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dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,618
We've just updated the Epic Games Store with a new feature we know players have been waiting for—Ratings and Polls. These new features allow players to provide direct feedback to the Epic Games Store community for the games they're playing. Responses will populate the store product pages with information about games and apps, creating a better experience and helping players find games they're more likely to love.

After playing a game or using an application, players may find the Epic Games Store launcher requesting feedback at the end of your session. Let's take a look at some of those questions and how the system works.


Ratings

Our ratings system will ask random players, who have played a game for more than two hours, to give a rating on a five point scale. Here's how it works: Following a play session, random players will be offered the opportunity to score the game up to five stars. Over time, these scores will help populate the "Overall Rating" that will appear on the product's store page. Because these requests are randomized, we won't spam our players, and we probably won't ask about every game or app used. This approach protects games from review bombing and ensures people assigning scores are actual players of the games. Here's what a Ratings survey can look like:

the-epic-games-store-ratings-and-polls-update-ratings-1920x1080-e455284a32f4.jpg


On the left is an example of the questions, and on the right are how the results are represented.

Polls

Separately from ratings, players may also be selected at random at the end of a play session to answer a poll. For polls, players will be asked a question that relates to their most recent session. The questions cover a broad range, and will have a number of potential responses. Players might be asked to respond "Yes" or "No" to "Is this game good to play with a group?". Players could also be presented with a multiple choice poll asking "How challenging are the bosses in this game?". Here are a few of examples of how a poll prompt might look:

the-epic-games-store-ratings-and-polls-update-polls-1920x1080-7bb67e777df1.jpg


After enough players have responded to the polls, their answers will help generate tags for the respective product pages. These tags can be used to filter games and apps within the Epic Games Store. As these tags grow over time, they'll be able to inform players on content and improve discoverability—helping our players find more games to enjoy! Over time, the store pages will accumulate a wide range of tags from confirmed players that will inform the community about more aspects of each game's content. Over time, these tags will also populate our Category pages, and will be used to generate custom tag-based categories driven by our players that will appear on the Epic Games Store home page.

Keep an eye out for these as our players share their opinions about the games they are playing!

 

Atom

Member
Jul 25, 2021
11,490
Sometimes review bombing is important tho.

E: polls are a cool idea tho. But tbh I prefer just being able to read reviews.
 

SirKai

Member
Dec 28, 2017
7,395
Washington
The poll system looks pretty handy. I'd like to see that adopted for other store fronts in a more fleshed out way; in this iteration it looks functionally just like the tags system on Steam.
 

Risev

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,415
Can't wait to be randomly given the privilege of rating a game I paid for. Wonderful stuff.
 

Lord Fanny

Banned
Apr 25, 2020
25,953
The poll thing is interesting, but the rating thing is dumb as shit honestly. You might as well not have them if you're going to do that
 

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,387
Leave it to Epic to release a rating system several years into the lifecycle of its storefront and still get it wrong.
 

TubaZef

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,565
Brazil
It's an interesting approach, avoids review bombing and biased reviews, both positive and negative.

We'll see if it works out.
 

Launchpad

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,163
I know people will shit on EGS regardless and trust me when I say I hate the store too. But these are cool features. Making it random gives a good sample size and reasonably accurate rating I would think. Plus the polls are a cool idea also, but feel like they have less reason to be randomly selected.
 

Spence

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,119
Sweden
It's not very convenient to leave your feedback as you are done with a play session, most likely you have other shit to do at that point.
 
OP
OP
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,618
Rating system is basically useless, not only it's random and basically you need to wait to get invited but it doesn't say anything to you why game is good or bad.
 

chrominance

Sky Van Gogh
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,646
Sometimes review bombing is important tho.

Ensuring that people have played a minimum amount of the game and then selecting survey recipients at random is probably a smarter way to do this, though; it doesn't suddenly cut off bad feedback or anything, except in specific circumstances (i.e. game-breaking crash that happens before the two-hour mark, meaning the only people who can rate the game are people who made it past two hours). If enough people are running into a shitty issue, that should in theory still come through.

That said, I'd be interested to see how scores differ from Steam as a result of this approach. This method means you're going to catch a lot more people who don't really care very much about rating the game, which I could see going either way (people voting five stars because idk get this screen out of my face, people voting zero stars because WTF GET THIS SCREEN OUT OF MY FACE, people feeling kind of meh who normally wouldn't leave a review, but since someone asked them they leave three stars, etc.)

Oh, and I just realized these aren't REVIEWS, just ratings. Reviews are definitely more useful, I agree.
 

