My thoughts on why we have so many 1 star game reviews here

[Goeffel]

oooh, tried the second option, works really well. :tmb:

guess this will really help with finding some more games.

 

[FrankenMusen]

Well, you have to consider most people would only download something that gets their attention, which should bias reviews towards higher ratings. I think that most of the user reviews in this site are pretty good, they're expansive and they talk about all aspects of the game in a fairly detailed manner.

I personally haven't given any 1 star reviews, only 2 stars, which I reserved for games that are a complete waste of time as a gaming experience (unless you like to get blue balled).

 

[Goeffel]

coincidentally I just noticed Yumina the Ethereal has only 2 reviews, one * and one ***** - and the interesting thing is both are adequate.

 

[Xaoyu]

There are different coefficient for each category a video game is reviewed for. Obviously, as the name indicate, Visual and gameplay have a much higher coefficient than OST and even Writting.

It's not a problem to make a game with caricatural writting or sometimes without a story at all, as long as your gameplay is super fun.

People who rate a vidoe game mostly for their writting are not seeking a video game, they want a visual novel. Which are completely different medium and shouldn't be compared.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Well, you have to consider most people would only download something that gets their attention, which should bias reviews towards higher ratings.

Not necessarily. It will also create a strong bias towards 1 star rating if the game don't correspond to what they were expecting when seeing the tags, reading the description and looking at the screenshots.

There's by example a game (that I'll not name because I'm not here to shame devs, especially since this one is not at shame) that have the "futa/trans" tag. But it have only one MtF transgender character, that appear really late in the game, and that is fully transitioned, and therefore is nothing more than a girl like all others, except few lines talking about her transition.
I can understand that someone who would have tried the game explicitly because of that tag can feel scammed and want to write a 1 star review because of this. Not that I agree with the fact that he would write that review, but yes, I can understand.

 

[moskyx]

Not necessarily. It will also create a strong bias towards 1 star rating if the game don't correspond to what they were expecting when seeing the tags, reading the description and looking at the screenshots.

There's by example a game (that I'll not name because I'm not here to shame devs, especially since this one is not at shame) that have the "futa/trans" tag. But it have only one MtF transgender character, that appear really late in the game, and that is fully transitioned, and therefore is nothing more than a girl like all others, except few lines talking about her transition.
I can understand that someone who would have tried the game explicitly because of that tag can feel scammed and want to write a 1 star review because of this. Not that I agree with the fact that he would write that review, but yes, I can understand.

After collaborating on a game with a fully MtF transitioned character that therefore is nothing more than a girl like all others except few lines talking about her transition, I can assure you there are also many people who'd vocally ask for the tag to be applied if it weren't there and would feel compelled to write a 1 star review for that reason entirely. But that's a different discussion about the tagging system and how people seem (not) to understand it, I guess.

 

[anne O'nymous]

[...) I can assure you there are also many people who'd vocally ask for the tag to be applied if it weren't there [...]

I have no doubt about this, and would probably report the thread for the tag to be added.
I used that example because it's the first that crossed my mind, and also because it's probably more explicit than some kind of "the BDSM consent is just few slap on the ass". But what matter isn't the tag by itself, but the fact that one can feel betrayed by false claims; that generally are actually him misunderstanding something.

 

[TheHighSpire]

What is an "unbiased" review? There is no real objective metric to calculate from. What to you may be an amazing experience may be pretty bad one to me.

I write many reviews and I try to explain why I reached the score that I did. It is rare that I rate 5 stars and also fairly rare that I rate 1 star. Yet certain games are absolutely only worth 1 star as they simply suck on the most basic things or fail on what it is trying to do.

For reviews I primarily go into:

• The story

For the story I emphasize coherence and chronology. It should be easy to understand that story, and the premise should be interesting. The events happening in the game should make sense within the world that the game is set in. As such it can very well make sense that your succubus slut sucks dick on the sidewalk if that is how the world is made. Unfortunately, most devs aren't exactly the best writers neither for story or character.

The story is also about pacing. Take Blue Swallow as an example - supposedly "an American Spy Thriller", but the story starts with you being born, going to school, high school and college. Imagine if in a James Bond movie you spend 2 entire movies just watching him grow up and then in the 3rd movie he's finally hired for an agency.

