Anti-mask Message in Domina Patch Notes Enrages Players on Steam

Domina, a strategy game about the management of a gladiatorial school in the glory days of the Roman Empire, received a new update. It sparked rage among players on Steam, but not because of the content of the patch, but because of the content contained in the patch notes.

Domina review bombing on Steam

After the release of the patch, the game's profile on Steam was flooded with negative reviews. The reason is the content found in the patch notes. In them, the developers (and most likely one particular, Bignic, who is the game's main designer and composer) urge players to ignore the order to wear masks, claiming that it will get them laid:

This message is only included in the patch notes. It cannot be found in the game itself, but nevertheless players on Steam have made their displeasure known.

1. Among the ratings given to the game over the past 30 days, only 23% are positive, which is categorized as "mostly negative" reception.
2. It is a classic review bombing, because of all the ratings given since the release of Domina in 2017, 80% praise this production, which would categorize it as a "very positive" reception.
3. A wave of negative reviews began flooding Steam the day after the patch was released. They were relatively few in number at first, but quickly began to increase after the issue became known on social media.

The update itself introduces quite a few bug fixes and visual improvements. It also adds the ability to use minions in standard gameplay mode, not just endless. So overall it's a nice patch, which, if it weren't for the controversial patch note, would probably enjoy a warm reception.

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It is worth adding that in the case of Domina review bombing was quite easy, as the game was available in several popular cheap packages. This means many players have it in their Steam libraries, even if they have never played it. This is well reflected by the numbers - only this weekend the game received 621 negative reviews, while the activity record during those days amounted to a mere 86 concurrent users.

1. Domina on Steam

Domina

April 3, 2017

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