Should steam remove negative reviews? Replace it with neutral instead

[Coffee]

There is too much negativity in the world, plus would solve review bombing and help developers a lot

Replace it with A smiley face (PERSONALLY like it) neutral (PERSONALLY don't like it) and it can be a face with no expression

Right now, a thumbs down does NOT help indie devs, and its treated as an actual review instead of a personal opinion. Thumbs up you alreadym know that person personally recommends it, but a bad bunch but a large bunch of people review bomb (often newly released games, they tried it with the new dragon age for example) a game. This directly hurts sales of games and makes steam intervene.

Steam reviews aren't even reviews either. Its "do you recommend this game" "no" "yes", however, people (many of them, not everyone) takes no as a way of "guess I should not buy this game". Instead of taking it as a personal opinion like they do a thumbs up and trying the game for themselves.

Not sure why, but it must be a weird effect the brain has when it sees a thumbs down (dont buy) but sees a thumbs up and it doesn't make them go "I should buy this game"...if that makes any sense

[BJWyler]

Negative reviews play a crucial role in determining the viability of any product. Review bombing is an unfortunate side effect, but it's impact can be minimized.

[Knee]

My brain is fine when I see a thumbs down for a game I like. If indie devs make good games, they have nothing to fear. There’s already measures put into place by Steam that will counteract review bombing. If people lack intelligence to determine that a “Not recommend” is an opinion and not an imperative command forbidding you from purchasing a game, then they’re probably incapable of buying games period.

[Kargor]

Whether you call it "negative" or "neutral" doesn't matter -- in a review system with two options, it's a positive and a negative one, whether you like it or not.

Just accept that, whatever game you're fanboying about, also has people that don't like it.

[Doctor Zalgo]

I care more about the negative reviews than the positive ones. If I'm looking at reviews, I'm already interested in the product. I want to know why I shouldn't buy it.

[Chika Ogiue]

Publicado originalmente por Coffee:

Replace it with A smiley face (PERSONALLY like it) neutral (PERSONALLY don't like it) and it can be a face with no expression

Right now, a thumbs down does NOT help indie devs...

If you only have two choices, it doesn't matter if they're faces, thumbs, or different types of cheese. One is always going to be considered NOT POSITIVE. So you're not saving the precious fee-fee's of some thin-skinned indie dev by disguising the negative mark. And you're certainly not helping anyone, indie dev or customer, by attempting to shield them from negative feedback.

Besides that, review bombing works both ways, you don't see it when it happens with positive reviews because no one whines about getting flooded with (potentially unearned) positive feedback, but such review bombing is one reason why the review system is as it is today; that is, game registered to Steam with keys don't count.

[76561199653663961]

Terrible idea. Would not recommend.

What I would like to see, is higher QUALITY reviews. Most people are not good at this. Maybe it would help to have some hardcoded categories (story/gameplay/presentation etc) with 1-5 stars for each, or something like that.

[T9]

useless
1-5 would be a better system anyway. Only yay or nay is stupid and makes no sense

[DarkCrystalMethod]

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

Terrible idea. Would not recommend.

What I would like to see, is higher QUALITY reviews. Most people are not good at this. Maybe it would help to have some hardcoded categories (story/gameplay/performance etc) with 1-5 stars for each, or something like that.

You could almost directly use most of the Steam Awards categories and then you'd have your nominees automatically picked throughout the year.

[Knee]

Publicado originalmente por T9:

useless
1-5 would be a better system anyway. Only yay or nay is stupid and makes no sense

Except everyone has their own definition of what fits into a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 category that it would simply boil down to 1s or 5s.

The yes or no recommendation makes perfect sense given the question is "do you recommend?", demanding a yes or no response, and leaves you a whole text box to explain why.

[76561199653663961]

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

Publicado originalmente por T9:

useless
1-5 would be a better system anyway. Only yay or nay is stupid and makes no sense

Except everyone has their own definition of what fits into a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 category that it would simply boil down to 1s or 5s.

The yes or no recommendation makes perfect sense given the question is "do you recommend?", demanding a yes or no response, and leaves you a whole text box to explain why.

"Do you recommend" is not actually a great question. Recommend to whom? Recommend for what? You often see people mention that they miss a neutral option. You would recommend it to some people who like certain things, or who don't care about certain things.

[Knee]

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

Except everyone has their own definition of what fits into a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 category that it would simply boil down to 1s or 5s.

The yes or no recommendation makes perfect sense given the question is "do you recommend?", demanding a yes or no response, and leaves you a whole text box to explain why.

"Do you recommend" is not actually a great question. Recommend to whom? Recommend for what? You often see people mention that they miss a neutral option. You would recommend it for some people who like certain things.

That's why you have a text box to elaborate to your heart's content.

[Coffee]

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

Except everyone has their own definition of what fits into a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 category that it would simply boil down to 1s or 5s.

The yes or no recommendation makes perfect sense given the question is "do you recommend?", demanding a yes or no response, and leaves you a whole text box to explain why.

"Do you recommend" is not actually a great question. Recommend to whom? Recommend for what? You often see people mention that they miss a neutral option. You would recommend it to some people who like certain things, or who don't care about certain things.

And even in this thread people are calling them reviews, when they aren't really. Its do you recommend the game? Not really a review.

[76561199653663961]

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

"Do you recommend" is not actually a great question. Recommend to whom? Recommend for what? You often see people mention that they miss a neutral option. You would recommend it for some people who like certain things.

That's why you have a text box to elaborate to your heart's content.

That's not a solution. I still have to select yes or no. If I recommend it to some people, what do I choose? My vote becomes inaccurate, but it's still going to count.

[Coffee]

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

That's why you have a text box to elaborate to your heart's content.

That's not a solution. I still have to select yes or no. If I recommend it to some people, what do I choose? My vote becomes inaccurate, but it's still going to count.

This too. What if its not my type of game, like I tried a new genre of game? Do I ruin the devs chances at getting sales because I wanted to try something new? Like say I got a dungeon crawler (those oldschool dungeon only games where you move on a grid in a 3d dungeon...I guess like old doom) they look interesting, never played them though.

But I may or may not like it, so do I say 'no this game sucks' when it could actually be a good dungeon crawler for those who like that type of game? That isn't even a review or much in the way of any feedback at that point, seems kinda trollish to me lol.

[Knee]

Publicado originalmente por ghost:

Publicado originalmente por Knee:

That's why you have a text box to elaborate to your heart's content.

That's not a solution. I still have to select yes or no. If I recommend it to some people, what do I choose? My vote becomes inaccurate, but it's still going to count.

Don't worry about the accuracy of any single yes/no as the sheer number of other reviews will reflect the community's reflection of it. Take care to elaborate on what types you want to recommend the game to.