Reviewing modifications - your thoughts?

[Cozur]

Been pondering lately whether to review a project on moddb.

When giving a bad review of a regular game, most people think it's no big deal to, as long as you've stated your, very reasonable, reasons.

However, reading reviews of modifications, objections come pouring in, left and right, if the review is bad. As if giving a bad review on something free is frowned upon. Now, I totally think that giving a bad review for the wrong reasons is exceptionally stupid, but if the product in question is either A: Just plain bad (define that yourself), or B: Using stolen content, then I feel like a bad review is totally justified. It seems many people are of the opinion that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say it. I'm obviously not one of those people, but I would very much like to hear the reasoning behind it, as I feel I might have missed something crucial.

 

[Orion]

The only negative response you should concern yourself with is that of the mod author(s). I think feedback (positive and negative) is something most mod authors welcome.

 

[Seek n Destroy]

Having a look at the bad reviews of the mod I'm working on it's mostly "dosent work for my computer " "crash" "for 64 only?" "sucks" or "doesn't take in account my silly suggestions and I don't like the balance" kind of reviews. I had one complaining he couldn't play with 1000 troops on the battlefield and the usual "make more factions plox", even after you repeatedly told people that you can't instantly make a faction. So in general I get to ignore these kind of reviews and I never had some modder posting a detailed review that does benefit in some way. Other than the usual random person posting "suks" because it doesn't go the direction he wishes. I myself rarely write reviews as I doubt anybody would be reading it anyway but if you got a structured review that has a logical value go ahead even if it will most likely get buried in a cesspit of mindless rambling. Write your preview fair and structured (unlike my messages due to my terrible formatting)  is all I'd ask for even if I believe most of the projects that are in progress know of the issues they have to deal with most of the time.

 

[ColonicAcid]

Well yeah. The majority of people who download your mod/game are going to be playing it and probably never ever even bothering stepping on any feedback page. It's the small vocal minority who either a) The game doesn't work or b) Thinks their opinion matters that actually go on said page and write something.

 

[Sound Chaser]

I've always wondered who are the people who take the trouble to post things like "sucks". I guess they must be really pissed off but lacking in the self-expression department.

 

[Mr.Milker]

Having a look at the bad reviews of the mod I'm working on it's mostly "dosent work for my computer " "crash" "for 64 only?" "sucks" or "doesn't take in account my silly suggestions and I don't like the balance" kind of reviews. I had one complaining he couldn't play with 1000 troops on the battlefield and the usual "make more factions plox", even after you repeatedly told people that you can't instantly make a faction. So in general I get to ignore these kind of reviews and I never had some modder posting a detailed review that does benefit in some way. Other than the usual random person posting "suks" because it doesn't go the direction he wishes. I myself rarely write reviews as I doubt anybody would be reading it anyway but if you got a structured review that has a logical value go ahead even if it will most likely get buried in a cesspit of mindless rambling. Write your preview fair and structured (unlike my messages due to my terrible formatting)  is all I'd ask for even if I believe most of the projects that are in progress know of the issues they have to deal with most of the time.

Pretty much the entire experience we had with TLD. I recall exactly one review where the guy gave us a 6 and explained what he thought could be better, otherwise it's a lot of 9s and 1.

 

[Seek n Destroy]

Is the scaling system so hard for people to grasp? I'd never give a 1 to a mod like The Last Days, for me it's a rating only a modding abomination or a mod that steals resources would deserve so in general I think reviews in moddb are pretty useless content wise, for modders and players alike. One says "great" and one says "sucks" but none explain the reasons so you're left wondering as a player if it's worth playing or not which is not really an issue compared to the creators that will be left wondering about what is great and what isn't. I find the comment section not so practical and generally filled with meaningless posts or at least is what I believe from most of the mods I've been tracking. After a certain time you really feel like ignoring it so if you think about writing a review be it positive or negative make it stand out by being informative, cite the pros and cons, the things that should receive some attention, etc... If it's to write great or sucks it'll just be one among the way too many lazy reviews.

 

[Duh]

The main problem i see with ratings on sites like moddb is that folks rarely go back to review their rating after a mod has been updated - potentially fixing the issues they have had with it or improving the mod overall. Luckily the continous development tends to net you new ratings, which balance things out.

 

[Cozur]

The main problem i see with ratings on sites like moddb is that folks rarely go back to review their rating after a mod has been updated - potentially fixing the issues they have had with it or improving the mod overall. Luckily the continous development tends to net you new ratings, which balance things out.

I've noticed this on ACOK a lot, but also getting a lot of bad reviews from people using pirated versions of the game.

Anyhow, the main problem I have with sites such as moddb is, that you can have a score of 9 with 1000 reviews, or a score of a perfect 10 with just a single review. Ideally, such sites should only let the public see the reviews after 100 or so have been submitted.

 

[Slawtering]

This seems a bit of a random question to ask...

 

[Cozur]

This seems a bit of a random question to ask...

Why? There are plenty of reasons not to want to give a bad review. When I've done it in the past, it's often backfired, with the recipents either spamming me with messages on this or the moddb forum, or telling people to down vote my own project.

Ideally, you could do anonymous reviews on moddb, but that's out of the question.

