How much money should Obsidian put aside to bribe reviewers?

[Jasede]

We all know that in order to get a decent review you'll have to spend a little bit of money.

 

 

So what do you think, how much should Obsidian spend on decent reviews, if any? 9.0 can get expensive but I bet the mainstream review outlets would give 8.8 for a decent contribution at the very least.

 

Why should Obsidian be left out when every other major company and publisher benefits from this strategy? On the one hand, not doing it earns them my respect, and that of my peers. On the other hand, not buying reviews often leads to low scores no matter the quality of the game in question. It's a tough question so I was wondering what you thought:

 

Should Obsidian try something new and bribe reviewers like most other companies do?

Should they abstain and spend the money on the game instead?

 

I am leaning on the second option myself. We know what we want already and probably could care less what the main review outlets will think; but I'd still rather they be more successful than not.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Jasede

[evdk]

They should have all the taverns sell "Dew of the Mountains" exclusively.

 

EDIT: This post has been brought to you by Satan, apparently.

Edited November 1, 2012 by evdk

[kenup]

Around $500k.... per reviewer....maybe?

 

 

Or, seriously, nothing. Don't even give them free review copies, unless they beg for it.

Edited November 1, 2012 by kenup

[Thangorodrim]

I was planning to get my characters healed at the Temple of the Mysterious Dr Pepper ... I understand your characters leave there refreshed and satisfied

 

Of course, if we all do our jobs and troll the net extolling the virtues of Project Eternity then the site reviews might not matter as much or all those gaming hipsters will want to jump on OUR bandwagon

[Lycana]

Put them as NPC's in the game - but make them killable in amusing ways.

Since reviewers only play 5 nano-seconds, they'll never know the interesting...experiments...players can perform on their avatars.

 

Reviewer: Ooh, me in video game! Me give 10/10.

Player: Hey, I fit three reviewers on this pike...lengthwise!

[Malcador]

They just need to pay for a bunch of them to spend the day drinking with Avellone.

[Aoyagi]

I think they should just stay away from IGN, Gamespy and other major endorsers. And especially far from Metacritic :D . Also Obsidian could make an ingame reference to this. Or maybe an entire quest / questline.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Aoyagi

[jarpie]

Put them as NPC's in the game - but make them killable in amusing ways.

Since reviewers only play 5 nano-seconds, they'll never know the interesting...experiments...players can perform on their avatars.

 

Reviewer: Ooh, me in video game! Me give 10/10.

Player: Hey, I fit three reviewers on this pike...lengthwise!

 

Legends of Valour did this in 1992, it had bunch of english game-magazines editors and editor-in-chiefs headshots as shopkeepers in the game... and it got raving reviews in the said magazines.

[kenup]

Put them as NPC's in the game - but make them killable in amusing ways.

Since reviewers only play 5 nano-seconds, they'll never know the interesting...experiments...players can perform on their avatars.

 

Reviewer: Ooh, me in video game! Me give 10/10.

Player: Hey, I fit three reviewers on this pike...lengthwise!

colin moriarty For lawful stupid paladin?

Edited November 1, 2012 by kenup

[Sensuki]

Fight the system. **** IGN and their like, their reviews suck anyway.

 

_{^{(this is not the real review fyi)}}

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zbfTO2W2rUU

 

No Publisher involved, don't have to worry about the Critic's score. They can astro turf the user score

Edited November 1, 2012 by Sensuki

[Amentep]

They should spend money on the game.

 

Then if they need review quotes to sell audiences on the game, they can make them up.

 

"This would be the perfect game if Ziets hadn't written a romance. Still 9/10 because I got my Cipher hatemance in." -Chris Avellone, developer, Planescape: Torment.*

 

Or they could pull quotes from the forums here.

 

"The would be the perfect game if they had included more romances. Its still 10/10 though." - Pror Omance, Obsidian Forumite*

 

Or they could pull quotes from the forums at RPG Codex

 

"Anyone who says this game isn't good is just a butthurt consoletard. 9/10 because its not turn based but decline real time with pause." - Master Codexian, P.C.R.P.G, esq.*

 

 

*Not a real quote; Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental or for purposes of parody.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Amentep

[Lycana]

Legends of Valour did this in 1992, it had bunch of english game-magazines editors and editor-in-chiefs headshots as shopkeepers in the game... and it got raving reviews in the said magazines.

 

Hmm, given the current controversy over reviews on the web, perhaps a brothel (like Madam Lil's in Arcanum) would be more appropriate for said NPCs? Colin could be the sheep.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Lycana

[Minttunator]

I don't actually know how much good reviews cost - however I guess it's not cheap and this recent one, for example, set Microsoft back at least 6 figures:

 

 

 

 

 

So unless bribing reviewers is much cheaper than I think, I don't believe Obsidian can really afford it. On the other hand I'm not sure it's absolutely necessary, either - sure, a good Metacritic score helps, but it's perfectly viable to sell a lot of games without mainstream media coverage as well. One just needs to make a genuinely good game and have the players advertise it through word of mouth - this approach has worked well for many indie games. The most important part is obviously the "good game" bit, so I'd rather they spent all their energy and money on that instead of trying to compete for the reviewers' attention with the likes of EA and Activision who inevitably have more resources at their disposal.

Edited November 1, 2012 by Minttunator

[kabaliero]

no money on adverts

killable EA personel would rather fit in some sci-fi set

but i support the idea of havin' 'em ingame, yeah

[Karkarov]

They should have all the taverns sell "Dew of the Mountains" exclusively.

 

EDIT: This post has been brought to you by Satan, apparently.

Could always borrow a gag from the Console game Persona. In their recent incarnations they spoof stuff like this and have reverential humor all the time. Of course they also take place in modern time periods so it makes sense to jump the shark on some things.

 

Either way, I don't think this problem is as big as you guys think it is. If EA said "I really need Game X to get a good review and I would REALLY appreciate it if you made it happen" they would likely get a good score right there. Gaming websites can live and die based on exclusives, early coverage, and speed of review. A gaming site will lose hits to other similar sites if they piss off EA and as a result never get a review copy of Battlefield 4 or any pre game coverage of it. So EA really doesn't have to pay anyone, and PS: ME3 was a good game. The ending was a let down, oh god no, not that, I am sure that has never happened in a game before.

 

Obsidian doesn't need to pay anyone or even be concerned with this. 1: Retro is "popular" right now, so likely it will get favorable looks to begin with. 2: It is a niche game, people in the niche will buy it regardless of review score. 3: Most gaming sites will give honest reviews 95% of the time and I see no reason to think PE won't get fair treatment.

 

They may need to bring the gameplay into this decade though which could piss off die hards ;p

Edited November 1, 2012 by Karkarov

[JayDGee]

or go the penny arcade route when putting review quotes on the game

[Tale]

This doesn't seem legitimately relevant to Project Eternity. Just a thinly veiled complaint about game journalism and accusations of general bribery.

 

A topic on expectations for how reviewers might react to Project Eternity could fit in here, but how much you hate IGN and think they all take bribes seems more appropriate for computer and console, n'est-ce pas?