Jurassic Park devs caught giving game perfect 10 review score

I love to be scared - the anxiety, the adrenaline. Whether its being enveloped by a good book, teetering on the edge of my seat in the theatre or plunging head-first into the world of survival horror, I want to be there.

Are you familiar with Metacritic?  It’s a place where you can find not only critic reviews of your favourite games, but also user reviews as well.  Based on these reviews, the game is given a Metascore, and ranked accordingly.  For instance, Batman: Arkham City has a Metascore of 94, and an 8.5 on the user-score.

Generally, the whole system works really well and it’s a great place to go (ahem, here excluded for your horror-gaming news and reviews) if you’re looking for a wide variety of opinions.  Provided that, everyone is honest and not a bunch of douches.

Dishonesty?  On the INTERNET?!  Who would do such a thing?

Well, it appears as if Telltale got a little nervous about all of the critic reviews going up that wasn’t rating their game very…highly, should we say?  They weren’t giving it perfect 10s, and that bothered them.  So they did what any loving developer would do – they set the record straight with their own perfect 10 user reviews.  This would bolster the score and ultimately make more people want to buy their game.

This is a practice that we can’t say hasn’t been done before, but it’s nonetheless a little dishonest and it’s not something we enjoy seeing.  The users of Metacritic have responded in kind, some even going so far as to give the game a zero without playing (again, who would do such a thing!?) just to ‘even things out.’  At the time of writing, the game rests at a mostly-unfavourable 2.8.  Ouch!

Our own review of Jurassic Park will be up shortly.  Rest assured – we’ve actually played it.  In fact, we’re playing it right now.

[Source]

  • StuntmanSnake

    I don’t consider this to be sneaky or wrong at all. The developers (only two I believe) made no attempt to hide their true identity and were merely rating the game what they believe it is. If they were making multiple accounts and trying to hide their identity, THEN they would be in the wrong.

    All this attacking of Telltale is getting annoying, just like the Jurassic Park jeep ordeal. Give em’ a break.

  • Henrik

    Read something similar recently about a norwiegan company tried to increase sells of COD latest installment with writing false review giving it max score.

    Have to search it again for more correct details.

  • Steve

    It IS sneaky, wrong, unethical and an insult to any gamers who wanted to play this game. Developers shouldn’t be allowed to rate their own games, simple as that. Will they give a fair, unbiased review? Hell no. It’s their baby! Why would they point out its flaws and give it an average score of 6 or 7 when now a days (unless your a well established IP)you need a score of 8 or higher to even have someone look the direction of your game. TT Games were most definitely in the wrong, and based on the review one of their developers gave telling the ‘haterz’ to go jump… well that just further shows how disrespectful and uncaring they are to their potential costumers. Really those giving the game a 0 is wrong too, especially after not even playing it. But having said that you can see why gamers would be pissed.

    It’s a shame, I don’t think Jurassic Park would have faired too badly based on user scores if it was given a chance. But after TT Games unethical score bumping, I honestly don’t see another game in the pipeline. Not until they can face the criticism of the critics and make a damn good game to silence the ‘haterz.’

  • StuntmanSnake

    So because they were part of the game’s inception, they are not allowed to voice their opinion on it? Sure it may be biased but they have the right to do so. Also, I’m not sure where you are getting this “jump off a bridge” information from. I don’t see anywhere where they were attacking anyone. You must be confusing some other user with them.

  • NotATelltaleEmployee

    I completely agree with StuntmanSnake! You should be nice to Telltale!

  • hazardman89

    The fact that they gave the game a perfect 10 without stating their affiliation to the game is wrong. Even the Federal Trade Commission thinks so.That’s why they don’t allow it. They would have saved themselves the headache by paying for good reviews like everyone else.

  • http://www.relyonhorror.com Janus

    I would have accepted payment in the form of the collector’s edition. Wait…I probably shouldn’t have posted that. Damn.