VERY good points! I completely agree, it needs to be business related.
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I’ve thought about this subject further and figured I’d update this topic (If anybody cares about this old topic haha). While my opinion hasn’t changed something crossed my mind that I hadn’t considered when I made the original post so I decided to make a counter argument to my own opinions with something no one really mentioned before this. If review bombing were to be more widely used to the extent that companies couldn’t ignore it how would that make our industry look to those outside of gaming? Would it be seen as insistence on pro consumer practices or would it delegitimize our entire industry and hold us back as a whole? Especially when not too long ago you might be told ‘You still play games? Grow up.’ and now gaming is widely accepted. Would it appear to the majority of non gamers and undoubtedly some gamers as spoiled and whiney? I also wanted to say I would be the first person to sacrifice my beliefs or principles if I felt it was what is best for the industry (and when I say industry I don’t just mean commercially but also equally as a respected art form). Thoughts?
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Ultimately if people still buy the games then it has no effect other than to make gamers look petulant. There’d be no need for companies to change their practices if their bottom line still looks good.
And in the end I don’t think review bombing has any effect on the big games, so it just makes those who participate look a little childish. And in the case of smaller games the damage may prove unrecoverable.
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Stupid.
Reviews become meaningless as reviews. All that’s left is pettyness.
You want to make yourself heard? Well, go “in the streets”! Don’t be lazy and sit in your house in front of your computer, protected by your anonymity.
Even Gandhi went outside and just SAT in the way.
Noone cares about your bomb review, except maybe the devs… who are innocent of those practices you talk aboput in 95% of the cases.
It’s like punching women in the face to denounce sexism and misoginy…
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That is definitely a good point but with the massive studios now even a bad perception of a game can lead to slightly less profitable product. I’m sure this could just as easily backfire and lead to further monetization to recoup the perceived lost revenue. I haven’t seen this happen to an indie that wasn’t abusive or a straight up asset flipper but you are completely right that such a review bomb could not just sink a game but maybe the studio along with it. So maybe I need to change my opinion on this but at least I still have lots of controversial options about gaming to keep me warm at night haha.
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If they are innocent in those cases then I was trying to say that I don’t support the review bombs. Just because I was arguing for them doesn’t mean I’m arguing for every instance someone uses it or that it can’t be abused by someone for their own petty reasons.
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What is stopping people from doing the same for games they don’t agree with that have themes ‘controversial subjects’ like LGBT characters or what-have-you. If you must review bomb, I’d very much prefer you played the game at the very least. You can change your rating from a 5 star to a 1 star in response to some shitty business practices, but I’d like there still be a semblance of “I’ve given this game a fair shake, here are my pros and cons, also screw what this publisher is doing”.
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How can a reviewer prove that to you?
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I think that’s a pretty even handed and reasonable outlook but when I suggested it I never meant to support them no matter what. Rather to use them as responsibly as possible much like how you described.
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I have mixed feelings on this topic, and I don’t know enough to say one way or another. I understand both sides.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could leave publisher / developer reviews?
Not only for bad business practices, but for good ones as well. There are so many great devs out there that could use some reputation boosting.
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Absolutely! That’s probably why I lean towards Indies, they care about their players and (aside from asset flippers) they rarely do anything wrong. 
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I’ve seen reviews that have listed pros and cons, or have prefaced their review with “I tried to be as objective as possible with this review”. It’s a bit of lip service, but in my [admittedly limited] experience, people don’t usually type that statement out and then just go ahead and shitcan a game like they have a personal vendetta against it.
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I get what you mean, I’ve been thinking I should change my opinion on it. I can understand why it’s done but maybe it really does do more bad than good. I’m glad I started this topic because I don’t ever want to be so set in my ways that I can’t see it from different perspectives or to think that everyone else is wrong because they disagree with me. So thank you to everyone who weighed in on this!
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sigh here’s an example of the negative impact that the misuse of review bombing can have…and the Devs chose to change the game and claimed it was because of a mistake and then censored their game. 
with an update here
Edit: Here’s another perspective.
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13k reviews? u mean one building in China is review bombing this game
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Well that’s stupid. I’m not someone who would give a game a thumbs down just because I saw a meme that trashed my favorite politician. I’d just go "Hmm… 
" and move on. Yes, it would probably color my perception of the developers or game creators a bit, but if it was just a “blink and you’ll miss it” sort of deal, I wouldn’t let it detract from the enjoyment I’d get out of the game because at the end of the day that little “easter egg” isn’t the focus.
I wan to say “Well, China is really uptight, aren’t they?” but the US is just as overly-serious about these sorts of things, too, so… shrug
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I agree, I believe it was the ‘Chinese president being compared to Winnie the Pooh’ meme which is banned in China. Censorship can be such a drag.
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that made me giggle.
WARNING: CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
p.s. if you make it to the end, I generally skip the end “skit”. you’ll know when starts.
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Maybe EPIC and Tencent can put some funds together so he can get a gym membership and a subscription to Jenny Craig? XD Hahahaha
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Steam announcement today regarding user reviews; especially regarding review bombing.
I feel that Valve’s resources would be better applied fixing the problem of useless reviews instead of review bombing (which i would argue are not completely useless).
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