Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down - Really?

[allancrowley]

This is an old chestnut. I raised it some 5 or so years ago and although it had quite a bit of support, as usual, DTG has done diddly squat about it. Just as they've done about adding a indent to prevent accidental application of emergency brakes (another point I raised many years ago). Asking to rate a workshop scenario with a simple thumbs up or down is about as useful a a coffee teapot.

People spend countless hours giving most of us countless hours of pleasure (for which I, for one, am eternally grateful) and it seems an insult to give a thumbs down with no explanation. I'll give you an example: I've just driven a good 95 mins scenario, with two faults. The first is a full moon showing in the middle of the day, and facing north in the UK and the 2nd is the lack of AI. Now, do I give it a thumbs up, or down?
What would you do? Now, if it were possible to be able to add a short note describing the reason for a thumbs down at least the writer could revisit the scenario and correct these issues, so making it an even better scenario, deserving of a thumbs up and genuinely rewarding the creator for all his hard work

[OldAlaskaGuy]

To be honest, requiring a thumbs up or down to simply restart a scenario is really a stupid idea. It should be an option not a requirement.

[Smokebox]

The diesels on Sherman Hill and some of them on Feather River Canyon and Soldier Summit, as well as the advanced versions of my FEF-3 and Consolidation, all have the detent (indent) to prevent accidental emergency brake application (as well as most of the other detents that the real life brake quadrants have). That's because of the advanced brake scripting (my version of it).

As for the thumbs down without any explanation, I ignore them as they have no value whatsoever. For my own workshop scenarios, given that I I wouldn't post anything deserving of a thumbs down, I just assume that the thumbs down are an expression of frustration at not being good enough at running the locos to be able to complete the scenario.

[AirbourneAlex]

The thumbs up thumbs down thing is simply because of the rating system used by steam for the workshop. All other games with workshop functionality use the same system. Literally just counts the number of thumbs up to produce a list of the most popular items for the week, month etc.

Having a button appear at the end of a scenario with the thumbs up thumbs down option just helps encourage more people to rate the workshop item, giving more resolution for the algorithms to help advertise the more popular items on the workshop.

I don't think there's much to change about this. The comments section on the item's workshop page is intended for use if you've got something to say about it. Although integrating a comments section into the TS menu like the thumbs up/down option might be a good idea, if possible.

[allancrowley]

Richard, I totally agree.

And yes, smokebox, detent. Had a brain freeze moment (I have many nowadays).

But the comments section on the workshop page is, in my opinion, a non starter. It means hunting amongst an already complicated system again. Why not link the thumbs up and down to that comments section or be done with them altogether.

[Felix.AVMP]

Well, the in game workshop inteface is poorly done, to put it mildly (originaly it was a rather crude port of the Portal 2 workshop interface) and it definitely could use some improvement.

This being said...
Sometimes you simply feel no desire to bother with a scenario/route anymore... thumbs down it is then, because you feel, that the cause is lost anyway, the scenario creator obviously does not care etc. (make no mistake, there are such scenario creators, present company presumably excluded, of course!).

[allancrowley]

Felix, I echo your sentiments regarding the in game Workshop. But given DTG's history it's something we have to live with.
And, by the way, Felix, it's people like you that help to keep the game interesting. Without you it would have faded into obscurity a long time ago, methinks. Thank you and many others like you.

[Brutalist Ape]

Originally posted by allancrowley:

...deserving of a thumbs up and genuinely rewarding the creator for all his hard work

The stars system makes absolutely no sense either. I created a scenario that had 86% positive votes, and yet it shows up as three stars in the workshop. This is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

If I saw a scenario with three stars, I'd think it wasn't very good. I might not bother downloading it. The stars should match the percentage of upvotes. My scenario should be having at least four stars, or maybe five, as that would correspond to people's expectation of what those star ratings mean.

[Danny]

Originally posted by bouncingmad:

If i don't like a scenario, I press thumbs down, why do i have to give a reason? That's what it's there for, if its a bad scenario thumbs down!

So how would a workshop scenario writer improve if they don't know what is wrong with it? Surely feedback would help them improve?

[Brutalist Ape]

Originally posted by bouncingmad:

Originally posted by Danny:

So how would a workshop scenario writer improve if they don't know what is wrong with it? Surely feedback would help them improve?

That's their problem! They made a mistake, and they should fix it! It's not my job to tell them if they got it wrong, they should know that it's wrong when they make it. If it's wrong I down vote end of!

Someone missed their wheetabix this morning...? ;-)

[Cat]

Originally posted by bouncingmad:

If i don't like a scenario, I press thumbs down, why do i have to give a reason? That's what it's there for, if its a bad scenario thumbs down!

Perhaps you're just too lazy.

[allancrowley]

Bouncing, I can't get my head around that philosophy. If the creator knew he'd made a mistake don't you think he would have corrected it? We all make them, you know. Mistakes, I mean, and even you if you admit it so why discard what might otherwise be an excellent scenario just for the want of being able to tell the creator (scenario creator, I mean, not him above).

What could be simpler than for DTG to put a link in so when you click thumbs down a box comes up asking why? Go on, DTG, tell me, what could be simpler?