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IT'S OFFICIAL reviewers that gave TLOU 2 positive reviews were afraid of being blacklisted by Sony and had to "keep with good terms with Sony"

LordKasual

Banned
The game is getting review bombed, and if threads around GAF were any indication, it was painfully obvious it was going to happen.

People have been hating on Naughty Dog and wanting them to fail for reasons completely unrelated to the actual game itself. Whatever happens in the game that causes angry people is only the icing on the cake.

the game was getting 0/10 score reviews a few hours after its release.


And most of the discussion about the game, even around here, has been about character design decisions, the political choices of the director, representation, the way the women look, ect ect ect

basically, alot of people want this game to fail and are doing everything to make sure it does

To a good portion of the Gaming forum here, TLOU2 and Neil Druckman is literally everything they hate about modern AAA game development.
 
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Gavin Stevens

Formerly 'o'dium'
We need to lighten the mood... Does anyone know any good jokes?
I think my horse is sick. Why? She’s sounding a little lesbian...

Wait, no... hold on...

The above is a poor attempt at humour and should not be thought of as an attack against any sexuality, orientation or horse. Please do not go back into my Twitter private messages to hound me.
 
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And because you never had issues, it's a lie? Love your filter bubble, can I get into? You could explain media - publisher relations a bit more, so people get an understanding why some people may be feel afraid of bigger publishers. First of all, I don't review games with any score as don't like to classify games. Read my reviews if you want to know, if the game could fit you. I'm not there to throw numbers at anyone.

But if you throw numbers, as you did and many others do, publishers can have a closer look to this number. And if this number is outside of their expectations and does not fit the verdict of most of the other outlets, you can loose. If you don't are big enough, they simply could ghost you so you won't get access to future review samples. Never happened to me but I heard of a few cases. Most of the time you can trace it back to an intern or inexperienced people in communications. Other times we are simply talking "idiots" on media side. This does not mean, that such incidents do not occur from time to time.

I doubt, however, that there is any system behind it. There are idiots in every business. It's not for nothing that companies keep blacklists of media partners.Ironically, they also have big magazines on these lists, but they continue to be supplied, because you can't do without the reach. Usually media partners end up on such lists for quite different reasons. If, for example, they report in an obviously wrong way, become remarkably lurid or it is clear that they write reports but have never played the games properly. Especially the latter is something that attracts the attention of many experienced readers.

Big problem is that lot of people who talk about games aren't "professionals", but call themselves. In addition there are many professionals who simply work unprofessionally. Not much is left. In the end, it's no wonder that streamers have taken reporting. Often there is simply no qualitative difference between a media outlet and a 08/15 content creator. In my perception, video games media is often on a boulevard level.


There is not much really to explain media to PR relations.

It really boils down to how you talk and carry yourself just like in any profession or life or whatever.

Knowing how to word your email which words to use and how to use them is a key to success.

Also, showing any kind of documentation of website or youtube metrics or any other social media stats is also vital, present yourself with what you have to offer and be honest about it.

Sending a snarky email probably won't work. If someone is not replying, then send it to another PR contact if you have one. There have been many times where I'd have to send follows up repeatedly multiple times in a week to get a response and it usually works.

Sony is very difficult to work with, we never ever got a review copy but we gotten E3 confernece invitations with little to no effort. When we requested Death Stranding we got a response saying "Sorry, were gonna keep this game closer to our hearts and not give out many copies" as soon as I read that I instantly knew it was a lie and they just didn't want to give it to us. Another time was when someone reached out to me from Sony or and promised us a copy of Medieval Remake, and they ended up completely ghosting and never getting back despite saying they'll hook us up. Very strange and unprofessional behavior.

I am gonna assume with Sony they have higher standards or metrics. If someone denies you, try it again on next game release. Send them an email with all the coverage you've done for the particularty game.

Funny thing, for Assassins Creed Odyssey I sent their Pr a snapshot of all my trophies for every AC game since the first one being at a 100% and showed them previous coverage. Got a review code with no questions asked prior to release.

