong is publicly admit to doing those kind of tactics.

Yep and 2K/Gearbox/Other publications are going to pass it off publicly as a one time occurrence. I'm willing to bet this happens a lot more than is publicized.

The only difference here is one PR firm is going to get some bad press for publicly admitting this ONE INSTANCE, while others get away with it constantly.

But I guess that is the catch 22 of it all. In the end, the reviewers as basically given free copies of the game to review and be competitive with other news sources. If you review them badly its like they are paying money to be shit on.

The system is broken honestly. Unless the ones reviewing are buying their own copies sometime after release then the publishers/developers pretty much OWN the review process and can set the terms.

Sad honestly.

 

[Jake the Snake]

Wahhh, subjective opinions! How dare we have people say how they feel! We want to sell our crappy game! They're not helping! *Sigh* Petty and childish. I'm sick of it.

 

[koroem]

snip

While I agree with you, I think the biggest issue here is that Gearbox took the IP, polished the turd that it was, hyped it even more, then sold it at a $60 price point knowing full well it was a technical disaster.

People are quick to point fingers once they feel burned. Granted a lot of the criticism came before release due to reviews and the dreadful demo, a lot of people had preorders out, and the money was on the table. Reviewers had to be brutally honest to drive the point home. For once, reviewers are doing the customers a favor and a service.

 

[icame]

Funny fact: The "2" they mention is from our own Jim Sterling on destructoid I believe.

 

[danhere]

GET FU--er, fired.

 

[conflictofinterests]

What the fuck did they THINK was going to happen after being cock teases for more than a decade and then phoning it in with the bits and pieces they super glued together over said decade (and change). "This had better be good" was pretty much the mantra of all game reviewers EVAR when concerning Duke Nukem: Forever.

 

[kingmob]

Wow, that is an awesome example how you can lose your job using stuff like twitter. Pay attention, this kind of stupidity can end your career.

 

[EvilRoy]

What the fuck did they THINK was going to happen after being cock teases for more than a decade and then phoning it in with the bits and pieces they super glued together over said decade (and change). "This had better be good" was pretty much the mantra of all game reviewers EVAR when concerning Duke Nukem: Forever.

At least we can all rest safely knowing that Yahtzee was totally right.

The DNF was not gods gift to gamers, and most of the reviewers in the world are in the middle of sawing DNF's balls off.

 

[cobaltfram]

"I believe we are all allowed to voice our opinions and that opinions by their very nature are correct. Many of you quickly pointed out my error in judgment. For that I thank you and apologize."

I love the little piece of double-speak here; it's a good PR man that can contradict himself in the span of one sentence.

 

[00slash00]

"whats the point of bribing the reviewers if they arent going to give our game the score we want!?"

 

[Steve Lovell]

I hear that he's been offered a job working on the next kane & Lynch game

 

[Imp_Emissary]

Duke Nukem Forever PR Agency Threatens Sites Over Bad Reviews

This is one of the reasons why the video game industry isn't taken seriously. Publishers and developers act like 3 year olds when their games aren't received well. And threatening reviewers for being honest? Fuck you.
I'll end with this:

You and Jim are factually correct. These people who complain about how reviewers put too much of their emotion and opinion into their reviews are (in my opinion) FOOLS! The fact is that a review is the written opinion of the reviewer, and if their opinion is that the game is bad its because THEY found the game to be bad.

Also, they write down the reasons why they found it bad!

If you don't agree with them it doesn't make them wrong, it just means you have a diffrent opinion than they do, and that's ok. What's not ok is when you go on to say that they didn't play the game long enough or the right way. If they say they couldn't even get to the end of the game because it was so bad, or if they say that they had trouble learning how to even play it, then the blame for that is on the people who made the game.

 

[Svenparty]

What a surprise! An impossibly immature game gets an immature response from the people involved when reviewers don't buy into the hype. "Mean Spirited" isn't an excuse. Granted things have been panned before unfairly but I doubt Duke Nukem is one of them.

 

[Android2137]

Personally, I appreciate the straightforwardness of it all. Other companies would bribe reviewers. Threatening isn't much better, but at least it's in the open. And he apologized (and I am a person who forgives easily and knows what it's like to lose control over emotion from time to time...)

 

[Canid117]

It's like a professional version of the 8.8 fiasco.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

Normally, I would agree with you, this is low, but we are talking about game journalism - the most unprofessional job on the planet.

Perhaps the problem is not with "games journalism" but with your sources. You and a lot of other people are so ready to lump it all into one big pile, but would you do the same with non-specialized journalism? Does the existence of state-controlled news agencies in China, Iran and Zimbabwe make all journalists unprofessional?

Please tell me you're not that naive? American journalism is the same way, Andy. Just not in the same fashion as the countries you've mentioned. I've known this for a long time, thanks to these people.




When it comes to these kind of influences, it isn't a huge leap in logic to see that it can, and does, happen in all forms of journalism.

As far as reviews, I don't pay attention to them anymore. They're meaningless, all of them. Even The Escapist's. It's all opinions, that's all they are. Now, if you follow addages, you'd know about the whole "opinions are like assholes" thing. In the case of reviews: if I wanted to hear from an asshole, I would have farted. Then I'd say it was either genuinely shit, or rather pleasant. And would probably do some reading in the closet later on.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

While I can see where this Redner guy is coming from, that doesn't excuse his behavior. When you're in a position such as he is, it's not just his ass that's on the line when he acts out like that, it's his whole company's collective ass that's on the line and it seems they've now payed for it. Although it was good of him to apologize for his actions, it doesn't seemed to have saved his company much face.

 

[Luke Cartner]

Maybe review sites like the escapist should publish list of game being released there black listed from.
After all it would only reflect on the poor quality of the actual product.
I feel it would be a good guide of what to avoid on general principle...

 

[MasterChief892039]

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

We're surprised?