Community Steam Reviews - Your preference, usage and interest?

[xist]

I'm curious as to how others regard the reviews that populate Steam. When Epic announced that reviews were optional there was massive outcry (well, vocal anyway) but do you actually use the reviews on Steam for advice? Or have they devolved so much as to solely provide an outlet for dissatisfaction and review bombing over questionable business practice? When considering writing reviews on Steam it also seems that there are two broad camps - the "Review" and the "Recommendation". The former being somewhat in the minority when looking at Steam as a whole but mirroring reviews that would be found on gaming sites, whilst the latter merely that, a recommendation to buy or not buy. With the binary system it also seems Valve errs towards the recommendation side, although they term them reviews when asking for contribution.

What do you want, or even expect when you visit a game page on Steam? Will you actually read a longform review from a Steam user? Or do you just want a short info burst? When you're writing a review for a game what stops you from fully committing to mirroring a piece of real journalistic evaluation? Why don't you write reviews? I ask because personally I generally write for myself...of course I have to feel that I can actually write something about what I feel, but going the recommendation route would seem to be taking the easy option. Anyone can knock out a few lines, but it takes time and effort to write something more detailed, and as a result I put much more weight on those reviews, and even end up sending friend requests to the authors that touch me. I expect I already know the general answer that will form but have at me!

(sorry, couldn't think of any relevant eyecandy to pretty up my thread...)

 

[MonthOLDpickle]

I use them all the time, the chart is especially nice as you can see trouble spots and bombs too. I skim for keywords to help also find legit input, negative positive. I would say it has some impact on my purchase but not heavily.

It hasn't devolved. It is like the forums, there are good and bad. Erring up is the better choice too, as I believe its beneficial

I think though they need to make it where you not just own the game to review it, but you must keep the game in your inventory to keep the review or something. This is related to bombing, dunno hwo to get around it. The chart helps, but I wonder how many people know about it. I fear most people don't even see it.

 

[Mor]

Ok, this is a very interesting thread and yeah, as a person who uses the review system a lot I will give my impression and how I use.

First things first, I think the review system is one of the best tools that a customer could have, the option to give your own opinion is just essential and the Steam approach IMO is the correct one (if you own the product, you can review it) however this system is easily exploitable and that's why is not really well seeing by some devs and some other people, there are a lot of things that I would change but my approach would not be the correct and it would not be an easy task to change this system as big as this one, there must be an equilibrium between the power of devs and the power of users.

How do I use the review system? I have a personal rule, once I have finished a game I will make two reviews, one short on twitter with the game page and the other on Steam, almost immediately, and the ones on Steam will always be as constructive as possible while being totally personal, if I loved the game I will say so and if I didn't like it I will say so too BUT I will explain WHY so if the dev wants can get my feedback.

If everyone used to use this tool as intended I can assure everyone of you that we would have really great communication channels with the devs directly where the game is, but this is not the case sometimes. If I had to ask you something it would be, please, use this system, it helps the dev, it helps the users and in general it will help you to say what you gotta say, but please, be always polite, constructive and personal.

 

[xist]

the chart is especially nice as you can see trouble spots and bombs too

Good point...I totally overlooked the chart indicating positive/negative review density over time...that's actually a really useful tool for a brief check on consensus over time and how things have changed.

once I have finished a game I will make two reviews

Do you do this for every game? I have to admit I sometime feel a little discouraged by games that have a megaton of reviews as yours will just get lost in the masses....if you played Skyrim for the first time today, would you feel compelled to write a longer review on Steam or just post your impressions on Twitter? (and that's actually a good idea...I barely use my Twitter account for anything...)

Recently I had a comment from the Primordia dev and it made me inordinately happy despite not really saying that much, so dev's can really encourage reviews by being active on their review pages.

 

[Durante]

I write reviews for games I care about, and I also really appreciate the review system when checking out less popular games.

E.g. I commonly buy games on Steam that get absolutely no mainstream (or even forum) coverage. For those games, I can still gather some impressions from Steam user reviews.

It's not even that every review needs to be exhaustive or well-written to be useful. Just by glancing over them I can generally get a pretty good idea of what the game is like and whether the faults pointed out by people would bother me -- and in a very short time too.

 

[Mor]

Do you do this for every game? I have to admit I sometime feel a little discouraged by games that have a megaton of reviews as yours will just get lost in the masses....if you played Skyrim for the first time today, would you feel compelled to write a longer review on Steam or just post your impressions on Twitter? (and that's actually a good idea...I barely use my Twitter account for anything...)

Recently I had a comment from the Primordia dev and it made me inordinately happy despite not really saying that much, so dev's can really encourage reviews by being active on their review pages.

Yes, essentially because I make all the reviews thinking on my friend list that will see it on the Activity window, I know this public reviews are much helpful on indie games but yeah, I don't care if people like it or react to it, as long as it has been helpful for someone, no matter dev or user, and for my own experience I have seen this is something that happens so yeah, I'm always happy to give my point of view

 

[Dragnix]

I write them all the time and usually from the YT standpoint, it brings the most dedicated of people who will watch your reviews and quality. That's the thing,, when you do find a decent reviewer on the steam forums, they can be pretty consistent and will be really useful for you.

The problem with the reviews in general however is that the filters they have are painfully basic. I want abilities like to filter out reviews with less then 50 words, or the ability to focus on ones with gameplay init. Like most of the rest of the Steam store, it's just more painful to use then it really should be.