Wow. We sort of figured that most of you would log on once a week to check out the PlayStation Network, but you guys are clearly extra conscientious in your perusing.
The vast majority of PSXE readers say they log onto the PSN basically all the time, or at least once per day. The second largest group – which was a distant second – log on about once per week, usually when the Store has been updated with new content, and only a very small number don't normally count the PSN as a common attraction. This supports a few things: the idea that a free Network remains very attractive to current PS3 owners, and that because it was free in the first place, most new owners hooked their console to the Internet moments after opening the box. We'd be interested to know what most of you end up downloading most of the time; i.e., add-on content for games, new digital downloadable titles, PS1 classics, themes and wallpapers, new videos, or original content like "The Tester," but we've got a more important task for you this week.
We're looking to expand a bit and after taking your initial suggestions to heart earlier this year, I've narrowed it down to a few upgrades and enhancements we should target; this may or may not include things like user reviews, expanded User CPs and a promotion for the forums. For now, we just want to know: what's your take on user reviews? As you probably know, it's a common staple of many major sites and although they're typically unreadable on some of the bigger sites, I believe we have a community loaded with people who are fully capable of delivering intelligent, relatively well-written, and ultimately helpful reviews for their fellow members. This is why I think it could be a great asset for us…but what do you think?
Gosh, I love the idea of user reviews. I can think of a ton of people on this site who I would appreciate an opinion from ;).
I'd be happy to write reviews myself, my only reservation being that I'm not sure people would like how I write. 😛
Edit: Oh and by the way, I think it would be a good idea to use a rating system for user reviews, to give researchers an idea of which reviews have been deemed most helpful. My two cents!
Last edited by Kowhoho on 5/9/2010 9:59:10 PM
The rating system would be nice
i vote for user rated review system
Me too as long as the rating is for the quality of the review and not because someone disagrees that the game is good or bad.
@ Kraygen
If our "thumb" system is any indication, that may not really work out, lol. I think most people on this site can handle themselves and check their bias at the door, though. The ones who would take the time to read through user reviews and rate them, anyways.
Last edited by Kowhoho on 5/9/2010 11:27:20 PM
Yes on the rating system. The particular user review would remain in collapsed form if it hasn't reached a certain number of votes. And top user review for a games in terms of thumbs up should make the item readily viewable, with the other contenders in collapsed view. I see a lot of good reviews from Highlander… 🙂
I would love to write the occasional review, although I'm typically a week behind everyone else when I play a newly released game.
I've always loved to write, and this would be a fantastic outlet for me! I also like the rating system where the most popular review is the first to be seen.
If we were to do a user rating of the games themselves, it would be nice to have it monitored mildly with at least a tiny explanation as to why. How many times have you seen multi-plats get badly averaged ratings on sites like IGN due to fanboys of a particular platform giving 10's for it's system release and 0's for the competitor?
This was of course the addition I was hoping for the most. If anything this would be great practice. Curious as to what the structure will be.
Will it be something as basic as a section of the forums where people will post topics with their reviews?
I'd love to read reviews from World or LV, (by the way, where is he???) and from blank line (________), he's quite a character. And Ben, I remember that you mentioned the posibility of podcasts. Now that's something I'd LOVE, mostly because I really like your perspective on videogames, and also because, since English is not my birth language, I usually practice my listening, well, with podcasts. So that's something that I'd really like.
Last edited by hellish_devil on 5/9/2010 10:06:21 PM
Hearing Ben's voice? 0_o
It would probably surprise me.
Is he a hurly burly low voice or a normal-pitched, nasally nerd-sounding guy. My money'd be on the former but it's fun to speculate!
haha Kowhoho if you really want to know then a while back Ben was actually on a podcast!!! There was a link in an article or something, I don't remember where or when but someone else might be able to help you.
I'll be honest, DON'T judge me but I was very keen to hear how he sounded like after I got to know he had a podcast! :$
Btw it's the former :p
Last edited by Crudii on 5/9/2010 10:17:05 PM
Rumors of my death have been wildly exaggerate.
