This question is specifically vague. Please post a reply explaining your choice. It would be good to know if you’re answering as a person who reads comments (such as a game/asset owner), reader, or as a comment poster.
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Whenever I make a purchase on the site I always read comments to see how other users have rated the item. Generally I find that very few are constructive enough and often have to load comments a few times before finding a single useful one. They have their use but they aren’t perfect just yet.
Personally I think you should look at DeviantArt when it comes to their critique feature. You should also look at how google rates apps. Asset creators need more power over the comments section. Games should use a different system to assets for definite though.
The ROBLOX community has far fewer players who would provide a decent review, however if you had a system that ordered comments by helpfulness, you definitely want to bias based on age.
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I voted zero, but that’s not entirely true. For not popular assets, comments usually stay on topic and people post feedback for models and places. This model and this game are examples where the comments have generally stayed on-topic 100% of the time, but the only reason for that is that neither the model nor the place are popular. For popular games/assets, which I assume are the only ones that really matter, there is nothing of value that can ever be found in the comments – it’s always spam, scams, and trolling.
I don’t read comments on models/etc like woot does since they’re typically never worthwhile – I always just look at the thumbs ratio.
I see bugs… occasionally.
Occasionally.
Any value comments provide is very minimal to me. After searching through the endless amount of spam, there are occasional comments that do benefit the game. For an example, when someone comments a bug, that’s helpful. Suggestions are also good as well. Other than that, comments are pretty pointless to me.
Adding to this, it is also useful when there’s a scam game or item, but disabling comments ruins the benefits.
There should be a “meh” option because that is how I feel about comments.
My place isn’t hugely popular, so I do get the occasional valuable comment (good for knowing people’s opinions on the game so far)… but from the history of having popular places - I would’ve voted Zero in the case it was popular because comments end up becoming useless when the amount of people using them increase.
I read the comments for my game daily. After looking for the 5% of comments that are not spam, I get good feedback. People tell me if they don’t like something or if a previous update was good or bad. I’ve actually reverted a few things because people hated it even though I thought it was good. It’s a nice way to get in contact with the community around the game.
The spam though…
The bug comments are really, really useful since we can’t find every bug through our own testing. I feel for popular games though because you can never find the bugs in the comments. Though, while watching the Talos Principle team’s GDC presentation, I took interest in their bug report system – they said that people didn’t always report a bug just because it was a pain to report it (they’d have to minimize the game, go to another website, and post specifics about the bug there), so what they did was they added an in game button that brought up a bug report text box, you typed in a little description, and it sent that description as well as a screenshot of what was on your screen currently to the developers. I was going to create something like that but never got around to it. It’d work wonders for popular games though where there isn’t a good way to report bugs if any of you want to follow up with that project.
I voted “Occasionally”, I used to get more value out of comments before I had a group dedicated to my games. Group walls are a much better medium of getting feedback from your players, although I can imagine that people who don’t have such groups may find more value in the comments pages of their games instead, especially for games that aren’t on the front page.
I chose ‘occasionally’ and I’ll tell why. Popular hats/models/games/groups are displayed really often, so there are more people on those pages who read the comments. That means that the comment section basically turns into a free and effective advertisement place. However, games and models made by lesser known people or just locally known people are viewed maybe 10 times a day if the creator lucky. It’s not worth advertising there which means that comments people leave on there are in their opinions ‘valuable’. Why else would you leave a comment? Why would you spent time writing a comment if you don’t get anything in return? For me, given that my places don’t get visited by loads of players and my models aren’t being looked at that often, this means that the comments on my models and games often contain value. They mostly involve suggestions, questions, remarks or compliments.
Yes, constantly
I get suggestions, feedback on updates, bugs, I get a jist of what the community wants or has a problem with
It serves as a “discussion” area to the most relevant aspects of the game
With more community driven games it serves as a great place to get caught up with events (driven by players, not by me at all) or see what everyone’s fussing about
I interact with the community more through comments than I do through PMs or groups; I think it’s because most players find it easiest to voice their opinion there right on the game’s page. I have had instances where there’s a game breaking bug on an old game, and I wouldn’t know for several days/ a week until one of the people actually sent me a PM. And when I wondered why it took so long to get me notified, I looked at the comments and not an hour after the game breaking update came out (several days ago) comments about it had flooded it.
No value from comments on front page games. I stopped going to the comments for feedback because this is all I see.
Not only do I get feedback on my games, but also on my models and assets. I make open source models, like editable regen buttons or “make your own giver/ shop button” stuff, and I get suggestions/ problems addressed through the comments. I respond there and in PM to issues and am able to make fixes to my models through this system.
However it’s a bit difficult updating old models, just due to the way Roblox has updating old models set up in Studio, requiring you to scroll and load for a very long time.
The only big issue for me is when games/ assets get popular, they are filled with spam. Endless amounts of spam. I’d be able to control it if I were able to delete it, or if other players were simply able to mark comments as spam.
I get some value from comments, but I always disable comments on my assets/places and setup fan groups for it, that way I can moderate it and remove spam. I actually get good feedback.
I voted zero. For the comments I do view, they are normally paid access stuff to know if it is worth buying or not, and I never find anything relevant. The idea I thought up with would pose a solution, not a fool proof one, but will help.
It seems that these are the major issues and points everyone is getting at:
Spam
Popular assets just have too much spam, and there is no method of control over it.
Bug reports
Comments are a good place to find out about those “hidden” bugs that aren’t majorly obvious. Sometimes people don’t send you a PM, and just use the comments medium since it’s the fastest way to get in contact.
Feedback/ Discussion
This happens in the comments occasionally (on non-spammed games) but typically since group walls can be moderated, most developers prefer to have a group open for the game to have discussions take place there.
We can extrapolate the following “moves” to make, and boundaries to consider:
There obviously need to be some type of spam control; it’s easily the biggest issue. Ways to mark messages for spam, better spam detection methods from Roblox, messages warning new players about spam when they’re making a comment, immediate repercussions when reported for spamming/ scamming.
The comments are a really easy and fast access way for the community to voice their opinion. It’s right there on the page, it’s simple, it’s not complicated, it’s brief. It can be considered the fastest avenue for feedback, even faster than group walls (since groups are behind several barriers)
In an ideal situation, tying the benefits of a group wall/ discussion area and comments would be fantastic. Perhaps a pseudo forum format, where commentary comes in a “live feed” format on one side, and there are sections for “Bug Reports”, “Events” and other stuff on the other side.
Fleshed out argument on the topic of forums on games:
Slightly fleshed out description of the feature and its benefits:
Occasional.
I read comments on scripts/plugins/etc that I release semi-frequently. Once in a while, I see good feedback and am able to respond by that.
When it comes to games, it depends on its popularity. If it’s more popular, I will get a lot of spam and random comments. If it’s less popular, I seem to get really good feedback from users, since they are people who usually go to my games and check out what I’m working on. I find those comments to be really valuable, since it’s a direct form of feedback I get from players.
Just spread the word that those spam comments and websites are fake, please!
What ROBLOX needs is a review system, and then users rate those reviews as helpful or not. Unhelpful ones will be swept away.
If your game is any way popular / known, it’s just ‘another game’ for spammers to post their bullshit on.
I’m not even going to waste my time sifting through them any more.
0 Value