Community Content 5 Star Rating - Is it a good thing?

[jpf190279]

Ok lets start by placing all the cards on the tables and being totally transparent. This is not a complaint - what I hope to do with this post to give the community something to think about.

At the moment StarMade is gaining serious momentum partly from it official launch on Steam and the inclusion of veteran players into the inner development circle. This has all lead to some AMAZING additions to the game and all involved should get a well deserved pat on the back for their effort and dedication.

Now down to business, please consider the following scenario;

2 players upload 2 identical 3x3x3 grey hull cubes to the Community Content section
1 player rates 1 grey hull cube 5 stars while 1 other player rates the other cube 1 star

Now answer this, why?

In reality one would hope the review would paint some kind of picture as to why one piece of content was considered good and why another bad.

**Both players posted this cube to help speed up building of larger ships, in this context the content is flawless!**

Now consider the following, why would a player who posted the 2nd cube feel inclined to post any further content? They wouldn't, the experience of the poor rating with possibly no constructive/any feedback would be enough to put anyone off and rightly so. I mean consider the fact that in order to be rated a 5 star content publisher you must publish 5 star rated content each and every time without fail - lets be honest content with 5 stars tends to get more downloads and more attention. Consider something else, what if I was the guy that published the 1st cube but decided to rate the 2nd cube? Hmmmm things just got a tad more interesting

The point to the above is there seems to be quite a bit of negativity to how the current system works. Rating is at the minute entirely without context or fairness and is entirely open to manipulation, something I myself realised I could do if I wanted to be a dick (technical term :D).

Why even raise this? Well funny you should ask, the general jist of it is how do you encourage someone to do better when all you do is tell them they are crap? Well the answers pretty simply - stop focusing just on what they did badly and focus on what they also did well. Carrot and the stick approach and all that.

So why does any of this matter? Well shouldn't we be encouraging the community to post more content, I mean after all if more people post more content, that means more people playing, which means more promotion, which means more sales, which means more money, which means more of a happy cat! What it also does is showcases a more diverse cross section of content from a wider selection of the community. At the moment we have some great builders getting all the attention, and others struggling just to get a rating and when they do it is given without a second thought as to why.

One final thought, consider the following;

(Disclaimer - I am using someone else work as an example - don't sue)

Now without knowing anything about this content how would you rate it? I'll be honest I'd rate it by appearance only and frankly it wouldn't score very highly in that context versus say something from NuclearFun or SkyLordLuke for example.

But then;

Holy cow what just happened?! It's the same content but it transforms! Now with the context for the content properly defined we can rate the content in it's entirety and yes I did indeed give it 5 stars! Why... you try and build a transforming fighter that actually works and see how easy it is!

I am not going to post my suggestions here, I am leaving that entirely to the community to do... Maybe you're all happy with how the current system works, maybe not. Feel free to agree, disagree or tell me to shut up :p

*Hands the soapbox over to the community and steps back*

 

[SmilingDemon]

You are only able to rate a thing you at least have downloaded afaik

so that isnt stopping some one from downloading and then rating it in anyway he likes without even taking a look at what he downloaded.

that said i would love to see that the shown rating only includes given ratings associated with a review with a at least given base size.

and because of that being not the case right now i do not care much about "rating" .. but i do care very much about a written review
(constructively positive or negative dosnt make a difference )

 

[CyberTao]

As far as I'm concerned, anything less than 5 is worth something. 4 stars, 4.5, 4.9 even is worth a look because it means that there are actual reviews. Most people only download from the CC to look at ships, so it's almost entirely based on appearance as well. Toss in the fanboyism and you can figure out why I consider a solid 5 stars to be basically "not yet rated".

On another note, I'd rate that fighter/mech thing the same as anything by Fun or Luke. People have preferences as well, both of those 2 have a following because they advertised their stuff enough to gather the followings that like that kind of work, something that most people lack.

 

[Criss]

content with 5 stars tends to get more downloads and more attention

Well I kinda thought that was the point. There are some silly and honestly downright bad ship designs there. If the effort isn't there, why bother giving it a good rating?

What I want to see is more people rating ships when they download. Only like 10% of people actually rate stuff. Even popular designs will have no ratings. It would be nice to actually be asked to rate the last ship you downloaded before getting the next one.

 

[Visitor]

The matter's somewhat complicated and a problem that any kind of public rating suffers.

On one hand, like mostly everywhere online where the content revolves around certain community, there is a huge possibility that ratings in general aren't the best indicator of content's quality - many people do tend to see in favorably light content created by those they like or are somehow associated with, lacking objectivity. Same with negative ratings. Add on top of that we get different expectations, approach, more and less informed users who rate at different point of gaining familiarity with whatever they downloaded - and the fact that overall rating is an average of ratings of many people is only somewhat mitigating factor.

On the other, content noticeably exceptional does sway impressions easily enough to acquire better ratings on average while insufficiently described, unassuming and broken content - won't. The latter may make someone disinclined from producing more things, but that may be good - since, till they improve or find some particular nice - they shouldn't produce more of mediocre things. We have enough of those anyway, IMHO.

Someone whose work is appreciated - even if at times for wrong reasons - will create more quite often to appeal to whatever target 'audience' they have. That may be actually a good thing.

I'd personally wouldn't mind greatly if ratings would be removed, but at the same time I do recognize that they do serve certain role. The best way would be to simply keep in mind to not base one's decisions solely on ratings of other people, nor let ourselves get swayed by someone's past reputation. Take ratings as hints, read comments, keep on trucking. Rash, ill-informed and silly users will get swayed either way, the smarter kind won't judge something only based on what some other random user thought or expected.

What I want to see is more people rating ships when they download. Only like 10% of people actually rate stuff. Even popular designs will have no ratings. It would be nice to actually be asked to rate the last ship you downloaded before getting the next one.

I am not sure how well workable that'd be given that to my knowledge many people first download lot of content in bulk and after that they go through it at their own pace. I suspect that random popup asking for rating would be disregarded or even deemed annoying. The only method to ensure ratings would be some ssort of active encouragement or enforcing of ratings but then that'd affect fairness as I am pretty sure many would just click randomly to be able to move on or to acquire whatever boons would stem out of it.

 

[Drakkart]

i really hope crisses approach would find an ear. though i would hate demotivating people... and i don't praise stuff which obviously was not put any effort in it.