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Are the ratings for this game being negatively manipulated?
GrayGreene
Member Posts: 239
I only see a few comments for the ratings, and since the game debuted at number one, seems something has caused the ratings to go way down. The only deservedly low rating should be support. (which is awful) I don't understand low scores on value since it's completely free to play (no buying content) and the cash shop is not at all game breaking. So how can value be depreciating at such a rate? I don't expect everyone to like the same games as me, but as far as something like value goes, the rating should be among the highest on this forum.
Comments
Don't expect any fairness in voting, some see only this game had high rating and comes to "save his precious" by voting this game down.
Anytime you add a new game to the game list, it starts out artificially high because the only people who have even heard of it, are the people who play it because they like it, usually like it a lot. They tend to rate a little higher than maybe it deserves, because its new and they want people to at least give it a try. I remember when the closed beta of the game first made the list at #1, this image is from last Sept or so
Others see it at the very top and say "ah the fanbois and devs are inflating it!" so they start deliberately underrating it with scores like 1 and 2 (especially if it pushed down the list THEIR preferrred games). Even if they have never heard of it and don''t really care about this game one way or another. In fact, probably an overly high score at first from eager fans, is a game's worst enemy as it attracts a lot of attention from people who try to "counter balance" the score. And if a game "actually deserves" say a score of 8, a fan's overeager score of 10 is actually less influential than a "counterscore" of 1.
Slowly over time though you'll get an equalibrium, as the game is not TOO high to attract the Wrath of Everyone Else, yet high enough to attract attention from those scouting the game list for something suitable to try out.
So I think now it is a little lower than it deserves but will creep upwards again as people discover it, amd also at the start each rating has a bigger impact but as the pool gets larger, each new rating has a milder reaction. So we went through this also last fall, where it started sky high, then got "rating bombed" by those who felt it was artifically high, then gradually found a more realistic range and crept up the list again.
I think it will start creeping upwards again now too but after all it is a niche game, it will probably never go over 7.4-7.8 as for some it is too slow paced, or too dated graphics and they prefer flashy combat animations and art style. It's NOT really designed for mass appeal -- thank god! Because those games desogned for high numbers, are not the type I enjoy myself ^_^ and UWO is one of those rare gems that is "perfect" for a smaller market.
Simple word of mouth and friendly reviews by people who enjoy this game style (I do!) will slowly win over the type of gamers who would really love UWO, so I wouldn't be too alarmed if it goes up and down in ratings somewhat.
Most of the highest scoring games probably don't suit the majority anyway, so I think most tend to at least consider any game that is over a 7.0
You'll notice also on my older image, there were a LOT of games over 8.0 back then, and today there are very very few that high, so maybe votes overall are a little more conservative than each of their fans think their game deserves. Or if there is wide spread "rating manipulation", it affects everyone and not just this game.
http://brashendeavors.net/
UWO was in the top five only two days ago; when I checked it had a score of 8.4 perhaps someone rated it very low since then as it's now only 7.2
Don't trust it & play it for yourself, after all it's free-to-play.
My rating for this game sits at an average of 4.5: Graphics 5, Sound 8, Roleplaying 2, Value 5, Fun 6, Community 1, Performance/Lag 8, Customer service 1.
Graphics are obsolete. For my part, I don't mind, because that means I can play the game in the first place, but I'm forced to put in 5 because I have to ask myself what others are expecting: others who might as well be playing Rift.
Sound is one of those things that I don't think I'm particularly qualified to judge, but which I have to assess to post any rating. Do I want to play music critic? No, but the music is serviceable if clichéed at times. Is this an excuse to write about how good my speakers are? No; they aren't that good anyway. So what am I supposed to say? That it doesn't sound like a Caruso recording played through a telephone made up of a string and two cans of Campbell's Soup?
Roleplaying: Perhaps, much to my chagrin, it's the entire category that is becoming obsolete, applicable only when choosing a RP server. But UWO has just one server. But how much roleplaying can you have in a game where everyone wears "Whatever Gives the Most Plusses" à la World of Warcraft? Also see "community", below.
Value and Fun are probably the most subjective, and also the most difficult to explain rapidly. However, I did write a 9,000-word review of the game on another site, which, without addressing "value" and "fun" directly, should tell you why I gave those ratings. A month later, parts of it are so outdated that I'm tempted to write an update.
Performance/Lag: As you can guess from above, my computer is on the low side of things, so even though I never had any problems with the game that weren't due to user-end causes, I preferred to err on the side of caution.
