Quoting: Doc AngeloI just checked the game list on GOG. Roughly 100 Games have 5 stars. roughly 1500 games have 4,5 or 4 stars (ca. 750 each). There are 2500 entries on GOG. The more you get into the lower territory, the more you get DLCs, digital goodies or sound tracks in there. So it doesn't look like there are 2500 actual games on there, but a lot of the lower rated entries is just bonus stuff.

That means the majority of the games on GOG have either 4 or 4,5 stars. For me, that's not really helpful.

How is that not helpful?
It means that the majority of games on GOG are good or very good in the opinion of their players. Which nobody would doubt, as they have a VERY thorough selection process - the opposite of Steam.
If they allowed all kinds of crap on their store, I guarantee you you would see a very different picture.

Besides, the overall rating of a game is pretty much irrelevant.
Nobody should give a flying f**k about what the mass of other people think. Most of them don't have your taste, so it is simply not important - at least if you don't play games to impress other people.

Sure, there may be people buying solely based on the average rating score, but I've never put much interest in the habits of idiots.

What is important is the single reasons people give for their ratings.
You have to read a number of reviews and check the reasons people give to come up with an informed opinion your own. In Steam, that means browsing a load of reviews as there are only two ratings to find some good ones.
On GOG, you can quickly look for a review of each rating, which gives you a much better impression.

Either way, I hope the very least Steam does is to allow posting of reviews without ratings.
Those are where the interesting analysis can be found. Or could, if they would exist.
I don't care if those neutral ratings would affect the overall rating or not.
But what truly bugs me is being unable to write reviews for so many games as I simply couldn't rate them just good or bad. And, of course, the terrible review editor itself, which is some awkward pre-WYSIWYG kind of thing.

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Quoting: Doc Angelo

Quoting: TheSHEEEPSpeaking about reviews, I seriously hope they will remove that thumbs down/up nonsense, since many games simply aren't that clearly good or bad. A simple 5 star system would be much better.

I'm not sure about this. A while ago, I've read about rating systems, and that many professionals are saying that the 5 star system has failed. Looking at Amazon, almost anything has 4 and a half star. Most people give it 5 stars if they like it, some give 4, and people who didn't like it are giving 2 or 1 stars. Additionally to this, no one really knows where the "baseline" is. How do you rate a product you find to be neither good or bad, but sufficient? 3 stars? Or rather 4? Or 5, because you had no "problem"?

If I remember correctly, those professionals said that Thumbs Up/Down systems work better, because the emotion behind both options are stronger, and people wouldn't vote up if they didn't really like it, and people wouldn't vote down if they didn't have a substantial problem with the product or service. In the end, statistically, the result should be more fitting and useful.

Ah... "professionals".
There is no problem in most people giving something 5 stars and 4 if they like the game. What else would they vote?
Someone who likes a game, but thinks it isn't perfect will give 4 stars. If it is a close thing, 3.

Strong emotions are the very last thing you want when you are looking for traceable ratings.
Those "this game sucks" or "best game ever" reviews are a plague. Speaking about that, I'd also simply forbid rating shorter than 500 characters or so. There's no need for and no use in low effort reviews.

You also cannot compare wordless Amazon ratings that are done after using something once (for the most part) with a review written after hours of playing and analyzing something.

Only two review possibilities have the incredible downside that something can only either be very good or very bad. For many games, that just doesn't work out.
The result is that you almost only get reviews that are super positive or super negative or leave the reviewer with a very bad feeling because the rating doesn't reflect the actual situation.

Just look at GOG (or any other service, because I think it is pretty much only Steam doing the "only good or bad" rating system) to see how well it works.
You get far more variety in reviews and a much better glance at what people think.

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A lot of things about the Steam store are ridiculously sub-par.

Take the review functionality.
You still have to write BBCode there, FFS! No WYSIWYG, no shortcuts...

