Harmonix employees have been leaving 5* reviews on Amazon
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If it was pushed from the higher ups it’s bad for a number of reasons. If it’s a few employees taking it upon themselves to even out the “Guitar Hero is better, 1/5” comments, I understand them.
A couple of weeks into the game and I still can’t play it without experiencing frustrating calibration issues, so a few comments I will never read on Amazon are not my #1 concern.
If it was pushed from the higher ups it’s bad for a number of reasons. If it’s a few employees taking it upon themselves to even out the “Guitar Hero is better, 1/5” comments, I understand them.
A couple of weeks into the game and I still can’t play it without experiencing frustrating calibration issues, so a few comments I will never read on Amazon are not my #1 concern.
My callibration seems good, I ignored the beeping calibration and it told me to strum. Gh is giving me the most issue with callibration. I can’t seem to get it just right
Some quotes from the reviews…
“I’m excited that Harmonix is committed to the platform, and can’t wait to see what the team adds to the game in the coming months.”“The fact that the game will get new content means it’ll keep getting better. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.”“I downloaded some old DLC, and discovered that they added Harmony vocals to some (all?) of the older songs. I didn’t even hear about that during the build up to launch, so that was a total and welcome surprise.”“Rock Band 4 is a perfect introduction to video games and music-gaming for me. As a new fan of Rock Band…”Obviously trying to hide the fact they worked on the game.It’s hard to get too excited about something like this really. If it is true then it’s just a bit embarrassing for HMX. That said, if my job and livelihood were tied closely to the sale of, say, a game then perhaps I’d think that popping an ultimately meaningless review on a shopping website might be something I’d consider doing.
Wow. This is…unexpected and shocking.
It’s hard to get too excited about something like this really. If it is true then it’s just a bit embarrassing for HMX. That said, if my job and livelihood were tied closely to the sale of, say, a game then perhaps I’d think that popping an ultimately meaningless review on a shopping website might be something I’d consider doing.
I’m pretty sure that Amazon has sued companies in the past that have left fake reviews for their products on their site…so this is probably a bigger deal than you’d think. I’m sure such a thing totally violates their terms of service. Amazon can drop Harmonix products from their site if they want.
And it’s incredibly embarrassing for Harmonix.
I’m pretty sure that Amazon has sued companies in the past that have left fake reviews for their products on their site…so this is probably a bigger deal than you’d think. I’m sure such a thing totally violates their terms of service. Amazon can drop Harmonix products from their site if they want.
And it’s incredibly embarrassing for Harmonix.
A couple of employees who have put hundreds of hours pouring work into this game thought it deserved 5 stars reviews. Can I blame them? not really. Is it wrong? yes. But as long as Harmonix didn’t tell them to, I don’t see a big issue. Just delete the reviews and move on.
This raises an interesting issue – is there actually anything in Amazon’s terms and conditions that states that someone tied to a product can’t review it? If so, what is criteria that details the level of their involvement that precludes them from reviewing? I haven’t looked personally so I’m not sure.
I can see it straying into a grey area ethically (or morally, I get confused as to which is more appropriate) but is it out and out fraudulent? I’m not sure. If an individual reviews a product that they have first hand experience of aren’t they entitled to give it whatever score they like?
It’s a tricky one but one that on this occasion is unlikely to reflect well on Harmonix regardless of what happened and how it was orchestrated (or not).
This raises an interesting issue – is there actually anything in Amazon’s terms and conditions that states that someone tied to a product can’t review it?
Yes.
If so, what is criteria that details the level of their involvement that precludes them from reviewing?
Financial involvement.
This raises an interesting issue – is there actually anything in Amazon’s terms and conditions that states that someone tied to a product can’t review it? If so, what is criteria that details the level of their involvement that precludes them from reviewing? I haven’t looked personally so I’m not sure.
Yes. The promotional content rules are quite clear.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-help/customer-reviews-guidelines
Harmonix has responded. From the thread over in RB forums:
HMX Wrote: Harmonix has clarified its internal policy about posting reviews of our own products on retail sites, and we’ve asked that existing reviews be edited to identify Harmonix employees or be removed entirely. While we believe the reviews posted by a few employees were sincere and without ill intentions, as a studio we don’t believe these are appropriate actions. We appreciate the feedback from the community, and take our relationship with our fans seriously.I can’t help but agree they should have said they’ll work to remove the reviews entirely, but either way I’m not mustering a lot of outrage over this one. It’s hard to take most reviews on the Internet seriously anyway.
i’m not outraged and i don’t think anyone should be fired over this, but combining this with everything else they’ve done recently i am very disappointed in harmonix
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