New review rating options

[Löwen]

I think there should be some sort of change to the current review system, because there is of course a lot of nuance when it comes to opinions, and just "Yes" or "No" doesn't really cover how you actually feel all of the time. You can of course still specify in your review how you actually feel, but the review is still counted as if you fully recommend or don't recommend something. I think it would greatly benefit reviewing games on Steam, and allow users to more accurately describe their feelings on a game if they only find it to be mid.

[Tanoomba]

But then their review would have literally no effect on the aggregate at all.

[HikariLight]

The recommendation is a YES or NO question.
Do you or do you not recommend it?
Shrugging your shoulders is the same as saying no, because you are not saying yes.

[Duel Sundown]

Originally posted by Tanoomba:

But then their review would have literally no effect on the aggregate at all.

Couldn't have said it better.

[Löwen]

Originally posted by Tanoomba:

But then their review would have literally no effect on the aggregate at all.

I think mixed may have been the wrong word to use, because yes in that case it wouldn't have an impact on anything at all. But what I actually mean is just an option between yes and no, like a half yes, or half no if you prefer. There are some games that I can't honestly give a full yes or no as to whether I recommend them or not, whether that be because of the actual content of the game or because of other options available. Serious Sam Fusion and the HD games are one such example, I wouldn't full stop not recommend them because I do think they have some value, but at the same time I would recommend just playing the original games instead. It's cases like this that make me want a middle of the road option, should have been more clear. Editing the post now.

[76561198407601200]

Originally posted by Löwen:

There should be an option between recommended and not recommended when making a review as sometimes your opinion on a game doesn't fit neatly into either option, because there is of course a lot of nuance when it comes to opinions. I think it would greatly benefit reviewing games on Steam, and allow users to more accurately describe their feelings on a game if they only find it to be mid.

An in between will give people reading the review no insight on if they should buy or not.

[Mr. Smiles]

I give this game a rating of "Peanut Butter".

That will surely help the developers figure out whether or not their game is good.

At least as much as a "neutral/mixed" review would.

[fluxtorrent]

If you can't figure out if you would recommend a game, then the answer is no.

[Tanoomba]

Originally posted by Löwen:

I think mixed may have been the wrong word to use, because yes in that case it wouldn't have an impact on anything at all. But what I actually mean is just an option between yes and no, like a half yes, or half no if you prefer. There are some games that I can't honestly give a full yes or no as to whether I recommend them or not, whether that be because of the actual content of the game or because of other options available. Serious Sam Fusion and the HD games are one such example, I wouldn't full stop not recommend them because I do think they have some value, but at the same time I would recommend just playing the original games instead. It's cases like this that make me want a middle of the road option, should have been more clear.

Serious Sam Fusion has over 4000 reviews, 93% of which recommended it. That says a lot about the game. Now maybe you, individually, don't believe it's worthy of such high praise. And that's fine! Within the text of your review, you're able to go into as much or as little detail as you like about why you feel the way you do about the game. And your opinion is worth exactly as much as anyone else's as far as effect on the aggregate. The moment we start introducing options between "recommend" and "don't recommend" is the moment the aggregate no longer truly represents what the player base thinks and instead represents whoever wants to game the system to get their desired result.

[Löwen]

Originally posted by The Living Tribunal:

Originally posted by Löwen:

There should be an option between recommended and not recommended when making a review as sometimes your opinion on a game doesn't fit neatly into either option, because there is of course a lot of nuance when it comes to opinions. I think it would greatly benefit reviewing games on Steam, and allow users to more accurately describe their feelings on a game if they only find it to be mid.

An in between will give people reading the review no insight on if they should buy or not.

That only applies if the person doesn't write anything in the review, or doesn't actually write a review and just makes some joke, which also applies to the yes or no system we have now. Yes, a positive or negative recommendation even with nothing in it would give more insight as to whether the game is worth it or not when compared to doing the same thing with my proposed in between option, but the review ultimately wouldn't mean anything if they don't explain what about the game they like in the first place in any of these cases.