Miker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,019
Doesn't seem like the worst idea, but I'd prefer to be able to just leave a review if I want. It also depends on the implementation. If it's a separate window that pops up after a session, that'll be a hard sell because in the modern app ecosystem on smartphones, I instinctively dislike prompts like "Enjoying this app? Please rate it!"

Steam has a space for it in the client but it's unobtrusive. I also think review bombing sucks 99% of the time, but it's also easily filtered out via the tools Steam offers.
 

Kentsui

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,516
Bringing the 'would you like to rate this app' popup from mobile games right into your gaming PC.

Also their review bombing protection sounds awfully like biased reviews fed by you by some kind of algorithm, which might not be the greatest, but they can spin it so they can look like the good guys so you know ...

The Poll thing seems like it could be fun /interesting.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,648
Rating system is basically useless, not only it's random and basically you need to wait to get invited but it doesn't say anything to you why game is good or bad.
its just epic trying to act like review bombing is bad, and not the reason a lot of things have gotten fixed....

its also a great way to only get mostly positive biased reviews
 

XR.

Member
Nov 22, 2018
6,585
I can appreciate the "at a glance" themes that can help me understand what it's about, but otherwise I don't see the point. A number in a vacuum tells me nothing.

It's an interesting approach, avoids review bombing and biased reviews, both positive and negative.

We'll see if it works out.
What do you mean? There is no review in existence that isn't biased.
 
Aug 31, 2019
2,532
This is a really interesting approach. I need to think about it more but it's definitely trying something different.

Regardless I'm looking forward to a comparison between review scores / sentiment for games that are available on multiple storefronts in a few months or so, once it's populated out a bit.
 

astro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
56,982
Good that gestures are being added, polls look quite handy.

Really not liking this rating system though.
 

Bede-x

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,434
I don't want games to ask me anything and would be annoyed by pop-ups, but I would like to be able to leave a review, when I feel like it. Sounds like a poor system, Epic.
 

MrCibb

Member
Dec 12, 2018
5,349
UK
I appreciate they're trying something new but I don't think the rating thing is that good at a glance. I really like the poll idea though. Quick, easy way to get some basic feedback for use elsewhere.
 

RubberStamp

Member
Oct 27, 2017
455
Just to add to this, user reviews are also part of their "to do" list. Developers will be given the option to enable or disable those for their games

Trello

Organize anything, together. Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, know what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.
 

Jebusman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,088
Halifax, NS
Rating system blows if 60 minutes in I can already tell the game is a technical mess but I haven't committed long enough in their eyes to "maybe" be picked to let people know via a low rating. I have a feeling the system will be biased towards people with longer playtimes, who are more likely to rate it highly if they stuck to it that long.

The poll thing could be neat depending on what questions are being asked.
 

Mocha Joe

Member
Jun 2, 2021
9,373
I feel like that rating system would be better if it wasn't tied to being 2 hours or more.

What happens if a free game you just started flat out doesn't work for you? You can't leave a review then.
 
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OP
dex3108

dex3108

Member
Oct 26, 2017
22,618
And for example if game has 3 stars without user reviews you don't know why it has 3 stars. Those 3 stars tell you nothing about the game.
 

TubaZef

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,565
Brazil
What do you mean? There is no review in existence that isn't biased.

I mean the more extreme cases of people leaving bad reviews on games because it is "woke" or because the devs are "SJWs" or whatever, it happens a lot on Steam.
And on the other side you could have people from the studio rating it 5 stars to make it look better (though I don't see this as something as bad, but I've also seen it happening)
 

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,251
Small steps. Hopefully textual reviews aren't far off.

Feel like this approach is kind of reflective of a distrust towards players. Can't blame them entirely, but maybe just have people process written reviews before they're posted. Curation is half of their pitch, after all.
 
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XR.

Member
Nov 22, 2018
6,585
I mean the more extreme cases of people leaving bad reviews on games because it is "woke" or because the devs are "SJWs" or whatever, it happens a lot on Steam.
And on the other side you could have people from the studio rating it 5 stars to make it look better (though I don't see this as something as bad, but I've also seen it happening)
Yes, but these people still have the ability to vote, just without context. There's also plenty of reviews from the other end; where people point out problematic behavior of the dev/publisher to let people know what they're supporting.
 

0451

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,190
Canada
I get their intentions but now they have the problem of randomly selected players declining to rate the game and people who want to leave a rating not being given a voice. Also, people are not very honest when they are asked to review something on the spot like that. From what I've experienced, you get a lot of 1 or 5 star "Leave Me Alone Ratings" when you just prompt someone randomly to give feedback. Very few users actually put any thought into those because they are usually being interrupted and prevented from doing something else.
 

