Are User Reviews A Reliable Metric Of A Game’s Quality?

[UleTheVee]

I'm going to say what I think here.

I won't pretend like people know what they talk about most of the time because it's been proven many times that not even us critics know..

If critics who are supposed to know about the media they are criticizing aren't competent enough to do a good review. Then why would a random user know what they're talking about? A lot of people either tend to be consumed by their own hype and tend to be blinded by the truth. Much like how @Alyxx pointed out: Opinions change a lot and a lot of people don't take certain key aspects into consideration while making their initial judgement.

On 4/25/2019 at 7:11 PM, kingpotato said:

I prefer critics reviews for the same reason, one will think fan reviews are more sided to the truth since they are not getting paid for the review but lately many angry butt hurt gamers will talk shit of a game just for any dumb reason. True critics are getting paid for reviewing the game so in one way they have to talk nice about it but I found critic reviews to be more complete. 

So you'd think I would be more lenient towards criticism made by media outlets.. However.

On 4/25/2019 at 3:27 PM, skyfire said:

I think so to some extent. But some are biased based on the influencer getting paid. I think that skews the data. And gaming industry suffers from problem of negative review issue, one youtuber giving negative review can avalanche the momentum in the industry. 

This is the ideal that people have begun to be drawn to when it comes to the subject of "User Reviews" or "Reviews" in general. A lot of people think that an Influencer tends to be part of someone's payroll in order to review the game, as seen below:

On 4/25/2019 at 11:10 AM, killamch89 said:

Most times, User Reviews tend to be mostly accurate because it isn't influenced by a bias towards certain companies because they are on their Payroll. Critic Reviews are the ones that I don't tend to trust because of their bias towards individual companies.

So, what's the best conclusion someone can draw from this?

Well, obviously read the reviews from someone you trust and let your own experience be the judge of whether or not you can actually enjoy the games by yourself. Users don't really know much about what they're talking about because most of the time, opinions can change and people only look at face impressions rather than something on the long run. Some professional reviewers don't take multiple audiences and the long-term gain into consideration either. As such, I always tell people to trust whoever they think will give the adequate judgement and to make a judgement of their own regardless of whatever any critic has to say.

If you enjoy the game, it's a good game. Nobody will take that away from you. However, people also should learn that enjoying something doesn't make it good automatically.. That's why we have to reach a common consensus based on opinions drawn by the masses and critics alike.

[The Blackangel]

5 hours ago, UleTheVee said:

You didn't. You just decided to make more claims to pass off as fact instead. Not only that but you aslo put words in my mouth yet again by stating that I thought that the AVGN was "The god of video games". Not only that but you also dodged the original question and didn't expand on it in a worthwhile manner because like I said before, the examples you showed off were purely wrong.

I even challenged you with an example of my own (Sonic 06) which you also didn't respond to. So yeah, for an expansion that was pretty lackluster.

You repeatedly pull the same stupid shit, which gets old quick. There's no point replying to every game you post, because you just keep posting more and more games for me to comment on. You assume that I have played every game you want to bring up, so that you can make yourself feel better. And you did try to make AVGN appear as the be-all-end-all of video games. You're back peddling and trying to cover your own ass. You're a flat out fucking idiot. 

[Executor Akamia]

7 hours ago, The Blackangel said:

You repeatedly pull the same stupid shit, which gets old quick. There's no point replying to every game you post, because you just keep posting more and more games for me to comment on. You assume that I have played every game you want to bring up, so that you can make yourself feel better. And you did try to make AVGN appear as the be-all-end-all of video games. You're back peddling and trying to cover your own ass. You're a flat out fucking idiot. 

I probably shouldn't get involved in this, but... no, the context of AVGN's mention wasn't to claim he was the be-all-end-all. He was mentioning a counterexample. James Rolfe is "one of us", if you will, and an example of a particularly prominent figure disliking the game.

Incidentally, I don't know if Rolfe himself actually hates Street Fighter 2010. The Angry Video Game Nerd, like the Nostalgia Critic when it comes to film reviews, is a character. As I understand it, Rolfe himself does enjoy some games the Nerd hates, though unlike Doug Walker, Rolfe isn't in the habit of giving even an unscripted, out-of-character review after the fact. Actually, I'm not sure even Doug does that consistently... Oh well.

While there are often actual criticisms in the shows, the actors don't always hate a game/movie as much as their characters do. The entire point of AVGN is to emphasize the negatives of a game, to the point that in early episodes, he rarely had anything good to say. NC does this sometimes too, but from what I've seen, not nearly as much.

Over time, both shows struck a balance and started resembling regular reviews, from what I've seen of recent stuff, skits aside of course. Street Fighter 2010 was an episode where AVGN was definitely in his "heavy emphasis on the negative" phase.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Executor Akamia

[Excalibur]

I think every review must be taken as one person's opinion, whether that be a regular user or paid reviewer, everyone has their biases, some intentional, some unintentional, collectively user reviews can be helpful but even that is not infallible, that's why it's important to get as many different opinions as possible from as many sources as possible, if your on the fence about something. With review bombing, both negative and in the case with Ubisoft and Assasin's Creed Unity, positive, reviews might not always be indicative of the game itself, but of the company or companies behind it, so take each review individually and see if they have valid reasoning for their review, mostly any "review bombed" review can be easily identified, so if the reasons behind a game being review bombed aren't a concern to you, then ignore those reviews.

As for the practice of review bombing, mostly of which is used negatively, i understand and like the idea of customers having a voice, and it has an effect to be sure, it also does help make others aware if there are some major issues, they might not have been aware of, but it also does make it more difficult for those who might not care about the issues, so perhaps there is a better way to be heard, i don't know, but it does work, as it hurts the bottom line when users are turned away by the bad reviews, and that's what companies tend to listen to, anything that hurts the bottom line. So, I think that is important too.

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by Excalibur

[UleTheVee]

6 hours ago, Excalibur said:

I think every review must be taken as one person's opinion, whether that be a regular user or paid reviewer, everyone has their biases, some intentional, some unintentional, collectively user reviews can be helpful but even that is not infallible, that's why it's important to get as many different opinions as possible from as many sources as possible, if your on the fence about something. With review bombing, both negative and in the case with Ubisoft and Assasin's Creed Unity, positive, reviews might not always be indicative of the game itself, but of the company or companies behind it, so take each review individually and see if they have valid reasoning for their review, mostly any "review bombed" review can be easily identified, so if the reasons behind a game being review bombed aren't a concern to you, then ignore those reviews.

As for the practice of review bombing, mostly of which is used negatively, i understand and like the idea of customers having a voice, and it has an effect to be sure, it also does help make others aware if there are some major issues, they might not have been aware of, but it also does make it more difficult for those who might not care about the issues, so perhaps there is a better way to be heard, i don't know, but it does work, as it hurts the bottom line when users are turned away by the bad reviews, and that's what companies tend to listen to, anything that hurts the bottom line. So, I think that is important too.

 

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