Personal preference for fetisches affecting review score

[sabadongelov]

Why is it so difficult for many reviewers to keep their personal preferences about fetisches and fantasies out of their reviews? For instance, if you don't like rape, maybe just don't play the games with the rape tag? Instead of playing it, then giving it one star in a review because it contains rape? If a game contain the following tags: Blackmail, Cheating, Corruption, Drugs, Groping, Male domination, Prostitution, Sexual harassment and Sleep sex, maybe don't expect the MC to be a white knight? And if an asshole MC is not your speed, maybe don't download the game and maybe don't give it a one star review complaining about the MC being an asshole and a rapist?

All these moronic one star reviews made by people complaining about games containing exactly what the tags said the games would contain fucks up the review system, making it less reliable. A review should be about how well a game manages to deliver on what it set out to deliver on. And not about to what extent the game delivers on the reviewers personal preferences when it comes to fetishes ("no incest in this game? ONE STAR! All games should be only about incest, because that's my favourite fetisch and the only person that matters in the world is ME!!!"*)

*Yup, I've actually seen low star reviews complaining that the reviewed game doesn't contain incest...

 

[justpassingbyreally]

 

[GreatRedMuppet]

You expect common sense from video game reviews? Gaming in general has some of the most polarizing opinions around, it's either a love or hate, absolutely no middle ground, and even when people try to be neutral they still end up being passive aggressive with "it's a shame [game] doesn't have [personal preference], otherwise I'd give this review a higher score."

 

[fantasmic]

In addition to reporting the offending reviews, you can also block users so you no longer see their reviews or posts. The review will still be there, but at least it's one fewer low-quality review for your eyes to slide past.

The tag system is less "this is a significant part of the game" and more "this is in the game." While you can know exactly what to expect from tags such as 3DCG or Kinetic Novel, tags such as rape cover a wide variety of cases. Whether the events are 10% avoidable rape, 90% avoidable rape, or 25% hardcore unavoidable rape, they'll all get the tag. Or consider pregnancy: one already-pregnant LI, two LIs you can impregnate, or a game based on pumping out infinite babies all get the tag. Some games can still be enjoyable even if you're indifferent to the main kink, while others don't have anything to offer aside from the main kink. Reviews can (theoretically) help differentiate between the two since "Outrageous tits 5/5" is just as uninformative as "Outrageous tits 1/5," and something like slow-burn corruption might be your speed while "virgin fMC gets groped, now she's guzzling cum" really isn't. The review system isn't the best, but there isn't really any system which would be the best so I just put more weight on individual reviews than the overall score.

 

[Rafster]

The tag system is less "this is a significant part of the game" and more "this is in the game." While you can know exactly what to expect from tags such as 3DCG or Kinetic Novel, tags such as rape cover a wide variety of cases. Whether the events are 10% avoidable rape, 90% avoidable rape, or 25% hardcore unavoidable rape, they'll all get the tag.

The worst offenders are the gay/lesbian tags. You never know if the game has a gay MC/full gay route, or just a scene with two guys holding hands. Both of them warrants you the gay/lesbian tag. You have to browse or directly ask on the game's thread if the screenshots/description doesn't say anything.

 

[RogMR]

First let me say that I understand that many DEVs are amateurs. And they don't know exactly what they're doing when they start creating a game.

That said, I believe that the low ratings of some games are much more the fault of the DEV who didn't know how to give an overview of his/her game, than the player who played and thought the game was bad. I will give 2 examples of RAPE games.
- Enslaver The Dark Path
- Raptus.
Main fetish rape.
DEVs don't try to fool the overview into saying it's a romance game. Soon no romance player will play and give a low grade. The 2 games have "rape player audience" and good score.
"Rape player": Surely they can give 4-5 stars for the 2 games mentioned.
"Romance player": Surely they can give 1-2 stars for the 2 games mentioned.

But I doubt that any player interested in romance will try either of the 2 games. So 80-90% of the ratings of these 2 games are made by players with the same fetish as the DEV. Win Win.

