I read JGrundy's thread on the importance of not being afraid to give bad ratings to games and thought it apt - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/238480


Well put, Joe, as usual. This really goes to the heart, I think, about what ratings are, and what they are not. I wrote a review, for example, of Starcraft, titled "Best multi-player war game ever? (9 of 10)" and had someone ask why I only gave it a 9 when I thought it might be the best war game ever. Because I generally prefer other types of games. Duh.

In addition to writing reviews here, I also have one published game, through a small game company (and another on the way in by mid-2008 by another small company). I decided to start a new thread about what game designers (and game publishers) actually think about this - we are the ones most effected, after all. I'm not trying to restrict comment to only designers/publishers, BTW. Really.

So here's my pitch (with my characteristic penchant for understatement ) for feeling free to trash our games (or least mine). Have at it!

1. Let's look at how ratings effect a small game. May not be what you think.
One of the hardest things for my game, printed by a small company, was just to get to 30 ratings so that we'd get a rank at all. I think some people were concerned that they'd be hurting my game in some way if they didn't rate it ridiculously high - higher than it deserved. Even though the game sold reasonably well, it was more to a video gamer crowd than a board gamer crowd (b/c it has a video game theme and was published by a video game store), it was like pulling teeth to get ratings from people. So I told people over and over: "Please rate my game. I honestly don't care what rating you give it. I just want an honest assessment." Finally, after many months of this, we finally made it to 30 reviews - and thus got a rank. That was a big deal to me personally. Like I was on the map (granted, it was a little corner, #2355 Dev Kit lane, far away from the bustling metropolises (metropoli ?) of Puerto Ricoville and Battlelore City, but still).

Moral of the story is to just be honest about a game, and not worry about how your rating may effect even a little game like mine. Of course we all want you to love our games. And having a ton of bad ratings is no fun. But just being evaluated is a positive thing in and of itself, especially with so many games out there. One of the many things I treasure about the Geek is the willingness of so many people to go out on a limb and say what they think!

Unbiased, intellectually honest, frank opinions are hard to come by in this world, and we should encourage them all we can, not try to protect our feelings (or our games). In the end, a game is going to rise or fall on its merits, and blunt ratings only help that process.

2. Even a terrible rating, if done with intellectual honesty, is a measure of respect for the game and the game designer. Like many designers, I honestly hope that my game will stand on its own merits, period. (Shameless plus: we had 7 favorable reviews, including Knucklebones, Spielxpress magazine, joystiq.com, playfeed.com, and were named #5 best card game of the year by about.com.) Point is, I'm confident in my game. After this year's Essen, we got a few more ratings (we're up to 41 now!) and I noticed that some guy rated my game a 3, or two points lower than even the lowest raters so far. I won't lie. I wasn't thrilled, of course. Everyone wants their work to be loved. Anyway I went and looked at the other games the guy had rated - 830 games! That's like twice what I've even rated.

I looked at all the other (67!) games he'd rated a 3, expecting perhaps to see a lot of Monopoly and Candyland. Turns out that the company my game shares at a 3 rating with this user include: Lost Cities, Taj Mahal, Clippers, Goldland, Ra. So in my head it's me, Reiner, Alan and Wolfgang sitting in the back of this guy's closet (or his friend's closet). Uh, well, maybe I should use a different metaphor so I won't have to explain the four of us actually coming out of that particular closet! My wife knows how I much I love these guys, but she might not understand

I know it may be hard to explain, but all in all I'm just grateful that the guy took the time to give my game an honest shake. Of course, he's totally wrong and misguided about Taj Mahal and Ra!

3. The only necessary ingredient of a rating is intellectual honesty. So the only bad rating experience I've had with my game is when I started the somewhat ill-fated "Vote for Candyland Girl" thread. Opinions on the matter, on my politics, personality, etc. were, shall we say, varied. One night I noticed that someone who had been heckling me in what seemed to me a fairly mean-spirited way had gone to my game and took the trouble to rate it - a 1. I'm not usually the paranoid sort, but I have to say, it seemed like an awfully big coincidence that the very day he was saying nasty things about me personally he just happened to pick up my game, play it, and decide it just wasn't for him. I wrote him an email, and said that if he had really played my game I didn't begrudge him his opinion, but if not, I thought it was disingenuous to rate it. Less than an hour later, the rating disappeared. Interestingly, so did the guy's heckling on that thread. How's that for two birds with one stone!

As an aside, I also had someone speculate that I had somehow stacked the ratings. Though this was completely untrue (I actually asked Aldie to remove a rating when I found out that a friend with misplaced but apparently good intentions created a second alias just to give my game a 9), it did bug me. The key to me is not whether someone is a friend of mine or someone halfway across the world. Whether they prefer Candlyand Girl or Magic Girl (or Arkham Horror dude). It's simply what they think of the game. Subjectively.

It doesn't have to be fair, just honest.

Cheers,
topherr

Well said and thank you for the perspective of a designer on the topic.

I'd also like to say that I didn't like the whole "candy land girl" thing but I sure as hell didn't rate your game low for it. I very much want it, personally, and to do something like that is intellectually suspect.

I've disagreed with things you've had to say but you are a smart guy and represent yourself as such here. Therefore your opinions matter to me and I thank you for presenting them in an intelligent manner.