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Rating system

A topic by OneManArmy created Apr 01, 2020 Views: 2,281 Replies: 13
Viewing posts 1 to 5
(+1)

Rating system can and is used to punish developer. Player may simply not like your answer and in result you get 1 star rating + insults in review. For most of games current rating system is not problem, but if your game is online shooter where players can get punishment for bad behaviour, or cheating, then it will be problem.


You must do one of 2 things:
1) rating system must ignore 1 star ratings when 75% (or above) ratings are 5 star
2) replace 5 star rating system with simple like/recommend button. More likes = higher in ratings. Such system will be perfect for itch.io

Moderator(+1)

Our rating system already ignores one solitary 1-star rating. You don't need to worry about it. Your rank is safe.

(3 edits) (+1)

I am positive that i saw change in rating when user changed his 5 star rating to 1 star, but ok.
Maybe it was because 5 star rating was removed and it has nothing to do with 1 star rating.

So you don't think that simple like/recommend button would be better (easier for users)?

EDIT:  Actually 1 star ratings are counted.
On second asset i have 4 ratings
3 = 5 star ratings
1 = 1 star rating (from the same user i mentioned above)
and on page i see 4.0 rating.

What exactly you mean with this "one solitary" 1-star rating?

Moderator

Sure, you can see the rating while looking at your own game, but just one rating isn't going to impact your game's rank. I don't see what's unclear. In listings, games are ranked by many criteria, and ratings are only counted if a game has several of them. In other words, if many people would have rated your game 1-star, that would matter. If just one did, their rating isn't counted. And if their rating isn't counted, your game's rank isn't hurt by it. Does that make sense now?

"just one rating isn't going to impact your game's rank"
Not "just one". It already happened multiple times.
I only provided last case as example. One user can rate all your projects (like it was in my case). I see you are also developer and you have multiple projects. It will be ok, if user will give all your projects 1 star rating (plus will insult you in review) only because he didn't liked your answer?  I guess no and he will get ban immediately :D

"I don't see what's unclear."
I clearly explained problem and i think "Like" based rating system would work better then 5 star rating system. Less possibility to abuse.
Current 5 star rating system can be abused by users and developers, but "Like" system only by developers.

Moderator (2 edits)

If one player gave each of my games a one-star rating, two things would happen:

  1. Each and every rating would be ignored by the ranking algorithm, since there's just one rating per game.
  2. That player would get caught doing it and lose their rating privileges. Not because it's me, but because we frown on such practices.

So no, I'm not worried about it in the least. But thanks for the suggestion.

Deleted 4 years ago
Moderator

First of all, I can't "look into an account". If you suspect fraudulent activity, please contact support.

Second, this entire topic, and the post you replied to in particular (after more than two months), is about the fact that those ratings you received most likely won't affect your game's ranking. Please be considerate. Thank you.

(1 edit)

Sorry about that. I wasn't sure who to contact, and this post showed up in my google search. I'll contact the support in the future.

Please understand, anyone would get upset over all their games getting a 1-star review for no reason. While I understand a 1-star review wouldn't hurt the ranking, I replied to this post because you mentioned someone who abuses such system would have their rating privilege taken away, and I want someone like that to be caught and stop ruining other game devs' day.

But again, I understand this was not the right place to post about it and I didn't realize this post was two months old. Sorry for my inconsideration.

Moderator(+1)

You're right. I don't like receiving 1-star ratings either. Elsewhere I got one from someone who clearly had serious problems with reading comprehension. But what would you like to do, make rating systems that don't allow low ratings? What would be the point then?

Otherwise, no problem. Happens to everyone.

Also users can rate games without even downloading them?

Moderator

Yes, they can, as discussed extensively in this topic.

(+3)

I often get a one star rating with no comment on it. in case a person gives a 1 or 2 star rating, this person should comment something and you should be able to report hate ratings. because I guess that's what I can call them : p and they drag my rating down. I feel it's a pity that the rating on my game is not a nice 4.8 just because people hate it. maybe an up vote down vote rating system is better indeed? I just think that you can not give a game a 1 star rating when you know there was a lot of effort put into it and everyone else seem to love it. 5 star rating is also quite over the top but I guess that's the opposite of hate. And why would be dislike that right? XD

(+2)

I totally agree with you. I have also received bad ratings without any comments at all. And I'll bet they haven’t even downloaded the game. I don’t mind criticism at all, but I accept the rules . However, I still think this rating system is a joke. Us developers should make a 5-star handshake to solve this problem. I’ll guess some might have already.

I'd be fine with no ratings at all and only have comments. At least with the comments you have more control because you can delete them or report or ban certain users.