How credible do you think the reviwes here are?

[Vitez]

Just wondering how much you think they are.

Imo they are either overwhelmingly positive (5 stars) or negative (1).

 

[Deleted member 964092]

It's a user opinion. Some give 1 star because you need to read the text in the visual novel, some give 5 stars because there's a sister in a game disregarding everything else.
But overall it's pretty legit. At 1-2 stars you can expect a bad game.
There are exceptions. Dev puts a strong DRM and gets 3 stars even though game is good etc.

 

[Deleted member 1684328]

Try out games which look interesting to you, and afterwards you can be sure whether or not you like it. I have seen amazing games getting 1 stars, because someone found the game to have "too much text". And a famous thing most games get downvoted on is if the developer integrates NTR, which a lot of people seem to dislike and mindlessly downvote.

 

[moskyx]

By taking a quick look at any review you can easily know if that user's opinion is legit or not. There are absolute trash posts but also many in-depth analysis which can result quite useful. Also, take into account that most people only feel the urge to post a review either because it was a great experience or a really bad one, that's the reason you see so many 1 and 5 stars ratings. So my advice should be don't care about the stars given but about the explanation

 

[rangaru]

Not credible at all. It's porn and many people who write the reviews are porn addicts who give 5 stars just for sake of porn. From my experience only 2-3 stars (sometimes also 1 star, very rarely 4 stars) reviews have any insight to them. Others are just gibberish of a junky.

 

[anne O'nymous]

By taking a quick look at any review you can easily know if that user's opinion is legit or not. There are absolute trash posts but also many in-depth analysis which can result quite useful.

This.

The reviews aren't limited to a number of stars given, there's also a text explaining why this person gave this much stars. And it's what matter, way more than the number of stars.

Review saying, "this game is shit, 1 star", or, "this game is bomb, 5 stars", mean nothing. The only reviews you should take in account are the ones who explain why it's "shit" or why it's "bomb".
Yet they are just an indication, some help for you to make your own opinion. Simply because as impartial as the author of the review want to be, his own taste will always have an impact on what he think about the game.

Let's take a 5 starts review where, among the explanation, there's a part saying that the blackmail scenes are really accurate, showing clearly the conflict in the victim's mind. Well, yes the game probably deserve its 5 starts for this, and the review is credible. But still it don't mean that it will be a good game for you to play if you dislike blackmail.
There those who say bullshit, trying to look legit while praising or destroying a game. But that why there's more than one review. If someone explain in detail why a game is shit, saying by example that the characters totally lack of personality, and there's 5 other persons saying that they really like the character building... There's something that feel wrong, right ?
All depend of you, of the way you summarize the reviews, and of what you remember about them.


TL;DR: The reviews are as credible as you want them to be, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[pharal]

This.

The reviews aren't limited to a number of stars given, there's also a text explaining why this person gave this much stars. And it's what matter, way more than the number of stars.

Review saying, "this game is shit, 1 star", or, "this game is bomb, 5 stars", mean nothing. The only reviews you should take in account are the ones who explain why it's "shit" or why it's "bomb".
Yet they are just an indication, some help for you to make your own opinion. Simply because as impartial as the author of the review want to be, his own taste will always have an impact on what he think about the game.

Let's take a 5 starts review where, among the explanation, there's a part saying that the blackmail scenes are really accurate, showing clearly the conflict in the victim's mind. Well, yes the game probably deserve its 5 starts for this, and the review is credible. But still it don't mean that it will be a good game for you to play if you dislike blackmail.
There those who say bullshit, trying to look legit while praising or destroying a game. But that why there's more than one review. If someone explain in detail why a game is shit, saying by example that the characters totally lack of personality, and there's 5 other persons saying that they really like the character building... There's something that feel wrong, right ?
All depend of you, of the way you summarize the reviews, and of what you remember about them.


TL;DR: The reviews are as credible as you want them to be, nothing more, nothing less.