But we have a lot of games that try to "sell romance". And they deliver rape. What do you think the romance player will think of the game. Or "You choose what MC will do". And in the game DEV forces any content to the player. And get a low reviews.

I could mention another game, where the MC seems like a normal guy. After 1-2 years of the game, we see a flashback of the MC being a rapist. How is any player who plays a romance game going to consider a good story if the normal MC turns into a rapist?

If the DEV had made an intro, saying that the MC made mistakes in the past. Raped, killed, but now he's a new man, he'd be more likely to avoid grades 1, than to make the MC obligatorily a rapist (flashback) after 1-2 years.

F95 gives for all DEVs the opportunity to use DEV notes to clear up any disputes. To say what is mandatory in the game. What is the main focus of the game? And what is player choice.

And the worst grades come from games with "story unfolds". Because this type of game will be downloaded by a variety of players with different preferences. 30% will love it and 5*. 30% will hate it and 1*.

If the DEV telling about the story, many will hate it before playing. And they won't even play. Therefore, they will not give 1*. WIN - WIN.
Player doesn't waste time with game that he/she knows doesn't interest him/her. And the game won't get so many bad reviews, because by clarifying the story, only those who think they might like the game will test the game.

 

[JoeTheMC84]

...A review should be about how well a game manages to deliver on what it set out to deliver on...

Highlighting this because the issue is often that many developers think it is cute or clever to obfuscate what they are trying to deliver. That is where a lot of 1-star reviews come from. Developers being obtuse about what the game is meant to be.

Many developers think that being open about content will "spoil" something. Like by saying, "Yes, rape, NTR, scat, urination, or whatever is a part of the game," is a spoiler. It isn't a spoiler any more than saying for example, "There will be aliens in this sci-fi game," is a spoiler. Not to mention that F95 has spoiler tabs to hide things from players who don't want to see it. The number of games that bill themselves as harem/romance games only to end up NTR rape fests is staggering.

One of, if not the only, 1-star review I have given is because the developer lied about what the game would contain. They promised that a certain fetish would be avoidable, even had a button in the preference of the game to turn it off. It was not only unavoidable but became the main focus of the game. The content was NTR. The developer said it was avoidable. They were lying. Not only was it not avoidable, but by the end of the game, no matter what the player did, one love interest (the MC's wife) was pregnant with another man's kid, another love interest had been rape, and there were many other issues as well. The developer lied. The developer sold the game as an incest romance harem game, but they delivered an NTR rape game where even the incest with the daughter characters was false because it turned out that the wife (who gets knocked up in the game by someone else) had an affair before and that's where the "daughters" came from meaning the MC was a cuck from before the game even started.

This isn't all that uncommon, developers trying to hide controversial tags and getting bad rating because of it before the tags are finally added and then those old reviews look unreasonable to people coming in "because the game has the tag." The question is, did the game have the tag before or was the developer a liar before getting caught out?

 

[Meaning Less]

I believe that the low ratings of some games are much more the fault of the DEV who didn't know how to give an overview of his/her game, than the player who played and thought the game was bad.

Sure, it is the dev's fault for wearing skimpy clothing...

"because the game has the tag." The question is, did the game have the tag before or was the developer a liar before getting caught out?

Regardless if the game has the tag or not, those reviews are still a violation of review rule 6. Your review shouldn't be solely focused on your feelings about a specific genre. Those reviews should be reported and they will be cleaned/warned as they are unhelpful in general.

I don't care about negative reviews as long as the reviewer explains objectively why the game is bad instead of crying about the game not having enough trigger warnings or not being what he wanted the game to be.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Why is it so difficult for many reviewers to keep their personal preferences about fetisches and fantasies out of their reviews? For instance, if you don't like rape, maybe just don't play the games with the rape tag? Instead of playing it, then giving it one star in a review because it contains rape? If a game contain the following tags: Blackmail, Cheating, Corruption, Drugs, Groping, Male domination, Prostitution, Sexual harassment and Sleep sex, maybe don't expect the MC to be a white knight? And if an asshole MC is not your speed, maybe don't download the game and maybe don't give it a one star review complaining about the MC being and asshole and a rapist?

