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I believe that ROBLOX should use a system similar to Steam Reviews for the comments section of user-made places and games. It would reduce the visibility of spam and scam and it would also allow users to make more constructive comments towards games.
What is Steam and Steam Reviews?:
To put it short, Steam is a catalog of games and a platform for game communities. Steam Reviews allow Steam users to express their opinions on a game in depth and mark whether they recommend or do not recommend the game. Users can only make one review per game, though they are allowed to edit it, remove it, or change its visibility to other users. Other users who see reviews can comment on them, mark them as helpful or unhelpful, or flag them as spam. Reviews can also be sorted, but by default a "Summary" is shown including the most helpful reviews, recent reviews, and reviews by friends.
Since ROBLOX is so similar to Steam in the way that it holds a large inventory of games made by various people, ROBLOX should implement a similar system of reviews.
Suggestion:
1. Larger character limit:
Because only so much can be said in a ROBLOX comment, there is not a lot that a user can convey about his/her opinion. I can see this being a problem for extra-long spam, however.
2. Some sort of recommendation marker:
This would be used for game statistics and to very generally summarize a user's review. ROBLOX games already have a thumbs-up/down system, so why not attach this to reviews?
3. One review per person per game:
A user should only be able to make one review per game as it is basically a summation of his/her opinion on that game. Similarly, the current thumbs-up/down system only allows each user to one thumbs-up/down per game.
4. Editing reviews:
I would assume that users should at least be able to edit their reviews since games change over time. It would also keep users limited to one review, though this can be a problem when users change their reviews to remove any rule-breaking content.
5. Commenting on reviews:
A format similar to Steam Reviews would remove any chain conversations, so it's important that users still be able to comment on a user's review. Developers could be more direct with users who have made reviews, too.
6. Some sort of "helpful" marker:
This is probably the most important suggestion. Users should be able to mark a review as helpful/unhelpful, essentially placing the most helpful reviews in plain sight and moving the unhelpful reviews off of what would be considered the "front page" for a game's reviews.
7. Visibility and sorting of reviews:
As I just mentioned, the "front page" of a game's reviews should only include the most helpful and recent reviews, like Steam Reviews. Users should also be able to sort by "Thumbs-Up" and "Thumbs-Down" reviews. Reviews by friends would be another cool category to sort by, especially if you want to see what your friend thinks about a game.
Pros:
-More constructive opinions with a larger character limit
-Tying together comments and the current thumbs-up/down system with recommendation markers
-Reducing spam and scam by limiting each user to only one review per game
-Allowing users to express their changing opinions in the same place by letting them edit reviews
-A more direct way for developers to respond to a user's opinions with review comments
-Reducing the visibility of spam and scam with "helpful"/"unhelpful" markers
-Making it easier to view varying opinions and opinions of friends by sorting
Cons:
-Developers already get user input from the Game Creation and Development forum
-A larger character limit can be abused with spam
-Users can edit out rule-breaking content
-"Helpful"/"not helpful" markers can be abused to promote scam and spam or push down a good review
I cannot really speculate how hard it would be to implement this sort of system, but I believe that the effort would be worth it.
Thank you for your time reading my suggestion. I appreciate constructive criticism beyond a simple "Support"/"No support".
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comonkeyJoin Date: 2010-01-03
Post Count: 272 |
support, except for the one review per person. |
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comonkey, why don't you think that each user should be limited to one review per game? |
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Maybe the game developer can be like the "Master marker" of the comment section, and can override "helpful" scam so that it gets pushed to the bottom. Or the owner can just manually put positive comments at the top.
Flame war? Pour water on it |
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@sonic
But those are in comments anyways.
Plus they should make it like steam where you need 5mins of gameplay at least. Or change it so that its like 1hr or 30mins maybe so that bots won't get to the review section |
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@ColonelMufflebuns
A review isn't bad because it is negative. A developer could be abusive of the system if he/she was able to move down negative reviews that are actually constructive.
@sonickyle
Like smel111 said, that sort of spam and scam is no different than what we have already. However, a "helpful"/"unhelpful" marker would be used to reduce the visibility of it. I never said that this system would remove spam and scam entirely. I don't think any system can do that unless moderators manually pre-filter everything, which I doubt would ever happen.
@smel111
I wasn't sure if Steam Reviews actually required users to play a game before making a review. I like the idea since users who haven't played a game really don't have a thorough opinion on the game they want to make a review for. |
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@OP
Unfortunately, due to the type of players ROBLOX markets to (elementary to middle school aged kids), this will probably not be used to the potential it is supposed to be. There likely will be a few serious reviews, but the majority of them will be either trolls/bait or just illiterate kids rambling about how much they hate or love the game.
I wouldn't mind it, but I don't think it's that needed of a feature, besides giving scam games bad reviews (since they usually turn off the comments).
But, the ROBLOX blog and YouTube channel does occasionally give reviews on games, so if you're just looking for reviews that works too.
(I personally don't have a Steam account that I read reviews on, but:)
Reviews probably works better on Steam because there's more older players than younger ones. On ROBLOX, it's not really like that.
You just finished reading my siggy. |
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Good point Syke.
My main intent here was for developers who would be able to more easily gather user input regarding their games. I suppose that you could limit reviews to trusted members of the community, but I definitely wouldn't want to see this become like DevForums. |
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aaaa I'm so sorry I called you Syke I meant Skye, lol |
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lmao, it's fine
You just finished reading my siggy. |
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I know Skye brought up a good point as to why this may not be such a good idea considering the age group of most users. Does anyone else agree that Steam-like reviews wouldn't fulfill their potential on ROBLOX? If you do, is there a solution or would it just not be worth it?
I honestly would like to see ROBLOX try this just to see how well it fares out. Maybe Steam-like reviews would encourage more people to comment on games as opposed to how discouraging the current comment system is.
Thank you all for your input so far. |
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omg bump.
I still have questions unanswered |
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"why don't you think that each user should be limited to one review per game?"
more than one review per person wouldnt be bad because the game might become better/worse from an update
for example the stalker reborn (https://www.roblox.com/games/22865026/The-Stalker-Reborn)
its alot better than the classic stalker but it uses the same place as the original stalker so you can keep old save files from it
so if this happens with another place (assuming theres a review system when it happens) this could be a problem since some people wont be able to write a new review for it
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@jumpy
"4. Editing reviews" |
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Normally, I don't trust steam with reviews considering they overpraise games that shouldn't be that highly praised.
Gotta Go Gaming! |
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@Noob
Are you talking about reviews by players or the ones by curators? Curators seem to make overrated reviews all the time. |
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Curators.
Gotta Go Gaming! |
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MrEvBloxJoin Date: 2016-03-06
Post Count: 155 |
This is a great idea that will help new player choose games to play.
https://www.roblox.com/My/Groups.aspx?gid=2863277
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CPTAndyJoin Date: 2010-08-01
Post Count: 1253 |
Support. |
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