Comments on: Correction: Web 2.0 Sucks For Reviews http://www.broofa.com/2008/09/correction-web-20-sucks-for-reviews/ (Thoughtful musings, if you're lucky) Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:43:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Michael Chermside http://www.broofa.com/2008/09/correction-web-20-sucks-for-reviews/comment-page-1/#comment-1696 Michael Chermside Sat, 30 May 2009 16:03:02 +0000 http://www.broofa.com/blog/?p=152#comment-1696 It would also behoove vendors to produce products that won't make their customers want to loudly decry the product and the company. In fact, since there just isn't enough energy in the world for each and every bad product to get a noisy backlash like this, it is more efficient (for the population) to reign in producers with the fear of a rare-but-severe thrubbing like this one than to hope every sub-standard product gets a few poor ratings. Perhaps now every time any game manufacturer is considering what kind (if any) of DRM to use, they will remember the much-talked-about event of what happened with Spore, and perhaps it will change their behavior. By the way, for the record, I spend nearly a year eagerly anticipating the Spore release. And I did not buy a copy, entirely because of the hoopla over the DRM. (Nor did I pirate a copy... I have resigned myself to living without this game.) It would also behoove vendors to produce products that won’t make their customers want to loudly decry the product and the company. In fact, since there just isn’t enough energy in the world for each and every bad product to get a noisy backlash like this, it is more efficient (for the population) to reign in producers with the fear of a rare-but-severe thrubbing like this one than to hope every sub-standard product gets a few poor ratings. Perhaps now every time any game manufacturer is considering what kind (if any) of DRM to use, they will remember the much-talked-about event of what happened with Spore, and perhaps it will change their behavior.

By the way, for the record, I spend nearly a year eagerly anticipating the Spore release. And I did not buy a copy, entirely because of the hoopla over the DRM. (Nor did I pirate a copy… I have resigned myself to living without this game.)

]]> By: SmackDown http://www.broofa.com/2008/09/correction-web-20-sucks-for-reviews/comment-page-1/#comment-455 SmackDown Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:51:36 +0000 http://www.broofa.com/blog/?p=152#comment-455 I'm all for the punishment EA earned on Amazon.com. This is an example of consumers exercising their power of opinion, and I hope it puts the fear not only in EA but in any company that insists on treating its customers like crap. Still, you raise an interesting point: companies can change their products to remove problems, but bad reviews remain fixed in stone for all to see, forever. This would seem to be especially worrisome because negative reviews have a disproportionately strong influence on a product's average rating, as you've pointed out. I suspect, however, that the system is fairer than it looks, because [i]everybody[\i] is subject to the same rules. EA's competitors are just as vulnerable to bad reviews, which pulls down their average ratings, which equalizes the system. Or so my theory goes. Obviously, the big exception will be smaller companies and their products: because of the lower traffic level, a bad review can become a self-fulfilling prophesy, unfairly quashing good products before they've been properly vetted by the larger public. But don't pity EA. They acted despicably. They got caught. I’m all for the punishment EA earned on Amazon.com. This is an example of consumers exercising their power of opinion, and I hope it puts the fear not only in EA but in any company that insists on treating its customers like crap.

Still, you raise an interesting point: companies can change their products to remove problems, but bad reviews remain fixed in stone for all to see, forever. This would seem to be especially worrisome because negative reviews have a disproportionately strong influence on a product’s average rating, as you’ve pointed out.

I suspect, however, that the system is fairer than it looks, because [i]everybody[\i] is subject to the same rules. EA’s competitors are just as vulnerable to bad reviews, which pulls down their average ratings, which equalizes the system. Or so my theory goes.

Obviously, the big exception will be smaller companies and their products: because of the lower traffic level, a bad review can become a self-fulfilling prophesy, unfairly quashing good products before they’ve been properly vetted by the larger public. But don’t pity EA. They acted despicably. They got caught.

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