All these moronic one star reviews made by people complaining about games containing exactly what the tags said the games would contain fucks up the review system, making it less reliable. A review should be about how well a game manages to deliver on what it set out to deliver on. And not about to what extent the game delivers on the reviewers personal preferences when it comes to fetishes ("no incest in this game? ONE STAR! All games should be only about incest, because that's my favourite fetisch and the only person that matters in the world is ME!!!"*)

*Yup, I've actually seen low star reviews complaining that the reviewed game doesn't contain incest...

I usually judge a game by its merits. Not by a certain fetish.
I had some games where it popped out that even though there is a tag, its not in the game at all.
For some reason i think the tag system is a great idea but authors just smash everything in that may or may not appear.
On the other hand, if i do not like a tag, i write it. But i do not judge the game because of the tag that is included. That would be dishonest. So even though i do not like a tag, the game can be great by its renders or story.
But there is also a huge bias from people that love that particular tag and rate it in heaven even though its not that great.
I am not a reviewer by trade but i try to be as distant as i can to not dismissive or biased. Not easy some times.

 

[desmosome]

But we have a lot of games that try to "sell romance". And they deliver rape. What do you think the romance player will think of the game. Or "You choose what MC will do". And in the game DEV forces any content to the player. And get a low reviews.

Highlighting this because the issue is often that many developers think it is cute or clever to obfuscate what they are trying to deliver.

In the vast majority of cases, you (not you specifically) are the one that is trying to fit games into a specific mold. Tags are just an indication of things you can find in game. Just because there is romance or harem doesn't mean that it can't have other shit. MC can romance one girl but rape some other. He might even rape a girl and then develop a romance after. It's not like this kind of story is inconceivable.

Sure, that won't be enjoyable for people looking for some fairy tale romance, but that game was never meant to be enjoyable for that specific group. We could debate about objectivity in reviews, but the basic notion that a story must be written a certain way if it is tagged with something is the real problem. People need to understand that tags don't determine the story, it's the other way around.

One of, if not the only, 1-star review I have given is because the developer lied about what the game would contain. They promised that a certain fetish would be avoidable, even had a button in the preference of the game to turn it off. It was not only unavoidable but became the main focus of the game. The content was NTR. The developer said it was avoidable. They were lying. Not only was it not avoidable, but by the end of the game, no matter what the player did, one love interest (the MC's wife) was pregnant with another man's kid, another love interest had been rape, and there were many other issues as well. The developer lied. The developer sold the game as an incest romance harem game, but they delivered an NTR rape game where even the incest with the daughter characters was false because it turned out that the wife (who gets knocked up in the game by someone else) had an affair before and that's where the "daughters" came from meaning the MC was a cuck from before the game even started.

I guess you are talking about that one spaceship game. I am skeptical since most of you guys get ridiculous hyperbolic with your supposed surprise NTR, but I've never played this game. Taking this description at face value, yea I can agree that it could be an example of a sneak attack. This kinda thing is pretty rare, though. What usually happens is that the dev's interpretation of NTR and the anti-NTR people's interpretation differs wildly. When that happens, it means the game is not for you. It doesn't mean the dev is trying to trick you, because again, having a romance/harem tag doesn't mean that it has to be that specific type of safe space harem or fairy tale romance.

 

[RogMR]

Sure, it is the dev's fault for wearing skimpy clothing...

Regardless if the game has the tag or not, those reviews are still a violation of review rule 6. Your review shouldn't be solely focused on your feelings about a specific genre. Those reviews should be reported and they will be cleaned/warned as they are unhelpful in general.

I don't care about negative reviews as long as the reviewer explains objectively why the game is bad instead of crying about the game not having enough trigger warnings or not being what he wanted the game to be.

