Game designer job ad raises eyebrows with Meta Critic requirement
Friday, July 27, 2012 2:35 PM
A job post which is currently listed on the Gamasutra ad boards has raised a few eyebrows, as it lists a favourable rating on reviews aggregator Meta Critic as a key requirement.
The advert for a vacant design manager position at Irrational Games, the studio behind BioShock, says that the applicant must have "credit on at least one game with an 85+ average Meta Critic review score".
Perhaps blinkered by its own seemingly unbelievable score of 96 for BioShock and 88 for BioShock 2, the studio has created what appears to be a pretty tough box to tick given that titles like Bulletstorm, which is well received game, only managed an 84 on Meta Critic.
Does this mean the people behind Bulletstorm aren't good enough to work for Irrational? Well yes, according to the job description.
Despite the controversy this particular HR decision has created, it's not the first time that Meta Critic has had a direct effect on game designers' careers.
Earlier this year, Obsidian designer and Fallout New Vegas developer Chris Avellone's revealed that after receiving a score of 84 on Meta Critic his company missed out on a bonus from Bethesda.
While this deal made it more likely that Bethesda would be able to avoid paying a bonus, is basing your recruitment drives on Meta Critic the right way to go?
Or is it simply putting people's livelihoods in the hands of a reviews website which could be subject to some pretty arbitrary scoring?
Not to mention that the rest of the requirements for the job are pretty strict anyway, such as 6+ years as a game designer in the video game industry and 4+ years of experience managing direct reports.
Overall, with claims of malicious reviewing on sights like TripAdvisor affecting hotels and restaurants' income, is too much emphasis being put on internet review sites in general?