Il2 Battle of Stalingrad on Steam

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

What the holy F*$k?!

So the devs are now basically blackmailing those of us who pre-ordered to submit positive reviews to metacritic or they'll wipe the game from existence in December?  Is this even legal?

Pilots.

There's quite a picturesque scene on our page at metacritic.com. Most of the comments left by players (there's no proof that they actually played the game thou) are blankly negative. These people have a direct, vivid and purposeful intention to finish the very existence of IL-2 brand. They want this remarkable and world-renown flight sim franchise to die.
I've discussed the situation with Loft earlier today. So, if the user opinion shown by metacritic is what the community believes in, then we, as he says, will need to close the project this December. If their attitude prevails, if haters win and dominate over those who love IL-2 Sturmovik then the game is over - it's out of the shelves, out of hard drives, out of memory.

If you want to shut down the series then just leave the situation as it is now, and let a bunch of trolls and haters finish it.

You want the game to live, to develop and to turn into the best WWII combat flight sim over time? You love it? Then speak it out. Tell you virtual and real friends, tell the new younger pilots, tell it to the group of 30 men who is not on the forum and whose days and nights are devoted to creating IL-2 for you.

[Nefaro]

A slow meltdown?

Good God, the drama.  ::)

[Jarhead0331]

Wow. Just wow.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Seeing as how 90% of the negative reviews showed up once the campaign was released and that the majority of reviews on Metacritic point out the disappointment in said campaign, you'd think a reasonable developer would look into making changes to the campaign, not threaten to take their ball and go home.  This behaviour is utterly astounding.  777 Studios, should they somehow survive this, won't see another dime from me.

[sandman2575]

777 seems to be sounding a somewhat less belligerent / extortionist tone on the Il-2 forums.  ...no longer have any idea what to make of all this...

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/11677-user-reviews/

Dear Pilots,

In this day and age of the internet user review we'd appreciate it if you left well-reasoned reviews of our products on various sites, such as Metacritic, that explore all the aspects of our products. Some users seem to want to intentionally hurt our business with purposefully negative ratings and reviews. They seem to be more motivated to share their opinion than those that hold positive opinions. We feel this unfair to the team which has worked very hard to provide this genre with a new and quality product. Our team is small and our budgets are small and it is difficult for us to weather such hate campaigns without the help of users who appreciate our efforts. It's an important time for the team as we prepare to launch the product into retail and we'd hate for the actions of a few to hurt that launch and cause a premature stoppage to future development plans. By leaving comments that explain the entire product and honest opinions about all features of the product potential new users can make an informed decision about the product. This is the true purpose of the user review sections. Well-reasoned reviews on those sites as well as in our forum of what you like and don't like also help us understand what our customers' opinions are and they help guide us in future design decisions. We appreciate all who take the time to write a fair opinion of our products and we thank you for your support and effort to keep this genre alive and growing.

The BOS Team

[sandman2575]

Threatening your customer base works, apparently -- BoS's Metacritic score is getting a big boost...

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/il-2-sturmovik-battle-of-stalingrad


Nice flight sim you got there... be a real shame if sumtin' bad happened to it...

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

777 seems to be sounding a somewhat less belligerent / extortionist tone on the Il-2 forums.  ...no longer have any idea what to make of all this...

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/11677-user-reviews/

Dear Pilots,

In this day and age of the internet user review we'd appreciate it if you left well-reasoned reviews of our products on various sites, such as Metacritic, that explore all the aspects of our products. Some users seem to want to intentionally hurt our business with purposefully negative ratings and reviews. They seem to be more motivated to share their opinion than those that hold positive opinions. We feel this unfair to the team which has worked very hard to provide this genre with a new and quality product. Our team is small and our budgets are small and it is difficult for us to weather such hate campaigns without the help of users who appreciate our efforts. It's an important time for the team as we prepare to launch the product into retail and we'd hate for the actions of a few to hurt that launch and cause a premature stoppage to future development plans. By leaving comments that explain the entire product and honest opinions about all features of the product potential new users can make an informed decision about the product. This is the true purpose of the user review sections. Well-reasoned reviews on those sites as well as in our forum of what you like and don't like also help us understand what our customers' opinions are and they help guide us in future design decisions. We appreciate all who take the time to write a fair opinion of our products and we thank you for your support and effort to keep this genre alive and growing.

The BOS Team

They pulled the original post down along with the 4 pages of WTF?! replies and replaced it with the text quoted above.

As for the sudden out-pouring of 10/10 reviews, I suspect people will notice that they were all posted on the same day and will figure something's afoot. 

[Jarhead0331]

The pussification of game developers seems to be complete.  Talk about a bunch of childish, bitter, self-conscious, irrational, out of touch twits. I'm not sure what is a greater disappointment, the state of the single-player campaign as released, or the manner in which the developers have responded to customer feedback... 

[Father Ted]

If metacritic really is that powerful, then it needs some sort of moderation.  Maybe a topping and tailing of the scores posted to cull those made by fanbois and haters?

[Jarhead0331]

I think the majority of gamers, especially the ones who are playing IL2, realize that the metacritic reviews must be taken with a grain of salt...that only makes the developer's reaction to this all the more bizarre and disturbing.

[JudgeDredd]

erm...wow? 

So glad I didn't bung money their way. I did it because I thought they were the same devs that churned out the crap that was CLoD and then bailed on Battle of Moscow. Probably because of the IL-2 tag constantly being attached to these games - like they can't make it on their own so we'll tag on IL-2 because everyone respected that...but all they actually did was tarnish IL-2.

Anyway - enough of my mis-information.

They might not be (I was 100% sure there was a link) but it saved me a few bob anyway.

[sandman2575]

Trying to puzzle out this bizarre situation a little more, and I wonder if the ol' language / translation barrier isn't rearing its ugly head here (as it has so often on the Graviteam forums, although never in so spectacular a fashion).

Possibly what Zak was trying to say was something more along the lines of:

'Look, BoS is getting killed on Metacritic. If the game really were as terrible as these bad reviews indicate, we would be forced to close up shop by December. So we are pleading with you to go give the game some positive reviews.'

?

That said, I was just reading a thread on the BoS forums "Metacritic & Stalingrad" that appears to have just gotten deleted.  Maybe 777 has been fantasizing the Battle of Stalingrad a little too much for their own good, because this silencing of all dissent is starting to look like NKVD tactics.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I suspect it's a CYA move as someone there might have realized they were encouraging fraudulant behaviour.  In light of the Gamergate scandal, it won't look too good in the press were the original message to be posted to gamers outside of the hardcore simmer's niche.

Screenshots are already out there though so the damage is done.

[sandman2575]

These are some seriously thin-skinned devs. Threads are getting deleted left and right on their forum.

[Father Ted]

That said, I was just reading a thread on the BoS forums "Metacritic & Stalingrad" that appears to have just gotten deleted.  Maybe 777 has been fantasizing the Battle of Stalingrad a little too much for their own good, because this silencing of all dissent is starting to look like NKVD tactics.

I was just trying to post in that thread...Although insults were starting to be slung around in that thread, I think that trying to silence everything will get people's backs up still further.  What I was going to post there was that whilst it may be unprofessional to react to people vindictively trashing your work, and thereby possibly threatening your livelihood, it is at least understandable.