Since you don't understand, I'll use example from movies.
If you want to go to the cinema to watch an ACTION movie. And you end up in the movie "Paranormal Activity". That nothing happens for 2 hours. For you, 1* because is not your preference.
Someone else wants a thriller, supernatural movie, the same shit story from the Paranormal movie might be 5* for them.

Every review depends 100% on the taste of each player.

That's why it's smarter to do an overview accordingly, to ward off players who are not interested in the game's main focus.

Sure, that won't be enjoyable for people looking for some fairy tale romance, but that game was never meant to be enjoyable for that specific group. We could debate about objectivity in reviews, but the basic notion that a story must be written a certain way if it is tagged with something is the real problem. People need to understand that tags don't determine the story, it's the other way around.

I see you complaining in every fictional story that women throw themselves into the MC. Because for you that kind of story is stupid. To me, it's a good story for a porn game. We 2 are different. So the same story can be 2* for you and 4* for me, due to our preferences.
A male straight peep on other guys is stupid to me. 1*. For you, 5*. Different people, different assessments of the quality of the "story".

"Lost", a cool series for a good part of the audience. For me, boring. By the third episode, it was clear to me that everyone had died and I was seeing useless flashbacks.

Avengers. When half the people died. Most people found the movie note 2-3*. Then in the next film, 4-5 stars. It's all about preference. About good ending or bad ending.

 

[JoeTheMC84]

In the vast majority of cases, you (not you specifically) are the one that is trying to fit games into a specific mold. Tags are just an indication of things you can find in game. Just because there is romance or harem doesn't mean that it can't have other shit. MC can romance one girl but rape some other. He might even rape a girl and then develop a romance after. It's not like this kind of story is inconceivable.

Sure, that won't be enjoyable for people looking for some fairy tale romance, but that game was never meant to be enjoyable for that specific group. We could debate about objectivity in reviews, but the basic notion that a story must be written a certain way if it is tagged with something is the real problem. People need to understand that tags don't determine the story, it's the other way around.


I guess you are talking about that one spaceship game. I am skeptical since most of you guys get ridiculous hyperbolic with your supposed surprise NTR, but I've never played this game. Taking this description at face value, yea I can agree that it could be an example of a sneak attack. This kind of thing is pretty rare, though. What usually happens is that the dev's interpretation of NTR and the anti-NTR people's interpretation differs wildly. When that happens, it means the game is not for you. It doesn't mean the dev is trying to trick you, because again, having a romance/harem tag doesn't mean that it has to be that specific type of safe space harem or fairy tale romance.

Games, books, tv shows, and movie do need to fit in molds more often than not. And not just those things either. This is a consumer industry. Things need to be classified for a reason, so people know what they are getting. You can't call a truck a sports car and not get people raising eyebrows. You don't bill your restaurant as Italian and then serve only cheeseburgers and sushi. I'm less concerned with tags, I'm more concerned with description, overviews, and developer's words and them being honest and forthright, but many aren't. Not all of them outright lie, that is rarer, but many think it is cute or clever to be obtuse, it isn't.

That's why I highlighted this line, it has less to do with tags...

...A review should be about how well a game manages to deliver on what it set out to deliver on...

If a developer says they are making one type of game and then makes another that is an issue. If someone promises a fantasy RPG and then drops in a bunch of NASCAR style racing sections with no warning, then that is an issue. If a game is clear about what it has then I have no problem avoiding ones with content I don't like, but many developers try and hide things they know are controversial or add content they wanted from the start but didn't admit to once they've gotten those early dollar bills by milking fans of other types of content.

