Review bomb: Difference between revisions

A '''review bomb''' is an [[Internet]] phenomenon in which a large number of people or a few people with multiple accounts<ref>{{cite web |title=Random: AI: The Somnium Files Got Review-Bombed By Someone Obsessed With One Of Its Characters |url=https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/02/random_ai_the_somnium_files_got_review-bombed_by_someone_obsessed_with_one_of_its_characters |website=Nintendo Life |date=12 February 2020}}</ref> post negative [[user review]]s online in an attempt to harm the sales or popularity of a product, a service, or a business.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/05/steam-review-bombing-is-a-problem/|title=Steam 'Review Bombing' Is A Problem|last=Grayson|first=Nathan|work=Steamed|date=19 April 2015|access-date=2017-08-10|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810131259/http://steamed.kotaku.com/steam-review-bombing-is-a-problem-1701088582|archive-date=10 August 2017|url-status=livedead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> While a large number of negative reviews may simply be the result of a large number of customers independently criticizing something for poor quality, a review bomb may also be driven by a desire to draw attention to perceived political or cultural issues,<ref name="poly steam 2019">{{cite web | url = https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/6/21126787/steam-review-bombs-policy-effectiveness-valve | title = Valve intervened in 44 'review bomb' incidents on Steam last year | first= Charlie | last= Hall | date = February 6, 2020 | accessdate = February 19, 2020 |work = [[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] }}</ref> perhaps especially if the vendor seems unresponsive or inaccessible to direct feedback.<ref name="polygon anatomy">{{Cite web | url = https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/4/16418832/pubg-firewatch-steam-review-bomb | title = The anatomy of a review bombing campaign | first = Ben | last = Kuchera | date = October 4, 2017 | accessdate = October 4, 2017 | work = [[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171005051009/https://www.polygon.com/2017/10/4/16418832/pubg-firewatch-steam-review-bomb | archive-date = October 5, 2017 | url-status = live | df = mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/xwgdek/valves-solution-to-review-bombing-ignores-steams-longstanding-problems | title = Valve's "Solution" to Review Bombing Ignores Steam's Longstanding Problems | first = Patrick | last = Klepek | date = September 19, 2017 | accessdate = September 19, 2017 | work = [[Vice (magazine)|Vice]] | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170919224213/https://waypoint.vice.com/en_us/article/xwgdek/valves-solution-to-review-bombing-ignores-steams-longstanding-problems | archive-date = September 19, 2017 | url-status = live | df = mdy-all }}</ref> Review bombing also typically takes place over a short period of time and meant to disrupt established ratings that a product already has at review sites, sometimes backed by campaigns organized through online message boards.<ref name="polygon anatomy"/> It may be used as a mass-movement-driven [[coercion]] tactic, as a form of protest, or may simply be a form of [[Internet troll|trolling]].<ref name=":0" /> Review bombing is a similar practice to [[vote brigading]].

The practice is most commonly aimed at online media [[review aggregator]]s, such as [[Steam (service)|Steam]], [[Metacritic]], [[IMDb]], [[Rotten Tomatoes]], or [[app stores]]. It may be motivated by unpopular changes to an established [[media franchise|franchise]], political or cultural controversies related to the product or service, or to the actions of its developers, vendors, or owners.<ref name=":0" /> Some owners of aggregate systems have devised means to detect or prevent review bombing.

