quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:
I've now created this thread for people with similar concerns.

I hope that I have made myself clear on what is intended to be done. Again, I understand people being concerned on an issue but it doesn't need to be overstated in dozens of threads all over. Either way, I will keep a closer watch on these forums and I still encourage you all to share your opinion—just make sure it is being done with the best interest of the forum.

I'll just add a quick note to say that I've read just a sampling of these quotes, and I appreciate all of your enthusiasm. And Thanks FragileKidA for keeping the conversation going. By now, based on what you all are posting, I know that I've had email discussions with many of you. You know that I respond to all emails of this variety. Couple of quick points: If a multi-console game is reviewed by a publication and they indicate a "version tested" or something to that effect, that review and score will only be posted under that platform only. And all of your conspiracy theories suggesting some sort of undue influence on Metacritic or me based on purported business connections between Metacritic's parent company and other entities really bores me. In every interview I've ever given, I've been proud to tell the interviewer that I've never been asked by my employer to add/drop a publication, add/drop a score, or otherwise alter my process. I take my job extremely seriously, I'm a hard-ass in maintaining the integrity of my process, and I spend much of my work day/night researching new sites, reading tens of thousands of reviews, and determining the critics that I feel are the most credible and reliable - those critics that I feel our users would be well-served to pay attention to. If you disagree with me on this point, fair enough. If you disagree with my A-F conversion scale (which has been listed, unchanged, on our About Metascore page since our launch date in Jan 2001), again, fair enough. I feel that it's principled and EVERY review given a letter grade is treated exactly the same way, so there's no favoritism going on here. (Incidentally, when 1up and EGM converted their numbers to letters early early 2008, all of their "5.0" scores were converted to "C", so at least the leadership of those publications agreed with my view of things at that time.) But all this talk of bias, conspiracy, evil plots, etc. is just misguided and tedious. But again, if you have specific questions for me that you or a group of you would like answered, drop me an email using our contact form and I'd be happy to clear things up for you. I usually reply to that type of question within a few hours. As always, thanks for using the site, fellas,

Marc Doyle

(And I rarely find the time to jump into these forums, so if you don't hear from me here, you know what to do.)

Marc,

I can only comment for myself, but I believe some outlets took advantage of you back in 2008. They used their Metacritic entry to give certain high profile ps3 games poor scores, to even things out. There is no doubt in my mind that Edge and Variety are both guilty of this.

That being said, Killzone 2 has shown the community exactly who is biased, so while I understand that the conspiracy theories are tiring for you, I can also see that people like myself not only weren't being heard, the only person that would listen was you. Why go on 5 different websites to complain, when you can go right to the man in control of who comes to the party?

I think it was a good thing what happened with Edge and Killzone 2, because it gave the community a rallying point, not only that the ps3 is a serious contender, but also to where we could say "we aren't going to put up with uneven ground when it comes to reviewing exclusives".

Last year, it appeared after MGS4 that Metacritic was going to be ps3 gamers best friend, as Xbox 360 users have been singing the praises of MC for 2 years. Then, when LBP dropped, and subsequently thereafter, it really appeared that certain outlets were abusing it.

Now, it appears that these publications are being called out from every corner of the internet. Metacritic has become ps3 fanboys' best friend, not only because we have Killzone 2, but also because we have records of reviews to which we can hold biased publications accountable.

It may not always be like this, but right now, maybe more than ever, it's a great time to own a ps3.

So while I completely understand your post Marc, I hope you can understand our point of view, that as a ps3 owner, 2008 was a good year, but also a frustrating year, because as the ps3 gains sales, AAA titles, and popularity, its detractors also try that much harder. So I would like to apologize on behalf of anyone who took these arguments to you.

But I would also say, thank you for listening, because you could have told all of us to head out. You and the forum moderators were probably as patient as you could be during LBP, and while I am not excusing our behavior over the past year, it hasn't been for no reason.

So thanks again for showing us how professional you are. I think the more gamers know about you, the more they will appreciate you and your actions. Thanks.