EA, Game "Journalism," and the Cold Hard Cash

gyrorobo · 6 months

For those that are interested, here is the full video

NowhereDan · 6 months

So... How come there's no reference in this very witty gif to Reddit darlings Giant Bomb and Rock Paper Shotgun also giving Mass Effect 3 glowing reviews? It got 4/5 from honest-reviews martyr Jeff Gerstmann himself, and RPS head Jim Rossignol called it "an apt culmination to the series, and particularly apt to my personal experience of the trilogy."

Oh, does that somehow not work with the narrative of IGN and GameSpot being unrepentantly corrupt?

Kinseyincanada · 6 months

I love how mass effect has turned into a overall horrible game from just a game with a mediocre ending.

Suzushiiro · 6 months

I'll just repost what I said when this gif was posted last fucking week:

YES, CLEARLY THE ONLY REASON WHY THEY WOULD GIVE A GOOD REVIEW TO A GAME YOU DIDN'T LIKE IS THAT THEY WERE BRIBED INTO DOING IT. NO SIR, THEY COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE LEGITIMATE REASONS FOR LIKING IT DUE TO A DIFFERENCE IN BELIEFS AS TO WHAT MAKES A GAME GOOD OR BAD, THEY ACTUALLY AGREE WITH YOUR IMPECCABLE TASTES IN GAMES BUT VALUE MONEY MORE THAN INTEGRITY.

jaketessem · 6 months

This isn't how it is at all. Mass Effect 3 is a phenomenal game. Sure, many of you think that the ending sucks, but that doesn't discredit the rest of it. And it's not like they gave it a 10 or anything. IGN reviews games and reviews are opinions. It was that particular reviewer's opinion that Mass Effect 3 is a great game. I don't see why that would imply that IGN is paid by EA.

VMikeL · 6 months

This is a cool gif and all, but unfortunately it's also an unrealistic idea of what video game journalism is like. Most of these opinions are formed from the idea that "I don't like your review score, so they mustn't have paid them enough" or the vice versa "I watched the trailers, and it doesn't look that good, it doesn't deserve that score!".

eaglex47 · 6 months

IVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR TABLIOD JOURNALISM

MrLime93 · 6 months

I hate that many of you seem to think that the review centres around the score given to it. If you actually read the review you may get a better understanding of the opinion of the individual who reviewed it. Many of IGN's editors don't actually like the score system and would much prefer if people actually read the written review rather than looking at a bunch of numbers.

Another point I'd like to make is that just because IGN is the biggest does not mean its corrupted and jaded by publishers. To say that would be completely ignorant and disrespectful to the industry as a whole.

Beyond/Scoop!

fizz4m · 6 months

Here's the problem. When reviewers give a good score to a game, they get accused of selling out and being bad journalists. When reviewers give a low score, they get accused of being too critical.

Sharuko · 6 months

Dragon Age 2 wasn't that great, I guess EA's cash didn't work then did it? 99% of Mass Effect 3 is awesome, EA hate is deserved for somethings, however the actual ME3 game is not one of them.

Yehaw4Jihad · 6 months

IGN Review score for ME3 is 9.5

Reader Review is 9.8

Explain.

downvotemaster · 6 months

ladies and gentleman, the daily EA circlejerk, one of the best ways to karma whore in r/gaming, next to praising Gaben and posting about Pokemon.

Priami · 6 months

Kinda stupid how people think ME3 is horrible because the ending is bad. I totally agree, the ending is a real letdown and Day 1 DLC is just retarded but seriously, it doesn't make the whole game horrible.

This picture has a point though, even bad and mediocre games always get good ratings if they are published by EA or Activision.

yfot · 6 months

Ignoring the crap story and ending there of, which I always thought was pretty "meh", ME3 is a pretty darned good game. Looks fucking amazing, diverse gameplay, simple diversity and really well optimized (atleast for my system). I would be pretty damned pissed if this games didn´t get a high score from reviewers even if I´m really not a fan of the series.