[Löwen]

Originally posted by Tanoomba:

Originally posted by Löwen:

I think mixed may have been the wrong word to use, because yes in that case it wouldn't have an impact on anything at all. But what I actually mean is just an option between yes and no, like a half yes, or half no if you prefer. There are some games that I can't honestly give a full yes or no as to whether I recommend them or not, whether that be because of the actual content of the game or because of other options available. Serious Sam Fusion and the HD games are one such example, I wouldn't full stop not recommend them because I do think they have some value, but at the same time I would recommend just playing the original games instead. It's cases like this that make me want a middle of the road option, should have been more clear.

Serious Sam Fusion has over 4000 reviews, 93% of which recommended it. That says a lot about the game. Now maybe you, individually, don't believe it's worthy of such high praise. And that's fine! Within the text of your review, you're able to go into as much or as little detail as you like about why you feel the way you do about the game. And your opinion is worth exactly as much as anyone else's as far as effect on the aggregate. The moment we start introducing options between "recommend" and "don't recommend" is the moment the aggregate no longer truly represents what the player base thinks and instead represents whoever wants to game the system to get their desired result.

Well this is what I mean. It's not that I don't think the game deserves it's rating, because in a vacuum the game is fantastic, it's just that it doesn't hold up as well gameplay-wise when compared to the originals. I wouldn't ever give it a negative review because I do wholeheartedly believe it is a great product, but I wouldn't ever give it a positive review either because I believe that the originals are the better way to play these games. There are plenty of other games that I feel this way about as well. This is why I think it would be beneficial to have an option for these sorts of cases, the in between yes and no thing was just an idea, a solution to this could be implemented in any number of other possibly better ways, but it's just what came to my mind first.

[Tanoomba]

Originally posted by Löwen:

Well this is what I mean. It's not that I don't think the game deserves it's rating, because in a vacuum the game is fantastic, it's just that it doesn't hold up as well gameplay-wise when compared to the originals.

And you can make that as clear as you'd like in your review.
In the end, when a game gets thousands of reviews then we get a pretty accurate idea of what its player base thinks of it. Adding options between "recommend" and "don't recommend" would only compromise the accuracy of that aggregate.

[Löwen]

Originally posted by Tanoomba:

Originally posted by Löwen:

Well this is what I mean. It's not that I don't think the game deserves it's rating, because in a vacuum the game is fantastic, it's just that it doesn't hold up as well gameplay-wise when compared to the originals.

And you can make that as clear as you'd like in your review.
In the end, when a game gets thousands of reviews then we get a pretty accurate idea of what its player base thinks of it. Adding options between "recommend" and "don't recommend" would only compromise the accuracy of that aggregate.

I agree that maybe adding the in-between option may not be the best way to go about this sort of thing, but I don't think just specifying in my review that I don't actually recommend something over something else is good enough either, as it still shows up and is counted as if I wholly recommend or don't recommend a certain game which isn't accurate to how I feel. That is a half-measure to try and make up for this system's shortcomings. I'm sure Valve could come up with something that would work better than what we have now.

[Start_Running]

The current system is as nunance as the reviewer's ability to express nuance..

[Tanoomba]

Originally posted by Löwen:

I agree that maybe adding the in-between option may not be the best way to go about this sort of thing, but I don't think just specifying in my review that I don't actually recommend something over something else is good enough either, as it still shows up and is counted as if I wholly recommend or don't recommend a certain game which isn't accurate to how I feel.

The value of any individual review is derived ENTIRELY from the content of that review. Any potential inaccuracy in how that review is classified is rendered moot when a game has thousands of reviews.

The aggregate ONLY works if everyone's review has the same value. Any suggestion that would result in people's reviews having different weight would inherently destroy the accuracy of the aggregates.

[Löwen]

Originally posted by Tanoomba:

Originally posted by Löwen:

I agree that maybe adding the in-between option may not be the best way to go about this sort of thing, but I don't think just specifying in my review that I don't actually recommend something over something else is good enough either, as it still shows up and is counted as if I wholly recommend or don't recommend a certain game which isn't accurate to how I feel.

The value of any individual review is derived ENTIRELY from the content of that review. Any potential inaccuracy in how that review is classified is rendered moot when a game has thousands of reviews.

The aggregate ONLY works if everyone's review has the same value. Any suggestion that would result in people's reviews having different weight would inherently destroy the accuracy of the aggregates.

:(