Can Ambassadors/influencers Opinions Be Trusted?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by longo239, Aug 24, 2022.

  1. longo239

    longo239 Well-Known Member

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    I see a lot of posts from Ambassadors (on here) and other influencers (elsewhere) singing the virtues of products they have been given for free.

    I can't say that I've seen many, if any at all, who have given bad reviews to anything. Why would they really? They're not going to bite the hand that feeds them freebies.

    Or do they?
     
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  2. I'm gonna find out for myself about tsw3.

    If your not sold on it yet your probably better off watching some reviews on YouTube after release.

    I'm not saying they are making things up to please dtg but it wouldn't be the first time someone's given a game a big thumbs up to receive freebies.

    Look at the streamers on YouTube who are no longer sent free pc hardware samples by certain companies just because they told the consumers the truth.
     
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  3. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Without casting aspersions I will wait for a cross section of opinion on here and in the Steam reviews before making up my own mind (and still with the caveat that the save game must be working).

    I say this as someone who years ago ran a web site with reviews/overviews of various train sim products. It does put you in a somewhat insidious position to say the least. In fact I royally pee'ed off Kuju when my first impression of Rail Simulator was that it didn't look much better than Trainz and not long after that they pretty much stopped speaking to me.
     
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  4. SonicScott91

    SonicScott91 Well-Known Member

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    I’m a person who’ll try a product I’m interested in and form my own opinion rather than judge based on external opinions.

    If I do feel unsure about a decision, I’ll refer to a YouTube video of the content I’m considering purchasing and make a decision on whether or not to take the plunge. I always go for non-commentary videos in these cases.

    In regards to ambassadors, I’d say they’re not a reliable opinion when it comes to making a decision on a purchase.

    Before I carry on let me add that I have nothing personal against the ambassadors themselves. They get products free when released or sometimes even before launch, there is obviously going to be some bias in their opinion of that content.

    It’s more a case that these ambassadors show off the game that they enjoy regularly, which gives DTG and TSW positive publicity. In return, DTG is giving them content free and an ambassador title which will entice people to view their channels and livestreams more than your average streamer while the ambassadors get to show off the latest content, get involved in DTG’s streaming events and promotional material. It’s a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” kind of arrangement.

    By all means, ask an ambassador for their opinion but due to the nature of their connection to DTG. Take it with a pinch of salt.

    Matt directly works on TSW but whenever he’s asked an opinion on the game in his personal streams, he always says he’s not the best person to ask due to personal bias and refers the asker to his stream’s chat. I think this is a good approach to the question for anyone who deals with TSW in an official capacity.
     
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  5. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    Tin Tin 57 is a DTG ambassador and his reviews are balanced in my opinion (pretty good reviews). He's one of the better ambassadors in my opinion. If he sees something wrong, he will point it out. If there is something that is good, he will point it out. Not every ambassador is just a blinkered yes man that will just praise everything to get free content to review. Unfortunately it's not surprising why some may think that

    It's always good to look at reviews from multiple sources (store reviews, videos, forums etc) and make up your mind on if the product is right for you
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2022
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  6. junior hornet

    junior hornet Well-Known Member

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    I don’t know about ambassadors but I am a member of Amazon Vine and receive free products in exchange for reviews and I can assure you that I review products as I see them and have given plenty of products poor and one star reviews when I see fit. Similarly, I will give a 5 star review if I think it is worth it.

    If a third party offers me their product “in exchange for a 5 star review”, as I often am, I delete the email straight away.

    I do have a few “rules” such as if a product needs batteries and they are not supplied, then that is one star deducted automatically.
     
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  7. dhekelian

    dhekelian Well-Known Member

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    No doubt there are a few 'Ambassadors or Reviewers' that will give honest reviews but you spot those that will not say a 'bad' word against DTG for example as they know they will no longer get free stuff.

    Sadly there are some here but some that are not the trick is to get balanced reviews. By that I mean if you get a review from an 'Ambassador' make sure you get at least one review from a non-Ambassador and then compare the two. If they are similar you can accept what they are saying but if one clearly is different from the other then I would be very cautious.
     
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  8. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    Interesting you should mention that. Again back in my train sim website days (mine being one of the few active at that point) MS actually invited me out to their 2001 Fanstock Event in Seattle, flight and hotel expenses paid, to demonstrate MSTS. There was one other train simmer there plus various other products (FS2002 their Mech game and IIRC the very first Halo on Xbox) were also being demonstrated to people from the various fan communities.

    While my thoughts at the time about MSTS were generally positive (apart from Trainmaster 4 and the still to be announced Trainz 1.0) we had nothing like it. However the fact I had enjoyed a nice 11 hour flight to/from Seattle from Heathrow on a BA 747 and the hospitality certainly made me think twice about placing anything critical about it on my website, though of course as we started to play it lots of issues became apparent - the Cutbank derailment syndrome, trains derailing on curves and the ropey half finished/half documented editor!
     
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  9. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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    I’d say this one is rather obvious. A review coming from someone who got the product for free and in advance will always be biased. Some manage it better than others but I take every review (but especially those from people who got the product and perhaps more for free) with a huge grain of salt.
     
