All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:15pm
If people play under an hour it shouldnt be called a review, it should be called a First Impression
Free to play games that are released are plagued with people playing 0.1 hours and then writing a negative review. If you prevented people from writing a full review and only allowed them to write a "first impression" i think it would be beneficial both to the devs and to the community, as reviews would be far more accurate, and people can see the diffirence between playing for 0.1 hour and the reviews of people who actually took the time to learn about and spend time on the game
The author of this topic has marked a post as the answer to their question.
Click here to jump to that post.
Originally posted by have at you, villain:
Originally posted by Sleepy Yoshi:
Originally posted by have at you, villain:

Achievements themselves can be unlocked without actually opening or playing the game as long as you own it. For free to play games, the owning part is also completely removed.

Weighing based on hours greatly favors positive reviews. After all it stands to reason the more hours you have in a game the more likely your review is to be positive. I don't see much value in exchanging one set of problems for another.

I don't see it that way. There are more than enough cases of someone having the bare minimum in required playtime (anywhere from 10-100 hours) and giving a negative review of a game. There's even cases of people playing a game for over a thousand hours and leaving a scathing, negative review. This is because they played it and had issues with it for the entire time. The fact that they do have so much playtime means their review is trustworthy. They actually know well what they're talking about. Buying a game, getting to the title screen then exiting just so you can leave a "review" and the refund after 0.1hrs of playtime is simply not a review that should hold much weight at all and I don't believe that switching to a system that lowers those reviews' weight towards a recommendation score is at all akin to "switching one problem for another".

The issue is that with a human element involved, there's never going to be a perfect solution. All you can do is minimize the amount the system can be manipulated for malicious purposes. When the new issues arise, they get tackled at that juncture.
< >
Showing 1-15 of 139 comments
cSg|mc-Hotsauce Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:17pm 
Then, let them idle it for another 50 hours and post the same thing...?

:qr:
#1
Crazy Tiger Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:18pm 
Steam reviews are nothing else but opinions, that goes for reviews with 0,2 and 200 hours. All just opinion.

People can play offline and offline play hours aren't counted. A review with 0,2 hours could well be from someone who spent 60 hours in-game.
#2
Seretti Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:18pm 
Nope, no. If you had bothered using the search, you'd know why this is a terrible suggestion.
#3
Brian9824 Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:25pm 
Originally posted by Jackal:
Free to play games that are released are plagued with people playing 0.1 hours and then writing a negative review. If you prevented people from writing a full review and only allowed them to write a "first impression" i think it would be beneficial both to the devs and to the community, as reviews would be far more accurate, and people can see the diffirence between playing for 0.1 hour and the reviews of people who actually took the time to learn about and spend time on the game

You already can, thats why it shows hours played. Since refunds require less then 2 hours played people are allowed to leave a review AND refund and not have to choose between the two.
#4
Garou Jul 26, 2019 @ 1:23pm 
If a game is that bad and makes someone hate it after 0.1 hours I think you would want to know about it. To save yourself trouble of refunding it later.
#5
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 1:59pm 
Except that some of the games being voted bad are simply being voted bad because salty players dont like the developer.
#6
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 1:59pm 
You cant hate a game after playing it for 5 mins, nor can you leave any sort of consistent or accurate review. Technically these players can literally launch the game, never even create a character, wait 5 minutes and then write a negative review
Last edited by Jackal; Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:00pm
#7
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:01pm 
even at 1 hour 59 minutes played time, (the buy and return reviews) are inaccurate because gameplay at the beginning of the majority of games is much worse than the middle or later portions.
#8
Start_Running Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:02pm 
Originally posted by Jackal:
You cant hate a game after playing it for 5 mins, nor can you leave any sort of consistent or accurate review.
Wrong on both accounts.
- A person can play a game for 5 minutes and be immediately turned off. Like I was for Squidlit. Didn't take me 5 mins to discover the game had no keybind options.

- And all reviews are more or less accurate in that rthey all sopeak of the writer's experience.
#9
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:02pm 
Originally posted by Seretti:
Nope, no. If you had bothered using the search, you'd know why this is a terrible suggestion.
what search do you mean naysayer. if youre going to point out something "obvious" at least dont be vague and not include details. What search are you refferring too?
#10
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:02pm 
Originally posted by Red_Hood:
If a game is that bad and makes someone hate it after 0.1 hours I think you would want to know about it. To save yourself trouble of refunding it later.
I specifically said free games
#11
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:03pm 
Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:
Steam reviews are nothing else but opinions, that goes for reviews with 0,2 and 200 hours. All just opinion.

People can play offline and offline play hours aren't counted. A review with 0,2 hours could well be from someone who spent 60 hours in-game.
While I dont disagree, thats impossible for games that released yesterday and have over 100 negative reviews because a small subset of people dont like the dev.
#12
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:04pm 
Originally posted by Start_Running:
Originally posted by Jackal:
You cant hate a game after playing it for 5 mins, nor can you leave any sort of consistent or accurate review.
Wrong on both accounts.
- A person can play a game for 5 minutes and be immediately turned off. Like I was for Squidlit. Didn't take me 5 mins to discover the game had no keybind options.

- And all reviews are more or less accurate in that rthey all sopeak of the writer's experience.
No they arent. if the writer is too stupid to watch a tutorial video or do any sort of learning, a game with a learning curve seems bad because they are stupid. and as far as squidlit, Im pretty sure that is not a free game, and its rated well on steam. the point is your experience is not what you write in a review, you review the game not how you feel about the game or its developers. see how one players bias doesnt mean a game is bad? you dont like squidlit but a lot of other people clearly do
Last edited by Jackal; Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:07pm
#13
Jackal Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:07pm 
theres a huge trend in negative reviews with very low played time on f2p games, and if you notice all the positive reviews are from players who actually spent time inside the game. it even makes me wonder if people are just making accounts and writing reviews over and over, as some of these steam accounts are level 1
Last edited by Jackal; Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:08pm
#14
Radene Jul 26, 2019 @ 2:40pm 
Originally posted by Jackal:
Originally posted by Start_Running:
Wrong on both accounts.
- A person can play a game for 5 minutes and be immediately turned off. Like I was for Squidlit. Didn't take me 5 mins to discover the game had no keybind options.

- And all reviews are more or less accurate in that rthey all sopeak of the writer's experience.
No they arent. if the writer is too stupid to watch a tutorial video or do any sort of learning, a game with a learning curve seems bad because they are stupid. and as far as squidlit, Im pretty sure that is not a free game, and its rated well on steam. the point is your experience is not what you write in a review, you review the game not how you feel about the game or its developers. see how one players bias doesnt mean a game is bad? you dont like squidlit but a lot of other people clearly do

.....

How the hell am I supposed to not include my experience in the review? That's like trying to drink a beer without a container to hold it.
#15
< >
Showing 1-15 of 139 comments
Per page: 1530 50

All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details
Date Posted: Jul 26, 2019 @ 12:15pm
Posts: 139
Start a New Discussion

Discussions Rules and Guidelines