It's about negotiations at the end of the day and convincing anyone that you're working with that you are worthy. You HAVE to be aggressive in any kind of field. If you are a passive and just waiting for things, nothing will ever happen.
 
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Stuart360

Member
We need to lighten the mood... Does anyone know any good jokes?
tfgkYwM.jpg
 

REE Machine

Banned
How in the fuck can you even give a game 10/10 when the creator himself says "Our game is not meant to be fun."? Seriously how? Game is not fun = not 10/10
But it's powerful! Durrrrr
I didnt have a fun time watching schindlers list but it was a great freakn movie
 

kebaldo

Member
The game is getting review bombed, and if threads around GAF were any indication, it was painfully obvious it was going to happen.

People have been hating on Naughty Dog and wanting them to fail for reasons completely unrelated to the actual game itself. Whatever happens in the game that causes angry people is only the icing on the cake.

the game was getting 0/10 score reviews a few hours after its release.


And most of the discussion about the game, even around here, has been about character design decisions, the political choices of the director, representation, the way the women look, ect ect ect

basically, alot of people want this game to fail and are doing everything to make sure it does

To a good portion of the Gaming forum here, TLOU2 and Neil Druckman is literally everything they hate about modern AAA game development.
The point is... The game can't fail because is altready a critical success and the "voices coming from the dudes with the numbers" are saying the game in Europe only was near to 4 million copys sold in 3 days... So it's already a best seller... The game is loved and the haters are just doing free marketing lol the only product of all the hate is a forum full of shity theards...
 

LordKasual

Banned
The point is... The game can't fail because is altready a critical success and the "voices coming from the dudes with the numbers" are saying the game in Europe only was near to 4 million copys sold in 3 days... So it's already a best seller... The game is loved and the haters are just doing free marketing lol the only product of all the hate is a forum full of shity theards...

The funny thing about this specific type of hate TLOU2 is getting....

People shitting on the TLOU2 for purely political reasons are only ever going to make its political effect stronger.

It's more than free marketing....it's literal justification for the political message it's trying to send.


I posted something similar in a previous thread about Anita Sarkeesian.

People think hive hatred makes things weaker. All it ever does is strengthen the opposition

But these types of people aren't necessarily the sharpest pencils in the drawer lol
 
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Krisprolls

Banned
No amount of virtue signalling will change the worst AAA game user scores in the history too.

Ah ah nice one. Nobody cares about user reviews, they're meaningless since anybody can manipulate them.

It shows the game makes idiots rage, which it certainly does.

Opencritic rightfully removed this useless feature.
 

RedVIper

Banned
It's mostly PC and Xbox gamers who are left dry with no major games at the moment review-bombing the game.

This is insane. I've watched dozens of streamers play this game and nearly all of them dislike the story.

People just can't cope that the general opinion on the game is negative.
 

Stuart360

Member
This is insane. I've watched dozens of streamers play this game and nearly all of them dislike the story.

People just can't cope that the general opinion on the game is negative.
Yeah some people cant see beyond the fanboy angle, because they are that entrenched in the 'war' to begin with.
You only have put 'The Last of Us 2 Review' into Youtube to see the masses of negative reviews from streamers and Youtubers, many of them that gave the first game a 9 or 10.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
This is always the case when reviewers are dependent on companies to give them free things. It happens on amazon.com all the time with all the fake reviews. Reviewer get free item, send good review, and get more free items. If they give bad reviews they get blacklisted.

This game is getting destroyed by actual reviews on retail websites, from Gamestop to Amazon and starting to appear on Walmart, Target, Bestbuy. The disparity between critic review scores of near universal 10/10 versus user review scores of 5/10 just tells you how much of a scheme/scam Sony/ND and the reviewers cooked up.

Look at how it got scored by buyers on Gamestop. Are people going to be blaming bots here too?

uxRXw6x.jpg
All this shows is how desperate and butthurt these haters are that the game is selling well and reviewed well that they have to go to multiple sites to give it bad user reviews
 

Caio

Member
OK, so The Last of Us Part II is not a Masterpiece, Zelda BOTW is not a Masterpiece, Uncharted2 is not a Masterpiece, Half life is not a Masterpiece, Mario 64 and Halo 2 either,, MGS4, etc etc. Everybody is afraid to give average votes to Games developed by great Developers. All is clear now, thanks
pasterpl pasterpl !
 