• The characters

That brings us to the characters. I place a lot of emphasis on the characters, and man most devs absolutely suck at writing them. I try to see if the characters has strong traits - a personality if you will, something that differentiates them from just a blank slate. I like when they are distinguishable like that. Once a character is made, it is important that they stay true to their nature. A devoted and independent character in love with the MC shouldn't go to a homeless hanky panky party and get plowed all night as it runs completely against their nature.

In general the actions of the characters must make sense with said character and within the world building. If the dev breaks character then... I mean, that breaks the whole story, right. At that point 5 stars is out of reach.

• The game play

The game play is all about interaction, balance, choices which in total can be summed up to: Agency. I'm not playing adult games for the porn content alone. Hell then I may as well go see porn. I play these games because they give me agency to influence the story or at least play the MC either avoiding/defeating encounters and events or indulging it.

If a game completely railroads me or is so unbalanced that it unbeatable, then that is frustrating. I remember a game where if you went to a house, a goblin would ambush you and stun you. All parts of a cutscene basically. Thing is that an NPC already told me of this tactic so I equipped an amulet that made me immune to stun. Unfortunately that wasn't counted into the event, which essentially meant that I couldn't complete the quest unless I wanted to lose on purpose. Sucks.

• The porn content

Finally, of course, I review the porn content. Is it hot, how hard is to get to, does it require loads of grinding? If so, is it worth it?

 

[sanahtlig]

Also, this has to be a troll. Quickly looked up your reviews. Gooooood joooob.

How do you even search a user's game ratings? I see an option to view my own ratings, but not others'.

I think many users give a rating to push the average to what they believe it should be. For example, if they feel a game is overrated, they'll give a lower rating than they would otherwise, or vice versa. This behavior could be why some platforms like Steam force a binary choice. Steam also forces you to buy the game if you want to vote, which tends to filter out users who downvote even though the game clearly wasn't aimed at them (e.g., a NTR hater downvoting an NTR game).

 

[KiGa]

Many 1 star reviews are because there's one single tag the person dislikes, or even they don't like the dev.
On the other had, many 5 star reviews are because of one single thing the person likes, like some hot girl.

I think that's the main problem...

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

How do you even search a user's game ratings? I see an option to view my own ratings, but not others'.

It was already answered above, there are two clumsy, but working methods: a) follow a user, and there's a page to see all reviews by users you follow b) trawl a user's activity tab and search for key word "rated"

I think that's the main problem...

Believe it or not, these biased reviews balance each other out. Unless there's an organized campaign to inflate or bomb the score, even a binary score system like Steam's work really well given large sample size.

 

[woody554]

I kinda think there aren't enough 1 stars. if we're being real the absolute best games here are like at 2½ tops, there's SO MUCH they could do better. everything is really, really badly made.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

Yeah, it seems most reviewers just aren't capable of the thought process: "Okay, the game has [highly subjective aspect] which is a dealbreaker for me, but still I can see other merits in the game regardless, and other people may enjoy it." Probably because reviewers are not being paid, so they're not inclined to post reviews for games that just didn't work out for them. Instead, they post if they feel strongly enough about a game that they feel the need to rant about it.

IIRC there was research done about how humans tend to value more the things they have to acquire through hard work or money. So in essence, if someone buys a game they'll (re)view it more favorably than if they get it for free (like on pirate sites a la F95).

 

[DuniX]

1 Star just means that particular person doesn't recommend it.
2 Stars means the game pisses me off and the developer should burn in the pits of Hell.
3 Stars the game is meh, you can try it yourself and see if you like it.
4 Stars they like it but the game has some flaws.
5 Stars they like it very much.

 

[malaac2025]

1 Star just means that particular person doesn't recommend it.
2 Stars means the game pisses me off and the developer should burn in the pits of Hell.
3 Stars the game is meh, you can try it yourself and see if you like it.
4 Stars they like it but the game has some flaws.
5 Stars they like it very much.

But they don't say why. They just hate the game and put 1 star. I don't like Futa so game is a 1. That is not being fair to anyone the developer or the players. If you don't like Futa you won't like the game. The good though is the story is good and the art is fantastic though the game has severe buts that crash often so for this reason I give it a 2.5 star.

