All games are not created equally. Some are tech demos, others are full games. Some are 10 minute fun wasters, others are week long epics.
Is it fair that they are all based on the same 5 star system?
Why should games which have taken years to make be rated on the same system as a game which has had a couple of hours work put into it?
Sure, for people who make short and simple games it's alright, but for people who look to use the power of MMF2 to make more than just quick flash-style games, it's unfair. Sure, games of remarkable quality are still noticed, but often not by much.
I'm not saying that the type of game is chosen by the people who submit the games, but rather by the people on the website itself.
I don't want to suggest a rating system where you choose 'graphics', 'audio', 'gameplay' 'replayability' or anything (Though I'm not exactly against it either...) as it's possible to over complicate things, but at least let people choose from a drop down menu regarding the type of game when they rate. (ie, demo, tech demo, simple game, complex game). Split this site into categories. I know you can already sort by genre, but it's not the same thing as class of game.
Don't aim for perfection- you'll miss the deadline
'~Tom~ says (16:41):
well why does the custom controls for the keyboard palyer even affect the menu controls at all whats thep oint jsutm ake it so for the keyboard palyer on the menu screens everything is always up down left right enter regardless of the controls they set'
Because, in the end, ratings don't actually mean anything. People obsess over them WAY too much. All they are is a way for individuals to express how they feel about a download. If someone rates a download 1 star, it doesn't feel nice for the creator but the chances are it doesn't mean anything, and it's only a little image of a star anyway.
People need to stop complaining about the 'bad rating system' and start enjoying the games instead of caring what others think all the time.
But. In the end this is just about rating behaviour: if a player rates a minigame 5-stars, and an epic game as well 5 stars, this simply means he or she enjoyed both games equally (based on usually short time of evaluation). So they are equally good games in his or her opinion, if you simplify a bit.
Of course the result might be different if the player would spend more time with the games, but as long as the votes have been casted, that's the "truth". Small game can be better than big game - extensiveness of the development process itself doesn't have anything to do with the value the game creates for its user, 5 very fun minutes can be better than 10 very boring hours of gameplay. And we all should appreciate people's varying opinions on which is a good game and which is not. From game developer's point of view that is often a different game than from gamer's point of view.
I've thought about that too. It's a very good point. I don't want to spend 5 years creating an epic game which gets rated the same as a game made for a 1 week compo. In fact, my game which I spent 3 months on (10 hours a day, 7 days a week!) was rated lower than some of the ones for the Tourey compo.
But it's not what the site is about. TDC doesn't recognize games by epicness. It recognizes games by how good they are the day that it was downloaded, not a month later. After all, the big thing in TDC is Game of The Week. Not the month, not the year.
It's not really a bad thing. After all, as the URL says, it's about creating games. TDC is a launchpad for newbies, not experienced game makers. If games were rated by lastability, the whole community would die out eventually, because newbies would be so frustrated at the ultra-high standards. There should be a klik site for more advanced klikers, but as it is, other klik sites are happy with cloning TDC and then dying out.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
I reckon that all games should be based off the 5 star system (if we also adopt a regular user based recommendation system), but maybe introduce categories too? Big, small, demo. 3 clear groups which give an example of how much time you'll be playing them for (or how long the creator has spent making them).
though I do see Codemonkey's point- people should stop complaining about good games whilst rating up bad games.
Don't aim for perfection- you'll miss the deadline
'~Tom~ says (16:41):
well why does the custom controls for the keyboard palyer even affect the menu controls at all whats thep oint jsutm ake it so for the keyboard palyer on the menu screens everything is always up down left right enter regardless of the controls they set'
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