Reddit
Some people rate but don’t comment. My thoughts.
Personally, I don’t care half as much about getting ratings as I do about getting comments. And not just the positive ones, but any constructive comment. The comments I get on my game are mostly constructive, so that’s amazing.
It isn’t always easy coming up with something to say about the game you’ve just played and rated, but everyone has spent hours and hours on their game over the weekend, and we didn’t do it just because we were bored. Perhaps we wanted to learn, perhaps the theme inspired us, perhaps there was something we just really needed to say with the game, but there is always a reason, and because of this, there is always something to say. And if there isn’t, perhaps we havn’t given the game enough time.
Why are we rating each other’s games? The first reason should be that we’re interested in what other people have done over the weekend, but if I’m honest, for me that’s only part of it. I’m also rating other peoples’ games because I want my game to be played and commented on as well. I can only expect that other people rate games for that same reason.
The voting system makes games with less ratings, by people who rated a lot of games more visible. But what this system measures is ratings, not comments. I have been playing games, I have been rating them, and I have been thinking of something to say for every single one of them. Sometimes I said what I liked and didn’t like, and sometimes I just commented on the way the theme was used, if that’s what stuck out for me, but I left a comment either way.
I was going through this proces of rating and commenting on games, and noticed my game had appeared on the front page again. I was happy, waiting for karma to do it’s work.
5 people rated my game, and then my game left the front page again. I was excited! What did the people who rated my game think of it? I clicked on my game and scrolled down for the new comments.
No new comments.
Of the 5 people who rated (and presumably played) my game, none of them left a single comment. Needless to say I was disappointed. Was my game that uninteresting? Did it not work for them? I’ll never know, because they didn’t leave a comment.
And just like that, the sense of community I always feel when entering Ludum Dare, got just a little bit less.
I don’t know if leaving a comment should be required. I can understand some people are perhaps too shy to leave a comment. But leaving a comment should be encouraged! With the way the system is now, your game is only on the first page for a minute at most. Sometimes you’ve rated and commented on quite a lot of games to get there, and to see that your game is once again practically invisible between the 1400 other games, without having received even a single comment was a bit depressing.
Perhaps the system should check for comments, and not just ratings?
(to clarify: 32 people rated my game, 20 commented as well. More than 1/3 did not comment.)
Once the voting gets into full swing, and games I play have 30+ comments already, and my thoughts have already been summed up, then no, I’m not going to leave a comment.
I love the new voting system, back in the day it was depressing playing 100 some entries and only getting 5 or 6 votes, now everybody gets what they put in, and if you do your coolness duty you are guaranteed to get a decent amount of feedback.
That’s the point, everybody does not get what they put in. If leaving a comment was required, then yes, you would get what you put in. You comment on other peoples’ games and you get comments back. Now you can rate and comment on other peoples’ games, and all you get back can still be ratings. Ratings are not feedback.
I think the system is a huge improvement as well, but it encourages rating games as quickly as possible, not leaving comments.
Well, to be honest I doubt you would get more feedback. Instead your game wouldbe flooded by “what others said” and “good job” comments, without any meaning. Your Comment2Ratings-Ratio isn’t that bad either. Only 33 of 67 reviewers left a comment on mine (~50%). I already rated and commented on 91 games so my comment to rating ratio is 91:67.
I did not try to say that my comment to rating ratio is especially bad, because I did check and it really isn’t, but being someone who has commented on every rated game so far this and last LD, the percentage did surprise me.
I often do repeat parts of what other people have already said, but I do that because it is my opinion, not because I agree with someone else, if that makes any sense. I often don’t even read other comments before I comment.
“What others said” is a bad comment, because it can’t be that everyone said exactly the same thing. “Good job” serves no other purpose than make the creator feel good (which is not as helpful as critisism, but not unwelcome, really, if the person who says it actually means it, and doesn’t just post it everywhere to fill the comment requirement.)
When you specify what you agree on with other people, however, that can be very helpful. One opinion doesn’t make a truth, but multiple similar opinions form a clearer picture.
But you are right, that’s very likely what would happen.
i can feel your pain.
i always want feedback on the posts i make
I always comment, it has its own reward as I’ve had a couple of people return the favour and review my game. So from commenting you can stand out from the 1400 others. I also always try to play the games of people who comment mine. Still it is sad to see you have more ratings and none of them had even written a line.
I think that the Coolness sort should be taken out – it encourages people to game the rankings. Already someone has over 200 reviews. At 5 minutes per game (which I assume would be the minimum to review a game fully), that’s nearly 17 hours of playing games – or they are just gaming the rankings. Slower reviewing would lead to more, thoughtful comments.
That’s a bit drastic. Coolness is a way to give recognition to those who go above and beyond in reviewing, which I think is necessary. It’s possible that the account that got 200 reviews is a Jam account that was used by many people.
That’s another thing, taking the effort to comment shows that you not only played the game, but took an extra step and thought about what the creator tried to do and how he succeded at that. It’s easy to rate a game with your gut. I need less than 10 seconds after playing a game to rate a game in every category based on what my gut is telling me. It’s when I try to comment that I start to realise certain things about the game that I didn’t before. And if I can’t come up with anything to comment on, I do play the game again, because perhaps I pressed that exit button just a little too fast. This is likely personal, but forcing myself to comment prevents me from judging a game too fast.
(But I do like the coolness system, I think people who do put good effort into rating and reviewing, and still manage to play 100 games, really deserve to be mentioned that way.)
I have 11-12 comments and 23 people rate my game :/ I try to always comment even if my English is not very good. (I’m french). And I try to test all people’s game who comment mine
I think the system is working fine right now. I also appreciate comments more than ratings but I realize not everyone will want to leave a comment, especially if what they were going to say has already been said. I leave feedback on each entry I rate even if I repeat what has been said just to reinforce it. If only a couple people say they like something, that’s different from 20 people saying that.
My rating procedure is:
1. reading the journal
2. reading the description on the entry page
3. play tha game some times
4. rate and comment
5. go through other comments
I’m with you. Commenting is the most important thing both because you need to pay attention to the game yourself – learning from it ofcours – and let the creator learn from your experience. I always leave a comment and I don’t care if someone pointed out the things I’m saying before.
P.s.: I’m telling you this thing isn’t just here. On my YouTube channel the same thing goes as well. No comments and no likes. I don’t know if I am doing right or not…