Oh, I can kinda get how that happens.
I usually donate some money to my top 10 free games on itch each year. But I don’t really bother giving stars. There’s a few reasons why that happens:
First off, I don’t like 1-5 star ratings. I have my own rating system ranging from 0-10 in my notes. And in there, there is no judgement over a game being bad when it has 2 points. I may enjoy a game but still only give it 2 points because there’s just better things.
Then there’s how ratings and their comments aren’t public. you can write a special comment alongside your rating but as far as I know that isn’t publically put into the comments. So when you wanna say some words about the game to the world, you’d rather use the comments than the rating. If these two were properly connected I would probably use ratings a lot more often.
And finally it’s just that… Why would I care about giving a rating when it doesn’t really make much of a difference. From my experience playing and developing games, people usually are a lot more interested in real tangible support. Wether that be money or a players actual thoughts. Those things have an actual value, meanwhile a 1-5 rating doesn’t have any value neither virtual nor real. The best thing about seeing those ratings is just knowing someone played my game, which is always a great feeling.
However I am thinking about using ratings a bit more often on here.