Yes. Every review is subjective and for this reason I like the ones that has a short list of pro's and con's to it so I can judge if I agree. Not everyone can write or even recognize their personal preferences and biases to separate them from a review.
A personal example of this is Anna Exciting Affection or Lily of the Valley. I love the action of these games and almost everything about them except for one thing: The main characters are a specific body type (and face in one case) that I don't find that sexy. For the creators it is obviously a preference to a degree where every single NPC finds those MC's the most sexy creatures in the world.
Since the MC is important, my personal rating of these games would suffer (-1 star probably) because my personal experience is diminished. However I would not include this in the star rating because my personal preference is not important to the quality of the game. I would probably consider throwing a "personal opinion" in the bottom with another rating.

One place where I can question if it should be a part of the rating is perhaps fetishes. I mean, can one complain if there is a fetish (like NTR) in a game ? Even forced ? One one hand if I did not like that particular one, it can be such a turnoff that one stops playing, but on the other hand, if I do not like it then the game simply isn't aimed at me as an audience.
I appreciate voluntary fetishes, but very few types has this option. If the creator is honest about the contents of their game, I don't ever think they should be blamed for having it, because it is again a personal preference. I do think that if the creator suddenly changes direction and adds it in, it can be mentioned and rated based on that fact and not which fetish was introduced.

 

[anne O'nymous]

One place where I can question if it should be a part of the rating is perhaps fetishes. I mean, can one complain if there is a fetish (like NTR) in a game ? Even forced ?

If the complain have some argumentation whatever how biased they can be, why not ?
I don' like NTR, but don't hate it either. Therefore some words about it in a review can change my mind, in a way or another. Obviously, the classical, "the fuck with all this NTR", will do nothing, but something more constructed can still be usefull. Take Mike's Obsession, by example. One review can easily be something like, "it's full of NTR, the wife force you to let her fuck who she want, then just left you like the piece of shit you are". So, ok, there's none avoidable NTR, but it clearly seem to be part of the story's premise, not the main content of the game ; since I'm not a weak little boy, I can stand few NTR scenes and I'll give a try to this game.
It's was a pure complaint, but it still gave some usable information.

And the same can be said about other borderline fetishes. "What the fuck with all those piss scenes ? Each time you open the toilet's door it's to see a girls pissing" ; well, ok, anyone who don't like water sport, and is smarter than the guy who wrote this, will know to avoid the toilets. Once again, a finally useful pure complaint.


I implied it in my first comment, it depend of the person who read the review, as much as the person who wrote it.
The fact that the author of the review wasn't able to do some critical thinking while writing, doesn't mean that the person who'll read his review can't look at it in a more critical way.

 

[pharal]

If the complain have some argumentation whatever how biased they can be, why not ?
I don' like NTR, but don't hate it either. Therefore some words about it in a review can change my mind, in a way or another. Obviously, the classical, "the fuck with all this NTR", will do nothing, but something more constructed can still be usefull. Take Mike's Obsession, by example. One review can easily be something like, "it's full of NTR, the wife force you to let her fuck who she want, then just left you like the piece of shit you are". So, ok, there's none avoidable NTR, but it clearly seem to be part of the story's premise, not the main content of the game ; since I'm not a weak little boy, I can stand few NTR scenes and I'll give a try to this game.
It's was a pure complaint, but it still gave some usable information.

And the same can be said about other borderline fetishes. "What the fuck with all those piss scenes ? Each time you open the toilet's door it's to see a girls pissing" ; well, ok, anyone who don't like water sport, and is smarter than the guy who wrote this, will know to avoid the toilets. Once again, a finally useful pure complaint.


I implied it in my first comment, it depend of the person who read the review, as much as the person who wrote it.
The fact that the author of the review wasn't able to do some critical thinking while writing, doesn't mean that the person who'll read his review can't look at it in a more critical way.

Yeah you are right. I think I slow got to my own answer in the bottom: I don't think it is fair to judge a game by its fetish, but I think it is fair to judge a direction the game is taking. If the DEV wants to introduce a major fetish in the middle of the game and it was not originally a part of it, they can very much do so. It is their game and they can do what they want. I also think it is fair to rate based on that change and the DEV might consider ways to skip those.
What is unfortunate is that some rate the game based on a pet-peeve fetish or preference when it is clearly tagged or otherwise stated that the game contains these. We can ignore the reviews by reading them through, but it still gives a bad star rating which can be unfair to the game.

