In the most recent flap, the popular multiplayer shooter by Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2, found itself in controversy over a planned update that was going to see players on the PC version be required to sign into the PlayStation Network if they wished to continue playing the game. There was firm resistance from the gaming community, as seen by the sudden swarm of negative reviews on Steam, dropping the game rating to “Mostly Negative” in no time.
Backlash over planned PSN update
After an angry backlash of players threatening to go to extreme lengths to receive their refunds, Sony finally caved, pulling back the PSN update and retracting its announcement in its entirety. This was, obviously, quite a huge relief to the community of Helldivers 2, who have since been up in arms over the proposed change.
It left the store page on Steam caked with bad reviews, soiling its reputation, which likely would have hurt future sales and the general opinion of the game. Dozens of Reddit and Twitter posts instantaneously called for the reversal of the review wave and for players to go back and change their scores to good ones.
Fans even went to the extent of providing some with even more detailed instructions on how to take down or edit their bad reviews, mentioning that gamers have to go on their profile, click on the ‘Reviews’ under the username, get into the Helldivers 2 score, click ‘Not Recommended’ so it fully opens, and then click ‘Delete’ from the right side. Otherwise, they would have redrawn the review and changed the recommendation—most suggested that they leave the original negative content but strike it out to recognize the initial response to it and show the final positive results.
A gradual recovery for Helldivers 2
The community members did not just stop there. They have also encouraged nonparticipants to leave a fresh, positive rating to offset the average rating. Several users, highly upvoted in these new threads, have admitted they did just that, one of them writing, “I generally do not leave reviews, so I did not participate in the 500kg review bomb, but I have made sure to participate in the recovery effort.”
It does not help, however, that Helldivers 2 will probably never be quite the same game it was before its overwhelmingly positive rating was taken away. At the very least, it seems the community efforts are beginning to work, and the game is surely on the rebound. However, not everyone may go through the process of retracting their negative reviews, and many others may just forget. What this will spell for the ultimate game recovery is anyone’s guess.
After all the dust over this controversy settles, the only thing that the Helldivers 2 community response really illustrated is the power behind unified actions and the necessity of open dialogue between developers and players. How the episode will influence longer-term game success remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the community’s love for their game is unsurpassed.
