Lawsuit reveals Perpetual paid gaming sites to give "positive" impressions/review

[CptStern]

GamePro highlights a tidbit from the lawsuit filed by Kohnke Communications versus Perpetual Entertainment (thanks Mike Martinez) over breach of contract, fraudulent transfer, and fraud (story). On the heels of accusations that a GameSpot editor was fired over a lukewarm review (story) comes word in Kohnke's legal documents that one of the services the PR company provided Perpetual was to secure favorable reviews:

Kohnke's public relations campaign was successful in creating pre-release 'buzz' around Gods & Heroes, and in convincing reviewers to write positive reviews about the game."
It's not clear what form this "convincing" took, however, perhaps referring to efforts at influencing future coverage, as Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising was cancelled before the conclusion of beta testing (story) and was never formally reviewed.

the game had just started beta when it was cancelled ..shows the length publishers will go to secure positive reviews months before a game is even released ..video games "journalism" credibility takes another nose dive

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=83439

 

[Acepilotf14]

Aww.. I was going to give that trial a try. A rome MMO? Sound neat. I saw an ad in a magazine for it, looked interesting.

Total crap, then, obviously.
I lol'd.

 

[TwwIX]

The beta was a huge mess.
Not only didn't they listen to the testers,the game was ridden with bugs that not even an alpha version should have had.(Clipping/falling through world anyone!?)
Good riddance, if you ask me.Now, this shit?Whoever gave them the license to make a Star Trek MMO should be out of a job.

 

[esplin]

I find that the massive amount of positive reviews for videogames really sours me. Even when its a game I enjoy, the massive amount of "this is the greatest game ever, by it now!" reviews make me notice a games flaws much more than I normally would.

It's brutally obvious that gaming websites are in somebody's pocket. Any game that has had any sort of press coverage will not get anything lower than a 7.0. I honestly find it quite humorous when they try to deny it.