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Review Bombing on Genshin Impact—A Penny for Your Thoughts?

223 View2021-10-01

What a surreal year 2020 had been. With all the doom and gloom brought forth by this perpetual covid pandemic, I have probably spent more time scrolling through TapTap on my smartphone than ever before.

As I’m sure most of us have upended our lives and been cooped up within the four walls of our homes, mobile games have definitely assisted us in getting by this new norm. Well, in my case, it was Genshin Impact.

Looking back, I wouldn’t have wished to embark on my journey into the fantastical world of Teyvat in any other way. Its lush open world, beautiful graphics and unique soundtracks have gradually become a haven in a year filled with much uncertainty and unease.

With its first anniversary well underway, all Genshin Impact fans (including yours truly) had been holding out hope that MiHoYo would surprise us with actual good loot on 28 Sept. Much to my dismay, the majority of the rewards were locked behind raffles and contests, causing the Genshin Impact’s community to simmer in rage. What infuriated me to no end was the smidgen of rewards (¼ of the expenses to a single gacha roll) that were awarded to the players. Blimey.

All in all, it was a simple celebration that has gone oh’ so wrong, leaving everyone to bemoan about the lacklustre anniversary rewards. That said, it’s no surprise that no one will be able to escape the players’ wrath about these minuscule rewards, let alone MiHoYo. Retaliating for what they regard as the studio’s stinginess with the anniversary offerings, more negative reviews than positive ones have been hurled at Genshin Impact, causing the average ratings on Google Play Store to plummet drastically, much like the prices of those surgical masks at the stores.

Well, as they say, there is more power in unity than division. Not only did they not back down, but I have seen tons of players expressing their outrage on the review sections of other mobile games, even for those that MiHoYo itself doesn’t develop.

According to Kotaku, games such as Honkai Impact, Arknights, Tears of Themis, Clash of Clans, Cookie Run Kingdom, Fate/Grand Order, Epic Seven, Punishing Grey Raven, Dragalia Lost, and League of Legends: Wild Rift have been flooded by a slew of discontented sentiments.

In any case, it is indeed tricky for one to elucidate the term, review bombing. In most cases, it is the act of a relentless submission of spiteful online appraisals to bring down the overall review rating for various reasons. It could be due to unpopular changes to the game or even some unrelated reasons.

Well, take Borderlands 3, for instance.

Players had pretty much butchered the game with negative reviews on Steam when the game was released solely on Epic Store.

Sure, it may be a way for them to vent their spleens, but this is essentially a nightmare for gaming companies. At the same time, it may just dampen the producers’ spirits as they come up with a new game mode.

Review bombing may affect the game sales adversely or give the masses a negative impression of the game community. Whatever it is, I’ve gotta admit they do get your attention, be it good or bad. Even so, developments and updates to the game are still at the discretion of the developers.

So, what do you think? Is review bombing even effective or merely an exercise in futility? Would you consider review bombing to be the most suitable method of going about this?

Anyway, a penny for your thoughts, by any chance?

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