But now we reach the bottom of the barrel, Community and Customer service. It's difficult to have a sense of community when you're being surrounded by names in Chinese characters, and dealing with people who don't care the damnedest that they don't speak English, or, worse, who come from countries not even allowed to play the game on this server as per Netmarble's own terms of use (see the "Asian invasion" threads everywhere). From there, it's only a matter of time before those players, who in some cases have been playing the game for years on other servers, start dominating a game tailored to their Asian-grinder mentality.
I'm dealing with customer service at the same time, because that part falls squarely into Netmarble's lap. Those players are not supposed to be here, but it took Netmarble until January (with the Aztec expansion) to even prohibit the use of non-Latin alphabets for new character names (old characters weren't affected). Ditto with multiboxers, who make legitimate investing pointless.
The other problem, as I stated in my rating remark, is that Netmarble, a Korean company, doesn't seem to understand the western MMO market; just take a look at all those Engrish ads. This, in addition to the fact that it is just a licensee of the game from Koei, means that they can't really do much. The official Netmarble forums, for instance: are they being read by Netmarble themselves? The pinnacle of officialdom usually on display is by Netmarble-appointed player Game Assistants, among whom there also seems to be a high turnover rate. Shouldn't that say something?
This worthless French player also has a problem with one recent GA appointee (casting aspersions about me one day, getting appointed GA the next as if nothing happened, with widespread rumours that he only applied for the perks of the job), but that's another matter that I may, or may not, comment on at a future date.
Sounds like you let some things ruin your UWO experience, the chinese name players are now only very few & should not stop you from finding lots of western player friends, giving only 1 for the community is not representative of the good global english community that exists.
Better luck with Potbs if you can get any reply to your post there lol.
No, I'm not planning to return to PotBS, I assure you. I was just curious as to what has happened since it went free to play, because all I've heard has been quite negative.
As for UWO, there are serious design mistakes that have had repercussions on the game, least of which would be the collapse of the French.
There is no mmo that can't be criticized, however I think Koei has done a lot of things right with UWO.
The most impressive thing is the world sized map with in depth adventure & content with Pirates that closely simulate real life risks
The game balance has been done extremely well to simulate real life IMO.
I believe there are a lot of things going on in the background regarding rating and things and players really should go out on their own and try it for themselves that’s why companies give trials and demos.
When I was still new to UWO I was getting private mail on my UWO account telling me to go play a rival game. So whatever happens with the numbers and statistics all I can say is let’s follow our curiosity regarding games and give honest opinions
Oh if you guys are curious about what the mail looked like here
There are two things that drove the rating down. One is that when a game appears on the top 7 list, people who aren't familiar with it rate it down so that their own preferred game will be relatively higher. Once the game is off of the top 7 list, such people ignore it. This is why there are so many games that just miss the top 7 list.
The other is something you wouldn't expect. If you take a straight average of the ratings that players give games, the top rated games are usually a six point something. Due to grade inflation for a variety of reasons, reviewers tend to rate most games better than 6 out of 10. To make the numbers look more "correct", this site performs a correction formula. If the top rated game is x and your game is y, then your game shows on the list as y + 5 - x/2, or something to that effect. Rift and Xsyon just launched, and their fans have given those games much higher ratings, so the top game on the list has a much higher than normal rating. This means that the "5 - x/2" part of the rating is smaller than normal, which is why the rating of all other games has dropped.
Actually some of the effects multis have on UWO are positive, they are great easy targets for Pirates & the economy is big enough to absorb them. Let's not forget that the vast majority are gold sellers that would not exist if some players did not use them & they do set up bazaars that make shopping more interesting. They also lead to bounty hunting for those that enjoy sinking Pirates.
Another reason they exist is because of the cybercafe culture in many asian countries which is present in the majority of successful mmos. Netmarble are constantly monitoring the situation & many of them have been banned. I do not think they ruin the game for the average player unless you dwell on the fact that they are there & nobody can blame Koei if not enough French players have appeared for their nation, the most populous nations are bound to have an advantage.
It's a shame that in the early days of ratings that one player like Vetarnias can reduce the game by one whole point but as time goes on I would expect it to recover as more mmorpg members participate in the rating system in the future who enjoy the game.
UWO shouldl appeal more to the more mature players.
what norton says is true the Chinese gold sellers have to farm money and pass trough hostile waters making them a sure target of pirates its really very hard to control 5 players at a time and its very fun in the pirates perspective since players are better at avoiding them
all the money they farm never seem to be used in the game since players don’t but them their just annoyed their there
and the last person who did power investments by cheating was taken care of the GMs keep logs