As a roblox developer it is impossible to hide the like ratio on my game
If roblox addresses this issue I think my game will improve in popularity because a few people disliking the game will not influence new players to avoid the game
I personally never dislike anything (as I think is right) because if something had a sincere effort put into it, there is at least one valuable thing to take away
If I don’t like a game, I just don’t hit the like button
I’m not sure what drives other people to dislike games (maybe they aren’t good at them?, but I’m actually wondering)
The problem for me is that (like everyone else) I am influenced by this ratio, even if it doesn’t represent the game’s quality
Aren’t the proper metrics for players to use when determining if they should play a game live player count, total visits, icon, thumbnails, description, and whether they like the game?
The dislike button just seems to me as an unnecessary and negative aspect of the platform
Instead of just disliking, might it not be better to explain why? And tell the developers how to improve?
Maybe what genre one person dislikes another likes? (This could be another potential reason for a dislike, the metric is just harmful and uninforming)
I personally really don’t see a problem like ratio on games. It shows players which games are good, and which aren’t. Yeah sure, some really good games might have a low like ratio, but that’s most likely caused by many possible reasons such as:
• Gameplay is unbalanced (certain weapons are OP, making people ragequit)
• Too many bugs which lead to players losing because of those
• Bad performance, meaning that not every player can run the game on their device.
If your game is getting a lot of dislikes, ask for feedback and see what you can improve. If there’s too many bugs, let the players know that you’re working on a fix. If something is OP, let them know that you’re nerfing it.
Don’t see dislikes as “Wait, is my game really that bad?”, but rather as a way to improve it. Learn from mistakes and improve your game, which will eventually lead to a higher like ratio.
Game reviews with required comment and star rating 1-5 would be far better than the easily abusable current like/dislike system. I’ve been saying that for years. We don’t even have comment sections on our games anymore so I can’t ever tell what people are having issues with so I can address them. Whole system is broke, really.
I think a conversation with the players is the way to go (talk to us devs on discord); leaving permanent scars on the game is just malicious
@TrustMeImRussian i support game reviews (*for the current version or past week), but for them to be used (and useful) the like ratio needs to be removed or hidden
Maybe for games that you have favorited, but disliked. Roblox could offer a notification some couple of months down the line as long as the game is still being updated for you to check it out and consider giving it a like.
This would get spammy and annoying for games you disliked if you have a crap ton of games you’ve disliked. But there was comments you could leave on the game that Roblox disabled because it was getting abused. Also can people <13 even see the discord link? If not you’re still losing out on it.
Maybe theirs some other solutions, but hiding your like:dislike ratio won’t benefit you at all in terms of how it works behind the scenes. In fact you’d just stalemate your game at its current state.
Hiding the like ratio is not a good idea. That bar shows which games are likely to be enjoyable - sure, you will probably get some false dislikes from people who just don’t like the genre or whatever, but if they are quitting because your game is too hard? That’s a game design error.
If they get shown microtransactions to buy too frequently, that’s definitely going to have a bad impact. If they don’t know what to do in the game, that’s no good either. There are countless game design mistakes people make that have huge impacts on how people enjoy (and rate) the game.
I do think there should be a better rating system, but hiding the like bar is not a good way of getting people to play your game. I would advise asking your players what they think should be improved with the game, as mentioned before in this thread.
Especially on new games, I usually ask people on the dev forums to roast my game so I can get an idea on what issues there are.
That being said, every single time I release a new game I get bombarded with dislikes. I’m sure it’s a combination of broken things and unbalanced stuff but it is really irritating. I don’t know about hiding likes, but forcing players to give feedback instead of just disliking would be incredible.
Agreed. I think there’s probably a post somewhere - giving a review miight be an option, I don’t think forcing them to type out a reason is good though. My idea is to give them a dropdown list of several reasons (or Other) for them to select.
Another tip is probably to get your own QA testers if needed - people who can test it and give feedback as the game progresses.
Several reasons would actually be better and make things easier. I could imagine each reason with the % of people who chose it in developer stats. It wouldn’t be specific but would have enough information to help me get started fixing things.
I do have a few people who help test things but nothing prepares you for actual players who will do who-knows-what to your game.
The like bar feels like a half-baked replacement for the comments section.
Comments are far less abusable and actually serve a purpose when proper security is done. I’m not sure how Steam’s comment section isn’t flooded with scam messages, probably because either A. The player has to purchase the game, or B. has had to play the game for at least 30 minutes, both things that Scammers wouldn’t want to do as it’d be too costly or time consuming.
Like bars are easily abusable, as can be seen with Borderlands & Metro products on Steam when the developers published their games on the Epic Games Store, making people act like children and dislike bomb great products. Luckily Steam has a validation process too - something else that Roblox lacks.
Nah Steam filters their reviews that’s all. You can choose if you want to see those or not. By default the filter is on, so they don’t appear. Also the like and dislike has always been there, if not just as long as comments were. I do believe it could be more integrated into the platform however. It does seem like it was implemented without much thought.
While there are some very good discussions here about whether or not we should replace the like/dislike system (we should), that seems to be off-topic a bit.
I absolutely don’t support developers being able to hide their likes/dislikes bar because even if it is sometimes inaccurate, a lot of the time it’s a good way to tell whether a game is actually playable or not. As someone who plays games that sometimes have no concurrent players, it’s important to me to be able to tell at a glance whether something is even slightly worth my time. My standards aren’t high, but if something has an absurdly high dislike ratio, I’m probably going to steer clear of it.
Likes / Dislikes weren’t added on Roblox until I think 2013 or 2015 - it’s been a few years.
Comments have been here since the beginning, however and were removed simply because of spam botters.
If Roblox had proper security for the comments section, they wouldn’t have had to be removed.
Not sure if it’s a feature request, but I’m thinking about posting how Comments could be brought back if the person leaving the comment played the game for at least 30 minutes or spent at least $5 on their Roblox account, sorta like what Steam does, or take it a step further and make it so in order to comment, you had to at least spend $5 on the game you’re commenting on - though I’m not sure how this would fall with COPPA’s guidelines.
Isn’t it a little strange you might dislike a game you favorite?
Why does the player count not speak for itself? (or any of the other metrics I mentioned in the OP)
I want hiding the like ratio to be optional, so developers can keep it if they believe it hurts their games
I do that in our discord server; I just don’t think it’s right for the game to be punished because haters don’t contact us because they don’t care enough about the game (or for any other reason)
Yeah, I think the like ratio doesn’t tell you what’s wrong with your game, so it doesn’t really help out… it’s just unneeded stress for developers
Why not set a rule for yourself to avoid games that hide their like ratio if all the other metrics mentioned in the OP aren’t favorable for the game?
The entire point isn’t meaningless, not everyone is like you or in your specific situation
I, for one, believe if a game has a high player count, it must have something enjoyable to it (or if any of the other metrics are appealing [5])
Or if a game has a really good trailer, I will try it regardless of its like ratio
If an appealing trailer doesn’t excite you, surely you wouldn’t want to offend your friend who has been begging you to try out this game?
Alas…If nothing will move your demographic, my game isn’t for everyone anyways, so I am okay if a certain audience is stubborn to play
On topic: I want to reiterate though that if players are disliking and favoriting games at the same time, there is something definitely broken with this system!
You would probably be surprised at how many people use the like-dislike ratio, though then again I might be too. I definitely think we need a replacement to a simple “like/dislike” though.
Have you never played a game you thought was poorly made or otherwise bad that you still enjoyed? Do you value feedback or player retention more?