Reviews on steam makes me wonder :/

[AJW]

How to write a Steam review:


Find a game you don't like the sound of/think sounds like the best game ever created. No obligation to actually play it.


Read a Steam review saying it isn't any good/is perfect.


Paraphrase.*


(*Or copy-paste - you don't even have to copy from a review of the same game. Generic 'it sucks!'/'best game ever!!' material will do fine.)


When it comes to reviews, you get what you pay for. Steam reviewers do it for free. It shows...

 

[GraeWolf]

I am one that makes a decision on a product by seeing what the reviews are on it. I will have to agree that the reviews on Steam were rather bad, but I decided to go ahead and get ED anyway because of all the Youtube videos, and Twitch streams I watched about the game. When it was all said and done I think all the videos and streams were a better review of the game than all the written ones on Steam.

I am not a twitch gaming kiddie, but I will have to say the Space Combat trailers are what first intrigued me to ED. I think mainly though because it brought back a nostalgic memory of the first Wing Commander games I used to play on my old 486 computer.

All in all though I will have to say after having the game for a little while now I am happily cruising the galaxy exploring, shooting, and doing a few small time trading missions and loving every minute of it.

 

[Theta Sigma]

How to write a Steam review:


Find a game you don't like the sound of/think sounds like the best game ever created. No obligation to actually play it.


Read a Steam review saying it isn't any good/is perfect.


Paraphrase.*


(*Or copy-paste - you don't even have to copy from a review of the same game. Generic 'it sucks!'/'best game ever!!' material will do fine.)


When it comes to reviews, you get what you pay for. Steam reviewers do it for free. It shows...

How to respond to such an 'attack' on Steam reviews:
...if you happen to fall into the demographic described by the previous 'How to write a Steam review' guide

Ha!
So, the 'Most Helpful' review is a 'Negative' review because the game is actually 'good'?
Right! Typical fan-boy: Justify your love of the game by claiming the review process is supposedly flawed.

 

[Belthize]

It's kind of like walking into a Taco Bell and asking what the best food is.

You'll get an opinion but it's probably not terribly informative.

 

[kurush]

What do you think need to be done, so that these reviews will give more Justice to the game?

Fix the game so that it does not have that awful 1984 taste?

 

[Chris Simon]

Fix the game so that it does not have that awful 1984 taste?

I'd dare to say that most of us 84ers consider this a huge plus, though.

EDIT: Just to clarify - I do think there are many things in Elite that need improvement or straightforward fixing. So it's not the actual content of those negative reviews that concerns me, because they do have a point.
What I do find strange, though is how the negative ones get upvoted and positive ones get stomped to the ground. There seems to be a group of very devoted people, there.

 

[dubsdj]

I'd dare to say that most of us 84ers consider this a huge plus, though.

If they could have made a game like this in 1984 I would have been quite impressed.

 

[veelckoo]

How to write a Steam review:


Find a game you don't like the sound of/think sounds like the best game ever created. No obligation to actually play it.


Read a Steam review saying it isn't any good/is perfect.


Paraphrase.*


(*Or copy-paste - you don't even have to copy from a review of the same game. Generic 'it sucks!'/'best game ever!!' material will do fine.)


When it comes to reviews, you get what you pay for. Steam reviewers do it for free. It shows...

Yeah.
All those mean people on steam. They have nothing better then criticize the best game on earth. How dare they...
And how dare they not criticize other games so hard? Hmm difficult question...
[sarcasm off]
Maybe, just maybe, they don't really like Elite that much?
Maybe they expected space sim (OP compares this to DCS...) and got one button solar system scanning, atmospheric glide and ships flying in reverse faster then other.
Maybe they expect 'traditional' MMO and get instanced P2P multiplayer game where player interaction comes down to pew pew.
Maybe they expect pew pew and all they got is CQC as finding players in full game can be challenging.
List goes on and on.
Many people will be disappointed and will leave negative review.

One thing that I would like to understand is why it bothers you guys so much that someone might not like the game?

 

[Belthize]

If they could have made a game like this in 1984 I would have been quite impressed.

God, if this game as is existed in '84 my life would be a complete wreck now. Empire and Galactic Bloodshed were bad enough (hmm, those didn't exist yet actually, more like 88 or 89)

 

[Ziljan]

Not sure we need yet another thread about this topic: fans vs critic. The way the game is heading, it's only a matter of time before most of us get what we want. So either you're having fun now, or you can wait to see if ED becomes fun for you later. Frontier isn't sitting on their hands, so it's a moving target. Deploy gimbals or wait for the perfect fixed-mounted shot.

 

[AJW]

Yeah.
All those mean people on steam. They have nothing better then criticize the best game on earth. How dare they...
And how dare they not criticize other games so hard? Hmm difficult question...
[sarcasm off]
Maybe, just maybe, they don't really like Elite that much?
Maybe they expected space sim (OP compares this to DCS...) and got one button solar system scanning, atmospheric glide and ships flying in reverse faster then other.
Maybe they expect 'traditional' MMO and get instanced P2P multiplayer game where player interaction comes down to pew pew.
Maybe they expect pew pew and all they got is CQC as finding players in full game can be challenging.
List goes on and on.
Many people will be disappointed and will leave negative review.

One thing that I would like to understand is why it bothers you guys so much that someone might not like the game?

Maybe you should read what I wrote, and then reply. Or even better, don't....

