Study Says Reviews Alter Perception And Sales of Games

EEDAR, Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, and The Guildhall at SMU have released results of a study they conducted which found that if people read positive reviews of the game before playing, they are more likely to think the game is good. The study got nearly 200 students to play Plants vs. Zombies, then asked if they would like $10 or a copy of the game as payment for their time. Those given (fake) positive reviews of the game beforehand were twice as likely to take the game, rather than the cash.

More details from the actual study won’t be resulted until the study itself is sometime next week. However, Joystiq were sent an early copy of the text by EEDAR who added that the influence of the reviews only altered the player’s perception because the media outlets the fake reviews were credited to were respected.

I’m very much in favour of holding a scientific light to all aspects of gaming, but this study seems pretty much worthless to me. Ignoring the “that’s just common sense” side of things the study didn’t take into account, by their own admission, “marketing, pricing, release timing, brand awareness, and other factors”. So all this has really shown is that if people are told a game is good before they play it they’ll probably think more highly of it when they’re done.

Or perhaps this study simply shows that people are good at conforming. If you were told a load of people smarter and cooler than you liked a game, and you were then asked not if you wanted to buy it, but if you wanted $10 or the game, which would you take?