JEH

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,240
so if the game is completely busted at launch so few people are playing past 2 hours there will be no reviews?
 

Shadout

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,808
So, since it is random when you have played a session, it means the more you play a game the more likely you are to get to review it?
They dont see how that is really stupid? The reviews will be directly skewed toward those liking the game enough to return. Skewed toward the positive reviews.

If they genuinely wanted a fair review process without review bombings, the moment someone played a game for the first time, it should randomly be determined whether they would ever get a chance to review it or not, so it wasn't based on whether you kept playing beyond the two hours or not. It should probably also be available information how many was offered the chance to review the game, but didn't do so.
It would still be fairly silly however.
 

Lashley

<<Tag Here>>
Member
Oct 25, 2017
60,025
more bloat features

what will they add next, native controller support?
 

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,251
So, since it is random when you have played a session, it means the more you play a game the more likely you are to get to review it?

Maybe they have some things in place like higher likelihood of being prompted within the first hours of playing.

Another aspect is that based on their wording it seems you can only review a game if you choose not to refund it (since 2 hours is also the limit for refunds). There can be legitimate issues before the two-hour mark, like technical ones or maybe the game isn't that long and you have a sufficient grasp of what it's aiming for already.

A low score due to poor performance that gets patched later would also be counterproductive to display on a game page. A textless low score will not reflect that the issues have been fixed, for example. Like their adoption of Opencritic, I feel like this rating system is less than ideal in the specific context of the PC landscape.

Maybe don't ask questions, just get hype and consume more product.
 
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RubberStamp

Member
Oct 27, 2017
455
So, since it is random when you have played a session, it means the more you play a game the more likely you are to get to review it?
They dont see how that is really stupid? The reviews will be directly skewed toward those liking the game enough to return.

If they genuinely wanted a fair review process without review bombings, the moment someone played a game for the first time, it should be determined whether they would ever get a chance to review it or not, so it wasn't based on whether you kept playing beyond the two hours or not.
It would still be fairly silly however.

I don't think it works like that. My girlfriend and I play fortnite quite a bit every day but we haven't been prompted to review the game yet but I've seen other people post screenshots of getting the prompt so this is already under way for quite a few games.
 

Conkerkid11

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,969
Sometimes review bombing is important tho.

E: polls are a cool idea tho. But tbh I prefer just being able to read reviews.
Yeah, was gonna say... They're really just solving something that isn't really an issue, and they're doing it by using the same method Google Play (and potentially iTunes?) does it. Review bombing is often the only thing developers will respond to, and it's caused a lot of developers to improve their games.

It's better than nothing though I guess.

Rating system blows if 60 minutes in I can already tell the game is a technical mess but I haven't committed long enough in their eyes to "maybe" be picked to let people know via a low rating. I have a feeling the system will be biased towards people with longer playtimes, who are more likely to rate it highly if they stuck to it that long.

The poll thing could be neat depending on what questions are being asked.
This is a good point.

but the current Steam review approach just makes it far too easy for bad faith actors to push a narrative.
Do you have any examples of this happening though?
 

OnionPowder

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,323
Orlando, FL
Reviews aren't meant to protect developers. the concept of fighting review bombs is stupid. You play some awful game and get a refund and now your opinion doesn't matter? Fuck out of here.
 

Bigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,638
I like this approach and I'm curious to see how it shakes out.

I get that reviewbombing can sometimes be helpful if a game is straight up broken or has bad DRM or whatever, but the current Steam review approach just makes it far too easy for bad faith actors to push a narrative. Really curious to see if the random selection combined with the 2+hour required play time changes that.
 

Saladin

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 27, 2021
5,220
Another useless feature. Implement something that is actually useful and used among the users
 

SunshinePuppies

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 14, 2020
3,352
This doesn't seem very player oriented, it seems a lot more skewing towards devs which I guess some people will like and others won't
 

Musubi

Unshakable Resolve - Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,614
I really like the review system. Avoids review bombing.
 

elyetis

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,556
So, since it is random when you have played a session, it means the more you play a game the more likely you are to get to review it?
They dont see how that is really stupid? The reviews will be directly skewed toward those liking the game enough to return. Skewed toward the positive reviews.

If they genuinely wanted a fair review process without review bombings, the moment someone played a game for the first time, it should randomly be determined whether they would ever get a chance to review it or not, so it wasn't based on whether you kept playing beyond the two hours or not. It should probably also be available information how many was offered the chance to review the game, but didn't do so.
It would still be fairly silly however.
Let's be real, the fact it's skewed toward positive review is the intent.
 

eonden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,091
Poll mechanism is cool. The review system they chose (random selection, without refunds, and no text) is problematic in general on PC.