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Microsoft Checks Claims Of Indie Ratings Manipulation
Less than a week after an indie developer made public his concerns that scores on Microsoft’s Indie Games section were vulnerable to user tampering, the company has responded that it’s investigating those claims. The issue stems around College Lacrosse 11 and its Facebook community, which has about 177,000 members. Developer Crosse Studio told its fans to click an attached link and rate up its game, which they did. Some of those fans apparently took it a step further, by rating competing indie games down to help College Lacrosse rank higher in the overall market standings. Crosse Studio has since amended the post, saying, “Please remember to not rate other games low to help CL11.”
Robert Boyd, developer of Cthulhu Saves the World, noticed that his game was bombarded with a sudden influx of one-star ratings. His game went from being the #6 game overall to #11. As he pointed out in a blog post on Gamasutra, that ranking hit has very real repercussions for smaller developers.
“The higher rated your game is, the more likely it is that you'll continue to get long-term sales,” he wrote. “Our first game, Breath of Death VII, has sold nearly 50,000 copies in the year or so it's been out and the vast majority of those sales (over 75%) occurred after the first 30 days. Before the ratings attack, we had one game that was easily visible in the first screen of top rated (#4) and one that was partially visible (#6). Now, we have one that is partially visible and another that you have to scroll over a screen or two to see.”
A Microsoft XNA representative tweeted “We are investigating a possible misuse of ratings on #XBLIG titles. We'll announce more information here as it develops.”
We have no idea what the intentions of College Lacrosse 11's fans were, or if Boyd's speculations are correct, but he brings up a good point. One of the problems with the current system is that users don’t need to purchase a game or play a demo before they’re allowed to rate a game. If they register a free Xbox.com account, they can rate games without even owning a game console. That might not affect games sold at retail, but as Boyd explained indie games are particularly vulnerable to their position on the marketplace. Microsoft has already received its share of criticism for the way that indie games are marketed on the Xbox 360, and this kind of environment doesn’t help their case. After all, smaller developers have plenty of other alternatives.
[Via Gamasutra]
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