Telltale review their own game on metacritic

[Brad]

http://uk.gamespot.com/features/jurassic-park-user-reviews-abused-6346288/

Not the first time this has happened with a game dev. Apparently someone from Bioware awarded DAO a 10 on metacritic.

[Flabio]

Some companies have it in their contracts that doing that counts as gross misconduct. I know I'd get raked over the coals for doing it.

[Guts]

I don't see a huge problem if a game dev reviews his company's game as a private person, after all it's just one "user review" right? Although they should be honest about it. Besides don't the game companies and "professional" review sites often have "mutual understanding" what scores they give certain big games?

[Profit]

You get fan/haters automatically rating games 100% or 1% anyway, so it balances out.

[Guts]

You get fan/haters automatically rating games 100% or 1% anyway, so it balances out.

This is what I thought about too.

[Brad]

What they did was not send out review copies and then the first couple of reviews on metacritic were from telltale themselves.

[Flabio]

I don't see a huge problem if a game dev reviews his company's game as a private person, after all it's just one "user review" right? Although they should be honest about it.

My emphasis.

That's the key part of it. If you're not stating 'hey, I have vested interest in this' then you're actually breaking US law. From the wikipedia entry on shill:

The plastic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift, ordered their employees to post fake positive reviews on websites. As a result, they were sued, and ordered to pay $300,000 in damages by the New York Attorney General's office

It's why there's a disclaimer at the start of any reviews of the Rockband games on Gametrailers. Owned by the same parent company.

(There's a reason you all know who I work for, I don't want to fall foul of the company policy on shilling)

[MisterBubbles]

So are these 2 employees breaking the law? , as telltale are based in california?? Will there be criminal proceedings??

[Profit]

If you're not stating 'hey, I have vested interest in this' then you're actually breaking US law. From the wikipedia entry on shill:

nah, the difference was those employees didn't undergo plastic surgery themselves. Courts take into account objective merit of a product as well, which can be applied to something like plastic surgery and not on an opinion on a videogame.