Lots of pCars submissions have been coming in over the past few days, and it’s important to let all you contributors know that we’ve covered some stuff already. If you’re unsure about whether we’ve touched on a topic or not, scroll through the Slightly Mad Studios category. Yes, I’m aware there’s a lot to go through. This is what happens when a game is over-hyped to oblivion and lands in our hands as a buggy mess.

Today’s Reader Submission comes from Justin S., who points out the extreme lengths forum moderators will go to in order to silence criticism of Project CARS.

---

Hello there,

I have seen your site taking some shots at pCars, and I wanted to share what I found. A user made a post making a joke about people that flame pCars and then stated he “LOVED” the game… or did he? The thread was closed after being quoted by a mod. The mod’s quote for the reason of the topic being closed showed what the person actually posted. This to me calls into question the integrity of what is read on their forums posted by anyone. Its a new low. Here’s the link. See for yourself.

They aren’t even trying. But if you are looking for shots to fire the next time you guys decide to point out the crap wrong with them… Well this to me is a big one. You just can’t do that no matter how shitty you are of a person. Sorry for the language. I will say though that the 2.0 patch that has already hit PC has made the game feel better. I’ll give them that. It was so much of a difference it almost made me feel bad about all the smack i talked about them… and then i saw this and it reminded me that they are in fact garbage. 

Anyways I love the site, I love the integrity and the use of facts to back what you say to keep the idiots at bay. Need more media outlets, not just for things like sim racing that have that kind of intelligence. 

---

I’m running on Caffeine so this won’t be a quality reply.

I think it’s smart of you to draw attention to this quick editing job by a forum moderator. It reminds me of the Brown M&M’s Clause in Van Halen’s tour rider; a small, insignificant issue could hint at the larger problems surrounding how Slightly Mad Studios are handling the post-release drama surrounding Project CARS. If moderators are straight up editing people’s posts to praise the game, even if it’s a generic shitposting thread, what else is going on that we aren’t haven’t noticed yet? What decisions are being made about the direction of the game, away from the public’s eye, that’s effecting the quality of the title?

Are all of the Reddit members praising pCars and claiming they’ve “never encountered any bugs or glitches that other users are complaining about” simply SMS employees under temporary accounts trying to skew public perception? Are there legitimate in-house guidelines when it comes to third-party advertising and viral marketing for pCars? Better yet, why have these individuals bought into this blatant mantra of “criticism = trolling, no questions asked?”

It’s shady as hell, and hints at a deeper problem.

Is Ian Bell behind this shameful approach to negative feedback? Probably. I’ve used this analogy too many times to count, but it’s as if Ian’s some overprotective father, and Project CARS is his promiscuous teenage daughter. Whether your “child” is an actual person, or simply a product you’ve spent years of your life helping come to light, you can either chase around every last douchebag in an effort to shut them up, looking like a dumb motherfucker in the process when the glitch videos keep coming despite your best efforts, or you can use the ugly things people have said and uploaded as tools to help fix what the actual issues are.  Video Games are entertainment, entertainment is art, and art is open to criticism. Ian acts as if every miniscule knock against Project CARS, most of which are valid complaints since the game’s pretty goddamn buggy, is like a huge army of people are calling his daughter a whore and uploaded several shots of her tits to 4Chan.

In reality, they’re just pissed that the head of the whole studio sold the game as this:

Yet when people got their hands on it, the game turned out like this:

Censoring criticism of your product to this degree, regardless of how you’re doing it, makes you look like a crazy dad. Sorry guys, I lurk both the WMD forums and the game’s post-release forums – Ian’s replies are hardly witty or sarcastic British Humor. The dude just wasn’t prepared for an outcome where Project CARS dropped oil all over the start line and sent a rod through the block, and it’s probably the narcissism, as I’ve said before, fueling the unacceptable relationship he has with the community members who don’t ride his dick.

I think he’s a genius for finding a way to willingly get people to pay copious amounts for the privilege of being a beta tester, but someone needs to pair him up with a “partner in crime” of sorts; one that can get the creative genius side of Ian out in a way that’ll benefit the next game, without subjecting the general public to his weaknesses. Once you accomplish that, the whole mentality that drives him to push for intense moderation on his forums, manipulating once-great publications into advertising for him, and extreme narcissism when faced with genuine criticism will evaporate because there’ll be someone else to tell him Ian, that’s fucking retarded. I’ve been given some insight as to what goes on in the SMS offices, but unfortunately I can’t share it because people need to put food on the table for their families. Take a random guess and you’ll be somewhere in the ballpark.

But the icing on the cake is how PretendRaceCars.net, a shitty blog owned by a kid who works for some rental car company and his pharmacist buddy on the other side of the continent, is run in comparison to a major video game developer’s official forums, as well as their third party affiliates. The head of a video game studio cannot take a single word of genuine criticism without launching into a tirade of childish insults, blame shifting, and in some cases, outright bribery; sometimes making headlines for the gross display of immaturity unmatched by anyone in the industry. Linking to PretendRaceCars.net is blocked on multiple message boards, and entire publications have been turned into advertising machines that also silence even the slightest implication of negativity when discussing Project CARS.

Meanwhile, over here, waves of fanboys from a multitude of different games will leave a flurry of  disruptive comments, starting wars about everything from my (admittedly) sub-par taste in women to a non-existent financial affiliation with Kunos Simulazioni, and on other sites you’ll see kids claiming I have a mental disorder and an “insane vendetta” against a game .

Despite our comments section routinely being all-out chaos and several personal attacks launched at me each week, we have a total of two censored words and bust out the popcorn when the new comment notification icon lights up. Ian Bell and the Project CARS moderators somehow can’t grasp this concept and damage their reputation in the process.