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Ixiah

Banned
Why it's so hard to understand that if a game is not a broken mess and you don't enjoy it... it's not the end of the world, just accept that some enjoy and you don't. Sure... This is the same to me, if you hated it, that's too bad and life goes on.... but since the release of TLU2 we had people saying that: it only got good scores because is woke, then that Sony paid the reviewers and now that the reviewers are scared of Sony.
It is broken, the Story is and since this isnt a Zelda or Mario but a Narrative Game, Story IS a big part of why People are attached to it.
And lets be honest, just look at the shit Cuckman has already said about the game, the people who complain about it and recpetion in general.
Does this look like a mentaly healthy Person ?
And why is no one allowed to express displeasure when Characters that they love get treated like that ?
Is it so hard to understand that getting a product thats intentinaly shit should be called out for it ?
 

Klayzer

Member
The game is getting review bombed, and if threads around GAF were any indication, it was painfully obvious it was going to happen.

People have been hating on Naughty Dog and wanting them to fail for reasons completely unrelated to the actual game itself. Whatever happens in the game that causes angry people is only the icing on the cake.

the game was getting 0/10 score reviews a few hours after its release.


And most of the discussion about the game, even around here, has been about character design decisions, the political choices of the director, representation, the way the women look, ect ect ect

basically, alot of people want this game to fail and are doing everything to make sure it does

To a good portion of the Gaming forum here, TLOU2 and Neil Druckman is literally everything they hate about modern AAA game development.
End thread. You absolutely covered the real reason for the hate.
 

Deto

Banned
The point is... The game can't fail because is altready a critical success and the "voices coming from the dudes with the numbers" are saying the game in Europe only was near to 4 million copys sold in 3 days... So it's already a best seller... The game is loved and the haters are just doing free marketing lol the only product of all the hate is a forum full of shity theards...


It will make those who do not buy at launch, buy at launch.

Just like I did.
 
This is insane. I've watched dozens of streamers play this game and nearly all of them dislike the story.

People just can't cope that the general opinion on the game is negative.
And these streamers also have very large fanbases, from AngryJoe to Tyler1 to CohhCarnage to PewDiePie. People like YongYea and Upper Echelon Gaming went into the game willing to give it a fair shake and they found the story to be very questionable. Jim Sterling in his latest Jimquisition didn't sound too enthused about the game either.

And these people aren't misogynists. They aren't homophobes. They aren't right-wing. They're not the average OneAngryGamer reader.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
The game is getting review bombed, and if threads around GAF were any indication, it was painfully obvious it was going to happen.

People have been hating on Naughty Dog and wanting them to fail for reasons completely unrelated to the actual game itself. Whatever happens in the game that causes angry people is only the icing on the cake.

the game was getting 0/10 score reviews a few hours after its release.


And most of the discussion about the game, even around here, has been about character design decisions, the political choices of the director, representation, the way the women look, ect ect ect

basically, alot of people want this game to fail and are doing everything to make sure it does

To a good portion of the Gaming forum here, TLOU2 and Neil Druckman is literally everything they hate about modern AAA game development.
So.......people have their own “agenda” hating on this game.......shocker.
 

Deto

Banned
The funny thing about this specific type of hate TLOU2 is getting....

People shitting on the TLOU2 for purely political reasons are only ever going to make its political effect stronger.

It's more than free marketing....it's literal justification for the political message it's trying to send.


I posted something similar in a previous thread about Anita Sarkeesian.