I also find it interesting that you said, "I am skeptical since most of you guys get ridiculous hyperbolic with your supposed surprise NTR, but I've never played this game." Because I never claimed membership with a group, nor did I claim surprise NTR. I knew the game had NTR, I've played several games with actual avoidable NTR. I told a story of a lying developer who said the NTR in his game was avoidable. If it had been other content that had been lied about, I would have been equally mad. If he had lied about there being scat, necrophilia, or even something more "vanilla" like pregnancy I would have given it one star because lying I cannot abide. The developer also promised incest content and there wasn't, I also hate when developers pretend their game has content it doesn't. If a developer promises pregnancy content, for example, but all you get is a single line at the end of the game saying, "Character X is now pregnant, thanks for playing." You'd have a right to be upset if the developer said that it would be part of the game from day one and just never had it in there.

It's also funny to me that you knew what I was referring to, so you've likely heard about it before. I assure you, I am not being hyperbolic in my description, in fact I specifically curtailed my description and left out some of the worst aspects of the offenses this game commits in many areas. It was billed as a "safe space harem game" if you turned off the NTR, but you wife still gets knocked up by someone else and another love interest still gets raped, and much more happens that I left out. I didn't put the game in a box, the developer said one thing and delivered another. The story doesn't need to be written a certain way to please anyone, the developer just needs to not lie about what's in the story.

It's interesting as well that you said not wanting to see a love interest raped in a romance game is a "fairy tale romance." But I'll chalk that up to you being hyperbolic.

That's why it's smarter to do an overview accordingly, to ward off players who are not interested in the game's main focus.

Exactly, it won't ruin a game or story for a developer to just be upfront about the content of the game.

 

[desmosome]

I see you complaining in every fictional story that women throw themselves into the MC. Because for you that kind of story is stupid. To me, it's a good story for a porn game. We 2 are different. So the same story can be 2* for you and 4* for me, due to our preferences.
A male straight peep on other guys is stupid to me. 1*. For you, 5*. Different people, different assessments of the quality of the "story".

Uh, no. I rated plenty of harem games with good scores. Even ones that are on the safe space harems for the most part. Once in a Lifetime. Ripples. Midlife Crisis. Tales of Unending Void. And many others. The games that lost some points in my review were the ones that hit you with a sledgehammer to reassure you about the absence of any other cocks without any subtlety or finesse. That had nothing to do with the fact that it had a certain tag, it was a more general assessment of the writing. I never shit on a game because it had harem. I actually like harem games, just not a certain subset of them.

Be that as it may, I've developed a more enlightened take on things very recently. I can acknowledge that those harem games doing extremely tropey harem things to reassure the players is just not for me. As you say, people like different things. Certain genre tropes that I think is stupid can be something fans of those genre likes.

This is all besides the point though. You didn't understand my point. Having a certain tag doesn't mean the game must be written in a specific way. Just think about for a second. If we take your movie example, it would be like complaining that there was some romance in an action movie. ACTION movie should be about fighting and blowing things up, don't add that romance bullshit in my ACTION movie! See how silly that sounds?

 

[RogMR]

Uh, no. I rated plenty of harem games with good scores. Even ones that are on the safe space harems for the most part. Once in a Lifetime. Ripples. Midlife Crisis. Tales of Unending Void. And many others. The games that lost some points in my review were the ones that hit you with a sledgehammer to reassure you about the absence of any other cocks without any subtlety or finesse. That had nothing to do with the fact that it had a certain tag, it was a more general assessment of the writing. I never shit on a game because it had harem. I actually like harem games, just not a certain subset of them.

Be that as it may, I've developed a more enlightened take on things very recently. I can acknowledge that those harem games doing extremely tropey harem things to reassure the players is just not for me. As you say, people like different things. Certain genre tropes that I think is stupid can be something fans of those genre likes.

This is all besides the point though. You didn't understand my point. Having a certain tag doesn't mean the game must be written in a specific way. Just think about for a second. If we take your movie example, it would be like complaining that there was some romance in an action movie. ACTION movie should be about fighting and blowing things up, don't add that romance bullshit in my ACTION movie! See how silly that sounds?