 

[bethrezen0]

when you give a 1 star review which is 90% of the time is really a lie you are possibly destroying a new and upcoming developer that could as they learn create one of the best games ever.

You are exaggerating the importance and impact of rating system on a pircary forum way too much, calm down.
Yeah, many of the reviews are shit, with 1 star just because, but same can be said for 5 star ratings. I barely even look at reviews, or make judgment about the game from them. Many games are in alpha or even earlier stages of development(and stay like that for a long time if not forever), which means reviews might not even represent how the game is right now anymore.

If by "destroying" you mean dev just quits. Because they got some negative reviews lol, especially if they are not objective at all. maybe it's for the best. A mentally unstable dev like that is a recipe for "Abandoned" status, not "one of the best games ever" anyways.

 

[Hirosuki]

I get where OP is coming from; however, the whole thing about reviews is that they are inherently subjective by their nature. For instance, I've seen some on here that say a certain game is 5/5—best game ever! Then I played said game and thought. What!?

That's just that way it is.

I say this as someone who reviews every game that I complete; this is why I always include at least once in each review, either an 'In my opinion' or 'At least that's what I thought'. Because that's what a review is—an opinion piece.

 

[malaac2025]

I get where OP is coming from; however, the whole thing about reviews is that they are inherently subjective by their nature. For instance, I've seen some on here that say a certain game is 5/5—best game ever! Then I played said game and thought. What!?

That's just that way it is.

I say this as someone who reviews every game that I complete; this is why I always include at least once in each review, either an 'In my opinion' or 'At least that's what I thought'. Because that's what a review is—an opinion piece.

Yeah just want to see more than the game sucks 1*. Or game is great 5*. I just read one for the latter and says absolutely NOTHING about the game. Put some details what you liked what you did not like but seeing useless 1* and 5* reviews does not help anyone. Seriously what can you get out of a 5* review that says 4 words. "The game is great". That is exaclty what I just saw a few minutes ago.

Even the most biased person should be able to put what they did like because what you did not like and what you liked helps the players who may want to try it and the developer for knowing what is good and what may need work!

 

[Hirosuki]

Yeah just want to see more than the game sucks 1*. Or game is great 5*. I just read one for the latter and says absolutely NOTHING about the game. Put some details what you liked what you did not like but seeing useless 1* and 5* reviews does not help anyone. Seriously what can you get out of a 5* review that says 4 words. "The game is great". That is exaclty what I just saw a few minutes ago.

Even the most biased person should be able to put what they did like because what you did not like and what you liked helps the players who may want to try it and the developer for knowing what is good and what may need work!

I understand where you are coming from, and personally, I try to be as unbiased as possible, and I do list the things that I found both good and bad in each game, with most of my reviews being at least 400 words long. I also believe that it is true that the whole one-sentence reviews don't help anyone.

The problem is I can't go around forcing people to adhere to my personal standards; that would be wrong. So I try to make reviews and articles that are interesting and informative as a sort of answer, or an opposition to these short reviews even. I don't really know what else there is that can be done to be fair. I suppose a possible fix to this, in my mind, would be possibly having a staff member on site that goes through the reviews and removes the spam, but then you get into the whole censorship and argument that you're not letting people express themselves, not to mention the time that it would take for a staff member to perform this duty effectively, which would probably be more of a hassle than it's really worth.

So while I do understand your position and support it to a degree with regards to the silly short reviews and such, I will also say that they kind of need to be a thing, at least in the respect that it's the only way to have an open and freely expressive site.

 

[moskyx]

I've been reporting clearly rule-breaking reviews for some months now (i.e. users spamming the same review on different games, lazy attempts to circumvent the 200-character limit, reviews containing insults or only focused on financial issues...) and I must say that the number of 5-star reviews reported (and therefore deleted) are way higher than the 1-star ones. So, surprisingly (at least for me) most of the people who give 1-star reviews tend to say something coherent about the game, at the very least, and I agree that these should still be considered valid reviews, even if not very articulated - it's readers who must evaluate if it's a useful review for them. That said, I've also reported a couple of bad ratings that weren't honest (I play those games and these reviews contained outright lies), and those reports were rejected by mods, so it's also possible that many people may be unfairly trashing games for whatever reason without breaking any rule. There's no perfect system but this is not the worst it could be.