Kamakazie · 6 months

I honestly don't understand how anyone can truly believe this rubbish.

Naiir · 6 months

Reddit: Where if you don't agree with someone's opinion, they obviously were bought out.

miked1136 · 6 months

this has only been reposted about 300 times now

galenwolf · 6 months

Back in university I had a lecturer who had come from Team 17 (maker of worms) to teach us AI programming.

We once asked him about this issue, his words where (approx as this was over 7 years ago) "it's rife. Don't trust any website or magazine score for any big title because the publishers will try and bribe every magazine and website they can whilst at the same time threatening to stop those same publications from getting review code if they give the game a bad score."

He then told us we where better off looking out what the small time reviewer said. Independants that do it as a hobby and actually go out and buy the games. These guys are not under the old of requiring review code to ensure they get "exclusives" etc and whilst you might have to wait a month for the review, at least its more likely to be honest, especially since you can look at more than one and get a better general feel.

TenRobots · 6 months

Nope, it doesn't actually work that way.

TheInfra · 6 months

Relevant

dgblackout · 6 months

If you don't enjoy EA stuff, ignore the reviews and don't put your money in their pockets. It's not like there isn't a whole heap of other games out there.

Danielo944 · 6 months

I lost my shit at the end of the gif.

JRC6502 · 6 months

Now I want to play Theme Park.

isaactology · 6 months

Please tell me that didnt just spoil the ending. And please tell me it isnt all a dream

neopunches · 6 months

the mountain dew seizure is perfect

JuzPwn · 6 months

Brilliant.

TheCakeBoss · 6 months

Sauce.

[deleted] · 6 months

Can't say that I agree or that anyone should take this seriously, but dayum that was funny.

bawalo · 6 months

In case someone didn't know, the review layout is a beta test for the future layouts of the reviews. Why not use it in a huge review (traffic-wise) and get boatloads of feedback? Also, IGN is hardly the only site in the world that has advertisements.

TonicBH · 6 months

I've known several people who are in and out of the games writing industry. If you guys think it's this way for real, you're nuts.

In 95% of cases, advertising and editorial are two completely different departments who rarely talk among one another. One does not influence the other.

evidentlychickentown · 6 months

I actually enjoyed the game for 6 hours.. until I went on /r/gaming. I now really lost interest to continue with the game, thinking about the bad ending all the time and I am not even sure if it is my own perception or the hivemind's indoctrination. However, it just reminded me that I have some open contracts with the thieves guild in Skyrim.

nssmuckers · 6 months

I wonder how BioShock was received on reddit sometimes.

If we want to talk about brilliant games with garbage endings...

xMingLeex · 6 months

What? Game reviewers do not get paid by publishers. IGN and the editor who did the review always prefer there opinion. Not to mention ME3 was a really good game, including the ending.

denniedarko · 6 months

A gif really is worth a thousand words.

BrawndoTTM · 6 months

OK I'm no fan of EA or bribing reviewers, but I don't see any way an honest review could justify giving ME3 a less than perfect score. OK so the ending wasn't great. It's only the last 10 minutes of an unbelievably immersive and masterfully written story that happened to also contain excellent combat and an amazing multiplayer system to boot. IMHO this is without question the best video game I've ever played in nearly 20 years of gaming. Am I the only one who noticed that there was literally no other criticism from anyone about anything other than the ending? Do you realize how crazy it is to focus on the one tiny flaw in an otherwise perfect game. It's like going to a restaurant and having an exquisite 5 course meal, and then bitching endlessly about the quality of the after dinner mint. The hate is ridiculous. Bring on the downvotes.

drockers · 6 months

Why the fuck is this being upvoted. The actual video has been posted to /r/gaming at least 3 times. And the video/gif gets posted in every single ea or mass effect thread. Not including the amount of times it was posted in /r/MassEffect3 and /r/4chan

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