Steam and negative reviews V2

So, the last topic was revived by Pokerbat and got closed very quickly. Izzabelle kindly pointed out that "This is one of those cases where a new thread probably would have been best". So, here it is:

This issue is very important indeed. As user Pokerbat mentioned, after 8 months the giant and endless horizon of Starbound still looks the same.

Adressing the negative reviews on Steam I shall express my humble opinion:

The current state of the reviews on Steam reflect an average impression of Starbound. As most people on these forums are huge fans, we don't often read bad reviews here. Some of them are considered aggressive and are locked.

I don't agree that Steam reviews are mindless ranting and uninformed bashing. They are indeed impressions from normal people who have in principle no reason to AUTO-hate Starbound. We should listen to those guys aswell

Of course I am a mere peasant and know little of the plans of the devs, but I would suggest, from an alienated PoV, that instead of creating more and more content, you guys could focus one or two weeks to compile everything that's in acceptable state into the next build, test it in the unstable patch in order to release the next stable update soon.

This is not a mindless "when is the next update?" question, but a recommendation I would give in order to straight thins up with Steam reviewers.

The frequency and quality of created content that is published in the News page is really awesome. BUT, instead of creating more and more, right now I would patch up what you have and release it to public.
Maybe then the Steam reviewers would edit their opinions and the game would recieve, as before, much more positive reviews. With this sales would of course increase.

But then again, I'm just a random guy in a random country (who also happens to own a random small company and to administer the sales department )

 

User Reviews, in general, are almost always more negative than average. Why? Because random users must spend their own time and effort to post these reviews. These are people that are not paid to write reviews or to review games.

Human nature is to remember negative events much longer and much more strongly than positive events. Basically, if something good happens, it's a +1 that you remember for a week (maybe longer depending on how good it was). If something bad happens, it's a -10 that you remember for a month (again, your results may vary, but if it lasts longer than 4 hours you should see a medical expert).

With that in mind, how many users would say "Hey, this game is pretty fun, I'd better go tell the world!" And how many users would say "Wow, this game sucks / isn't what I want, I want to go vent my frustration and 'get back' at the people who made it and made me waste my time!"

We could also get into a discussion about the general age and maturity level of Steam users overall. Or about the emotional stability of the general Steam Community. If someone is more emotional, they will be even more affected by negative experiences, and more willing to lash out and post negative reviews. Hint hint.

Now for the nitpicking, please don't say things like "Sales would of course increase." There is no way to guarantee that, because there are way too many factors at play, including market saturation, quality of the next update, and how that content is received.

If you believe that releasing a half-baked patch will turn negative reviews into positive ones (implying that the users remember what they wrote AND are willing to change their opinions), and attract more customers, I semi-respectfully disagree. I don't own a small company, and I don't administer the sales department of any company, but this sounds like a very unpromising situation.

If you want an update to attract people and win back those who have walked away, it needs to be very high quality. A delayed update may be great, but a bad update (once released) is bad forever.

 

agree, thenew mods should be calm.
even terrraria got udpates this year.

 

I read some of the Steam reviews, very few of them deserve to be called that. Lies, half truth and the usual beating of dead horses would be a better description.

"Maybe then the Steam reviewers would edit their opinions and the game would recieve, as before, much more positive reviews."
This is steam we are talking about, basically a giant interchanging super community, it suffers the same issues as any forum but on a much larger scale so the trolls and idiots you find anywhere are ten fold.

You give people Jetpacks and Chocolate milkshakes and you can bet a large portion would bitch about the lack of cup holders on the Jetpack

 

That thought had crossed my mind too. While it is great to have news to read on a daily basis, it sure would help to release a new version. There is only one way to show that the game is not abandoned - to show that it is not to _all_ players with an update from time to time. And unfortunately the nightly builds will not really fill that gap.

I am disliking all these negative very emotional reviews on Steam to some point - I for myself know that sometimes it is better to wait and give others time - but I understand if people are angry about (what they feel) slow progress. How about at least push some good workking nightly build to the unstable branch?

 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

Nice points, I want to reply to some of them:

I agree that the average user review is always lower than a professional one. But they are as much valid as the paid ones. I don't really see why a lower average would disqualify it, because, by this logic, every game would have a lower average review from users than from profissionals. But if every game has the same offset, it is as good as anything for porpuses of comparisson between games! This make them valid aswell.

Actually I value more user reviews that professional ones. I rarely even read professional reviews anymore, as there are so many "hobby reviewers" on video websites that are enjoable and informative. Most platforms allow and expose users reviews aswell, which works for me better than magazines or dedicated gaming websites.


Again you are correct: I can not guarantee that sales would increase. However, when I'm looking for some game in Steam and I see only negatives reviews, I tend not to buy it. And I belive many people would do the same.
If a game has more positive reviews from users, I will be encouraged to buy it without the fear of being "ripped off".

As many of the reviews on Steam state the long time between stable updates, fixing this could indeed improve the average review score. Which, by my logic, would help with sales.

 

Sorry if I implied that user reviews are invalid, I did not mean that. They are generally not fake, but they are also generally much more negative than an unbiased review. So, if the average User Review score is a 4/10, I would assume that the game is actually a 7/10, and would look at the negative reviews to find useful examples that would influence me towards yes/no.

Would you mind posting or linking to some of the negative but constructive reviews from Steam?

 

2 things.

1: To be fair, the devs made a decision to finalize the included mechanics, implements them, and work aggressively toward that new goal to brings us closer to a feature complete game. The game would have changed over the course of that time period had the update been peppered throughout. But then the complaints would be that -- while there are many updates -- none of them feel like they're getting anything done. Lose-lose really.

