this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Gaming
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Genuine question, why the Steam reviews matters at all?
They're a good gauge of a game's quality; it's not rocket science is it?
Quality, no. Reception, yes. These two things aren't necessarily the same.
Not necessarily, but there's some correlation. Games widely praised either are quality games or they resonate with their audience in some particular way, which can be itself an indication of value. Conversely a game that is widely panned might have some significant flaws or be lacking in some fundamental way.
Sure, there is always the odd Garfield Kart meme and some controversy skewing that. But because lists of reviews are easily available on the store page you can look at what is it that the other customers are praising or criticizing, and make your mind based on whether you see merits in these opinions.
Overall, even if you don't trust popular opinion, it's still a very useful tool. Frankly, often more useful than mainstream game reviews that tend to be overly lenient with triple-A publishers, and neglect indies.
An individual review does not matter too much (unless it has good text), but an overall score can give a hint. In example if a game gets a lot of flag from the users of recent reviews, than something is going on. It's always good to have a way of user reviews alongside the media outlets. You can even see if the game got for free (on paid games) and how long the guy played it at the time of writing the review. And it should incentivize developers to work on the game. Better than having nothing, like on Epic Games. User/Player opinions are not welcome there at all.
Thanks.
To know whether the game is good or bad.