Speaking about reviews, I seriously hope they will remove that thumbs down/up nonsense, since many games simply aren't that clearly good or bad. A simple 5 star system would be much better.

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Quoting: ArdjeCan we turn around the filter to say that I only want games with a sexual content?
I am not a fan of violence though :-).

Whaaaaaat?!
But then you will miss out on Rapelay! What a loss ;)

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Quoting: Eike

Quoting: TheSHEEEPI don't get this problem.
Whenever I go to Steam, I simply don't see any of these shovelware games outside of the "new releases" tab. I rarely to never have them suggested to me in the queue, they do not appear in my front page suggestions and they certainly aren't recommended by curators I follow.

Well, I followed the new releases filtered by OS for quite some time - and stopped doing so...

That seems to be an extremely inefficient method of looking for games.
I mean... even if Valve filtered non-games like asset flips, there would still be a dozen or so new games per day, if not more.

There are simply too many new games - and proper games, too - coming out to be able to check them all out.
I really don't see an alternative to a filter based on curators you follow and games you already own and played.

You cannot seriously expect Valve to not allow those games just because most among them aren't YOUR taste.

Quoting: GuestTake the recent Active Shooter that was taken down, according to Valve they have done many asset flips on Steam in the past. These are not games, things like asset flips exist purely to grab money from the foolish.

There are always two people to blame.
He, who rips off.
And he, who is stupid enough to be ripped off.
Both deserve each other.

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Quoting: TheRiddickThe only thing that bothers me is the cheap ass asset flip games that have no enjoyable characteristics or game-play at all. I guess its not terrible if they sell them for $1, but they are kinda deceiving.

Quoting: BeamboomThat store needs more curation, not less. And I don't give a flying F if I miss out on one speculative piece of junk in that process. Let the junk be published in shacks outside the main stores.

I don't get this problem.
Whenever I go to Steam, I simply don't see any of these shovelware games outside of the "new releases" tab. I rarely to never have them suggested to me in the queue, they do not appear in my front page suggestions and they certainly aren't recommended by curators I follow.

Even if Valve WOULD control what goes to the store, my experience would be pretty much identical.

If you're browsing deals of <5$, you obviously get what you asked for.

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: TheSHEEEP

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: GuestThe other Linux compatible games added to the June bundle are :
- Bear with me collector edition
- Yooka Layle

I'd consider paying 10 euros for a package deal with just these two games, but the monthly subscription format just rubs me the wrong way.

You can just get the monthly, get the games, and immediately cancel it. And then activate it later if another deal you like appears. It's really simple, I did that a few times already.

I know. I just prefer paying for games I actually want instead of buying bundles that may or may not contain nice games. I guess I'm not a gambler?

Games in a bundle are revealed as time goes by.
If you buy very early, then yes, it is kind of a gamble.
But simply wait until the timer runs out and you know what's inside.
Nobody forces you to get a bundle early before everything is revealed.

Don't ask me why they do that late reveal stuff, though. I also find it weird.

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: GuestThe other Linux compatible games added to the June bundle are :
- Bear with me collector edition
- Yooka Layle

I'd consider paying 10 euros for a package deal with just these two games, but the monthly subscription format just rubs me the wrong way.

You can just get the monthly, get the games, and immediately cancel it. And then activate it later if another deal you like appears. It's really simple, I did that a few times already.

Oh, about HoI 4, if you plan to get it because you expect something similar to Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis, don't.
Every single thing in HoI is about war, there really is nothing to do in the game besides that. Research for war, tech for war, build facilities for war, trade for war, choose war politics ...
Which is fine if you like that, but I was pretty disappointed that the game was so... single minded.
I prefer if war is just one of many aspects in such games.

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I just wish there was Total War: Warhammer 2 on Linux. Still don't quite understand how the first game is on Linux, the new TW:Britannia is, but TW:W 2 still isn't.
Puzzling.

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I didn't expect this to have a full-blown campaign.
Well, it's in my wishlist now. We'll see when I get around to it!

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