2: Secondly. Reviews here, when they do show up, are not considered aggressive and are locked. Unless they are indeed aggressive. And by aggressive -- I don't mean that opinions were strong and passions ran high. I mean that if it was locked -- it's because the "review" was less of a review and more of an attack, flame bait, or moderation bait. Basically locked because instead of being a review that stemmed discussion and feedback it would be posted for the sole purpose of "stirring the pot". Which is not cool, and often breaks the forum rules anyways.

Also; about this thread...

Let's keep this civil. Follow the forum rules in this thread. This is an example of being able to have a thread in which to discuss some frustrations which could produce feedback and answers. But if it gets out of hand, this thread is not above the rules. You will be warned and/or banned for abusing the rules. Don't be that guy. Before you hit Post Reply, go over your post and make sure that you're not being a jerk.

 

I was trying to express my opinion more than a frustration and hoped to promote healthy discussion. I don't think I was a jerk and I apologize if I indeed was.
I read the forum rules and maybe I blindly crossed the "fine line between "constructive criticism" and "being a jerk" ". Hopefully won't happen again, sorry :-(

 

I'm not saying you broke any rules, or aiming that at you -- I'm saying that this thread is no exception to them, and that everyone has to follow the rules

 

The biggest issue with pushing content to stable is that in it's current state is that it's far too incomplete to be a coherent game. The placeholder mechanics for progression aren't in place anymore and the new ones aren't complete. Right now the FTL system in the nightlies isn't working. That would drive people insane and definitely not put the games "best foot forward" so to speak.

That community has made up it's mind that CF is using the idea of Starbound as a money making scheme. It's blatantly untrue.

What's worse is this community has a rivalry type of relationship with the steam forum users. The majority of steam users rile each-other up and after the 300th inbred review (I use inbred in the sense that no new ideas are being express due to stagnation and perpetual reinforcement from vocal, angry users), they get angry enough to make an account here and spew hatred/half-truths/lies in a double posted and highly insulting rant. Which results in us hating on them and them being instantly banned for calling the mods fascists or something similar.

This is all just my opinion and I don't want anyone to think I'm speaking in any official capacity for anyone but myself.

 

Woah, you didn't cross any lines man.

The Steam trolls will move on, they always do. The big update will do exactly what you hope and garner some positive reviews so even if it's done now or a months from now the effect should be the same.

.............and then we start the great circle of steam all over again

 

As a member on Steam, I find this thread insulting.

I wrote a review about Starbound, granted its a review on how the game stands right now. I am a gamer that thrives on progression. Beating quests, playing out a story, upgrading my character. Growing with my character. And honestly, as Starbound stand right now, it isn't these things. Starbound is a great building game, and a great demonstration of its mechanics. As everyone knows, the game will be getting a major overhaul and it will become the game that I want it to be.

My review states that if you are looking for these things in a game (progression, questing, etc.) to wait for this game to be completed before buying it. It doesn't state to "stay away from this game forever." It says to just wait for the right time to get it if you are looking for a certain type of game. For gamers who enjoy building great things, the early access is a tremendous amount of fun.

Please try to refrain from "labeling" members of steam. The people who have good criticism about Starbound are usually the most passionate supporters, and just want the game to succeed and be the game we all want it to be. Labeling the members of Steam is only breaking us apart as a community more. And I want this community to be awesome, because that's a major reason why this game will be great.

Don't segregate us more. Try to find ways to bring us together. Invite the members of Steam to play with you. Show them how much fun this game can be. Interact with them, instead of insulting them and pushing them away.

We all have the same thing in common. We love games, and love Starbound. Let's work together.

 

The steam forum users segregate themselves. It's not like were saying "you cant join us", the majority just refuse to come over here and read news. Also, as I stated in my last post, the ones that do come over tend to get loud and aggressive, spewing hate and vitriol.

 

The steam reviews can be whatever they want to be. Lots of people are very unhappy with Starbound; that's alright. A lot of them have good reasons to be unhappy. Some other people are just being jerks. Lumping them all together as just being out to ruin Chuckelfish is ridiculous and unfair. I mean, you have people who bought a game that was supposed to be released in 2013 and is now- maybe- going to be released sometime next year. Starbound's progress has done legitimate harm to many people's opinions of Early Access games as a concept. A lot of them have sworn off purchasing an Early Access game again because of this game and this developer. That's a real problem.

And there are a lot of people who are happy with Starbound. I'm settled firmly in the 'This game will probably be pretty rad when updates come out to fix it' camp. There are always going to be unreasonable jerks out there, but trying to disregard everyone who's unhappy as not having any legitimate complaints isn't the way to go. Post some positive reviews of your own to counter that opinion, if you feel like it, but it's silly to just ignore every single thing that doesn't mesh with your thoughts on the game.

 

The problem is the majority of steam users view it as a finished game and review it that way. If this was it's final state they'd be right but it's not.

 

In my mind, getting rid of the weekly updates was a very bad move. I for one loved them, and the fact that people complained about them is beyond me. It's the reason why people are complaining; lack of updates and empty promises. I know that we'll get more upates, but do these people? Furthermore, I'm a little impatient myself - it feels like half a year and no updates. THAT is not good for business, especially if you want to prove that this game is still alive and kicking. This is still a great game, but I don't want to come back to it until there's more content. I'm not one to like mods, so there's only so much I can do.

And it's a shame if this is locked, because it speaks the truth.

 

Last update was in April, 3 months != 6 months.

 

Lets face it,people would complain anyhoo,some would complain that the updates were too small,too meanignless,others would be anoyed by the frequency of wich they were being made(I believe Mods were geting kinda screwed y that)and in the end,noting would have changed,Haters would still Hate and Trolls would still troll.

Also,3 months aint 1 and a half years

 

Thread will only be locked if it gets out of hand. Also... the thread has some true rings to it, but a lot of it is still misconception or information without context so far.