The title and image say it all really.
The whole concept of review bombing games and other media that, in reality, you do not really care that much about.
In a feat of ultimate irony, on the scale of an extinction level meteorite making planetfall, people seem to think they are being edgy, standing out from the crowd and “sticking it to the man”, where in reality, it’s the ultimate act of submission.
When people check Reddit or some such to see what the internet hive mind is angry about today.
You are as well putting on a woolly jumper and baaing.
That is not your opinion, you didn’t know about it before being told what to think, and you don’t care about it now.
You are just standing behind the school bully shaking your fist saying, “Nyeahhh…..you tell em!”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, if you genuinely have a negative opinion (or a good one!) about a game, television show, movie or service, by all means express it!
Genuine feedback only helps your fellow consumers, and sometimes, the developers.
Hell, even an actual “review-bomb” is, on very rare occasions, warranted if the offence is egregious enough, ala the Helldivers 2 controversy, where players who paid for the game were going to be actively locked out of playing it.
The campaign reversed the decision and justice was served!
The problem is, it never stops there.
After the Helldivers one, I started to see threads on Steam planning the next review bomb, for basically no reason other than “Sony Bad”, as they were implementing a PSN requirement for Ghost of Tsushima multiplayer.
A requirement that they were up front about, listed said requirement on the Steam store page and gave the reasoning about.
We can’t let them get away with…..umm…..selling their own game wherever the fuck they want……and requiring connection to their multiplayer servers via their own authentication method if you want to use them…….umm……SONY BAD.
That is of course one example, and the point I am making is, that folk are really not that bothered or angry about most of the issues.
They jump on a bandwagon to be seen, to be heard, not not caring what they are seen and heard about.
Often manufacturing outrage and controversy where none exists.
For example, the multitudes of other games needing 3rd party accounts like Origin and Ubisoft don’t illicit the same reaction, but you know, the popular controversy currently is Sony so lets get that negative review down so I can get that serotonin hit of a few likes on Steam rather than doing something mental like going out and talking to a human.
It’s a problem with the keyboard warrior, social media generation that extends way beyond review bombing a game.
It’s folk that would not say boo to a goose in real life, which is actually a bad example as geese are fucking mental, but you get my point!
It’s the pick a side mentality of our current society and unfortunately, the most awful voices tend to be the loudest and attract the weak willed, who have no opinions of their own, to rally behind a cause they know or care nothing about.
If you genuinely have an opinion you wish to share, or a helpful review, by all means go for it.
The problem that does my head in, folk out there looking for the next thing to be faux angry about.
To jump on that bandwagon for no other reason than others are doing it and when they are done, its a case of “Ok, what’s getting it next?”.