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  10. DTG Protagonist

    DTG Protagonist Has left the building Staff Member

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    There's another side to this to consider. Those who received something in advance have no choice but to form their own opinion. They can't go looking for something another player has found, because there are no players. If anything, the early look is as close as you'd get to playing it on your own without the internet having told you everything to be wary of already.

    That's an aside, let's talk bias. Under my out-of-hours pseudonym I'm given the opportunity to play a lot of games without paying for them, so many that I turn down at least 90% that come my way (it's 2pm, I've had 3 so far today - not a humblebrag, the scale of the problem many small developers face is in getting anyone to talk about their game). I turn down so many because I only want to cover games I'm fairly certain I'll enjoy. There are plenty of places you can go to see people who want to put the boot in, I'd rather be more positive.

    That's the philosophy behind how I deal with free games offered to me. Every other channel will be slightly different. This is where bias comes in. It's down to the individual channel whether or not they'll be over-positive in order to maintain their relationship or whether to call it as they see it. As a viewer you're best served by looking for those channels whose take lines up with your own. If you find small inaccuracies massively off-putting, the channel that isn't bothered about them probably isn't for you.

    Are some channels biased? Certainly. Are some honest? Certainly. You'll know pretty fast how to tell the difference between them.

    As far as DTG's Ambassadors are concerned we have zero editorial control and neither would we want it. The only negative "reviewing" we'd likely take a dim view of would be a channel that is only ever negative to the extent of exaggeration. It hasn't happened so far, and hopefully never will.
     
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  11. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    This is a 50/50 topic and in some cases you can trust ambassadors opinion other cases not
     
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  12. longo239

    longo239 Well-Known Member

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    Where have I blamed or criticised anyone? I have purely asked whether the opinion of someone who is gifted a product can be trusted, as opposed to that of someone who has paid for it.

    As for the avatar, DTG employees and staff display a DTG logo, mine simply shows that I am not a DTG employee.
     
    Last edited: Aug 26, 2022
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  13. tallboy7648

    tallboy7648 Well-Known Member

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    Could you point out where he blamed people in the post? All I see is a simple question.
     
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  14. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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    Countless good points, Sam. I tip my hat to you. I realise now that my comment probably seemed overly negative and cynical. That wasn't really my intention. I tend to completely avoid reviews nowadays because of this:
    I want to form my own opinion without being biased by someone else's thoughts. Talking TSW, I usually buy DLC before reading about it on the forums (should the piece of DLC interest me in the first place) on release day specifically to avoid being biased by what others say.

    Be that as it may, very interesting to hear your side of the tale based on your out-of-hours pseudonym. :)
     
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  15. dhekelian

    dhekelian Well-Known Member

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    No matter what Sam's view is or how he is trying to have 'fun' if you have two reviewers and one of them bought the game where the other one had got it for free the one that bought the game will be more unbiased and more likely to be critical that the other one. Even without knowing it I think people reviewing who have got it for free will show bias.

    There are exceptions of course, I personally like 'worth a buy', even if you don't agree he gives you a good idea of the game, has a great sense of humour and a decent bloke without any baggage.
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2022
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  16. krustynuggets

    krustynuggets Well-Known Member

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    When it comes to this type of stuff I have 1 rule and 1 rule only, if I like it and I want it I buy it, will never care to what someone else's review of it is because they are not me, have paid for for some amazing games that no reviewer ever liked and vice versa have brought massive piles of crap that had stunning reviews, so now I just stick to my 1 rule........
     
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  17. shhweeet#4292

    shhweeet#4292 Well-Known Member

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    How come you never see these DTG ambassadors fully reviewing the latest TSW releases on PS4 / 8th gen consoles who according to Sam are still in the majority on PlayStation and would quite like to see a preview of what they are actually getting before pressing the buy button.

    The fact they don’t tells me all I need to know tbh.
     
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  18. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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    Know the feeling. I bought Terminator: Resistance since it intrigued me and I always loved the future war stuff and was amazed. Most reviews talk about what a lacklustre game it is, but I feel differently and I'm glad that I did not check the reviews beforehand.
     
  19. dhekelian

    dhekelian Well-Known Member

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    Good point.
     
  20. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    OTOH I recently bought Sailwind based on the ecstatic Steam reviews and not really enjoying at all. A really poor use of Unity graphics, looks like something from 20 years ago. The sailing mechanics are okay but navigation is almost entirely dead reckoning until you can afford and understand how to use the quadrant etc. Dark is worse than TSW, fumble around your boat and fall overboard at night, forget it - game over! Nothing in the world is visible at night so with no on screen waypoint you just have to stop and rest. The world is lifeless, NPC characters and traders stand there like zombies, no dialogue or interaction. And in the meantime, the dev priority was to introduce a game mechanic where you can smoke tobacco in a pipe! Going to do wonders for their PEGI rating, that one.

    Unfortunately I left it too late to refund so guess I just have to wait and see how the early access comes along.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2022

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