BioWare Employee Allegedly Caught Boosting Metacritic Scores

Moderator Join date: 2011-02-23 Age: 18

Quote:

It looks like an internet detective may have caught a BioWare employee with his hand in the cookie jar.

Coming from a post off of reddit, user 'GatoFiasco' discovered a review for Dragon Age II on review aggregate site Metacritic that he described as "reading like a press release." After doing some sleuthing, he discovered that the person (account name 'Avanost') posting the then highest-rated user review on Metacritic had only posted one review, and that was for Dragon Age II.

GatoFiasco then took the user name he found on Metacritic and used it to follow the digital breadcrumbs that eventually ended at BioWare employee Chris Hoban. You can check the imgur link here or check the gallery for a picture that details his exploits. Please note that the text of the image was not added by this reporter.

After making some noise on the internet, the Metacritic review was taken down and the Dragon Age II Metacritic page stands at 4.1 from users after receiving numerous low scores from users angry at the disclosure of this alleged activity. The Russian BioWare site (Google Translate for the page can be found here) informed users that Dragon Age II was being attacked by a "flash mob" on Metacritic and encouraged users to take to the site to raise the score for Dragon Age II.

There is no word whether Hoban in fact actually made the post, though evidence does point to the fact that he did. There is also no word that he received any kind of material compensation for the post, though because he is an employee of BioWare any kind of review made without his employment disclosure could run afoul of Federal Trade Commission guidelines.

According to the FTC's Revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, "When there exists a connection between the endorser and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement (i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience), such connection must be fully disclosed."

As Hoban is an employee of BioWare, his testimony to the quality of the game would not only interfere with his ability to give a purely consumer-centric review, but also brings in a question of financial incentive. Even if he wasn't directly paid for the advertisement, his ability to generate income is in part from aggregate sites like Metacritic, which can be a powerful factor when it comes to swaying the minds of potential consumers.

Hmm i think some gen7 members here will rub this in everyone's face...I like bioware games tho. =/

___________________________
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company" - Mark Twain

Administrator Join date: 2010-12-29 Location: NYC

No biggie.

Members Join date: 2011-01-02 Age: 18 Location: Macedonia

i don't give a fuck if he boosted metacritic scores as long as i like the game

Pein wrote:

i don't give a fuck if he boosted metacritic scores as long as i like the game

Too bad this has nothing to do with if you like it or not :/

Members Join date: 2010-12-30 Age: 22 Location: Greece

Somebody fire that employee. Razz

Members Join date: 2010-12-29 Location: The Citadel

Oh my....oh no....he tried to boost the user review score! WHAT EVER WILL WE DO?!

Moderator Join date: 2011-02-23 Age: 18

TheJubJub5721 wrote:

Oh my....oh no....he tried to boost the user review score! WHAT EVER WILL WE DO?!

Lol some people are actually manipulated by those reviews...I call them retards. Luckly us real gamers know better. Wink

___________________________
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company" - Mark Twain

Members Join date: 2010-12-30 Age: 17 Location: USA

It was probably dragon ass 2. God that game sucks compared to Dragon Age: Origins.

I'm tired of BioWare, honestly.

Anyone else want them to go back to their post-Effect era (1998 - 2003; Neverwinter Knights, Baldur's Gate, MDK2, etc.)?

I mean seriously, BioWare is shit compared to how they once were.

Yes but they are still amazing developers, much better than most.

Dragon Age 2 is not a SHIT game, just average for a Bioware game. The rest of their games are amazing.

I'm tired of all the Bioware bashing, it's rediculous.

Sovereign Alan wrote:

Yes but they are still amazing developers, much better than most.

Dragon Age 2 is not a SHIT game, just average for a Bioware game. The rest of their games are amazing.

I'm tired of all the Bioware bashing, it's rediculous.

I'm not bashing BioWare. They're still amazing. Just shit compared to how they used to be.

Well, if we have to antagonize anyone.....

I BLAME EA!!!

Members Join date: 2010-12-29 Age: 25 Location: From Hell

Does anyone apart from fanboys care about user scores on metacritic?

YO, MASS EFFECT 2 WAS GREAT AND ALL AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH, BUT BALDUR'S GATE II IS THE GREATEST BIOWARE GAME AND PROBABLY ONE OF THE GREATEST GAMES OF ALL TIME.

OF ALL TIME.

___________________________

Members Join date: 2010-12-29 Location: The Citadel

Reaper wrote:

Does anyone apart from fanboys care about user scores on metacritic?

Exactly why this doesn't matter.

Members Join date: 2011-02-10

Reaper wrote:

Does anyone apart from fanboys (like MLD) care about scores PERIOD on metacritic?

FTFY.

It's really not a big deal, though. Who the fuck cares? An employee wants to promote their own product! OMAGAWD MEDIA FIRESTORM HANG HIM

Members Join date: 2010-12-29 Age: 20 Location: England

Hypnotoad wrote:

Pein wrote:

i don't give a fuck if he boosted metacritic scores as long as i like the game

Too bad this has nothing to do with if you like it or not :/

He clearly didn't read the post. He just saw Dragon Age in the title and assumed that people wanted to know he liked the game.

Members Join date: 2011-01-02 Age: 18 Location: Macedonia

Hypnotoad wrote:

Pein wrote:

i don't give a fuck if he boosted metacritic scores as long as i like the game

Too bad this has nothing to do with if you like it or not :/

i just expressed my opinion this topic..i don't care what you say

He clearly didn't read the post. He just saw Dragon Age in the title and assumed that people wanted to know he liked the game.

i didn't..i just said that i dont care if developers boost the scores on metacritic or not.i just said that their games are amazing in my opinion and i don't care if this "scandal" is going to change anything nor do i care about it

Members Join date: 2010-12-29 Age: 20 Location: England

Pein wrote:

Hypnotoad wrote:

Pein wrote:

i don't give a fuck if he boosted metacritic scores as long as i like the game

Too bad this has nothing to do with if you like it or not :/

i just expressed my opinion this topic..i don't care what you say

He clearly didn't read the post. He just saw Dragon Age in the title and assumed that people wanted to know he liked the game.

i didn't..i just said that i dont care if developers boost the scores on metacritic or not.i just said that their games are amazing in my opinion and i don't care if this "scandal" is going to change anything nor do i care about it

?????

But no one even implied that it should change your view on it. It's just an article informing us about the developer boosting the score. Simple as.

» Dark Souls negative Metacritic User Reviews
» Sample Scores arranged for 2 Tenors, 1 Baritone & 1 Bass Voice?
» Traitor Caught.
» ANY MEMBER CAUGHT POSTING HERE WILL BE BANNED
» free sample personal loan letter employee - Fill out our online form and let an interested lender contact you

BioWare Employee Allegedly Caught Boosting Metacritic Scores

BioWare Employee Allegedly Caught Boosting Metacritic Scores

Similar topics

Similar topics