You who didn't understand. In the world, there are different people. Each with their preferences.
If you want to sell a product, the "customer is always right". Even when don't.
No DEV can please everyone. So, it's smart to clarify about the content. And I gave 2 Good examples of DEVs in Rape games. Which is one of the most controversial topics.

Spoiler: Another good example

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

There's another much lighter game. But the DEV tried to sell a romantic path as an alternative.
MC blackmailing maid. And the score is much lower because the romantic path did not please. It might have been better not to try a romantic path. Or the DEV makes a path that pleases the audience. Or avoid that audience. Any fetish. Any audience.
If Raptus or Enslaver The Dark Path tries to make a romantic alternative path, I have no doubt it will crash the ratings. Because not make sense. It would change the MC's personality too much.

BaDik. Probably the most popular game. No incest. Do you have any doubts that if the DEV add incest will negatively affect the rating? No matter how hard you try, personal preference will always weigh in the evaluation. And while I like incest, I don't think it's wrong for the player of BaDik to feel that the story was rubbish if the DEV added incest. Clarifying that Dr Pink will possibly never add incest.

No DEV has any obligations with f95 audience. But it is possible to learn from the successes and mistakes of other DEVs. And being a new DEV with 100 new DEVs a month is not easy.

 

[Meaning Less]

Since you don't understand...

I did, my point is that there is no rule saying devs should put trigger warnings for people in their games, but on the other hand there are many rules saying that you might be banned for complaining in the game thread and/or reviewbombing.

If you are too sensitive and don't want to be surprised EVER then don't play the game until it is fully completed.

 

[Doorknob22]

Developer here.

In my opinion there are two types of "Fetish Hate Bombs" (FHBs?), i.e. bad reviews based on hated fetishes and not on the total merits of the game.

1. Vindictive. These type of bad reviews are by people who hate a specific fetish and actively search games who have these tags to hurt them. They probably only played enough of the game to write a nominal review but they never intended to enjoy it in the first place, only to bomb it as a punishment for using the offensive fetish. From my experience such "FHBs" are rare and F95 staff easily handle them once found.

2. Fetish Surprise. These type of FHBs are written by people who were surprised to find a fetish they react negatively to. I will never write such a review (I will simply stop playing the game) but even as a developer I understand where the "Surprised FHBs" come from. Fetishes touch very deep places in our souls and what might be immensely delightful to one person can be immensely offensive to another.

Personally, I think developers should be very transparent about their more controversial fetishes. No one is going to FHB a game for "Big tits" or "Anal" Fetishes but it's always preferred to state the game's more controversial fetishes from the beginning, allow them to be turned off and/or be avoidable. If one is offended by Fetish X and the developer makes it very clear that fetish X is dominant in the game, most players who hate it will simply avoid it, not wishing to waste their time.

 

[snookums.d.panda]

*Yup, I've actually seen low star reviews complaining that the reviewed game doesn't contain incest...

That's nothing. Shortly after this game was released here it got some 1 star reviews because the MC spoke with a Bri'ish accent guv'nah, and I'm almost disappointed to see that those ones are no longer up. 'Almost' being that though it takes the wind out of my example a bit, it's nice to see that the system works and that sort of hot take does get trimmed from time to time (definitely not making it up btw, on page 4 of that thread you'll see the type of characters who're likely to post a one-line review like that).

While I'm seeing this thread go down the route of Dev transparency/Tag accuracy, my opinion on this matter is more along the lines of what GreatRedMuppet stated earlier: Common sense on the Internet? From Gamers even? *holds back laughter*

Let's face it, in the grand scheme of internet reviewing, your average gamer does not show the best examples of critical thinking at times (and don't get me started on the "professionals".) While I've certainly taken the piss with the odd "Can't pet doggos? Game LATERALLY unplayable!" shitpost here and there, I'm not one to do so in an actual review and definitely won't use that as the decider between a 1 and 5 star review (as I doubt there's a dearth of moronic 5 star reviews skewing the stats as well.)

