this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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It's true. Reviewers rave about a game, I pick it up and play it, and they're raving about a new one before I've finished that last one. I've got a list of 20+ games that came out this year that I still haven't gotten around to. I might get through 5 of them before the new year. And you know, if wouldn't hurt my ability to play more games if more of them were shorter.

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[–] verdi@feddit.org 5 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Statistically, if more than half of a random sample of steam games are rated to be good, the standards for evaluation are shit.

And the people that were supposed to let us know if a game is good or not, the "professionals", have a median score around ~75% according to open critic data, otherwise they wouldn't have a job because sponsors would gfo.

We're on our own shifting through a pile of de facto shovelware to find anything of worth nowadays.

It's a problem not exclusive to games, mind you. Music, scientific publishing and other content for profit industries have the exact same issue: Vetting quality requires work so for profit institutions offload the vetting to the user.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

The things getting reviewed already have a selection bias that makes them more likely to review well. It's not a problem that reviewers focus their time on the games that their audience is most interested in, as opposed to reviewing every asset flip published to Steam.

[–] verdi@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sure Kane and Lynch are audience favorites. No reason not to think only the best games get reviewed and thus, shifting the mean 25% in the favor of the companies that just so happen to be the ones paying for advertising. It's more likely outlets, on average, only review good games, that sounds more reasonable.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It does shift review coverage, generally, toward the ones with the most advertising. Kane & Lynch is a weird one to pull out to support your argument, because despite the advertising, they got fairly poor reviews. (Also, as someone who's played Kane & Lynch, those games are underrated.) The games with the big advertising budgets typically have a degree of confidence behind that spend, which again creates selection bias toward games more likely to review well, but that doesn't mean that Redfall and Suicide Squad still can't happen and review poorly.

[–] verdi@feddit.org 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

It does shift review coverage, generally, toward the ones with the most advertising

but that doesn't mean that Redfall and Suicide Squad still can't happen and review poorly

Thank you for arguing in my favour. Both Redfall and Suicide Squad reviewed well above 50%. For people on Lemmy arguing about statistics it's obvious the mean is shifted so anything around 75% is mediocre, however, to the average consumer, that is not the case. Furthermore, I mentioned Kane and Lynch because that game was the reason giant bomb exists and everyone nowadays knows big publishers strong-arm outlets.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Above 50%, but do you have any idea how much lower the bar can be for a bad video game than Redfall and Suicide Squad? Those are the games that typically aren't getting coverage. Redfall and Suicide Squad, again, had some confidence behind them. When that much money is thrown behind a game and there's no confidence in it, it usually doesn't even come out.

[–] verdi@feddit.org 0 points 4 hours ago

I'm sorry, I refuse to continue engaging with bad faith arguments.

Have a nice day.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 5 points 14 hours ago

Oh well, ill just stick to forums to find out about quality games.

Tap for spoilerSurprise, dickbag! Its all guerilla marketing!