Kotaku podcast on Steam review bombing

I would argue that. I have heard many people waiting on fence due of ED 'mixed' Steam review score. That matters unfortunately.
I've played and enjoyed games with "mixed" review scores by so-called "professional" reviewers for decades. The typical arguments brought up like "they don't care about the game or the genre", "they hate the developer" can be used against those reviews too. Regular slating of lesser known niche titles is a common thing while they hype up the newest AAA stuff for precious advertising money. And their drivel goes up on pages like "Metacritic" with actual economic implications. That actually encourages developers to change and streamline their products to please audiences who don't really like video games.

User reviews OTOH are mostly an Ego thing for rabid fan bases and Indie developers who take everything personal.
 
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Kotaku? Really? A trash publication, reminds me of national enquirer. BIG HEADLINES means it's real.
Another lame internet tabloid. Steam reviews aren't much better.
 
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My observation over the last few years, is that steam reviews are overwhelmingly worthless if one is trying to look for even the most basic objective information about a game.

My biggest gripe is that these are not reviews, they are subjective opinions (sometimes rants) with little or no context to how the games actually plays. And that goes for both the positive and negative "reviews".


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For lols, I just looked up No Man's Sky steam reviews — A game I was originally interested in buying, but never did.

Reviews are supposed to be have some basic objective information, sprinkled with the reviewer's opinion on top.
These are the first ten reviews in a row that popped up for me, and are all positive "reviews" - Yet notice how not a single one talks about the basic gameplay loop, or even how the recent additions adds to that existing gameplay.

1.- There is some minimal info on what the new stuff is. He mentions base building, vehicles and more.
So I pre-ordered this.

At the time, when I first played it, I came to regret that as a mistake. I sank a couple hours in here and there, but I just couldn't get into it. The story felt dull, the landscapes were just... off, and it just wasn't what was advertised.

I cast it aside, too late to refund.

Base building came out, along with vehicles, creative mode, and a camera. I played around with them, and they were fun - but the survival still felt lackluster. Creative mode got boring fast, and the camera (probably one of my favourite game features at the time) was hardly worth going into the game to use just for screenshots.

And now, after the Waking Titan ARG - we have Atlas Rises.
To be honest - I'm impressed. Suddenly, I find myself wanting to play survival because it's fun. Hell, I find myself wanting to play the game itself because I enjoy it now, not because I'm bored and need to sink time into something. The story is interesting and I want to see more, dozens of tiny little things that weren't there suddenly are...
It's a new experience.

In all honesty, I would have much preferred to see the game in this state on release. That way I would have been spared a year of disappointment. Hello Games has done what few developers would have done after the disaster of the release, and has spent time and effort making this game into something they can be proud of. It's clear they believe in the potential of No Man's Sky, and I find that inspiring.

I can finally, in good conscience, recommend this game.
I think the price is still too steep - but I would recommend it on half price.


2.- This one has no useful info about the game.
Should have released the game this year.
LET THIS BE A LESSON TO ALL ASPIRING GAME DEVELOPERS
RELEASE YOUR GAME WHEN IT IS DONE, NOT WHEN THE PEOPLE WANT YOU TO
THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WANT


3.- This one has no objective info about the game. Apparently it's amazing now, that's great to hear - how about telling us what it is that's amazing.
Amazing after the update. Dont. Stop. Updating.


4.- Again, no actual info on how the game plays - whether old content or new.
Kudos to Hello Games for continuing the development of NMS. It's a lot of fun now!


5.- Another one that has no useful info about the game.
They are forgiven now


6.- Like the first one, there is some minimal info on what you can do.
I can spend hours exploring just one planet, looking for settlements, crashed ships, building a base and setting up a farm. And then there's millions more to discover after that. This is a beautiful game now that brings to life all the dreams I had as a kid to explore space.


7.- So they changed a lot. What did they change? This one still falls under the category of "no useful info".
180 degree change!


8.- Same as point number three, it's a good to know that it has gotten better...but as someone who has never played it, I have no baseline to compare with. Also, what is better? Is it everything, or just minor improvements to one or two specific aspects of the game?
Getting better and better!


9.- This is one of those vague reviews that say a lot, but tells you very little. Ok, so you can fly from planet to planet and dodge space pirates...but how does it actually play??
This game is definitely more than the sum of it's parts. On the surface, this is a survival crafting game that doesn't do anything drastically different than the million other games of this type on Steam. However, the combination of exploring different worlds, the music, and the space combat make No Man's Sky truly different.


This has become my go to Saturday morning coffee game. The music reminds me of classic sci fi, and the planets/space stations are a combination of the JJ Abrams Star Trek movies and the artwork of Syd Mead. There is nothing more relaxing than just flying from planet to planet dodging space pirates, and then landing on those planets and seeing the weird life forms found there.


Yeah, the space combat has been done better in other games. The survival and crafting are also done better in other games. And if you poke at the game too much you can see the flaws. But when you add all of the parts together, you get a game that is a definite must play. I'm an older gamer and I am still amazed that a game like this could exist.


Note: I was going to preorder this game but decided not to and ended up waiting until the Atlas Rises patch to get into the game. So I can't speak to how the game has changed in the past year.


10.- Another vague review.
Good game to relax, has a lot of intersting story aswell as many other aspects. Definitly worth now, they did a lot to improve this game. Performance isn't that great tho.

When a random person on the internet tells you something is good/bad/fun/boring without any context to what you can actually do, you don't automatically know what he or she is talking about.

I could tell you I think Planetside 2 is a fun PvP first person shooter, but does that mean you know I'm referring to the extremely fast paced, and arcadey gameplay where you can literally get killed and revived 10 times in a row within one minute?
 
My guess Steam would increase buyer's satisfaction a lot if they would went away of showing player's reviews as frontal element and just point out at professional or vetted player reviews. Majority of reviews are complain board entries, they are just not weighted POVs to give overall impression of the game.
 
My observation over the last few years, is that steam reviews are overwhelmingly worthless if one is trying to look for even the most basic objective information about a game.
Reviews are generally worthless if you look for objective information about a game.

My biggest gripe is that these are not reviews, they are subjective opinions (sometimes rants) with little or no context to how the games actually plays.
Of course they are subjective opinions. Every forum post is one.

Then ask yourself: Who takes an hour to write a detailed review to post it on Steam? Most likely someone who got paid for it. Is that objective information? Of course not.
 
Reviews are generally worthless if you look for objective information about a game.


Of course they are subjective opinions. Every forum post is one.

Then ask yourself: Who takes an hour to write a detailed review to post it on Steam? Most likely someone who got paid for it. Is that objective information? Of course not.

It's not rocket science to include super basic information on how gameplay works, regardless of whether we're talking about a forum post or steam review.

"The point and click mining is boring"
"Driving is the best thing since sliced bread, sliding all over the place feels awesome"

It's not hard to see which parts of these sentences are actual info on gameplay, and which are opinions.

Steam needs to stop pretending that what they have are "reviews". It's a comments section at best.
 
But a useful indicator all the same. If anyone believes that every game with negative feedback has been engineered that with with nefarious purposes probably also has a good supply of tinfoil hats.
 
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