 

[OutandBack]

It's best to avoid reading reviews on steam as its so toxic.

Well the Steam Reviews did not stop me from buying the base game or this years expansion pack on Steam.

Since this game has such a large international player base many of you might not know that Steam has literally steamrolled (monopolize) the PC gaming industry in the US.
AAA games like Fallout 4 for the PC must be registered with steam even if you bought the DVD of the game.
So like it or not you must signup for a free steam account and steam runs in the background of your gaming PC all the time.

If Frontier wants the US PC gaming market they will have to deal with steam. It is where 95% of all US PC games are purchased from. Not by choice we are forced to.

 

[vernonator]

And that's why the ads currently show vids of combat, because the average gamer today has the attention span..oh look, a chicken!

Where was I? Oh, right...

The average gamer out there is a 17yr old student that wants to get online with a bunch of buddies and play a fast round based game. Arena is FD's attempt (poor) at this market, the game is too complicated for quick fun rounds, but thats what sells. I love this game (warts and all) but I have one of those teen players as a son, no way he would play this game no way.....

 

[veelckoo]

Maybe you should read what I wrote, and then reply. Or even better, don't....

Maybe you should read what you wrote.
You claim that people are reviewing games that they didn't necessarily play just paraphrasing other reviews.
If that was meant to be funny, don't try next time - it isn't.

 

[Iori]

How to write a Steam review:


Find a game you don't like the sound of/think sounds like the best game ever created. No obligation to actually play it.


Read a Steam review saying it isn't any good/is perfect.


Paraphrase.*


(*Or copy-paste - you don't even have to copy from a review of the same game. Generic 'it sucks!'/'best game ever!!' material will do fine.)


When it comes to reviews, you get what you pay for. Steam reviewers do it for free. It shows...

Did you know that to be able to write a steam review you need to buy the game first?

 

[kilvenny]

I find it fascinating the FIFA series comes out every year with a few tweaks and people happily pay full price again. Maybe some miss a year, but no one bats an eyelid. I think it comes down to the perceived value of a franchise and the knowledge that if you are on Steam, I can get it cheaper in a few months. The Elite franchise is too old, there are at least two generations of players who have never played it, so its perceived value is low for many. My younger lad is a heavy Steam gamer and I always hear,"this looks good, I will get it in the Steam sale." However he bought Star Wars (franchise game) with all the DLC at launch.

Whilst I like the way FD are doing it, I wonder whether it would have been better just releasing annually then there is no ambiguity of the value of a season pass. I look at Horizons and I see a huge amount of content but not much essential game play.

I also think ED is suffering because of the hype of NMS and SC. Until both release ED is automatically considered the poor relation and the most expensive (which it is). ED is suffering because it pretends to be a COD in space but it isn't (arena might be) but the main game is certainly not.

DCS works because it's very clear what it is and therefore who it will appeal to. That type of player tends to be into the sim and have the disposable income to fund their enjoyment.

What can FD do? Firstly change the advertising message, so its clearer what the gameplay is and what is in Horizons. For the next season look at content which develops gameplay rather than mere content at least for the initial releases.

 

[AJW]

Did you know that to be able to write a steam review you need to buy the game first?

Whatever. Steam reviews are still worth what you pay for them. Nothing. Anyone can write one. And then engage in a mutual backslapping frenzy with anyone else sharing the same opinion. And since getting your review to the top of the pile requires people agreeing with your review, merely parroting the same opinion as anyone else is the optimum strategy. It isn't a 'reviewing' process at all, in any meaningful sense. Just another way to post random internet commentary.

Real reviewers are paid to do it.

 

[OutandBack]

The average gamer out there is a 17yr old student that wants to get online with a bunch of buddies and play a fast round based game. Arena is FD's attempt (poor) at this market, the game is too complicated for quick fun rounds, but thats what sells. I love this game (warts and all) but I have one of those teen players as a son, no way he would play this game no way.....

I am surprised I have not found a "how old are you" thread on this forum.
All the other AAA sandbox games I am a member of have them. What we found after the threads ran for 6 months or more was the average AAA sandbox gamer was ~45 years old.
There were just as many 50-60 year olds playing as teens and 20's.
The big gap was the 30 somethings.
Most hypothesis this group finely woke up and decided they needed to put the K&M down, get out into the real world and make something of themself
or they would be forever working at McDonalds and sell pot out of their car in the parking lot.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

The Steam reviews don't surprise me that much. Last time I checked Elite has an aggregated score of what 6/10? If going by steam reviews alone I would've avoided this game for sure, but since I've played previous Elites I knew I'd like it regardless.

Steam reviews are kind of like IMDB reviews, you have to understand the largest audience using the site and dropping the reviews into the voting box. I've found that some of the best movies I've seen were the ones rated 4-6/10, purely because it's all transformers and superhero movies which are getting the 9/10 votes.

 

[dubsdj]

They criticize the game on Steam because they don't like it. I would imagine 70% of those critics have loaded the game, tried it and couldn't figure out the controls and thought it was too much hassle to make the effort so gave up and rated the game bad... Lets be honest I reckon a fair few of us thought the same thing on first play.. the controls were totally whacked when I tried it and I had to spend a good hour on youtube figuring the YAW stuff out.

But Oh my did they miss out! Problem with Steam is games are often so cheap you end up purchasing lots of games, some good some bad so you are spoilt for choice and just pick something else.