People think hive hatred makes things weaker. All it ever does is strengthen the opposition

But these types of people aren't necessarily the sharpest pencils in the drawer lol

When you take offense that a game has fascist "cursing" graffiti, you accuse yourself of being a fascist.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
basically, alot of people want this game to fail and are doing everything to make sure it does

To a good portion of the Gaming forum here, TLOU2 and Neil Druckman is literally everything they hate about modern AAA game development.
as long as there is a legal, easy way to voice their concerns, they will do that. what can you expect? when you allow this to happen on a website for years and years, it will continue to happen. free speech is a bitch, you hear opinions you don't agree with.

there really isn't any problem with this either. game companies spend millions to entice people to play it. they want to convince people to buy it. furthermore they blocked reviewers from discussing parts of the game. they have flexed so much power controlling the narrative.

why then cannot people persuade fellow gamers otherwise, in this one score on this one website? people act as if they are bombing the entire critic community, they are just abusing this one tool on one site, which has had issues for years.

more than likely Metacritic LIKES THIS and this is why they allow it on their site. tbh it is the only time i hear about Metacritic in the news. it keeps them relevant. without review bombing nobody would be talking about that site. has anyone discussed any of the official critic reviews? no, it's all "oh poor Metacritc another victim of toxic fans". they are parasites crowdsourcing their own legitimacy.
 
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Klayzer

Member
All this shows is how desperate and butthurt these haters are that the game is selling well and reviewed well that they have to go to multiple sites to give it bad user reviews
What's really disappointing to me is, you know this will start a trend of user review bombing the competition exclusives as a type of retaliation for TLOU2. It wont be fair to those games as it wasn't to this game. Or maybe PSfans might be to busy actually enjoying great games, rather than trying to destroy them.

All I know is a lot of these supposed "critical thinkers" will flip flop about criticism when it's their favorite game/console or series in the crosshairs.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
What's really disappointing to me is, you know this will start a trend of user review bombing the competition exclusives as a type of retaliation for TLOU2. It wont be fair to those games as it wasn't to this game. Or maybe PSfans might be to busy actually enjoying great games, rather than trying to destroy them.

All I know is a lot of these supposed "critical thinkers" will flip flop about criticism when it's their favorite game/console or series in the crosshairs.
For me so far my own judgment haven't failed me, I will play the game and judge it myself, the days having proper discussion about games in this gaming forum is sadly over.
 

LordKasual

Banned
as long as there is a legal, easy way to voice their concerns, they will do that. what can you expect? when you allow this to happen on a website for years and years, it will continue to happen. free speech is a bitch, you hear opinions you don't agree with.

there really isn't any problem with this either. game companies spend millions to entice people to play it. they want to convince people to buy it. furthermore they blocked reviewers from discussing parts of the game. they have flexed so much power controlling the narrative.

why then cannot people persuade fellow gamers otherwise, in this one score on this one website? people act as if they are bombing the entire critic community, they are just abusing this one tool on one site, which has had issues for years.

more than likely Metacritic LIKES THIS and this is why they allow it on their site. tbh it is the only time i hear about Metacritic in the news. it keeps them relevant. without review bombing nobody would be talking about that site. has anyone discussed any of the official critic reviews? no, it's all "oh poor Metacritc another victim of toxic fans". they are parasites crowdsourcing their own legitimacy.

Say what you want about Metacritic, but its effects on gaming are emergent of the role that ratings have on the game industry to begin with.

However.....saying review bombings are a result of "FREE SPEECH" is somewhat disingenuous. It's deliberate abuse of a system with the intention of weaponizing it against something you don't like. The funny thing is that this is thinly veiled abuse of the system -- nobody is being fooled by the review bombings of this game.

Realistic "negative" reviews for a game like TLOU2 don't look anything like TLOU2's metacritic score. Now, everyone just knows that the User Score of the game is completely unreliable.

So if anything, all they've done is completely mask the actual response towards the game.


Either way, i'm sure if this was a game you actually liked that got review bombed for reasons you DIDN'T like, you'd feel a completely different way.

Let's assume Halo Infinite gets review bombed because Cortana's portrayal is sexist and misogynistic, Master Chief perpetuates toxic masculinity, and it has outdated gender roles.

This forum community would lose its mother fucking mind.
 
