Play many Steam games that just blew chunks but you didn't want to say why as you knew
they were made by a one-man team and elaborating the reason for your negative review would do more damage?

It looks like Steam is starting to delete one word reviews but this is going to backfire in more detriment to the developers....

"Ok, so here's my honest review and video of all the horrifically bigoted comments, subliminals mocking the intellectually disabled, some hidden homophobia and a whole lot of climate-change denial, that most hadn't noticed, that led to my last one word review reading only 'No.'"

I'm having trouble parsing this.

As for deleting one word reviews, think about it. I can say a cheeseburger was good, because there were some basic criteria. But how one judges a game is not the same as one judges food. There's a massive amount more of values, subjectivity, and ideas at hand.

Final Fantasy is good on many accounts, but it's absolutely broken in many other ways.

Do I call it bad because some of the spells do absolutely nothing? Do I call it bad because the game is basically digital D&D? No. Overall, the good outweighs the bad. I can't just say, "Good" or "no" for a game. Even if it is obvious hot garbage like Ride to Hell or Bad Rats, there still needs to be reason given for why.

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Well, I will agree...if everyone did that for every review then the review system would break because I too inspect negative reviews to determine if the qualm has to do with aesthetics or subjectivity or if the game is actually broken or has some fault that the majority would agree with.

But some games...you can't offer more than a yes or no (and some ratings systems only offer those options).

And another thing has came to mind; a common tactic used for years by teachers is to make knowledge taboo because they know students will rebel and won't pay attention in class unless you use reverse psychology
On the same token it is sometimes best to let developers search long and hard for what they've done wrong that way they will actually take note of and see the problem for themselves; appreciating the discovery all the more than if it was just easily handed to them to challenge, forget and ignore.

You can't rate game on Steam unless you write a review, IIRC. So for those, who don't want to write long review but want their rating be counted, a one-word/sentance review is better than nothing.

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Pretty much.

What sparked this thread was that I had written a review for a game (forget the name) that played like Torchlight but with guns and the characters were all vermin.

The game functioned great and even worked out of the box the non Bill Brand game pads.
The graphics were good (although the game always had to be zoomed out so you could only witness the art during intermissions and such).
But I hate being cheesed
The game offered single-player but it was obvious that the developer was trying hard to force multi-player by spamming enough enemies that would be a perfect challenge for at least two players.
So here's the thing, a lot of these games are serving more as Rorschach tests than they are games
And these types of 'Please play with me' games usually read deep into the soul of the developers themselves.
I didn't want to embarrass the developer THAT much to call that out but wanted to express that I was aggravated
with the underhanded engineering attempt
so my review simply read 'Crap'

There was a bit of a stink about it and now whenever I plop a one-worder it gets removed or doesn't go live at all.

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It's difficult to encourage and reward new developers ranging from ages 12-24 on Steam because it's saying 'Great work guys! Keep that landslide coming in! We're all loving it!'

If these games where back on YoYo, where they belong, it would be much easier to offer praise considering hard efforts from young novices.

As is now I was going around saying 'I really hope that Marvel VS Capcom 3 comes to Steam' only to discover it had been there for six months already; washed away under a pile of smoo.

It took six months of wading through smoo in my discovery que before the que finally suggested 'oh btw there's also *this* but it might not be as enticing as "Troll Face Battles Chibi kids with Boobs Clicker"

Word.

Everything you wrote above is more helpful than "crap". I don't really see how calling the devs' work "crap" would be less of an annoyance to them than criticizing the game in detail. What's your main motivation in rating a game anyway? I can think of three possibilities: 1) inform/warn other players, 2) praise or criticize the devs' decisions 3) feeling self-righteous and self-important without really helping anyone, just wanting your opinion to count without actually having to explain it to anyone. A one-word review sounds like 3) to me; neither players nor devs will take it seriously, they'll just think you're trying to mess with the overall rating for no apparent reason and become suspicious of your motives.

That being said, I think it's perfectly possible to criticize a game for what it is without insulting anyone or making assumptions about the devs.

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Mocking the intellectually disabled... you mean retarded? What the fuck is wrong with saying retarded?! Civilization has become so pathetic and weak. If a game is utter shite, say so. Screw what the developer thinks, they created the pile of crap. They should be able to handle the criticism.

One word reviews should definitely be deleted. They don't have any use at all.

no, a long embarrassing review is better than just a thumbs down. The former has meaning, the latter is meaningless. If you want people to stop making bad games, let them know what is bad about it.

On the same note, an angry rant or "funny" review are just as pointless as the empty thumbs down. And it does not take you long time to say "I did not like the way quests was implemented, they did not make much sense in the context of the story and was very repetitive. I got bored after doing the same quest 5 times" - or - "the colors really clash, and it makes it difficult to distinguish between the background and the mobs, let alone knowing what is a mob and what is a friendly NPC. This made the game unplayable". Short, to the point, and it is criticism that can be worked with for the developers, and that customers can understand before buying the game.

Do you have a source for that quote? I enjoy reading into firestorms.

I have to disagree with the constantly cynical darthspudius, though. Sure, 'retarded' is another way of saying 'intellectually disabled', but it works all the same the other way around. If there are multiple ways to communicate ie. synonymous phrases; paraphrasing, then what's the problem?

edit: oh right, on topic. I'm pretty sure people who read the forums often know my stance on uninformative, one or few word reviews.

You suck.






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False much later edit : No. See ? It wouldn't mean anything. What, would I be criticizing - your avatar, or your forum behaviour, or your cooking skills, or the content or your post, or the form of your post, or nothing in particular because I'm in a general "everything sucks" mindset ? Would the reason be something you'd agree with ("hm, yeah, I should pay more attention to this"), or is it just our opposing opinion and tastes ("ah ok but that's precisely what I was aiming for, so, if they don't like it it's all the better"). Would I have a specific reproach, but not phrase it, because it would be hurtful ? In the void, you'd just have to fill the blanks with anything and its contrary. You could even be encouraged in the wrong direction (assuming you did too much of something instead of not enough). With no hint, it's meaningless, possibly counterproductive, and probably not less hurtful than the actual reasons - because some people are good at assuming even worse reasons.

I do think that arguing, rightly or wrongly, is always better. And if you have scrupules, just mind the phrasing. But just a nonspecific qualifier is just too random. It can mean many things you didn't intend. It's too much out of your control.

I love Quino. And one of his cartoons showed a street with a totalitarian-looking police force keeping a sardonic eye on everbody while putting up a panel saying "Guess what could be forbidden today". One-word reviews are pretty close to that.

Provide input for the Steam recommender.

I'm going to be rather blunt, but I don't think 12 year olds are supposed to be on Steam in the first place (legal reasons). And honestly, I can't see much in the way of any programs until around age 16 being of any notable worth. Steam isn't the DigiPen institute, after all.