After posting the PUBG/Fortnite comic last week, I noticed a lot more negativity directed towards PUBG in the comments than I’d seen in previous weeks. So out of curiosity, I took a look at the game’s Steam page and hahaha, holy shit.
I guess the honeymoon is over. The internet has turned like a lover scorned.
Update 11:19am: I’ve made a small change to the dialogue in the final panel, to clarify that One suggests waiting for the next game the internet decides is popular, not calling the current negativity towards PUBG “the bandwagon.”
Apparently the massive bad reviews is because the Chinese version of PUBG has in game advertisements for some Chinese VPN.
And people are finding that if they dont use the VPN they get a poor connection.
The review bombing is due in large part to that, yeah. But the general negative press started before that, with the server issues and the stream sniping debate.
Tim, do you not recognize the power of which the pen affords it’s wielder? Not saying that you single-handedly caused all of those negative reviews, but your influence on the internet is not exactly insignificant.
I don’t know what you’re talking about. He was never that harsh on the game, and a comic doesn’t (or at least I hope it doesn’t) influence whether or not people like playing the game.
Sorry, after re-reading it I realized that it made more sense in my head. I jokingly meant that this, comic/fickle-mistress/ had some how paradoxically resulted in those negative reviews. As far as if it were possible or not, consider this. People will pick their president based on what other people tell them to do, or by who looks the most attractive. I don’t think a web comic setting people’s opinions about a game is that far fetched.
Let me admit here that there are lots of games I only check out because Tim makes them seem very interesting.
I may have a little power in regards to prompting people to check out a game they otherwise might not have, but I doubt I have enough sway to turn people off of a game they enjoy or want to play 🙂
Soooo true
The plummeting review score is apparently down to them including adverts in the game https://pcgamesn.com/Playerunknowns-Battlegrounds/battlegrounds-chinese-VPN-review-bomb
Shhhhh. Apparently we’re not interested in facts today. We’re only interested in buzz words like “bandwagon”.
The thing about not being interested about facts is something you definately prove …
Someone mentioned Billboards, I second that manner of adding in adverts. Makes money for certain and also adds a different element to the game…if you wind up with billboards on top of buildings and someone sniping from behind one.
a fickle mistress indeed
You know what? You should write a Thesis about this – Internet Psychology: Hype and Hate using Steam references about popular games and when the tide changes and why or something like that. Would surely be an interesting read about human psychology in times of anonymity and hype-trains and bandwagons and what not.
Jon Ronson wrote a book kinda like that
I have a friend who wants to be a psychologist…
I’ll tell her about this…
We’re not mad about Fortnite “riding PUBG’s coattails”, only Bluehole is mad about that. Also maybe the reason people think everything PUBG is doing is wrong is because everything PUBG is doing is wrong. Banning people on the word of streamers despite not having evidence, loot boxes in an early access game, unjustified threats against Epic games, in-game advertisements for VPNs. Forget about what PUBG is doing wrong: are they even doing anything RIGHT?! Every single time PUBG is in the news, it’s because they’re screwing up again. Or I guess you could ignore all of the terrible things PUBG… Read more »
It’s just a battle royale. They remade a thing for an underserved market, and now they’re not really making it a better game or handling the business fantastically… so it’ll fade and people will move to another thing. And really, these companies need to stop claiming it’s “early access” and charging money for add-ons. It’s either a commercial product or not ready to be charging money for. If you’re the most popular anything on steam… just take off the ‘early access” label. Keep adding things. But you’ve succeeded in making a product at that stage. But monetizing a thing like… Read more »
I get it, you’re butthurt about getting banned for stream sniping.
Every time PUBG is in the news for the past 1-2 weeks is negative, as opposed to 1-2 MONTHS of nearly uninterrupted positive press.
Hence the subject matter of the comic.
Most the OMFGPUBGHATE posts are because of the micro-transactions.
Makes me laugh uproariously, due to the fact that the OMFGPUBGHATERS are talking about stuff that makes no difference to the game.
Amused no end, put a smile on my face tonight.
Well, even cosmetics make a difference in FPS. But the difference isn’t necessarily that large, so a sizable amount are almost unfounded.
Actually, Karran32, the cosmetic stuff can make a difference. If you get camo clothes from the loot boxes, that makes you harder to see compared to others in the wilderness. That can be a pretty big advantage I think in a game like PUBG.
The micro transactions and the devs siding with streamers to get people who killed them banned, even when no evidence is presented, is also another big negative against the game as well.
