On 9/28/2026 at 7:27 AM, kanisatha said:

It's why Steam (and others) should do away with player reviews, because those reviews are worse than useless. They're often heavily manipulated.

I wouldn't mind some heavily curated player reviews, but the allowance of just anyone who purchased the game to review at the drop of an emotional hat, or allowing reviews that are "Couldn't get it to run, uninstalled, game sucks" and that's it, yeah, how helpful, I don't like that. I mean they have put in various filters re: review bombing at this point, but eh.

In a way probably better off just having a star rating players can give but no text input. :P Edit: also, shouldn't have thumbs up/down/cutsie award icon ability. I think some folks post reviews as popularity.

Edited Wednesday at 02:49 AM5 days by LadyCrimson

For me the text reviews are better option than having a stars. With text reviews, you have at least some chance to filter out some trash from the pool of reviews. It's impossible to filter out trolls from Stars or % reviews, and that can negatively affect my purchase much more, than bunch of Chinese players review bombing newest balance patch, because all forums, where other people communicate are banned there 🤷‍♂️

Anyway, pretty solid explanation, how Dawnwalker "urgency" works. I have to say, based on what I have read here from you, and this design review, I have found out, that I actually would like to see such mechanics to be used more (ideally bundled with "story mode" with disabled timers).

5 hours ago, Mamoulian War said:

Anyway, pretty solid explanation, how Dawnwalker "urgency" works. I have to say, based on what I have read hear and this design review, I have found out, that I actually would like to see such mechanics to be used more (ideally bundled with "story mode" with disabled timers).

would prefer new game plus with option to turn off timer

There is value in a large number of people with a wide range of hardware providing information on how software performs on it, so "didn't run - bad game" is a type of review I wholeheartedly appreciate as it helps me with my purchase decisions. If something indeed does not run or lacks crucial accessibility options, the developers can kindly go and learn to code.

I can find a deeper analysis of the story or gameplay systems after purchasing if I enjoyed the game enough to care.

I also can acknowledge that different people prioritise different aspects of the interactive art.

I find Steam is pretty reasonable in terms of aggregate reviews. If a game is mixed or negative, it probably isn't worth my time. It makes it easier to weed through the absolute metric ton of games we have coming out these days. I'm not going to treat them like gospel, but if a game looks interesting to me and has positive reviews, it makes it easier to drop a few bucks on it.

I've bought games with the "mixed" aggregate review status and have very much enjoyed those games. "Negative" I also will pass on, but "mixed" does not constitute "don't buy this game" for me.

On 10/2/2026 at 11:44 AM, Hawke64 said:

There is value in a large number of people with a wide range of hardware providing information on how software performs on it, so "didn't run - bad game" is a type of review I wholeheartedly appreciate as it helps me with my purchase decisions

You missed my point of "and that's it."

A review that goes "I have (cpu/gpu/O/S) and couldn't get this game to run. It starts to load and then (black screen, closes etc). I tried (a couple things) and then deeper research told me I had to have (this or that hardware or software version/update/thingie) and my hardware doesn't support (said thingie) (or I'm unwilling to update to said thingie). So for me this is a negative/I refunded." Or even more minimal, but something.

I'm fine with that.

"OMG THIS GAME WON'T START SUCKS" gives me zero information outside of "didn't start". For all I know, they're trying to run a new AAA game on a 20 year old PC or their PSU is 10+ years old and underpowered or they forgot they'd unplugged the internet or their PC is organized/maintained like a hoarders house. It is completely useless to me as to whether or not my own PC might have issues. It is simply a rant-spam. EDIT: hence why I would like more curated user reviews.

Steam did stick in, very recently, that feature where players can get that tagged info re: their system specs, and that's nice - but it's voluntary and most people don't use it, still. And it still doesn't replace the user actually giving more details about the problem they experienced.

But that is how my brain works. shrug :)

Edited Saturday at 08:20 PM1 day by LadyCrimson

2 hours ago, kanisatha said:

I've bought games with the "mixed" aggregate review status and have very much enjoyed those games. "Negative" I also will pass on, but "mixed" does not constitute "don't buy this game" for me.

I've bought games that start out mixed, go up to mostly positive, go down to mostly negative, then back to mixed (and so on and so forth). And I liked the game the whole time. Many games, after release, that Steam rating changes every month, for several months.

It's no different than film reviews (any format). Assuming it's a genre you know you generally like, one can never know until one sees/plays it.
The problem with Steam user reviews is it's too open (to abuse). There's a reason Netflix removed user reviews years ago. And a reason why people don't trust Amazon/other reviews anymore (fake review abuse etc). Does it mean all user reviews are useless. No. But if you aren't going to curate it, or have more limitations re: access, it's always going to end up a big sloppy mess.

EDITEDIT: Trying to curate steam reviews would be a mighty task, I also understand that. Although at this point they might be able to use AI for it, haha! One thing they could try tho is to separate reviews into at least two categories (and ppl would have to tag their review as such before being allowed to post it).

---gameplay review (must have 4-8 hrs gameplay time, or whatever)
--general or technical etc

A viewer can currently separate by positive/negative and a few other simple things, but it's still too broad.

Edited Saturday at 08:39 PM1 day by LadyCrimson