 

[produno]

Heh, i had a feeling this was about my mod, you seem to be going to great lengths to try and dirty my modification. You must feel really threatened.

Thanks for the review http://www.moddb.com/mods/a-world-of-ice-and-fire/reviews i certainly hope your going to re-review once the project is out of Alpha, a concept of which it seems you dont understand.

At least this time youve done it on your own account and not a fake one you created. Kudos to the ModDB moderators for quickly removing that and confirming it was infact you that created the account, not only consolidating my opinion of you but everyone elses. Pretty childish imo and not really something a self respecting mod creator should be doing, but yeah i forgot, your not too clued up on the concept of respect either.

You mention stolen content in OP, what stolen content would that be?

 

[ColonicAcid]

Oh boy.
That was... Just wow. Cozur I am dissapointed.

 

[Duh]

Heh, i had a feeling this was about my mod, you seem to be going to great lengths to try and dirty my modification. You must feel really threatened.

Thanks for the review http://www.moddb.com/mods/a-world-of-ice-and-fire/reviews i certainly hope your going to re-review once the project is out of Alpha, a concept of which it seems you dont understand.

At least this time youve done it on your own account and not a fake one you created. Kudos to the ModDB moderators for quickly removing that and confirming it was infact you that created the account, not only consolidating my opinion of you but everyone elses. Pretty childish imo and not really something a self respecting mod creator should be doing, but yeah i forgot, your not too clued up on the concept of respect either.

You mention stolen content in OP, what stolen content would that be?

Nothing here mentioned you or your project. The only one who even raised attention to it was you.

But yes, mod creators should rather not rate other projects as its rarely helpful and often makes all involved look bad.

 

[Untitled.]

Why are all the on-topicers huge dickwads? It doesn't matter who is right and who is wrong, they're all obnoxious to each other all the time.

 

[ColonicAcid]

I dunno, off-topicers can be just as obnoxious and holier than thou as on-topicers.

 

[produno]

Heh, i had a feeling this was about my mod, you seem to be going to great lengths to try and dirty my modification. You must feel really threatened.

Thanks for the review http://www.moddb.com/mods/a-world-of-ice-and-fire/reviews i certainly hope your going to re-review once the project is out of Alpha, a concept of which it seems you dont understand.

At least this time youve done it on your own account and not a fake one you created. Kudos to the ModDB moderators for quickly removing that and confirming it was infact you that created the account, not only consolidating my opinion of you but everyone elses. Pretty childish imo and not really something a self respecting mod creator should be doing, but yeah i forgot, your not too clued up on the concept of respect either.

You mention stolen content in OP, what stolen content would that be?

Nothing here mentioned you or your project. The only one who even raised attention to it was you.

But yes, mod creators should rather not rate other projects as its rarely helpful and often makes all involved look bad.

Read between the lines. He creates a fake account to downrate my mod, he gets caught out and it gets removed from moddb. He then creates this post, which he then shortly afterwards rates my mod a 1 with his own account. It doesnt take a genuis to work out whats going on here.

Not to mention he got me shortly banned from these forums because he didnt like a comment i made, of which i still currently hold the scars (watched) under my name.

I just find it all pretty childish, but kids will be kids.

 

[Untitled.]

I dunno, off-topicers can be just as obnoxious and holier than thou as on-topicers.

Yeah, we're a bunch of elitist ****holes. But sabotage and reputation-smearing I have never encountered over here. Drama in general is close to nonexistent outside of the occasional peak in trolls and minor squabbles between forumites.

I just find it all pretty childish, but kids will be kids.

I find your posts in this thread equally childish, if I may be frank. Yeah, it sucks that people will do that. It also sucks that people will spill the drama over to where there previously was none.

 

[produno]

I just find it all pretty childish, but kids will be kids.

I find your posts in this thread equally childish, if I may be frank. Yeah, it sucks that people will do that. It also sucks that people will spill the drama over to where there previously was none.

If someone has a problem with me, which he clearly has, then i will confront it. Ive PM'd the mods yet it continues and they dont seem interested, so what else would you suggest?

The OP is blatently about my modification, he also states accusations of stealing etc. Not only i but others have also put hours and hours of work into creating something free for the community, so if my reaction to someone blatently trying to distaste the effort gone into that and the passion i have for my work and others is childish to you, then yes i am childish.

I can only appologise to those that have to witness this facade put on by Cozur but i did not make the thread, i only posted in retaliation to what is aimed at me.

 

[Lumos]

Why would you do that, Cozur? I've played neither of the ASoIaF mods in question as I don't really have time for any mods unfortunately, but even if everything you're saying in your review about produno's mod is true, then this makes you look bad. It's like if the best student in your class back at school flaunted his top marks on that super-hard exam whilst everyone else had scored mediocrely - doesn't help your reputation, makes you look infantile and petty and so on and so forth. I mean, you're in the position of power, right? If your mod's got everything better, then you're the baws. But giving other, less developed mods bad reviews just because they're not done, and that stuff is not yet fixed and whatnot, is simply dishonourable and speaks bad of you...

Oh boy.
That was... Just wow. Cozur I am dissapointed.

I wholeheartedly agree. I expected more of you, man.