I was just thinking about it and wondered... why do games need so many ratings before it's officially 'rated' and shown to have a rating on the download page?
This leaves hundreds of games left with out any score what so ever, despite having 3-4 ratings. What could go wrong if they're rated as soon as there's one rating? If some one rates 5, the game will get downloaded, and if it's no good it'll be down-rated straight away.
This means that the games all get a chance of getting a good score, because some people will only download a game once it's got a decent rating. I say you should post an average of all the scores combined, as soon as the game's rated once. I really don't see any reason to keep this current system of 'Only display the game once there are 6-7 ratings'.
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'
i have wondered this myself. almost all my games have over 100 downloads, and i think one has about 8 star ratings. none of them have an official star rating. i think the threshold is 10. thats lame.
That will ruin the top 10. It wont show the best (or TDC's favourite) ten games but 10 that just so happen to only have the one vote.
You might think it will be sorted out by people downloading it and rating but more games will fill in the gaps. There will always be a large amount of games that don't deserve to be in there.
Well, with that the Top Ten could still be based on the original formula, simply changing the download page to show average ratings for any game with ratings. And also maybe a symbol that indicates Top Ten eligibility.
1 vote at 5 stars is less than 100 votes with 4 stars. the rating system is not screwed its the algorithm. if there even is one. if not i'll be highly dissapointed in flava or clubsoft. whichever coded the ratings.
and that was kinda the original point. games with one vote 5 stars would get onto the top 10 yeah. but would be knocked down almost immediately.
But then the highest-rated downloads would always be the newest high-rated ones. Sure it would get knocked down, but it would be replaced by the next, and the true best ones would be always just below the threshold. Just show average ratings after maybe 3 individual ones, and keep the rating "in the books" so to speak only after 8 or 10 ratings have appeared. If a game is worth being in the hall of fame, it will be rated enough times.
'But then the highest-rated downloads would always be the newest high-rated ones'
You do know that the top 2 games on this site have been made within the last 3 weeks, right?
I don't see the problem with highest rated games being the latest ones.New gamers deserve a chance, if it means that it's the highest rated game on the site then so be it. We can't just have the oldest games hogging the lime light for ever, how else do you think that new games will ever stand a chance?
It's almost as if the 'top 10 games ever' list is more important than rating and playing new games. Honestly, the best games have had enough recognition with out having to be placed on the top ten list.
Flawed rating system or not, I believe that something has to change.
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'
Originally Posted by Jon Lambert Well, with that the Top Ten could still be based on the original formula, simply changing the download page to show average ratings for any game with ratings. And also maybe a symbol that indicates Top Ten eligibility.
Hey, I don't give two hoots about the ratings system and the "hall of fame." If a game's good, we'll play it and enjoy it... having it at the top of some paltry list doesn't mean anything. I'm just trying to think up a good system for the members who do care.
"This leaves hundreds of games left with out any score what so ever, despite having 3-4 ratings. What could go wrong if they're rated as soon as there's one rating? If some one rates 5, the game will get downloaded, and if it's no good it'll be down-rated straight away."
> That was done a long, long time ago. You're right, it would be downrated, but it tended to mess up the perception of games. A lot of rather average games got 5 stars (usually by the creator) and were torn to pieces by the old members. The pre-Rikus TDCers weren't exactly very polite
The 6-7 ratings thing works. If a game recieves enough attention, it gets a rating.
I think it should be lowered to around 4 ratings for normal, 15-20 different ratings to qualify for the hall of fame.
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.
'If a game recieves enough attention, it gets a rating.'
Yeah, the problem is that there are many games that don't receive attention. And some of those games are better than some of the games that do. Simply by changing the rating system a bit would help these games to get more publicity if they get a decent rating that they deserve. Their rating shouldn't be based on the number of people downloading them, or else somebody famous on this site would get all of their games rated even if they weren't as good as somebody who isn't as well known.
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'
If you want your game to get more attention, you could always post it on other sites such as Game Builder first. If the people on game builder think it's good, they'll probably tell their friends on TDC, so when you upload it to TDC, you'll get more downloads. ^__^
This is probably a lousy suggestion full of holes, but why not have a decent team of maybe 8-10 TDC members become official TDC game reviewers who know the right score for a game? Then the game would only need 1-2 ratings to get the official score to show up. Other members could review and rate, but it would affect the score much less than a reviewer's score. Gamespot and IGN have done it, it sounds like a fair plan.
If you want attention you should probably do more than just make and submit a game here. Have a project-page? Tell community friends? Release a trailer before-hand on the forums? Or maybe broaden your audience by post the link of your game at other forums you visit?