The increasing prevalence of review bombing was precipitated by the increase in influence of online user reviews in the main storefronts where games are sold, combined with little to no oversight of the content of these reviews. This is particularly true in the case of Steam, the predominant seller of [[PC game]]s, where user reviews are often the only way for [[indie game]]s to gain attraction on the service.<ref name=":0" /> According to [[Steam Spy]], review bombing generally has little effect on a game's sales, and may in fact [[Streisand effect|even increase them]] due to the resulting wave of [[publicity]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.pcgamer.com/steam-review-bombing-is-working-and-chinese-players-are-a-powerful-new-voice/|title=Steam review bombing is working, and Chinese players are a powerful new voice|work=pcgamer|date=28 June 2017|access-date=2017-08-10|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170810131533/http://www.pcgamer.com/steam-review-bombing-is-working-and-chinese-players-are-a-powerful-new-voice/|archive-date=10 August 2017|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> However, it may be a symptom of decreased customer goodwill, which can have a more long-lasting effect on the publisher, developers or game series being criticized.<ref name=":1" /> Depending on how such situations are resolved, the effects of a review bomb may be reversed by the removal of negative reviews as in the case of ''[[Titan Souls]]'',<ref name="pcgamesn oct2017">{{cite web | url = https://www.pcgamesn.com/history-of-steam-review-bombing | title = A brief history of how Steam review bombing damages developers | first = Kirk | last = McKeand | date = October 12, 2017 | accessdate = October 12, 2017 | work = [[PCGamesN]] | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171012233506/https://www.pcgamesn.com/history-of-steam-review-bombing | archive-date = October 12, 2017 | url-status = live | df = mdy-all }}</ref> ''[[Death Stranding]]'',<ref name="PS DS Negative">{{cite web |last1=Ramsey |first1=Robert |title=Death Stranding User Score Spikes as Metacritic Removes Over 6000 Negative Ratings |url=http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/12/death_stranding_user_score_spikes_as_metacritic_removes_over_6000_negative_ratings |website=Push Square |date=7 December 2019 |accessdate=9 December 2019}}</ref><ref name="GR DS Negative">{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Robert |title=Over 6000 negative Death Stranding reviews removed by Metacritic |url=https://www.gamerevolution.com/news/622041-over-6000-negative-death-stranding-reviews-removed-metacritic |website=Game Revolution |date=6 December 2019 |accessdate=9 December 2019}}</ref> and ''[[Helldivers 2]]''.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.ign.com/articles/helldivers-2s-operation-clean-up-is-a-community-driven-major-order-to-post-positive-steam-user-reviews-after-psn-backlash-and-its-working | title = Helldivers 2’s2's Operation Clean Up Is a Community-Driven Major Order to Post Positive Steam User Reviews After PSN Backlash — and It’sIt's Working | first= Wesley | last =Yin-Poole | date = May 7, 2024 | accessdate = May 7, 2024 | work = [[IGN]] }}</ref>

===Film and television===

[[YouTube]]'s voting system has also been used for review bombing, where dissatisfaction over a creator or a video's content may attract campaigns to "dislike" a video ''enon masse''mass scale, with a goal to be among the [[List of most-disliked YouTube videos|most-disliked videos on the service]].{{cn|date=July 2023}} In December 2018, [[YouTube Rewind 2018]] overtook [[Justin Bieber]]'s "[[Baby (Justin Bieber song)|Baby]]" music video as the most disliked video; it was universally panned and faced criticism for its exclusion of various top personalities on the service, as well as other factors relating to controversies affecting video authors and criticism of YouTube itself.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/13/18137894/youtube-rewind-2018-dislike-shane-dawson-logan-paul-pewdiepie-mkbhd-philip-defranco|title=YouTube Rewind 2018 is officially the most disliked video on YouTube|last=Alexander|first=Julia|date=2018-12-13|website=The Verge|access-date=2019-03-25}}</ref>

In 2017, [[Valve Corporation|Valve]] added review [[histogram]]s to [[Steam (service)|Steam]] user review scores to show how these change over time; according to Valve's Alden Kroll, this can help a potential purchaser of a game recognize a short term review bomb that is not indicative of the game itself, compared to a game that has a long tail of bad reviews. Kroll said they did not want to silence the ability of users to leave reviews but recognized they needed to highlight phenomena like review bombs to aid customers.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-09-19-steam-adds-histograms-to-address-review-bombing|title=Steam adds histograms to address review bombing|last=Sinclair|first=Brendan|date=September 19, 2017|work=[[GamesIndustry.biz]]|accessdate=September 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919230622/http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-09-19-steam-adds-histograms-to-address-review-bombing|archive-date=September 19, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref> In March 2019, Valve stated that it would employ a new system to detect spikes of negative "off-topic" reviews on games: if it is determined that they were the result of a review bomb campaign, the time period will be flagged, and all reviews made during that period (whether negative or positive) will be excluded from the user rating displayed for a game.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/15/18267821/valve-steam-review-bombing-policy-remove-score-count-moderation|title=Valve says it will investigate Steam review bombing campaigns and hide bad-faith scores|last=Liptak|first=Andrew|date=2019-03-15|website=The Verge|access-date=2019-03-25}}</ref> This system was first publicly triggered upon the ''[[Borderlands 3]]'' review bombing in April 2019.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/steams-review-bomb-fix-is-so-far-failing-its-first-big-test/ | title= Borderlands review bomb triggers Steam's "off topic" fix | first = Kyle | last = Orland | date = April 5, 2019 | accessdate = April 6, 2019 | work = [[Ars Technica]] }}</ref> Similarly, Valve stepped in to stop negative reviews of ''[[Rocket League]]'', following the May 2019 announcement that its developer [[Psyonix]] had been acquired by Epic Games (leading to uncertainty over whether it would eventually become exclusive to the Epic Games Store).<ref>{{cite web | url =https://www.gamespot.com/articles/rocket-league-review-bombed-after-epic-acquisition/1100-6466643/ | title = Rocket League Review Bombed After Epic Acquisition Announced; Steam Steps In | first= Steve | last= Watts | date = May 3, 2019 | accessdate = May 3, 2019 | work = [[GameSpot]] }}</ref> Valve said that they had to intervene 44 times in 2019 to stop review bombing on Steam.<ref name="poly steam 2019"/>

