Announcement: Product rating system coming soon

Mr Incredible

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Sorry if this has been said, but what about some sort of multi criteria assessment for each product.

From a previous post a few up by Spencer you might have:

Balance
Originality
Fun
Complexity

and add in some others:

Value for Money
Quality of Product

etc

Of those one criteria will be more important than the others and gets a higher weighting.

People then vote on both their score for each criteria and for how important they think each criteria is in the overall product.

Thus both the weighting of each criteria and what they criteria was scored at will vary over time and hopefully regress to a mean.

Clear as mud?
 

Dr Zaius

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I should mention, I would not consider a sub-forum with a built-in system which allows for scenario reviews to be a replacement for a full-fledged site designed for that very purpose.

Now that it has been suggested and I've given it some thought, I think I can do it and I think there would be some value added in having such a system here. Just so people are aware that it would have it's limitations.

I would also mention one other thing. Due to the way the software is designed, if person A writes a review on a given scenario, that person will be the only one who gets to rate it. Other's will be free to comment and add their own thoughts about the scenario, and they will be free to agree or disagree as much as they want with the reviewer's scores and opinions. But they won't be able to rate the scenario using the built-in tools unless they start a new review. So they system won't create aggregate scores or anything like that, meaning it's likely there will eventually be multiple reviews on the same scenario.

As far as the categories (balance, originality, etc.) there are a ton which could be considered. I would probably choose 4-5 which seem essential, and then the rest can be covered in a 'pros' and 'cons' field.
 

Dr Zaius

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It's partially active. You can begin using the scenario review function immediately.
 

JR Brackin

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I just submitted a report - please note that the complexity notes are a little baffling - I am not sure what excellent etc means. Something like Not Complex to Very Complex would work better for that notation.
 

Dr Zaius

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I just submitted a report - please note that the complexity notes are a little baffling - I am not sure what excellent etc means. Something like Not Complex to Very Complex would work better for that notation.
I believe you're right. Fixed.
 

hongkongwargamer

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I wonder if all subsequent feedback on the same scenarios be funnelled back into the first review threads and have ratings from different players of the same scenario aggregated.
 

Dr Zaius

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I wonder if all subsequent feedback on the same scenarios be funnelled back into the first review threads and have ratings from different players of the same scenario aggregated.
Unfortunately, that is beyond the capabilities of the system. If you want to actually rate a scenario, you have to start your own review.

As I said above, this isn't intended as a substitute for a dedicated system like the scenario archive. A system like that is intended primarily as a resource to collect and aggregate stats on a given scenario, which is well beyond the scope of the GS software. This is a discussion forum, so the scenario reviews here are primarily aimed at facilitating discussions on particular scenarios.

Hopefully, people will eventually begin to chime in on these reviews and use them to offer suggestions on setup, tactics, etc.
 

Tuomo

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Unfortunately, that is beyond the capabilities of the system. If you want to actually rate a scenario, you have to start your own review.

As I said above, this isn't intended as a substitute for a dedicated system like the scenario archive. A system like that is intended primarily as a resource to collect and aggregate stats on a given scenario, which is well beyond the scope of the GS software. This is a discussion forum, so the scenario reviews here are primarily aimed at facilitating discussions on particular scenarios.
If that's the case, I just don't see the system being that useful. We already have the AAR section, as well as the general discussion section, for focused discussions on particular scenarios. People have been looking up GS discussions on Scenario X for years. It's a good thing.

What a Product Rating System could have added was what Jack said - aggregating scores from different people. If it can't do that, then why add capabilities that don't bring anything new to the table?
 

Dr Zaius

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Because almost every day people post up a new thread relating their experiences and likes/dislikes with a scenario. These are quite different than AARs, and are more about discussing a given scenario than detailing what happened in a particular playing.

Oftentimes, there may already be an old thread on the same scenario, but that doesn't really matter or stop people from starting new discussions on the same scenario. Gunner Scott posted one such thread just today.

So if people are going to be starting up new threads on a regular basis, essentially reviewing scenarios, why not give them some tools and a dedicated place to do it? By the way, this wasn't my idea. The scenario review section came about as a result of people emailing me asking for it. I stated up front that it would be more about discussion than a comprehensive database like the scenario archive. Paying to code and maintain custom add-ons for the forum just isn't practical.

If that's the case, I just don't see the system being that useful. If it can't do that, then why add capabilities that don't bring anything new to the table?
So should Gunner Scott's thread be deleted?
 
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Dr Zaius

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You may now begin posting reviews in the new ASL Product Reviews section.

Thoughts on how to improve it are welcome.
 

hongkongwargamer

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Hopefully, people will eventually begin to chime in on these reviews and use them to offer suggestions on setup, tactics, etc.
I thought AARs are where folks will offer suggestions on setup, tactics etc.

Product reviews are where folks will see and go "I won't buy this", "This is broken, I won't play this." or "No - actually I think this has replay-able value".

Because almost every day people post up a new thread relating their experiences and likes/dislikes with a scenario. These are quite different than AARs, and are more about discussing a given scenario than detailing what happened in a particular playing.
Scott's been posting that many?

So should Gunner Scott's thread be deleted?
No - but he didn't use the new Product Review section either. (We are DELETING people's threads now?)

Then again - trying out new ideas is always a good thing - if people like it they will use it and otherwise if they don't. Thanks for innovating!
 

Dr Zaius

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“hongkongwargamer” said:
He didn't use the new Product Review section either. (We are DELETING people's threads now?)
It wasn’t yet active when he posted that thread. Plus people didn’t even know about it yet.

But I think you missed my point. If people are going to post threads like the one Scott posted this morning, then I fail to see how it hurts to have some review tools availble to enhance the write up.

Again, I wasn’t bored and trying to create more work for myself. Numerous people asked me for a scenario review section, so I did what I could to make it happen. That said, if people don’t want it and it goes unused, it’ll eventually get deleted.

And just to reiterate one more time, since my point doesn’t seem to be getting through: This scenario review section is more about facilitating discussions about a given scenario rather than acting as a comprehensive scenario database. It’s an entirely different animal than the ASL Scenario Archive, and should really be thought of as anything comparable to that as it has a different purpose.
 

hongkongwargamer

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All good mate, this is how innovation works. People pipe up because they care and they want things to work. Most will just ignore.

Thanks again for innovating. Let's see how this works out.
 

Dr Zaius

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It’s all good.

If people find it useful, great. If not, it’ll be no effort to delete it.
 
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