
Duke Nukem's PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/06/duke-nukems-pr-threatens-to-punish-sites-that-run-negative-reviews.ars
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wccrawford
If I found any sites pulling punches on Duke, I wouldn't trust their reviews
any more. It's plenty clear how bad the game is thanks to all the honest
reviews, and anyone who stands out is going to wish they didn't.

I'd hope that's a bigger threat than this PR person's.

Also: Why does he still have a job? It's obviously that he doesn't understand
that PR is supposed to be GOOD relations, not bad.

His company should be immediately stepping forward and promising EVERYONE that
got a review copy that they'd get more review copies in the future, even if
they'd normally be blacklisted for being complete lying jerks. (Which someone
reviewers are, unfortunately.)

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karolist
Their company is called "TheRednerGroup" it seems while the guy himself is
named Jim Redner. I guess no one's gonna fire him from this job..

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swilliams
Apparently 2KGames has severed ties with The Redner Group now.
<https://twitter.com/#!/2KGames/status/81056724546633729>

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maukdaddy
That's exactly how a company should respond to something like this! Excellent
on 2k's part,

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bugsy
Right, very unprofessional to publicly state their private policies that would
obviously reflect badly on the company.

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ben1040
I wish I read these reviews before buying the game, because every last one of
those reviews is well-deserved.

I know no game can ever be good enough to match the 13 years of false starts
and anticipation inherent in DNF. If I waited 13 years for Half Life 3, even a
Valve masterpiece would feel a little anticlimactic (BTW, pretty please,
Valve, please don't make us wait 13 years for a Half Life sequel).

I expect some degree of toilet humor and raunchy jokes, because that's what
Duke Nukem was all about. But DNF is fraught with slow loading times, tedious
cutscenes you can't skip past, and in general from the hour or so I've played
it, it just isn't that fun.

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agentultra
The load times are a feature. I figured it out last night when I sat down to
play it. It takes so long so you have time to go grab a beer, snack, etc.

The game got better the longer I played it for some reason...

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ben1040
With how many times it seems to stop to load, I'll go black-out drunk if I
went for a beer every time the game offered me the opportunity.

I'm playing the 360 version and haven't loaded it to the internal disk. Maybe
that will help the load times.

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bonzoesc
It definitely will; the demo load times weren't nearly as bad.

Microsoft should add a requirement that any loading screens that require an
action to continue (DNF requires you to press "A" once loading is complete to
start the game) make some kind of noise when they finish.

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thisisblurry
So ... this means that sites will be punished approximately 15 years from now?

I'm sure that they're shaking in their collective boots.

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eli
Just to play devil's advocate...

Surely the company isn't obligated to provide free software to every reviewer,
right? Why should they subsidize a review that they know will likely not
benefit them?

And I have no data to back this up, but I bet really BAD reviews get more
traffic than reviews that fairly discuss the pros and cons of a mediocre game.
I think there's at least a temptation for less scrupulous reviewers to really
slam mediocre or overhyped games more than is deserved.

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gamble
There's no question that game reviewers can be cruel, but it tends to be
limited to games that aren't produced by major publishers, because they can
strike back by withholding review copies. Blackballing isn't about cost;
(which is trivial) it's about early access to the game so that the review
comes out immediately after the press embargo lifts. Gamers want to read
reviews before the game hits shelves in the same way moviegoers want to see
the reviews before heading out on Friday night. In exchange, game publishers
get free publicity. It should be a symbiotic relationship, but the publisher
has more power than the reviewers, and in my experience the bias is almost
always toward over-kind reviews.

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skimbrel
Oops. Well, another reason for me not to buy the game. Thanks to everyone who
wrote honest reviews, because audience goodwill is far more important than
pleasing one game publisher.

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anigbrowl
This is why I rarely buy anything that has just come on the market. The
publishers whose business model depends on being first to market with the
reviews has an incentive to water down criticisms to avoid upsetting big
advertisers, and thus the first wave of reviews is heavily tilted in favor of
market heavyweights. This made a certain amount of sense back in the days of
print dominance, since review copy needed to be prepared weeks ahead of a
product launch in order to remain current. In the age of the internet, though,
advance access is worth much less than it used to be, and is certainly not
worth the cost of lost credibility.

It might be interesting to see a review site built around the necessity to
purchase the product being reviewed rather than getting it free from the
manufacturer.

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jcoder
Wait, they're going to punish them by _not_ sending more games?

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eli
Not being able to review a game until weeks after your competitors would be a
problem.

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preinheimer
Publish a review on release day with everyone else: "Now, based on our poor
reviews of their poor previous releases, their PR agency declined to allow us
to review the game before release lest we review a poor game poorly once more.
That said based on their previous poor releases, and without ever seeing the
game, we give it 4/10."

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jcoder
Or, "the publisher declined to give us a review copy, so here's a golden oldie
from the archives: Duke Nukem Forever."

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agentultra
This PR firm was probably paid good money to make sure the reviews are good
and that the game sells. I guess they just went a little far, but they did
apologize in the end at least.

Negative reviews or no, it's just a review. The writers may be able to
influence some portion of the game-buying populace but in order for it to work
they have to be honest with their audience. It seems disengenious to try and
manipulate that relationship in your favour.

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kylemaxwell
This PR person needs to read the Cluetrain Manifesto, because he doesn't quite
get how the world works now.

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yuhong
Yea, I have been saying "legacy" PR based on controlling the message is
fundamentally flawed for a while now.

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hnsmurf
This is something every PR company does tacitly. Why wouldn't they? If you
give journalists your product and they shit on it, you're going to go to other
journalists next time.

I'm surprised a PR doesn't know enough to not state that publicly, but still.

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corin_
Ironically, I get the feeling 2k won't be sending any more games to this PR
agency.

edit: _"2K Games does not endorse or condone the comments made by
@TheRednerGroup and confirm they no longer represent our products."_