In February 2020, ''[[Kunai (video game)|Kunai]]'' by TurtleBlaze was review bombed on Metacritic, decreasing its user rating from 8.1 to 1.7 within a day. The studio, having no idea what they had done to trigger this, found that the review bomb was initiated by a single user, using numerous freshly created email addresses to register accounts at Metacritic as to bring down the user rating, all to demonstrate that a single person could have this effect. As Metacritic had no policy to handle or identify review bombing, this scoring impacted the game.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/BenjaminDeJager/20200219/358297/Our_indie_game_KUNAI_got_review_bombed_to_a_17.php | title = Our indie game KUNAI got review bombed to a 1.7 | first = Benjamin | last = de Jager | date = February 19, 2020 | accessdate= February 21, 2020 | work = [[Gamasutra]] }}</ref> Following the review bombing of ''[[The Last of Us Part II]]'' in July 2020, Metacritic added a 36-hour delay for user reviews to be added for a newly released game, with users given the message "Please spend some time playing the game" during this period. This was intended to prevent users from adding reviews without having completed a game and minimize the number of reviews that may be added as a result of a review bomb.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.engadget.com/metacritic-score-bombing-game-review-changes-150200740.html | title = Metacritic changes its user review policy to combat score bombing | first= Christine | last = Fisher | date = July 17, 2020 | accessdate = July 17, 2020 | work = [[Engadget]] }}</ref>

Infrequently, a review bomb may be used to praise the game, developers or publishers for other actions that players see as beneficial. One such case was for ''[[Assassin's Creed Unity]]'', in the week following the [[Notre-Dame de Paris fire]] in April 2019. Ubisoft had made ''Unity'' free via its storefront UPlay, as the game included a recreation of the Notre Dame Cathedral.<ref>{{Cite web| url = https://www.pcgamer.com/assassins-creed-unity-gets-reverse-review-bombed-following-ubisofts-notre-dame-support/ | title = Assassin's Creed Unity gets reverse-review bombed following Ubisoft's Notre Dame support | first = Samual | last = Horti | date = April 20, 2019 | accessdate = April 20, 2019 | work = [[PC Gamer]] }}</ref> Steam users left numerous positive reviews for the game in the days that followed, with many thanking the developers for the free game and others expressing appreciation for the cathedral's recreation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/notre-dame-donation-leads-to-flood-of-positive-assassins-creed-reviews/|title=Reverse review bomb? AC: Unity draws praise for Notre Dame preservation|last=Orland|first=Kyle|date=2019-04-19|website=Ars Technica|language=en-us|access-date=2019-11-18}}</ref> ''Unity,'' which was released in 2014, had received mixed reviews prior to this event due to bugs and technical problems with the game's launch.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/04/19/assassins-creed-unity-is-getting-reverse-review-bombed-with-positivity|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420144056/https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/04/19/assassins-creed-unity-is-getting-reverse-review-bombed-with-positivity|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 20, 2019|title=Assassin's Creed Unity Is Getting Reverse-Review Bombed With Positivity|last=Khan|first=Imran|magazine=Game Informer|language=en|access-date=2019-11-18}}</ref> While such an event had triggered Valve's safeguards against review bombs, they opted to not enforce it since the effect was meant to be positive.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.polygon.com/2019/5/22/18636266/assassins-creed-unity-steam-review-bomb-valve | title = 'Positive review bomb' of Assassin's Creed Unity posed a quandary to Steam | first = Owen | last =Good | date = May 22, 2019 | accessdate = May 22, 2019 | work = [[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1621770561051427036|title=Steam :: Steam Blog :: Positive "Review Bombs"|date=2019-05-21|website=steamcommunity.com|language=en|access-date=2019-11-13}}</ref>

