Overwatch 2 director opens up about having the worst-reviewed game on Steam: 'Being review-bombed isn't a fun experience' - eviltoast

Aaron Keller pledged to improve the game for “players who are playing now.”

  • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If real people hate your game because of the changes you made from the last one (that you took away from them), that’s not a review bomb.

    It’s just a review.

    • CraigeryTheKid@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      the game/steam release definitely deserved bad reviews - but it’d be hard to deny that it wasn’t also a bombing run.

      • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        A review bomb is when people start jumping down the game’s throat with negative reviews for shit unrelated/peripheral to the game. If they’re triggered by the actual core design choices of the game it isn’t a review bomb.

        These reviews are because the game is a money grubbing downgrade from the game people bought and had taken away from them, and this is the first opportunity they had to publish a review on a storefront. The motivation being the actual game means it can’t be a review bomb.

        • crossmr@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          So if General motors was using slave labour to build their cars and feeding said labour with baby kittens, would you consider it a review bomb for someone to say ‘You shouldn’t buy the latest vehicle from General motors because of the way it is made’?

          What if general motors came out and said that they think a great start to the day is to wake up and punch a dutchman in the face?

          A review is, ultimately, a recommendation of whether or not you think other people should buy this product. If you can’t recommend it because of something the company who made it did, to me, it’s still a review. Because recommending that product is recommending financial support of that company. Not recommending it, is not supporting them.

          For me a real review bomb would occur generally only in a case where a site like 4chan might suddenly spin a wheel of mayhem and pick a random game to just go shit on or something like that.

          • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            By definition, yes, that’s a review bomb. It has no connection in any way to the quality of the product, which is what a review is.

          • hook@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            No, it’s still a review because you’re still actively dealing with whatever it is you’re complaining about.

            "Hey, I really like/liked the core game play loop of this game but I think that it’s gotten significantly worse than it was previously. It’d be nice if they changed it back?

            4/10."

          • 520@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Plenty of people leave negative reviews for games they otherwise play. Especially where big changes are put into effect

              • 520@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                That’s depends on the business model. For one-off payment games, it still does considerable damage, whereas they don’t gain much by you continuing to play.

                For subscription games, your point stands much stronger.

                • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  It’s a free to play multiplayer game. If you continue playing it, you’re providing value for some other player who might spend money, so just by being in the matchmaking pool, they’ve got you where they want you, and they won’t care about your review.

          • cre0@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            So overwatch 2 is objectively terrible, but putting that aside for a moment…

            Can you seriously not envision a scenario where you personally do a thing (maybe even enjoy that thing), but still wouldn’t recommend it to others?

              • cre0@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                Ah okay I see you’re the kind of kid who answers a question with a question. 🤦‍♂️

                Enjoy picking petty fights over… who likes which video game better. Not really my dig kiddo

                • ampersandrew@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  Yes, I answered your question with a question because your scenario was as absurd as you perceived mine to be. So I’ll answer yours directly: “yes, but not at that scale”. Because at that scale, it’s a review bomb.

    • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You’re entirely disconnected to reality if you think Overwatch 2 deserves to be the worst-reviewed game on Steam.

      • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        On Steam being reviewed poorly is not a matter of rating from 1 to 10, but how many people would recommend it or not. It’s completely valid that the vast majority of people would not recommend this game even if it’s not a 0/10.

        • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          yes obviously, and none of that changes anything about the fact that very clearly OW2 isn’t bad enough to deserve the title of worst rated game on steam

          • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You tried to argue with someone else over this, but the fact that more people played it, being F2P, means that more people can agree that they wouldn’t recommend it. Given how Steam ratings work, that makes it the worst rated. There’s no arguing how it is. You seem to take an issue with it as if it meant Gabe Newell personally stamped it with a 0/10, which is not how it works.

            In Steam, being 4/10 for thousands of people is worse than being 0/10 for a couple people.

      • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Based on what?

        The negatives are extremely bad, and people are legitimately reviewing the game negatively because they legitimately think it’s a pile of shit.

        It is literally unconditionally impossible for it to be a review bomb if the reviews are motivated by the core design decisions of the game.

        • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Today’s concurrent player peak is ~47k.

          Why would 47k people choose to play the game when it’s the worst game on Steam? Literally worse than a game like Bad Rats: the Rats’ Revenge that fundamentally doesn’t function correctly. For reference, its peak today was about 20 players.

          Before you reply with something like “marketing”, you seriously think that if Bad Rats launched today, and with the same marketing budget as OW2, that it would achieve anywhere close to 47k players peak 10 months after its release?

          Like I said: you’re disconnected from reality if you think OW2 is the worst game on Steam.

            • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              deliberately steal a game people liked to replace it with an addiction machine

              what the actual fuck are you talking about

              • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                The reason Overwatch 2 is the worst reviewed game Steam has ever had?

                A bad game does a lot less harm than a game that seems good on the surface then tries to rob you blind.

                • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  by “tries to rob you blind” you mean a game with entirely optional additional purchases?

                  wow you’re right they really get you with that “you can pay if you want” model

                  it’s practically criminal definitely worthy of being the worst ranked game on steam

              • 520@kbin.social
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                1 year ago

                The original Overwatch, which had none of this shit and was a one-off payment, was killed off in favour of OW2

                • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  leaving a negative review because of that would by definition be review bombing, because at that point you’re not reviewing the game, but external context that surrounds it

                  • 520@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    Not really. Reviewing the game as OW with enshittification is a perfectly reasonable review of OW2 in and of itself.

                    Especially if the publishers made the one-off purchase version unusable just to push people onto the enshittified one.

          • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            You are really trying to downplay the power of marketing, but you seem to realize that gets people playing. Not only that but live service design is very effective at keeping people playing even when they are not having any fun whatsoever. Because they gotta grind the battle pass and such. Extrinsic rewards and habit-forming conditioning making up for a lack of intrinsic enjoyment.

            Still, I would agree with you that it’s not the worst game on Steam, but like I mentioned in the other comment, that’s not what steam ratings mean. It means that the vast majority people would not recommend it, and that seems pretty reasonable.

            • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              bf2042 had a playercount in the high 1000s 2 months after its launch

              ow2 released 10 months ago

              are you saying bf2042 didn’t have marketing?

              which is more likely:

              • 50k people have been brainwashed into playing the game every day, and similar numbers into watching it on twitch
              • there is review bombing
                • Primarily0617@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  i mean i ignored the second part because it was irrelevant

                  “You’re entirely disconnected to reality if you think Overwatch 2 deserves to be the worst-reviewed game on Steam.” doesn’t say “deserves to be the worst game”, so if we’re playing the reading game maybe you should take the first turn

                  • TwilightVulpine@kbin.social
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                    1 year ago

                    Oh, so you have no response to it so you are gonna pretend it doesn’t matter. I see.

                    I could say I’d do the same but nothing you are saying now even addresses what I already responded to you, so I’ll just call it a job done.