Looks like review-bombing; the thing that Steam implemented that graph chart to showcase. I think I would only agree with the summary if the reviews continued to be that low over a long period of time. The internet is a fickle mistress, but she’s also incredibly lazy and has absolutely no long-term memory for anything – everyone will move on to the next thing to hate in a month, and this will be 100% forgotten. It happens with games, it even happens with major non-game news that SHOULDN’T be forgotten, but it happens inevitably nonetheless. I don’t play either game,… Read more »
There’s an actual explanation for this that you’d have found if you actually cared to do some research before memeing…
There are a handful of explanations, Aside from the Chinese VPN issues resulting in bad review bombing, the servers have been offline or struggling recently, and there’s a bunch of drama over streamers and stream sniping and how that’s been handled. All of which contribute to a sudden and massive negative public perception towards PUBG over the last week, where most of the press/discussion is negative wherein the previous month it was overwhelmingly positive.
don’t forget the microtransactions for loot boxes. The clothes you can get from that can give you an advantage from what I’ve seen.
Again, the Internet is a hate machine.
And somehow, I don’t see anyone but Player 3 playing Golf Story.
This is why I hate online gaming. People bitch and whine in single player games enough as it is, but the level of salt and whining and toxicity in these multiplayer games is just disgusting. How anyone can put up with it or even ENJOY that kind of crap is beyond me.
It’s not just online gaming, it’s the internet in general.
I was going to get PUBG after seeing everyone talking about how great it was. Then I went to the steam page, read a ton of reviews about the stream sniping bans and then latter while I was waiting for a steam discount (seems weird to pay that much for an unfinished game), the reviews about the VPN advertising came out. I want to play a battle royal game like PUBG, so will turn my attention to Fortnite. Hopefully that will be good. If it’s a good game, idc who inspired them. Also I will take any other suggestions for… Read more »
But Timmmmmm! You just dont understand at all! There are reasonnnnnnssssss for my hate. REASONS!!!! Its not just random hate because there are feelings in my chest!!!
I’ve never played PUBG but enough time playing online multiplayer has taught me that every “major problem” has a legit cause, but quickly spirals into absurdity once a little internet group think is thrown in.
Since I can’t just press a reaction button like on Facebook, I’ll have to actually comment. This made me laugh.
It’s a comic, not a piece of investigative journalism. 🙂
“The internet is a fickle mistress”
“Also she appears to be a [gun] wielding maniac”
😉
That’s not a gun.
That’s a flamethrower!
“Son, you’ve brought a knife to a gun fight”
I must say, the internet’s obssession with hating the things it loved (?) (PUBG, Left 4 Dead, George Lucas, Pokemon GO…never mind…), even CAD in a certain comic which I will not bring up in further detail (It isn’t the Far Cry one) is startling. Taking usually minor ailments and issues and then turning them into a HUGE argument about all sorts of things is the sort of power that I don’t think anyone would have expected. If you are worried about Stream Sniping, then you don’t have to stream. Is it THAT big of a deal? I do, however,… Read more »
Can’t disagree with what you’ve said.
If you think of loot boxes and other micro-transactions… they obviously work since they’re in almost ever game now.
If people didn’t buy them, then there wouldn’t be a place for them.
Pretty sure that the bad rep is because of what they’re doing rather than the fact that they’re popular.
I think it’s a bit of both actually as the negatives are enhanced in my opinion when a game becomes pretty popular quickly like PUBG has.
I’ve never played pubg. My parents won’t get me a zeke 🙂 or a playstation or a pc. But…
#IPAD GAMING SQUAD!!!!!!!!
The internet is –not– a fickle mistress. She is an abusive bi-polar manic-depressive spouse who you love spending time with, enjoy every minute, can’t live without, until she shoves you in a corner and starts screaming at and beating you and makes you wonder why you’re alive at all.
And as you’re lying there wondering how to pick up the pieces, she smiles, apologizes, and reminds you of a brand new game that’s coming out and something else to get interested.
And you crawl back.
Every.
Single.
Time.
Jesus, dude, calm down.
XD
“Based on a true story”
*Left4Dead crews walks in*
*crosses out “Based on”*
I hadn’t actually heard much bad things about PUBG until now, but then again most things I get from PUBG are from Youtubers, and the particular ones I watch prefer to avoid the controversy over the game, I’m pretty sure.
If the comments are right, I guess they’re bad? But I’m not really 100% sure about Fortnite either?
I think a big part of it is that the honeymoon period is over and people aren’t going to be as forgiving to the game as they were even just a few months ago.
The loot boxes I think were the turning point though. They are divisive enough in fully released games, their addition, even in a small way, into a early access title tipped people off to the fact that even the latest internet darling just wants your cash.
If people didn’t buy them, they wouldn’t be in games.
If you think about the actual cost of each small item, be it a mount in something like WoW or clothing or whatever…. you buy 2 or 3 and you could have bought a brand new AAA game.
As I’m reading this, two different ads appear for Battle Royale games
Because bitching and moaning is far more important than “playing” or “fun” or any of that baby crap…