I think this has gotten brought up before but is it possible to lockout rating games that haven’t released yet? It’s not the biggest deal but to me it doesn’t make sense first of all and it arbitrarily inflates the score for something that the rater has not experienced yet.
If not, no worries, just an idea.
The idea I’ve come up with that I think would work the best would be to just not count ratings that have been submitted X number of days before the release date of the game. If I did do that, I don’t know if it’s something I should make prominent (put up a message or something when someone tries to rate a game early, or put something on the help page), or just kind of silently do it.
I think it’s kind of the best of both worlds. It lets people put in their ratings to make their sentiment known, but it doesn’t screw up ratings.
I think that would be a great idea. I don’t want to rain on someone’s parade for this but at the same time, how many times do people go back and adjust their rating if their predication doesn’t come true? I’m assuming not that much and people who are actively looking at playing a certain game shouldn’t make the assumption that the rating isn’t valid if that makes sense.
I don’t think you need to make a big announcement. To my mind this is a pretty minor change.
This also used to be my assumption, but later I realized that some people have early access to certain games, and it’s impossible to know that it’s not something they haven’t experienced. I have been in that situation. While I don’t tend to rate games that I had access to before release, I can see a situation where someone might want to remind themselves what they thought when they initially played the game. So I agree that Peter’s solution is a good one.
I don’t disagree, but I think the number of people who rate a game prior to release is very low, and their rating is likely statistically insignificant once enough people rate the game. I empathize that you don’t want the average to be skewed, but I think you needn’t worry because the effect is likely negligible.
In those instances, I understand but one of the first messages I saw this morning on the feed stated specifically, “We all know it is going to be a 5 star.” for a game that only has a rough year estimate for release. That is what prompted this thought in the first place.
Oh, lol I just saw what you mean. To play devil’s advocate, they are totally right about that.
FYI, I just happen, very coincidentally, to be wearing a Hornet t-shirt at this very moment. So take what I say with a grain of salt.
I want that shirt! I also want that game to come out!
I bought both the Hollow Knight and the Hornet versions. They look great, but they also seem very well made. It’s totally worth grabbing one.
I will probably be picking it up as well seeing as how polished and charming Hollow Knight was, but I will reserve my rating for now. lol
This was something that kind of irked me. Although admittedly, I never accounted for preview builds or press builds/keys, but I’ve seen games rated well before a release date is even announced for it. If it’s a press key/build there’s no way of proving it. And then if they are rating it based off an alpha/demo build, it’s not really a rating that holds much weight to begin with.
I think the idea to not count ratings prior to launch is the better way of doing it. I don’t understand why someone would want to do it even if they had played an alpha build, but it’s always good to keep options open for everyone & I like that idea.
