Metacritic looks to ‘evolve’ its moderation following Horizon DLC review bombing

destructoid.com:

-This article contains plot spoilers for Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores–

Media aggregate site Metacritic has responded to a recent controversy that has seen Horizon Forbidden West DLC Burning Shores ruthlessly review-bombed on the site, with many negative user reviews plied with hate speech, tonal abuse, and homophobia.

The DLC, which was launched by Guerrilla Games on April 19, was generally well-received by critics and Horizon fans — And while some players were left understandably frustrated by Guerrilla’s decision to only publishing the DLC on PS5, (leaving the PS4 community behind), it seems that this is not the main point of contention for a portion of the players who left negative user reviews.

A lot of the negativity, (veiled or otherwise) is weighted toward the fact that, over the course of the story, Horizon hero Aloy meets another woman, Seyka, while on her journey through the new world. As the two characters spend time together over the course of the DLC, Aloy finds herself drawn to the Quen tribe warrior, ultimately resulting in a scene where the player can, should they choose to do so, bring the two characters together for a passionate kiss. And it seems that this, of course, is a cause for concern among the angriest and loudest of the gaming community.

Last week saw the User Review section inundated with both massively negative written and numerical reviews, leading the DLC to sit at a current score of 4.0 (actually higher than it has been previously). While most of the more homophobic of the site’s 254 negative reviews have since been removed, many remaining reviews choose to mask themselves a little better, simply claiming that the DLC is “poorly written” or that “the world is boring”, before