Metacritic improving moderation after "abusive, disrespectful" Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores reviews
"We are currently evolving our processes and tools."
Fandom has responded to Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores' recent review bombing on Metacritic.
Please note, there will be spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores below.
Horizon Forbidden West's DLC Burning Shores released last week, with many praising its visuals and smooth gameplay performance. However, one plot point has led to the game being review bombed on Metacritic, where the DLC currently sits with a 3.2 user rating. Previously, Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores saw its user rating drop to as low as 2.7.
During the events of Burning Shores, Aloy meets Seyka, an "ambitious marine of the Quen tribe who has stepped up to help her people survive". Ahead of the DLC's release, Seyka was touted as a character that would be Aloy's equal, with actress Ashly Burch even saying "Aloy may have met her match".
Towards the end of Burning Shores, there is the choice to make this match a more romantic one, and players can select a dialogue option that will lead to Aloy and Seyka sharing a kiss. And it is this, for some reason, that several 'critics' over on Metacritic have taken umbrage with.
"Aloy lesbian! What are you doing Sony and Guerilla really? Stop doing it with your characters," reads one review. Another adds: "Stop pushing those farking woke agenda upon gamers. We only want to play the game, not be shoved with politics or gay".
Now, in a statement to Eurogamer, Metacritic's Fandom confirmed it is aware of the "abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores," and said it is "currently evolving [its] processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months."
Here is Metacritic/Fandom's statement regarding Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores' review bombing in full:
"Fandom is a place of belonging for all fans and we take online trust and safety very seriously across all our sites including Metacritic. Metacritic is aware of the abusive and disrespectful reviews of Horizon Forbidden West Burning Shores and we have a moderation system in place to track violations of our terms of use.
"Our team reviews each and every report of abuse (including but not limited to racist, sexist, homophobic, insults to other users, etc) and if violations occur, the reviews are removed. We are currently evolving our processes and tools to introduce stricter moderation in the coming months."
While Fandom did not elaborate on what these new tools and processes will look like, it is reassuring to know it is taking the review bombing on its site seriously, and will strive to make improvements on how its reviews are moderated in the future. Meanwhile, multiple Burning Shores 'reviews' have already been removed from the site for violating its terms of use (something that has not been missed by several users).
Elsewhere in the news, Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West developer Guerrilla has casually confirmed that Aloy's story is not over.
In a management update yesterday, the company stated it has "full confidence in [its] new leadership" as the team "[steers] Guerrilla towards a bright future, expanding the world of Horizon with Aloy's next adventure and our exciting online project."