Like negative forms of review bombs, positive review bombs have also occurred as form of protest, such as in the case of anime series ''[[Interspecies Reviewers]]'', where it was subject of a positive review bomb campaign targeting the series' [[MyAnimeList]] page. The campaign was initiated by anime [[YouTube]]r Nux Taku in response to [[Funimation]] removing the series from its online streaming platform.<ref>{{cite web|first=Crystalyn|last=Hodgkins|title=Funimation Removes Interspecies Reviewers Anime as it 'Falls Outside' Company's Standards|url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-01-31/funimation-removes-interspecies-reviewers-anime-as-it-falls-outside-company-standards/.156012|website=Anime News Network|date=January 31, 2020|access-date=February 11, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Eduardo|last=Luquin|title=Interspecies Reviewers: 10 Things You Need To Know About This Controversial Anime|url=https://www.cbr.com/interspecies-reviewers-need-to-know-facts-trivia/|website=CBR.com|date=February 22, 2020|access-date=February 23, 2020}}</ref> In wake of the closure of [[Tango Gameworks]] by [[Microsoft Gaming]] in May 2024, players used positive review bombing of its games like ''[[The Evil Within]]'' and ''[[Hi-Fi Rush]]'' on Steam to protest the studio's closure.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.vg247.com/hi-fi-rush-evil-within-games-positive-review-bombed-on-steam-tango-gameworks-closure | title=Hi-Fi-Rush and the Evil within games being "positive" review bombed on Steam | date=May 10, 2024 }}</ref>

A negative review bomb can also backfire and incite a positive review bomb of the same target. For example, ''[[AI: The Somnium Files]]'' was review bombed on Metacritic in February 2020 by a single person through the use of numerous [[sock puppet account]]s. The individual initially claimed that this was meant to highlight the flaws of Metacritic's user review system, but later admitted it was actually because they were upset with how a character in the game was written. Before the cause of the review bomb was known, the game's director ''[[Kotaro Uchikoshi]]'' used social media to ask for help from fans, who responded by posting positive reviews of the game in an effort to cancel out the negative review bomb. When Metacritic became aware of the review bombing, the negative reviews were removed from the game's page but the positive reviews that were posted in response remained, inflating the game's user score and causing it to temporarily be the website's top-rated Nintendo Switch game of all time while drawing further attention to the game as a result of the failed review bomb attempt.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.shacknews.com/article/116321/ai-somnium-files-review-bomb-backfires-becomes-top-user-reviewed-switch-game |title = AI: Somnium Files review bomb backfires, becomes top user-reviewed Switch game | first= TJ | last= Denzer | date = February 13, 2020 | accessdate = February 19, 2020 |work = [[Shacknews]] }}</ref>

* {{Cite book |last1=Tomaselli |first1=Venera |last2=Cantone |first2=Giulio G. |last3=Mazzeo |first3=Valeria |year=2022 |chapter=Chapter 16: Review Bomb: On the Gamification of the Ideological Conflict |chapter-url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_of_Research_on_Cross_Disciplina/PnBbEAAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=1PnBbEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA334&printsec=frontcover |editor1=Oscar Bernardes |editor2=Vanessa Amorim |editor3=António Carrizo Moreira |title=Handbook of Research on Cross-Disciplinary Uses of Gamification in Organizations |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/Handbook_of_Research_on_Cross_Disciplina/PnBbEAAAQBAJ?hlid=en&gbpv=1PnBbEAAAQBAJ |series=Advances in Business Strategy and Competitive Advantage (ABSCA) Book Series |location=Hershey, PA |publisher=Business Science Reference (IGI Global) |pages=334–354 |isbn=9781799892236 |oclc=1310404633}}