Change Rating System

Obiyer

This is getting ridiculous people are voting straight 1's and 10's to bring the ratings up and down on a few titles. It's more proper to have the ratings to the side or by the reviewe and make it a requirement to review the game with text to coincide with the authors ratings. Maybe put the top 10 most rated games on the list instead of the highest ranked to make the system fair. Furthermore, the hype-meter is kind of odd. I know the game isn't out yet and it should be rated on how much it expected not how good you'd presume it is but by reading most of the reviews it seems the opposite. The only exception I see to this are betas and those are unfinished titles within themselves (I accuse myself of some slander when it comes to critically reviewing betas), however these methods need to change. Please post your thoughts.

-Obiyer

Mazzeman

Yea you are right, there should be a better way or even a way to post a comment WHY they give the rating that they give. I was suprised after the first post i made i had two stars and now i have one

killerTwinkie

Actually, our rating system works on a lot of curves, it's more detailed then one would Imagine.  Admin knows a lot more about this than I do, but our Rating for games, at least from my opinion is more than fare.

- MMORPG.COM STAFF -

Mazzeman

I'm sure it works and quite good too but there is also some people that doesn't exacly vote "fair" so a comment system would be good to have and it's nice for people to read and check like "Hmm should i buy this game? It has good votes but why do they like it?".

killerTwinkie

You are able to leave comments. Look at the link in the bottom of the dialogue box.  You'll see it.
Also, the curves in the system are for those that rate it a 1 or a 10 on all scales, for the haters and fan boys.

- MMORPG.COM STAFF -

Mazzeman

Okey, I haven't tried rating myself i just saw my status go up and down since uselly most get "stars" from the amount of posted messages in other forums.

Admin

I think there are a couple topics going on here.  Mazzeman seems to be referring to the user rating...and the topic originator was talking about game ratings...

Game Ratings:  I agree there needs to be a little work done.  However, we have created a curve system that is used to "stretch" the scores apart.  We found that without this most all games averaged out between a 4-6 score.  Our curve system only adds to a games score...it never reduces it.  Some get more curve than others based on a few calculations.  This helped a lot, bringing the range to a 3-8 score.

I don't think requiring a comment is a good idea...people can still give a game 10 points across the board and post a comment...who are we to tell them they are wrong?

Also, giving a game a higher listing that has more reviews will not work either.  Some games have been released for over a year and some for only days.  A new game will only have a few reviews and an older one will have hundreds...this has no reflection on the quality of the game, only its age.

Here are a couple of things I am thinking about:

a) give more weight to reviews posted by higher ranking members.  Perhaps apply some kind of multiplier to the score based on the users rank.  This would have to be done with many checks though, I could see a lot of high ranking members swinging a games score too far.

b) only allow members to review one game per day.  This might cut back on the people who just run through all the games on the list, voting them up or down for kicks.

c) only allow people with at least a 10 user rank to vote on games (or some other rank score).  Although you only see 1-5 stars next to a member, the actual rank is from 1-100 (21-40 = 2 stars, 41-60 = 3 stars, etc).  This would require a member to have to have at least a little bit of community experience before reviewing games.

User rankings: I will explain this a little here for Mazzeman - cause I think this is what he is asking about.  User rankings are based on a couple main factors over the past 30 days:

a) How many days you logged into the site.  Not how many times you logged in but how many days.  So logging in 500 times in one day still only counts as one day

b) How much you contribute in our discussion forums (note, this does not equate to post counts)

c) The quality of what you post in our forums

d) Negative behavior can DECREASE your score.  At the moment this can only be achived by having your posts deleted.  We deduct 5 rating points per deleted post.

NOTE: Because your user rank is updated DAILY based on the PAST 30 DAYS this means that your rating can go DOWN as well as up.  If you are 5 stars today and don't visit the site for a month you will be a one star when you return.

Hype Meter: I think the hype meter is a good idea.  I think this score is in many ways a way to rank how well game companies are getting you excited about their products.  I think this is a way for them to gauge how well they are reaching you.  I can tell you from interactions I have had...game companies are following their MMORPG.COM hype score very closely.  A couple weeks back our rating system crashed and I had 2 developers e-mail me wanting to know why their score was at "0" even though the system had only been down for a few hours.

I think the hype meter will benefit the members and benefit the site.  Hopefully some game companies will see a low hype score as an indicator that they need to get in our forums and chat with you all - or do a dev chat here, or an interview or some better screens, or whatever.

Also, when a game releases the hype score is gone forever...it has no effect on post-release ratings.

- MMORPG.COM Staff -

Obiyer

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Originally posted by Admin

Game Ratings:  I agree there needs to be a little work done.  However, we have created a curve system that is used to "stretch" the scores apart.  We found that without this most all games averaged out between a 4-6 score.  Our curve system only adds to a games score...it never reduces it.  Some get more curve than others based on a few calculations.  This helped a lot, bringing the range to a 3-8 score.
I don't think requiring a comment is a good idea...people can still give a game 10 points across the board and post a comment...who are we to tell them they are wrong?
Also, giving a game a higher listing that has more reviews will not work either.  Some games have been released for over a year and some for only days.  A new game will only have a few reviews and an older one will have hundreds...this has no reflection on the quality of the game, only its age.
Here are a couple of things I am thinking about:

a) give more weight to reviews posted by higher ranking members.  Perhaps apply some kind of multiplier to the score based on the users rank.  This would have to be done with many checks though, I could see a lot of high ranking members swinging a games score too far.
b) only allow members to review one game per day.  This might cut back on the people who just run through all the games on the list, voting them up or down for kicks.
c) only allow people with at least a 10 user rank to vote on games (or some other rank score).  Although you only see 1-5 stars next to a member, the actual rank is from 1-100 (21-40 = 2 stars, 41-60 = 3 stars, etc).  This would require a member to have to have at least a little bit of community experience before reviewing games.

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I understand the complications certainly and most of us members did not know about the curve;  the member rank seems like a good idea to stop people who have 0 posts and have only signed in to vent on a title. Is it possible for the users rating of the title  to be placed underneath their comment. All we get to see is the average. and it would it be nice to see what people individually rated the game.

EG:

On Dec 9, 2003 Obiyer wrote: Finalfantasy IX is the greatest game ever!

Graphics:10                                         Fun:10

Sound: 10                                            Community:10

Roleplaying:10                                    Performance/Lag:10

Value:10                                              Customer Service:10

Or maybe just an average rating such as: This user gave this title an average rating of 8.9

I'm really hoping more members of the community who review often will post their opinion. Furthermore, thank you mmorpg.com staff for your time because we all know you are all very busy.

 

-Obiyer

Iceman12321

people...just let it go, its just and only a stupid rating system for a website.

You should have other things to worry about, I hope, I hope

Mazzeman

One thing that should be changed is that we should be able to re-vote since now i do want to vote on that the system is pretty muhc perfect and the only wrong is the users.

Obiyer

Isn't that always the case?

-Obiyer