Monday: “Age of Conan sucks! And they have no subscribers! Look, we EVEN HAVE A CHART!”
Wednesday: “CORRECTION! Age of Conan ROCKS! I’m buying a copy RIGHT NOW!”
When questioned about the seeming slight discrepancy in opinion, facts, and charts, the author had this to say:
I realized after looking up more information that my original conclusions were unfounded. After all, I have not actually played the game myself.
Well, OK, then.
#1 by The Claw on June 25th, 2008
Epic trolling is epic.
I would have lined up some more ads on the blog before posting those, if I was Briyan.
#2 by Neil on June 25th, 2008
Let me grab a quote from the “retraction” post. This is regarding metacritic user reviews, and how AoC has higher ratings AND more people stopping by to review the game than either WoW or Burning Crusade:
“What is perhaps even more telling is the number of reviews given on each of these titles. While Blizzard’s games have been out for much longer, the Funcom title had way more users (509 votes) stop by to mention how much they enjoyed the game. This is a sign of the healthy, active, and growing community that must exist for a MMORPG to succeed.”
The only thing that the metacritic user reviews show is that more people know about metacritic now than four years ago, when WoW came out.
#3 by Anticorium on June 25th, 2008
“The only thing that the metacritic user reviews show is that more people know about metacritic now than four years ago, when WoW came out.”
Well, that and the fanatic effect. Your hardcore base is going to go out and evangelize about The New Hotness, or even The Available For Purchase Sometime Before Christmas Hotness. If the number of people who came out of nowhere to rant about a game and not just grumble and talk mildly about it was an indicator of success, Lum’s archives would show that Darkfall is destined to be the greatest success in the history of successes, a Ferrarolkswagenopoly to end all Ferrarolkswagenopolies.
#4 by Neil on June 25th, 2008
@Anticorium
That’s a good point. Continuing the gaming/politic crossover of the previous posts, would it be fair to say that AoC is basically Ron Paul?
#5 by Anticorium on June 25th, 2008
Only if the next patch adds blimps.
#6 by Jessica Mulligan on June 26th, 2008
This is what happens when you use the fastest raised hand method of choosing blog admins.
#7 by yunk on June 26th, 2008
It looks like every survey and statistics printed by the NYT. “who do we like right now? Ok show the stats that support that guy”
#8 by Jeremy T on June 26th, 2008
Impressive. I think he just unlocked the Troll hero class.
#9 by PM on June 26th, 2008
“Gaming Journalism Is An Oxymoron”
I’ve been saying this for years. The biggest sites still act like amateurs. They write features that get noticably less detailed and more rushed as the paragraphs scroll by, blogs read like high school writing assignments, and reposting other people’s news has gotten so out of hand that I found a summary of the first 4 pages of a comic book on one site.
#10 by Turlow on June 26th, 2008
“The only thing that the metacritic user reviews show is that more people know about metacritic now than four years ago, when WoW came out.”
Or Funcom is running a viral marketing campaign; hiring people to plant reviews and forum posts promoting their game. Viral marketing is the next big thing in the marketing world.
#11 by Drakks on June 26th, 2008
Gameriot: Fair and balanced game jounalism?
Seriously, I’m not sure I’m suprised by this.. I’ve always though of them as Fox in that they never let the fact that they don’t know what they’re talking about ever stop them from talking about it.
#12 by Amber on June 26th, 2008
Worst. Review/Retraction/Apology. Evar.
#13 by Ashendarei on June 26th, 2008
100% agreed. kind of amusing to see this sort of unprofessional journalism, but also sad.
how many people read the original article and were influenced not to try the game out? how many beyond that didn’t see the retraction / correction later?
I say it’s time to send a clear message to journalists such as he!
Pluck the chickens and start the Tar boiling!
#14 by TickledcBlue on June 26th, 2008
Hey! If every game blog or review site was the epitome of accuracy and journalistic integrity then we would have nothing to aspire to be better than plus my RSS reader would be clogged with thousands of gaming related feeds and I’d never get any work done.
Seriously
#15 by Ant ButterNut on June 26th, 2008
World of Warcraft not as good as Conan based on 133 voters on WoW and 700 voters on Conan? This is a ridiculous number on which to base a score with millions playing.
My experience with ‘user voting’ is that when a game is new people will stop and vote because they are exited about it. But when a game has been out for more than a year the only people stopping to vote are people who are pissed off about it. (“They nerfed my Left Axe!…Their score is going DOWN!”)
Plus, who can claim the positive votes weren’t planted? If you browse websites that have customer reviews about restaurants, you often spot the restaurant management posting fake good reviews. Sometimes they even forget to change their fake ID before responding to a bad review.
And there are players who want to see their favorite game score high. So they log in dozens of times to post perfect reviews. 733 votes for Conan?… I could fake those by myself in one day!
You cannot trust the score of a magazine that sells advertising space. You cannot trust scores based on unconfirmed voters. All you can trust is the percentage of accounts who are still playing after 6 months… and the Game Company is NEVER going to tell you what THAT number is!
#16 by Adam Tiler on July 2nd, 2008
What a maroon.
#17 by Ardanna on July 2nd, 2008
I can sum it all up very simply. That guy is a fucking idiot.
#18 by Hades on July 7th, 2008
If you are going to review a game, its not credible until you are out of the newbie areas. Anyone who tries to dissect sold/unsold/returned/etc is certainly talking out of their asses unless they cite a real source.
I gave my assessment over at F13 and Corpnews. Yeah the game needs some work but I wouldn’t go so far as to cry gloom and doom when the game has only been out about 45 days. I think that 6 months from now they’ll see a major decline if they don’t fix their game, but so far its not unlike other MMO’s that launched while being incomplete and patched in later.