I don't just think this is a good idea but I reckon it would actually really help the community we have here. We get great reviews from you guys but there are a number of games that you can't review or don't, understandably, due to a number of reasons so the user reviews could help there.
I'm with you Kowhoho, I wouldn't mind giving it a shot but not sure if I'd be seen as a 'good' critic! 🙁 Well we won't know until we try.
Ben, would the reviews go up on the home page or in the forums? If home page then, are all the reviews going to be put up or just selected by you guys?
That's why I thought of a ratings system. If my review sucks it won't hurt my feelings too badly if it's put at the bottom of the list, deservedly.
ben, i love ur new poll!
does that mean u read my suggestion?
A user review would be sweet, we can learn more about what the other member of PSXE thinks about a game.
Though I'd like to write a review, but I don't think I'm good enough to actually rate one, all I know for a game is enjoying it.
I would love to read reviews from other users but I'll be honest u'll never see me write one myself just not my thing but reading from others who are able to write well and not be fanboyish would be great to see.
A few comments on likes or dislikes wouldn't be too hard to manage. You wouldn't have to be in depth like Ben.
USER REVIEW HYPE TRAIN!!!!!
ALL ABOOOOAAAARRRRRD!!!!!
Love that idea. I usually only write reviews on gamestop, but I would definitely stop writing reviews over there just so I can post revies on here that people will actually read with no fanboyish thumb downs. I gave Just Cause 2 a six and people are mad. The game is not good buy mature gaming standards, I explained my point and I still got thumbed down. My review wasn't bias or anything, just plain honest and I had facts to back it up, but people love to hate. I don't think I will get that kind of treatment over here on PSX.
I think I was confused when I originally voted in this poll last week. When I see PSN I assume Playstation Network which to me just means signing into the network to play online multiplayer or chit chat with someone on my friend's list. But you were talking about checking out the Playstation Store. Perhaps a differentiation needs to be made in the future because technically you're talking about two different things. The PS Store is part of the PS Network but the Store and the Network aren't the same thing.
I may not be correct, but I believe using PSN means anything that requires you to sign on. Meaning it includes any of the following; Playing online games, chatting with PSN friends, Home, PSN Store, etc.
Hell yeah! That'd be awesome! It probably review every game i have.
But when you do expand the site, please make it so that when you get on this site it shows all the people who replied to your comment, it would make it so much more helpful.
My reviews would piss people off because I am very very picky.
I think user reviews are a great idea Ben. I also like Kowhoho's idea of a rating system for them.
Last edited by tes37 on 5/9/2010 11:28:55 PM
I think that user reviews are a good idea in concept, but would be difficult to effectively pull off. While a lot of people on here have intelligent comments about this or that, its a totally different thing to sit down and critique a game without bias from your feelings.
It would be difficult to maintain for Ben because honestly reviews would need to be screened for outlandish language use, improper jokes, racism, things like that. While we have a very good community here there would still be those that would probably abuse an open system.
As for the rating system that also could be difficult, think of all the fanboys who show up just to thumb down everyone's comments. What happens when the spam a reviews rating just because it's for a ps3 exclusive game.
I'm not against user reviews, I'm just saying, reviews aren't all that easy to do properly and there would have to be some kind of strict setup. I hope there is a way to make it work personally. I know there are some people who could put out some fabulous reviews.
I look forward to seeing how this turns out.
"Some people," like Highlander? 0_o
I really hope it works well/ is implemented. You're right that it should probably have a strict system, it's just hard to conceptualize how that would work… Lucky it's not my problem to think about it :P. I sound like a douche saying that but I don't have all the time in the world to come up with ideas for other people.
To anyone reading what I've written tonight, I apologize for the awful read. I'm tired as all hell, and bored.