 

[freedom.call]

I don't read them. What you like and what I like might be totally opposite.

 

[baka]

I only read 1-2 stars reviews, not because they are skilled reviewers, but because those are the most useful to understand if the game is good or bad. of course not always I agree with them, but they help me to decide if a game is good or bad.

the review and rates are all subjective, and will not answer if the game is good or bad for me, it will only tell its good for that person. we could be so different that a 5 star means 1 star for me.

what I hate the most is the 5 stars people. they destroy the rate system, and a consequence is that I always put 1 star if I dont like a game, instead of giving a fair rate. even so, we have tons of people that will immediately give 5 stars just to push up the rates, even if the game is not even close to be a "perfect" game.

whats the point with the rate system if its corrupted?
people rate 5 stars because they like a booty, or the model, discarding everything else. gameplay, writing, plot, animation quality (if any), character development, eroticism, ui-settings and more.
theres games that are almost unplayable, with crappy gameplay or a plot that sucks, or no character developments, even so we get 5 stars because we have someone that is horny because the girl look hot. wtf is that?

I think we need a credibility system, members that need a certain points to be even allowed to rate/write reviews, since 90% of the time its just bad or misleading.

 

[Paz]

Some people treat the review section as how close to their ideal game is, others try to judge it objectively towards what it's trying to accomplish. Some are people that just found out about porn games and everything seems like a masterpiece to them, others plummet threads out of spite.

It's the nature of the review system as it is, and the fact that you only need to provide a global rating. I would very much like for it to be changed to a per-aspect rating (where the average becomes the actual user rating). Something like rating separately:
- Gameplay
- Story
- Graphics
- Characters
- Content
etc. Much like many reviewers break down their review text anyway.

That way the entry barrier becomes slightly higher, and one can spot "shady" reviews much easier.

 

[baneini]

Make a shitty html/renpy game with stolen assets, make a throwaway to rate it 5/5 for """potential""", profit.
They can be a bit misleading on smaller games no one really cares about.

 

[Deleted member 2640576]

I think whether or not you get 1 star or 5 stars, you should continue doing what you want to do.

If people explain themselves and actually give a written review, you should take that into account more than just a simple star.

 

[DawnCry]

If a review gives 1 or 5 stars based on fetishes or type of game it is useless.

If a review gives a lower or higher score because that review is "compensating a good or bad rating" then it's as useless as the other one.

If a review evaluates the game, talks about it's points and what could be improved then I would give it merit.

 

[Buddawg]

Its pretty simple.. Reviews should be reviews. If you just want to give a rating, I dont pay attention to your two sentence review. I dont even read it.
You learn pretty quick to disregard those kind of review posters as filler.

If you use a little common sence in regards to reviews, they are pretty damn accurate. If you mean the overall state of it, with no common sense.. its a shitshow of trolls. But again, they are VERY obvious so not a problem. Ratings usually are still the same, even if a lot of trolls enter the scene.

 

[Mr. Lemonade]

User reviews tend to be a bit impulsive. In a way that makes them the most honest reviews but also keep in mind these kinds of reviews only exist when the user feels compelled to say something. Most people don't add a review or rating. If the user gets exactly what they asked for, they don't feel compelled to write anything, but if their expectations are shattered (or if the game is uniquely bad) you wind up with either the 5 star or 1 star knee jerk response.

 

[Hadley]

Its like everwhere. If you get enough the Reviews are a perfect way of judging a Game. You always have Fanboys and Haters but they cancel each other out with enough Reviews.

 

[Deleted member 2640576]

Its like everwhere. If you get enough the Reviews are a perfect way of judging a Game. You always have Fanboys and Haters but they cancel each other out with enough Reviews.

Agreed.

I definitely think everyone's opinion should be shared, no matter how small or large. But when you have a large amount of people all giving their opinions, then you get a really good sense.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Sometimes it seems more like people use reviews to dogpile on the creator rather than do an actual review of the game itself though.