Then again, the impression I'm getting from your post is that you're going off on the one line hot takes that are choc full of hyperbole. If you're talking about wordy reviews that are just centered around "Where's mah incest?" then maybe have the confidence that people can spot that bull-honky and will move on to the next review after reporting/ignoring it. While I don't really pay attention to reviews on this site, a cursory glance of some recently updated games have shown fairly well reasoned & written out reviews, both positive and negative, with the more reactionary ones seeming to focus on content being cut from a game (which, depending how it's done, can be considered a fair critique.) So I'd say the system seems to be working.

But I'm just a wierdo in a panda-suit, so what do I know? *shrug*

 

[sabadongelov]

Sure, but so far, it isn't solving the issue.

 

[sabadongelov]

First let me say that I understand that many DEVs are amateurs. And they don't know exactly what they're doing when they start creating a game.

That said, I believe that the low ratings of some games are much more the fault of the DEV who didn't know how to give an overview of his/her game, than the player who played and thought the game was bad. I will give 2 examples of RAPE games.
- Enslaver The Dark Path
- Raptus.
Main fetish rape.
DEVs don't try to fool the overview into saying it's a romance game. Soon no romance player will play and give a low grade. The 2 games have "rape player audience" and good score.
"Rape player": Surely they can give 4-5 stars for the 2 games mentioned.
"Romance player": Surely they can give 1-2 stars for the 2 games mentioned.

But I doubt that any player interested in romance will try either of the 2 games. So 80-90% of the ratings of these 2 games are made by players with the same fetish as the DEV. Win Win.

But we have a lot of games that try to "sell romance". And they deliver rape. What do you think the romance player will think of the game. Or "You choose what MC will do". And in the game DEV forces any content to the player. And get a low reviews.

I could mention another game, where the MC seems like a normal guy. After 1-2 years of the game, we see a flashback of the MC being a rapist. How is any player who plays a romance game going to consider a good story if the normal MC turns into a rapist?

If the DEV had made an intro, saying that the MC made mistakes in the past. Raped, killed, but now he's a new man, he'd be more likely to avoid grades 1, than to make the MC obligatorily a rapist (flashback) after 1-2 years.

F95 gives for all DEVs the opportunity to use DEV notes to clear up any disputes. To say what is mandatory in the game. What is the main focus of the game? And what is player choice.

And the worst grades come from games with "story unfolds". Because this type of game will be downloaded by a variety of players with different preferences. 30% will love it and 5*. 30% will hate it and 1*.

If the DEV telling about the story, many will hate it before playing. And they won't even play. Therefore, they will not give 1*. WIN - WIN.
Player doesn't waste time with game that he/she knows doesn't interest him/her. And the game won't get so many bad reviews, because by clarifying the story, only those who think they might like the game will test the game.

I'm talking about games that are correctly taged. That can mean a game containing *both* rape and romance (I, for one, like that particular combination). If you're a romance lover who hates rape, that's your cue to avoid that particular romance game. Or hey, take a chance on the rape being avoidable and play anyway*. But if it turns out the rape isn't avoidable, then refrain from tanking the game in the review section just because it contained what it said it would contain.

* Or even smarter, use the search function to search the thread for the term "rape" to see if it's been asked and answered whether or not the rape is avoidable. For controversial fetishes, that's usually the case unless the game is brand new. If it is avoidable, play to your hearts content, if it isn't, stay away.

 

[sabadongelov]

This isn't all that uncommon, developers trying to hide controversial tags and getting bad rating because of it before the tags are finally added and then those old reviews look unreasonable to people coming in "because the game has the tag." The question is, did the game have the tag before or was the developer a liar before getting caught out?

No, I seldom read very old reviews, in the cases I'm thinking about, the tag existed when the bad review was placed.

Also, why would devs try to hide what their games are really about? What would be the point of that? It sounds much more likely that it's an honest (or maybe lazy) mistake rather than some sort of underhanded scheme to fool people into playing games that contain stuff they don't like.