A rant. Greedy lootboxes, and a better way to do user reviews.

[Cerebralbore101]

RolStoppable said:

Cerebralbore101 said:

I agree with what you're saying, but I still think allowing inexperienced users to review a game is flawed. I don't care what some 16 year old kid that has only ever owned an XB1 thinks of his purchase. But yeah, I'm going to let these storefronts influence my descisions more than I have in the past. 

You are too paranoid about the influence inexperienced gamers have on ratings. It takes two requirements for them to really mess up an average rating:

1) They outnumber experienced gamers.
2) Their judgment, i.e. their score, greatly differs from the one of experienced gamers.

Number 1 is already a reach, number 2 necessitates that all of them think the same way which is just as unlikely as experienced gamers reaching a universal agreement. And in the case that there is widespread agreement, it's usually a correct assessment of a game's quality. Loonies can only skew the average rating if the total number of ratings is very low.

"I want the recomendations of my peers, people that have played at least five good games a year for every year they were alive past five years old. People that actively seek out good games, in the same way that a foodie actively seeks out good food. People that aren't limited to a single platform, or a few genres for their experiences."

I don't think the average user on a storefront has these qualifications though, and I think their judgement does differ greatly from somebody with these qualifications. 

Inexperienced users wouldn't need to all think the same way to affect the outcome of the score. If the average score for a game by a user without these qualifications is 6/10, and the average score for a game by a user with these qualifications is 8/10 then we have a problem. Keep in mind that you wouldn't need every inexperienced user to rate at exactly 6/10 in order to get an average of 6/10 by them. Some of them could rate it at 9/10, and some at 2/10, and some at 4/10. If the average review amoung them is 6/10 then the score still gets effected in the end. The same thing goes for the qualified users. 

What I'm trying to say here is that I only care about the opinions of the top 10% of gamers. People like you and me. People that have a passion for the medium that goes beyond just casually playing whatever seems popular. People that actively go out of their way to play old classics, so that they can have a better perspective on the industry as a whole. 

I know that sounds really elitist though.