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How much do review scores influence your spending decisions?

How much do steam review scores influence your videogame spending?


  • Total voters
    56
Self-Ejected

Safav Hamon

Self-Ejected
Village Idiot The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 15, 2018
Messages
2,141
/-/-/-/-/-/

Curious to know?
 

Mustawd

Guest
I’d say quite a bit. If the review score goes to negative, I don’t even look at it. If it goes to mediocre I’ll take a look and read the reviews themselves.

For me the reviews are usually a good indication if the game is super buggy or jist completely broken.
 
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Self-Ejected

Safav Hamon

Self-Ejected
Village Idiot The Real Fanboy
Joined
May 15, 2018
Messages
2,141
If a game is below 70%, it has more problems than just bugs. I've seen super buggy games with high review scores.
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Messages
1,909
Location
Hibernia
I've been burned again and again with games that were apparently the second coming of christ, only to turn out to be utter bollocks once I got to play them. Now I don't pay any attention to reviews, unless they're done by people whose interests align with my own.
 

Valky

Arcane
Manlet
Joined
Aug 22, 2016
Messages
2,418
Location
Trapped in a bioform
Zero percent. I look at gameplay videos online to see what the actual game it like to determine if I would consider it high enough quality to play.
 

ultra loser

Scholar
Joined
Nov 24, 2018
Messages
128
Why would anyone care about opinions of people who play mostly popamoles/indie shit/battle royale?

Zero percent. I look at gameplay videos online to see what the actual game it like to determine if I would consider it high enough quality to play.
This
 

Taurist

Scholar
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
108
They almost never do. Frequently hightly rated games are some indie multiplayer early access crafting trash, while great games can have mixed reviews because they dont support Ultrawide resolutions or some shit.

If I see poor reviews I do check out why though.
 

Luckmann

Arcane
Zionist Agent
Joined
Jul 20, 2009
Messages
3,759
Location
Scandinavia
I think the choices are fucked.

Reviews *do* influence my spending decisions in that bad reviews make me think twice about something I might otherwise have gotten based on sales-pitch/trailers/screenshots more or less alone, prompting me to inform myself why the reviews are shit.

But in general, they affect my decisions very little. I'd never get a game *because* it has high ratings. That'd be retarded.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I wouldn't know, I don't ever really look at them. Am I going to spend any of my time watching retards on youtube? Go to eurogamer or rock paper shitprose? When I could waste that time playing video games?

Half the people here have played RPGs for 20+ years, you'd think we know what we like when we see it.
 

otsego

Cipher
Joined
Aug 22, 2012
Messages
229
I've relied on community reviews such as the Codex to give me insight into purchases. Especially a place like here where I can form my opinion based on blatant fanboyism against blatant oldschool views that refuse to adapt. Not that I've used that as a 100% guide (I liked POE 1 and 2, bros).
Games Media Reviews(tm) often have little effect on me, ESPECIALLY if they are 90+. It should be obvious that newer TES and Fallout games are 60%'s at best.

My favorite games of all time have often fallen into the 65-80% range. (Vampire TM:BL, STALKER, Hitman, etc).

My favorite RPGs from the 90's often scored higher scores, but that was a much, much different time....
 

Belegarsson

Think about hairy dwarfs all the time ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Patron
Joined
Oct 20, 2015
Messages
1,261
Location
Uwotopia
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
High review scores don't matter much, low review scores do. Since review scores for games are highly inflated, there's an extremely low number of negatively reviewed games (i.e Underworld Ascendant) that you gotta be wary once you see one since games sitting at below 50/100 on metacritic tend to be fundamentally broken.

Meanwhile, high review scores usually display high level of production or polished value. Looking at my purchase history on Steam, I've bought over 10 games at launch, all of them are sitting above 65 and most of them are pretty in line with what I'd give them, the 4 exceptions are Vampyr (no way it's a 72, more like a 3/10), AC Odyssey (84, more like 3/10), Where The Water Tastes Like Wine (74, worth a 2/10 at best thanks to soundtrack) and Hitman 2 (it gets a 83 which is very good score but to me it deserves a 9+). The former 3 games share one thing in common: they're not outright unplayable games and have a degree of polish put into them, but I rate them low because they're mechanically boring and shallow.

Remember that you might like reviews or agree with criticisms towards a game and still like it. Treat reviews as a source of information, not what ultimately decides your purchases.
 

FeelTheRads

Arcane
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
13,716
I don't buy anything I don't "demo" first.

Review scores are usually determined by "best game ever" or "worst game ever" retards, so they're completely useless.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
16,947
Location
Pannonia
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
2pwuqs.jpg
 

Watser

Arcane
Joined
May 8, 2014
Messages
1,865,075
Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
Look at gameplay videos. If I like what I see I do a search for ">>insert game<< rpgcodex" to see if there is a discussion about the game here. Continue to gloss over a couple of the steam reviews and if the game still has my interest it'll go on my wishlist to then maybe buy it once it's 50-75% off.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
Patron
Joined
Oct 26, 2012
Messages
5,105
You can always look up gameplay videos. Or if you're desperate enough Let's Plays for that RAW footage.

Scores were always arbitrary and as such subject to shit like external influences. If you're going to put any stock in reviews just go by the written word where you can always read into nuance which goes beyond that hard number at the end. But really, only opinions that really hold any importance and you should take into consideration would be those coming from enthusiasts themselves or where people can openly discuss without fear of censorship or some perceived image they must uphold. Provided you're willing to sift through shit and become acclimated to the culture a bit that probably leaves you RPG Codex for RPGs and the likes of, I don't know, 4Chan for more general purpose opinions.

:prosper:
 

Turjan

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2008
Messages
5,047
Didn't find any answer to choose, so didn't vote. Positive Steam reviews are meaningless. Negative Steam reviews make me read the comments so I can see what the fuzz is about. That's about it.
 

Darth Canoli

Arcane
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
5,687
Location
Perched on a tree
Reviews scores are barely more important than your threads, Safav Hamon

It's not the scores that's important but some other factors
  • Is it turn-based ?
  • Is it going to run smoothly ?
  • Did the dev limit loading time enough for me to enjoy the game ?
  • Are they retarded useless features which are going to ruin the fun ? (like sailing + loading in Deadfire or the retarded traveling + camping = fatigued party members in Pathfinder )
 

Tse Tse Fly

Savant
Joined
Dec 26, 2017
Messages
622
If it's a game I actually care about, then I do read reviews, impressions, etc to know why exactly it's so good or bad. Sometimes I'm so confident I'll like the game that I buy it not paying attention to what others say. But if the game raises only mild interest for me, then it's quite possible I will disregard it if has bad/mixed ratings.
 
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