I have to say that user reivews are really not that great of an idea. Why? because if you allow user reviews then you are allowing fanboys from both sides of the fence to abuse the system in their favor. I mean you would start getting reviews that would say things like "i give this 0/10 because it isn't as good as gears of war" or some other nonesence reviews that a great deal of people post on other sites that allow people to post reviews. So what I'm really saying is that user reviews might attract the crazed fanboy crowd.
User reviews would be fabulous Ben! But there needs to be a certain standard kept, therefore they should still be scrutinized by PsXeXtreme staff initially… and then passed! Grammar and clarity are important…
If a user is particularly good, and reviews can be trusted, PsXeXtreme can then bestow a "Qualmark" to that user… a PsXeXtreme stamp of approval meaning that 99% of the time, that particular contributer will supply reviews that don't need to be checked all the time as they have earned the "Qualmark" or Quality Mark Of Approval… meaning his texts are usually approved automatically.
In addition, a user should score the game he/she is reviewing… and there should be an average score displayed, beside the individual score from PsXeXtreme and the user. The average score is derived from both the official review and user review/s.
Q!
"play.experience.enjoy"
Last edited by Qubex on 5/10/2010 12:11:38 AM
Wow! You've put a lot of thought into this.
I think user reviews are a great idea. I also like retrospectives.
I would love to see a few user reviews on older PS3 games such as MGS4, Fallout 3, Far Cry 3 and GTAIV for example.
There is a load of hype when these games were released and it would be excellent to have some sober and informed reviews a year or two later to say what is good/bad about the games and how they overcame the hype and if they are still good to play later.
The PS3 is mature enough now to have some two and three year old games which sometimes come up at a bargain price, so to get an up to date review of these would be worth their weight in gold.
Also a review for a full priced game when it is released is something, but a review for a $20 two year old game can focus on other things. Is it still good and worth picking up.
I've just picked up Fallout 3 for example for $20, and played it for 50 hours (loved it). Now picked up Oblivion for $10 and looking forward to another 50 hours.
Retrospective user reviews of these sorts of games would be great.
Not sure how good something like this would be.
The great thing 'bout psxe is the psxe team (and its readers). But I think that when we all start writing reviews we might start to disregard the REAL psxe reviews
I'm ok with FORUM reviews. You know, people reviewing the game on the forum and just sharing how they liked a game.
But I don't know, that's just me
—
And the best part of the PSN store is EASILY the ps1 classics (no argument can be made against this, at all! AT AL!!!)
Ps1 classics for sure, I check every week to see what new ps1 games have been added.
wish i could say the same thing, i havent downloaded a thing from the PSN since freaking February!
when the hell are earthworm jim and joe danger coming out? im really getting tired of waiting for them!
wonder if earthworm jim is going to be a remake as in same game just spruced up, or a whole new game.
id like to see a whole new game, as much as i love the original (ive got it on my iphone and its one of my favorite games!) id rather see a whole new game to play around with.
looks like im going to be forced into getting a wii after all, it looks like a fully fledged sequel to earthworm jim is releasing exclusively for the wii.
why must all platforming games be exclusive to the wii?
only wii owners like playing platformers?
Ben's getting lazy. Trying to manipulate his loyal fanbase to do reviews for him.
Ben I've asked this before, and I'll ask again: what did you mean by "visiting the PSN"? Did you mean checking out the PlayStation Store, or just connecting to the PlayStation Network (which is the whole network itself; store, multi-player, Playstation Home etc)? Because I think the answers in the previous poll are skewed because the poll question was kinda ambiguous.
Not really, if you hit the sign in button, you have accessed the psn. Don't have to go to the store or, Home, or play online. By signing in you have joined the network and can see which of your friends are also online. So signing in is all that is required to be on the psn.
About user reviews.
I always read through the comments after a review on this site (which I never do elsewhere) for second opinions from the community. I would definitely read user reviews here. User reviews on older games are an excellent idea.
