Review bomb solution: Reviews with vote only after X hours played

[Furyok 🍉]

The player shouldn't be able to leave a vote if they don't have at least X hours played on the game.

the hours necessary to leave a vote are decided by the developers (for example a game like Civilization VII may ask for 6 hours, enough to try one game. Or cyberpunk for 2 hours, enough to see the prologue)

the users should still be able to leave a textual review! freedom of speech is important, but I consider that an actual vote from users that don't even have an hour played damages a lot some game.

I might sound too optimistic but I genuinely think that an approach like this could solve review bombing.

[FFL2and3rocks]

No thanks. I want to see negative reviews and then decide for myself if they've played long enough for me to consider their opinion.

[Nx Machina]

If i play a game that gives me motion sickness within the first 20 minutes for example, that gives me the right to review it because it has relevance as to why i refunded it.

[Ettanin]

No. The ability to judge a game shouldn't be coupled with its playtime nor should the ability to refund a game be taken away as a form of reprisal or protection.

Valve already has two protections against the effect of review bombs:
a) off-topic reviews - Reviews can be filtered from the overall score as an option by the user to only consist of on-topic positive and negative reviews.
b) Valve reserves the right to reject future refund requests if the refund system is being abused.

[Furyok 🍉]

Publicado originalmente por Ettanin:

nor should the ability to refund a game be taken away as a form of reprisal or protection.

I never said anything 'bout refunds

is just that a lot of people seem to want to leave a bad review because of the latest trend without actually giving it time to judge it properly, that's all

[KarmaKrazi]

Not at all. As I've explained in the past, I don't have to wear an itchy wool sweater all day to have the opinion that the sweater is itchy. I don't have to drink a gallon of overly bitter tea too have the opinion that the tea is bitter. I also don't have to swim in freezing cold water for over an hour to have an opinion that the water is cold. Why should someone have to suffer through a game for hours they're not enjoying to let others know that they did not enjoy it, and why? This just creates an echo chamber for the reviews as people would have to sacrifice their ability to refund the game just to leave a review. Not all games deserve extremely high review scores, even if you think otherwise.

If you can't formulate a half decent opinion of whether you'd enjoy a game by reading both bad and good reviews of the game, that's on you, not the reviewers.

[Ettanin]

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

Publicado originalmente por Ettanin:

nor should the ability to refund a game be taken away as a form of reprisal or protection.

I never said anything 'bout refunds

is just that a lot of people seem to want to leave a bad review because of the latest trend without actually giving it time to judge it properly, that's all

Your idea still suppresses the opinions you don't wish to see but others still might. You can already filter reviews by playtime if that's what you want. No need to patronize other users by locking away the right to vote against arbitrary factors that have direct or indirect costs such as the ability to refund the game in question.

[FFL2and3rocks]

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

I never said anything 'bout refunds

Read between the lines. The refund policy is 2 hours. You want people to be unable to give a thumbs up or down until they've played long enough to be outside the refund policy, which means people who refunded it won't be able to review it. If someone dislikes a game enough to refund it, I want to know why.
Long story short, you want to force everyone to adhere to your personal standards. No thanks, we can decide for ourselves.

[Nx Machina]

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

I never said anything 'bout refunds

Your suggestion removes the right to refund.

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

The player shouldn't be able to leave a vote if they don't have at least X hours played on the game.

the hours necessary to leave a vote are decided by the developers (for example a game like Civilization VII may ask for 6 hours, enough to try one game. Or cyberpunk for 2 hours, enough to see the prologue)

The refund policy is: WITHIN 2 weeks of purchase AND with LESS than 2 hours of playtime.

As for:

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

is just that a lot of people seem to want to leave a bad review because of the latest trend without actually giving it time to judge it properly, that's all

Is this about Civ VII a game you recommended?

[KarmaKrazi]

Publicado originalmente por Nx Machina:

Publicado originalmente por Furyok:

is just that a lot of people seem to want to leave a bad review because of the latest trend without actually giving it time to judge it properly, that's all

Is this about Civ VII a game you recommended?

I'm going to take an educated guess and say that it is, mostly because he talks about people leaving bad reviews about the game in his review of it. (Which they left the review with 3 hours of gameplay, even though here they are advocating needing 6 hours of gameplay of the game to leave a review.)

People leaving a review about Civ VII saying they don't recommend the game because of the UI is valid. So is saying that it has less content than previous games. Isn't this the most expensive Civ game so far? Don't you usually pay more to receive more, not less? I'd want to know if the developers of a game I was interested decided to put minimal content into the game, but then charge me more than the previous titles.

[mP3+Z]

Not perfect solution. people can launch the game for idle and go sleep to bypass that.
The better way is set achievements to chase your gaming progess.
Only if you unlock the achievement, like 10% progess of the game for example, then you can leave the review.

[KarmaKrazi]

Publicado originalmente por mP3+Z:

Not perfect solution. people can launch the game for idle and go sleep to bypass that.
The better way is set achievements to chase your gaming progess.
Only if you unlock the achievement, like 10% progess of the game for example, then you can leave the review.

This is an even worse idea than the original, and would only cause more of an echo chamber for reviews of a game. No thanks.

[Ettanin]

Publicado originalmente por mP3+Z:

Not perfect solution. people can launch the game for idle and go sleep to bypass that.
The better way is set achievements to chase your gaming progess.
Only if you unlock the achievement, like 10% progess of the game for example, then you can leave the review.

no, the ideal option is to use the filters Valve provided while allowing everyone to review as they see fit.

[MonkehMaster]

no thanks, they are fine as is with time played to be able to review, we arent going to agree to someting designed to ruin not only refunds, but also an avenue for customers to gauge worth/risk of purchase.

wont go down the mirade of other reasons on the list.

anywho, if you dont like negative reviews, then dont read them, people are free to review (positive or negative) without others trying to silence them because they dont like it and dont like someone liking/not liking a game they do/dont.

btw, review bombing goes both ways, positive and negative.