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Kdad

Member
You know that the woman they based Abby on uses steroids, has a specific diet, and her whole life literally revolves around working out, right?
You know women and men of all shapes, sizes, looks and hobbies exist right?

Additionally, based on your comment, she's based on a real woman....so you agree she looks like a woman. Glad we had this chat.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
Lol people saying the watched streams...
How about go stream your favourite games, there probably all lame just watching it.... its called playing video games for a reason. Not watching.
 
I'm trying to figure out what is "Official" about the quotes in the OP......

IT'S OFFICIAL

Except it isn't official

This is insane. I've watched dozens of streamers play this game and nearly all of them dislike the story.

People just can't cope that the general opinion on the game is negative.

The crazy lengths people go to dislike a game they haven't played, Jesus Christ.
 

fallingdove

Member
Yeah some people cant see beyond the fanboy angle, because they are that entrenched in the 'war' to begin with.
You only have put 'The Last of Us 2 Review' into Youtube to see the masses of negative reviews from streamers and Youtubers, many of them that gave the first game a 9 or 10.
That’s the weird thing about YouTube - when you are an Xbox fanboy, like yourself, watching negative, sensationalist TLOU2 reviews seem to propagate more of them in your feed. Black magic I tell you.
 
It's not the streamers that represent general opinion.

It's the half million people that were watching their streams and agreed that represent general opinion.

I'm not understanding... did you poll all the people watching the streams? Are you sure there isn't overlap between audiences on multiple streams? Are you indicating that streamers have such influence over their audience they can't think for themselves? Are you implying someone viewing a stream has a viewpoint just as valid as someone who played it?
 

lock2k

Banned
That’s the weird thing about YouTube - when you are an Xbox fanboy, like yourself, watching negative, sensationalist TLOU2 reviews seem to propagate more of them in your feed. Black magic I tell you.

You know you can watch YouTube logged off (and with clean browser and cookies) and it still will give general recommendations not based on what you watch.
 

RedVIper

Banned
I'm not understanding... did you poll all the people watching the streams? Are you sure there isn't overlap between audiences on multiple streams? Are you indicating that streamers have such influence over their audience they can't think for themselves? Are you implying someone viewing a stream has a viewpoint just as valid as someone who played it?

The lengths people go to defend a game is ridiculous.

Unless you think every streamer, every youtuber, is an alt right troll who secretly hats gays and women.

Maybe the game just isn't perfect, brushing off criticism isn't going to change that.

It's totally fine if you love the game, it's also totally fine if others don't.

"Are you implying someone viewing a stream has a viewpoint just as valid as someone who played it?"

For a story focused game? Absolutely. They can review everything except how the game feels when playing.
 

Stuart360

Member
That’s the weird thing about YouTube - when you are an Xbox fanboy, like yourself, watching negative, sensationalist TLOU2 reviews seem to propagate more of them in your feed. Black magic I tell you.
I dont even own a console, nice try though. I like Xbox because Xbox games come to PC, i know thats a crime around here.
 

fallingdove

Member
You know you can watch YouTube logged off (and with clean browser and cookies) and it still will give general recommendations not based on what you watch.
Yeah - I think most people are aware of this. My point was that I doubt that the typical Xbox fanboys on GAF are approaching these TLOU2 discussions with anything more than biased anecdotes.
 
The lengths people go to defend a game is ridiculous.

Unless you think every streamer, every youtuber, is an alt right troll who secretly hats gays and women.

Maybe the game just isn't perfect, brushing off criticism isn't going to change that.

It's totally fine if you love the game, it's also totally fine if others don't.

"Are you implying someone viewing a stream has a viewpoint just as valid as someone who played it?"

For a story focused game? Absolutely. They can review everything except how the game feels when playing.

What did I say about alt right trolls who hate gays and women?

I didn't brush off criticism, I brushed off the idea that a streamer hating it meant anything significant.

Sure.

You just said that someone watching a stream ABSOLUTELY has as valid a viewpoint as someone playing the game? I mean... that kinda ends it for me, that's all I need to know.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
It's not only Sony, it's actually a very common practice from reviewers just so they get free review copies.
 
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