Bad reviews are often symptoms and not causes, but I agree with you here. When you're selling a new MMO to consumers, you need to keep in mind that customer trial costs are high, especially for hardcore early adopters. These are people with lots of time and money sunk into their current "solutions," and they're only going to try a new one if it seems like a sure thing. Reviews and pre-release buzz are thus critical. Especially significant is that a good aggregate review scorecard doesn't necessarily make your product, but a bad one can certainly break it.