A warning to the people planning to Review Bomb BG3 when it launches

[Oku]

Just as a friendly reminder, because I know gamers and how they work, and I know a lot of you are sitting here waiting for your chance to pick the game up when it goes on to Early Access so you can leave a scathing review about how the change from an out-dated hybrid system that rightfully was left 20 years ago to Turn Based in order to bring Tabletop D&D rules to a PC game format which is what people have been wanting for years was THE WORST THING EVER, then refund the game.

A while ago, Valve implemented a system that very accurately detects these sorts of Review bombs, as they are fraudulent abuse of the User Review function, and in most cases hides them from the front-facing score and buries them under filters.

And in cases of people who do this regularly, Valve issues out harsh penalties to the accounts of people who leave such reviews, up to and including Full Steam Community Bans.

So not only will your review bombing not work, you are actively placing your own account in jeopardy.

If the change is THAT much of a deal breaker for you, take a breath and just don't buy the game, and go play something else. Or, heaven forbid, wait until the modding tools are released and somebody inevitably makes a RTwP mod for the game.

[Kurosu]

While I see what you are trying to achieve, I dont think this post will sway them.
People have been planning to do this ever since the game was announced. There are dozens of posts weekly complaining that this game is thing like " corpse defiler" " not canon" "not a sequel" "not a true BG" " DOS 3 named BG" and a few complaining about price ( expect negative reviews for that as well, some people will claim the EA content is not enough I bet).

Those obsessed people will not lose their chance to review bomb BG3 in order to justify their behaviour and continue it claiming : " See I was right, the game is a failure , long live the old BG " . Thanks to the refund within 2 hours policy, the review bombing will not cost them a single cent.


I am pretty sure a doctor could name this behaviour somehow


I really hope the penalty system you mentioned is true though. Something needs to be done at some point(for all games across Steam) , this is getting out of hand

edit :Personally I would prefer people could not review without 2 hours played. A review based on less than 120 minutes ( even less if we exlude a few minutes spent in the settings after launch) is nothing trustworthy regardless if its positive or negative. + it stops the bombing

[droggen]

Yea don't try to correct people who make insane errors when the only person that will face consequences is said individual better to let people who review bomb for stupid reason lose the ability to review stuff.

[Heinz234]

It simply should be impossible to post a review with less than121 minutes of playtime.

[nyanko]

Don't worry. DOS 2 survived a review bomb admirably.

[Kaos]

Have never been a fan about putting a group of people into a box and claiming to know everything about them.

Hopeful that this game will surprise even the sceptics in a good way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m7SGjJo7c4

[Zabu]

Just here to say that how the OP formulate it isnt quite right. And the first response is way out there. Making a negative or positive review is entirely up to you. Noone is getting banned for buying games and leaving negative reviews.

It is however true that if a very large portion of your reviews are negative and go against the general concencus they have aburry function.

They wont ever do anything to your account because you leave negative reviews. You shouldnt be scared to tell your honest opinion, like the first response is trying to cancel out.

If you feel like its not a true baldurs gate game you can feel perfectly safe leaving a negative review stating that.

Just like you can feel perfectly safe leaving a positive review because this game is most likely going to be awesome.

TLDR:
Dont let trolls scare you

[TheRandomGuy]

I plan to leave a good review assuming all things are nice for the EA launch. The Turn-Based mode is, IMO, better honestly, as it allows for more tactical moments in battles / encounters. I know people will endlessly compare it to Divinity Original Sin 2 in that regard, but is that really such a bad thing? It worked absolutely well in Divinity and resulted in a modern CRPG that is not only accessible but very popular.

The only recent games I know of that did CRPG with Real-Time Combat with Pause are Pathfinder Kingmaker (Also a good game) and Pillars of Eternity (which added turn-based mode).

Having Baldur's Gate go to the now more widely used Turn-Based mode means that it'll be more accessible than the prior games. It's actually just like what happens with the actual D&D Tabletop game as it goes from Edition to Edition, the newer ones tend to make changes for the sake of making the game easier for newcomers (accessibility). While older players used to the old ways may hate change, there's no denying it's increased the popularity of the franchise as more people go play it.

I think the same can be said for Baldur's Gate as a game franchise, if it changes to appeal to a changing landscape of CRPGs, then good for Larian for adapting it. That means more newcomers at the end of the day, which means the game gets more popular and makes more sales, which means Larian supports and updates it with content.

[Kurosu]

Originally posted by Zabu:

Just here to say that how the OP formulate it isnt quite right. And the first response is way out there. Making a negative or positive review is entirely up to you. Noone is getting banned for buying games and leaving negative reviews.

It is however true that if a very large portion of your reviews are negative and go against the general concencus they have aburry function.

You shouldnt be scared to tell your honest opinion, like the first response is trying to cancel out.

HONEST is the key word here. In the past years people give negative "reviews" out of spite/bias .A very good example is the bombing that took place in Borderlands 2 because Borderlands 3 went to epic for a few months .(just the first example that came to mind).

To speak for BG3 in specific you KNOW there will be negative ones from the people that are just angry about the combat system change, regardless if the product as a whole is good or bad. And then they will refund the game and no harm done as far as they are concerned. They probably wont even go past the menu.

Tell me more about how " honest" that opinion will be. Because it screams biased from a mile away.

[Bajkę]

Don't they have to buy the game to review bomb it? Besides, the negative perception of the game area few minority of idiots

[Soft Lockpick]

Err...

You do realize that is a legitimate point for people to complain on. If someone put Diablo 4 on Steam but it was a turn based game that's a perfect reason for people to take issue. Because people come expecting an action RPG.

I don't even personally know that I care. I think RTwP lets you speed up the slow auto pilot parts where turn based makes them worse. But when the difficulty is where it should be turn based is best. But to act like someone not liking the chosen combat mechanics change is "spite reviewing" instead of making a legitimate complaint seems ridiculous.

[Quacksalber]

This is BS. Games are constantly getting review bombed/ stuck with stupid reviews where people clearly didn't bother even reading the game description. And even if someone only writes negative reviews - so what? Some people only review things they don't like, others only review things they do like. I could imagine another platform doing this, but not Steam, where literally every forum is full of moaning twits, and the much more user friendly way to go about this would be to have moderators that remove stupid reviews along with guidelines as to what a review should or should not be.

[Aria Athena]

How will steam ever prove that someone's review is part of a review bomb, especially on release?

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Aria Athena:

How will steam ever prove that someone's review is part of a review bomb, especially on release?

not sure but they are unlikely to tell people how the system works as that would just let people bypass it

[dulany67]

Originally posted by Heinz234:

It simply should be impossible to post a review with less than121 minutes of playtime.

True, thereby eliminating those who buy the game to review bomb and then refund.

Let's be honest, that is not a good faith review.

[Lord_WC]

I will buy the game.
I will play the game.
If it's good, I will leave a positive review.
If it's bad, I will leave a negative one.

The system matters in the sense that how well it serves character development and gameplay. Generally speaking 5th ed is pretty horrible though, it's a dumbed down junk for immediate mass consumption, so I do hope they take more from divinity than 5th ed.

At no point during reviewing the game you put your account in jeopardy though. I dislike these kinds of threads the same way I dislike calls to review bomb something, or valve's review bomb protection. If I look at a score I want to know the opinion of people, not something someone censored.