According to a post by a community manager on IL-2 Sturmovik‘s official forums, the developers of the World War II combat flight simulator franchise, 1C Game Studios, imply that they will permanently shut down the latest entry into the series, IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, unless its score on Metacritic increases.
While the initial post does not state the threat outright, it is clear and apparent that the Moscow-based Russian game development company wants players of the game to boost IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad‘s Metacritic user review score in order to counteract a large number of negative user reviews.
The developers say that the negative user reviews on their game’s Metacritic “have a direct, vivid, and purposeful intention to finish the very existence of the IL-2 brand.”
The community manager continues to state in his aforementioned post:
“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 the hard drives, out of memory.”
The post in question has since been taken down, fortunately, a screen capture of it was taken.
View the community manager’s post and read more details after the break.
IL-2 Sturmovik Metacritic Score Controversy
For those who cannot see the image at its highest quality (due to viewing on a mobile device, et cetera), the transcript of the post is as follows:
“Pilots.
There’s quite a picturesque scene on out page at Metacritic.com. Most of the comments left by players (there’s no proof that they actually played the game though) are blankly negative. These people have a direct, vivid, and purposeful intention to finish the very existence of the IL-2 brand. They want this remarkable and world-renowned 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 turn into the best WWII combat flight sim over time? You love it? Then speak it out. Tell your virtual and real friends, tell the new, younger pilots, tell it to the group of 30 men who are not on the forums, and whose days and nights are devoted to creating IL-2 for you.”
The community manager then proceeds to leave a link that leads to IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad‘s Metacritic user review webpage –
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/il-2-sturmovik-battle-of-stalingrad/user-reviews
What are your thoughts on this news? Do you find the community manager’s post unethical, questionable, or objectionable in any form or fashion? Why or why not?
What do you think of this type of community and review score manipulation? Does it call the game developer’s integrity into question?
Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.
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