As for quality check, I'm sure they is a way we can regulate ourselves without burdening the staff too much. A "thumbs up, thumbs down" system should be fair. As far as I can tell that system is not generally abused in the comments. Kowhoho asks for a rating system. We could break it down to several points with thumbs. We could thumb up, thumb down" things like this for instance:
– quality of writing
– impartiality
– agree/disagree
– …
"Thumbs down" wouldn't necessarily mean bad ( at least for points 2 and 3), but readers would know what to expect. If somebody hated Heavy Rain of GoW3 and argues his points, I would love to read it.
It depends on how all this could be implemented on the site and still be easily readable I guess.
I'd love to write a review of my latest GT5 dream, but I'd have to edit the bit where I stepped onto the podium and realised I was totally naked and all my old school friends were there.
lol, Yeah I'd read you guys' reviews. Sometimes our opinions differ to the pro's… as with Just Cause 2.
Couldn't agree more, Just Cause 2 was one of the most fun games I have played in the last year.
Last edited by kraygen on 5/10/2010 5:55:19 PM
User reviews would be great. As someone else mentioned, Ben and Arnold can't review every single game that comes out, so it would be a nice source of information. Some people write really amusing and/or insightful reviews, so they're usually interesting to read.
I'd like to have something like that on here, though there would be a lot of watching out for haters and fanboyism.
I'd love to write several reviews though, I'd also love to read a lot of the reviews.
This is a tough one. I like the opinion of the users almost as much as PSXE and I do value what many have to say here. I think if you offered a user review section it could just become cluttered like many other sites. If you were to spotlight a user review once a month, we might get more intelligent and thought out submissions.
I may submit a review from time to time. They can be fun, but very time consuming as well.
One other thing; If user reviews are given their own section, it would be very nice to have a direct link to the user reviews from the PSXE review page of the same game.
Personally, I love the idea of user reviews, Ben. I would love to write reviews whenever possible but it usually takes me a while to get through a game due to time restraints. It would be nice to see others' opinions before buying game, though, so yes, I would most definitely utilize this tool if it were available.
On the subject of suggestions: I would really love it on the site if the top-raters (games with PSX review scores and user scored of 8 and above would be distinguished from the rest. Perhaps a dynamic listing of games based on PSX review scores (and another for user review scores) that continually update based on games reaching the high-tier scores, and from there arranged from most recent to the old greats 🙂
Last edited by spiderboi on 5/10/2010 9:04:19 AM
Last logon about 40 days ago. My console isn't allowed on PSN as I never updated to the firmware where they removed the other o/s option. Sony's loss though as it just means i'd rather spend my 'impulse buy' budget on games for my iPhone so their friends at Apple get the money. Plus had I kept my firmware up to date I would not have been able to play dragon age this weekend like i did….
Wrong thread?
Also, firmware never effed up my Dragon Age… Sure it's the network and not someone else? (nods head towards Whooka)
There have been a lot of rumblings about Dragon Age being broken after the 3.3 FW update, enough so in fact to have Bioware looking for a patch.
That said, I have never had an issue with it.
Also, I think the whole lawsuit thing is a joke. I personally am more than a little upset to lose the Other OS option and made a big noise about it but in the end we all electronically signed an agreement and that's pretty much that. Get over it and update or don't and be unable to connect to the Network. I chose the former.
I think that user reviews would be a welcome addition to this site, but like so many before me I think that it would take a great deal of regulation. Screening, grammar and spell checking, and over all just a good deal of maintenance though ultimately I think it would be an overall positive endeavour for the site.
And, I see some people worried about user reviews having personal biased in them, but isn't that really a part of having a "user" review instead of a professional review? I mean we all in the comments give our personal opinions of games and news topics and I think it adds to a feeling of connection within the community. We all have our own personalities and some of us agree on certain genres of games and other topics. I think that with user reviews a bit of personal gaming biased would be expected and even welcomed. Say we see a review from a user that we know we share common gaming preferences with, we would then know that if they are reviewing a game we would be more inclined to feel the same way as they do so we could put more stock into what they have to say.
Anyway, enough of my ramble, I hope this is something that is more than just a passing fancy.