Microsoft Responds To Apparent XBLIG Ratings Scam

Although the changes have already been implemented and Microsoft has already addressed a response to the “Xbox Indies Ratings Manipulation”, I’d like to cover the basics as to what officially happened, how it affected Xbox Indie developers, and what steps Microsoft took to remedy the situation.

Many gamers aren’t aware of the significance that the lists like Newest, and the venerated Top Rated and Top Downloaded lists–each of which affect sales for all games. In short, Indie games featured on these lists have a higher chance of selling than those who aren’t. These lists represent the likelihood of a game being purchased, and the higher up on the list a title is, the better chance that it’s seen and consequently bought.

Recently a huge Ratings manipulation occurred that practically drove a spike through the data which created many fissures throughout the lists. Soon previously highly rated fan favorites were losing their places to random titles that had never been featured on these lists before. This had many adverse affects on countless Xbox Indie titles.

The start of the Ratings Scam took place when Robert Boyd of Zeboyd Games, the development studio behind the popular Xbox Indie RPG Cthulhu Saves the World, found a sudden drop in ratings in CStW. Since the drop was a strange occurrence, Boyd investigated and Gamasutra published his findings in an article.

Be sure to check M. Neel of GamerMarx’s official XBLIG Ratings Data article that can pinpoint specific examples of losses and increases of Ratings, detailing the manipulation as it became widespread.

Apparently the cause of the ratings disruption stems from a tactic that the developers behind the widely-popular Lacrosse sports Xbox Indie games used in order to promote their game: they offered a contest to giveaway free copies of their games to those that voted their games 5 star ratings. Every person who gave a 5-star rating was entered for a chance to win a game, and in no time at all the NLL titles were among the Top Rated–as I write this article there are two Lacrosse titles on the Top Rated XBLIG lists.

The Lacrosse developers also gave explicit instructions on how to create a free Xbox Live account on Xbox.com in order to rate their games higher. Apparently those that rated went too far and decided to down-vote other games in order to make the NLL games reach higher ranks…and soon things were getting out of hand.

As of that time, anyone could create a Free Xbox Live Silver account to vote for games on the Xbox.com website–as long as they possessed a Windows Live ID (which is also free, of course).

A ratings manipulation of this magnitude affected all Xbox Indie developers in some way–big or small, some devs were thrown off their rightfully earned places of prestige and respect that they have earned with countless hundreds of hours of work into their games. The manipulated ratings also translated into a potential loss for sales, hurting developers pocketbooks as well.

Overall the situation was something that the developers and the whole XNA Community looked towards Microsoft to fix. The official Xbox Live XNA Community was listening, and issued an official statement via Twitter:

After weeks of having to deal with rather mutilated and sabotaged lists, Microsoft announced further responses to the debacle which was dubbed as IndieGate by game writer M. Neel of GameMarx, who has played a vital role in the revelation of the Ratings Scam. Check out GameMarx’s official article on the MS’ response to the Ratings Scam.

The changes set forth were aimed at preventing new manipulations from taking place instead of fixing what had already happened. Apparently there was no simple fix as a “revert to save” button that Microsoft could press.

Henceforth gamers would have to possess a Gold Xbox Live subscription in order to Rate Xbox Live Indie Games on the Xbox.com website–no longer would Silver members be able to vote. This would inherently foil the main bulk of users who were taking advantage of the Free Silver memberships to downvote games…however it did nothing to fix what was already broken: the lists themselves.

Xbox Indie Developers are still frustrated and wary to say the least–their sales data, ratings, and overall opinion of Microsoft’s decisions have been compromised and many still feel demoralized from the results.

The Ratings have yet to stabilize and are only shadows of what they once were–reflections of their previous order gone awry. Many questionable tactics have been used by development teams looking to make their already popular game even more popular–thus destroying what the XNA Community is all about.

These games are Indie in spirit and in practice–it’s not about making millions of dollars for these developers (although of course they wouldn’t complain), they are focused on creating quality content for the Xbox Live community.

Hopefully Microsoft can implement further changes to balance the playing field out for developers and give all devs a chance rather than the popular and immensely hyped XBLIG titles.

It’s essentially important for Microsoft to make the service a fair and level playing field where all developers have the same rights–rules shouldn’t be bent or broken for successful titles, profits shouldn’t bear any form of merit to rights when the XNA Creator’s Club is a subscription that all devs pay for. Anyone who pays that fee should be free to create their own title and to experience what XBLIG’s are all about: user-created content for other users, whether they be gamers, reviewers, or other developers.

In my perspective, the service seems to be skewed in favor of higher priority titles–that of course generate more revenue for Microsoft, as MS receives 30% of all earnings and developers receive 70%–and more successful games while many high quality games remain ignored and unseen. This skewing is partly because of the Ratings and how they can be highly biased, and mostly because of how the lists are designed in the first place so that only higher-rated games are seen most by potential customers.

Microsoft has a responsibility to retain fairness to every extent, and what they have done is simply prevented new manipulations from taking place instead of mending wounds. This Ratings Manipulation is one of the many examples as to why developers are frustrated with the XBLIG service, and hopefully in the future Microsoft can implement fair methods that alleviate these frustrations.

Final Truth: Microsoft needs to fix what was broken, not to prevent it from breaking more. Slapping duct tape onto something is only a temporary fix. Let’s just hope that Microsoft focuses on other problems that Xbox Indie developers face with the service as well.