Steam and negative reviews.

Has anyone went through and read a bunch of the negative reviews on Steam? I'm finding them hilarious, full of uniformed people that can't grasp the concept of a beta or playtesting a game. These type of people spread false (usually issues that are already fixed) information about the game.

In short every single negative reviews consist of:
- Game sucks/boring (Less than 1 hour logged, how can anyone judge a game with only .2 hours played)
- Game crashes can't play (Over 20 hours logged, some even playing right now)
- No multiplayer/can't host server (It's been documented that you need to open a port to host)
- Game is unbalanced/unfinished (Did they miss the huge "play the game as it's being developed" on the Steam store page?)
- Terraria is better (I don't see how anyone couldn't see the massive potential Starbound has over Terraria. You can't compare a game that has been released for a year, and had somewhat steady updates, to a game that isn't even content complete/released)
- Minecraft rip off (You can't rip off the sandbox genre)
- The game deleted my progression/character (OK, not quite yet, but it's going to happen soon!)

How do these reviews make you feel? Do you feel like they should of waited a little longer to release the beta? How about kept the beta on the official site/standalone download only, and waited until Stage 2 to release on Steam?

Personally, I have a very hard time understanding how people, in this day and age, don't understand that the game will change dramatically over it's development cycle. These people are kind of a curse when it comes to indie pre-released games, forcing devs to delay betas or risk bad information getting spread.

 

well, there is nothing you can do about it... but seeing SB is still topseller on steam i dont think this negative reviews hurt at all...

 

Hopefully there are people out there that actually manages to read the huge text saying early access and beta, and understands that the game can be unbalanced and have issues. But hey, it's selling great, so I wouldn't think the negative reviews does much anyway.

 

They are the voice of few. I wouldn't worry too much, some people give bad reviews simply because they can. Others don't understand that this is early access beta and want the full game right now.

 

and to be fair, some people may just honestly dislike the game - you cant please everybody

 

Loved what i got to play, downside is i got the HAL error so i cant touch it again >.>

 

The hell is this, Steam or Metacritic?

 

I think it's because these days people look at a beta and think "Demo". Also people are stupid.

 

Most of those people are manchildren. Pay no attention to them.

 

Honestly, I think it is because no one in the world takes Steam reviews at all seriously. At least I don't take them seriously.

 

1. Game was probably too hard for them or maybe the genre just wasnt for them. Nonetheless just because it aint their genre isnt really a good way to judge a game for sucking. Sadly they have the possibility.
2. Can sorta understand this even with 20 hours logged but I havent crashed myself. Nonetheless there may be some issues with certain hardware or programs they arent aware off. Would probably have been better if they chose to give proper feedback rather than write it in a review tho.
3. Can also be a problem. People want easy hosting. You click the button "start server" and it should start without you having to mess with your ports. Still a silly thing to complain about in a review tho but I can sorta understand it being mentioned. It aint an issue for me tho just sorta trying to look at the general population.
4. These people I find a bit stupid. Not much else to say really.
5. Fanboys looking down on the game thinking its a rip off or a copy of another game which they liked alot. Would call them terraria hipsters. Nonetheless people are entitled to their oppinions.
6. Dont think they thought much about what they wrote.
7. Can understand people getting annoyed because they didnt understand what was written. It woulda been a good idea from the devs side to make sure a person who buys this game will 100% understand the message that their progress can be lost during the beta. I went through forums for information and found out about this so it aint a problem for me and I also understood it. Im also looking forward to the wipe with excitement but at the same time I can sorta understand individuals who didnt as they werent directly told.
Gotta remember theres individuals with different mindsets out there and a message you may understand, can be something someone else might look at as gibberish.


Nonetheless I personally feel its too early to judge the game but if they get the chance to do so even if its beta then people will do so nonetheless.

 

I hate to say it but look around these forums. Many people are either seeing "beta" and thinking that this is is, this is the game almost finished, or they didn't even get that far and consider it to be finished because it's for sale (on steam).
This isn't the first game nor is it the last game that this has happened too on steam.
I don't know about other people but i feel steam is at fault for not having a separate section for "alpha/beta" games. You see Starbound right on the front page
when you sign in, alongside Assassin Creed and other "finished" games and yeah, what do you think most peoples impressions are?

We could argue that they should read first then buy but steam is misrepresenting; both parties are at fault.

 

It's a good idea to never pay any attention to user reviews ever under any circumstances no matter what. Out of hundreds you're lucky to find a single review that is anything other than GAEM SUKS. It just isn't a good way of getting information about games at all. At their best, they're highly biased, and at their worst you can't even read it through the horrible spelling. Seriously don't bother. And if anybody's dumb enough to bother, they probably won't make it past the title screen anyway.

 

i dont think it is too much to ask from a customer to take 5min! and read the actual text on the storepage before spending any money on something. also the blue early access label is rather dominant imo

 

This is partly the fault of many big gaming companies doing early releases of their mostly finished games for publicity and labeling them betas. In fact this is the first time I have ever had the honor of being in what I would define as an actual beta where the game hasn't solidified and things (other than bugs) can still be changed at the behest of the players. (A very good thing).

 

You sound like this guy: http://kotaku.com/5886259/creator-says-if-fortresscraft-is-a-ripoff-so-is-minecraft

 

Honestly? I would not mind if each and every person that does not take the time to at least learn the necessities before making any sort of opinion are castrated or have the ability to reproduce removed, permanently. While it isn't wrong to be a fan boy or to be critical of something, anything, it is always better to be informed. The more informed people are in general, the less corporations, the government, or anyone else that is in a position of power can exploit you.

 

Having worked many years in customer service, you would be amazed at how much of that job is spent reading out to people what is already written somewhere on the packaging or the massive signs the store has.

 

I am glad that you can see how many hours the "reviewer" has played prior to writting the "review". The game is clearly on early access too, so people don't have the right to judge it at this stage yet, except from maybe letting people know what bugs and inconsistences to expect before buying it. "Ripoff of minecraft" has to be the most amusing one. "Oh, noes! Someone has made a game that's kind of similar to another game that i love to death! What tragedy!" Don't even bother taking these "reviews" seriously at all.

 

Almost everything in existence is copied from something, if people didn't copy others then we'd wouldn't have many of the fun things we have now. Minecraft, Terraria, Starbound, and all the lesser known sandbox games can peacefully live together and each be great games.