In the future

[buzz456]

I trust in the future reviews will be more of some kind of analysis of new content and not some debate of this or that. If you don't like what someone wrote then write your own review with your opinion. I think it would be worthwhile to rate any offering with a scale of one through five. Let's give this a chance and see how it works out.

[GreatNortherner]

Hi,

Totally agree with that. As reviews always have the potential to be controversial, might I suggest adding some "review guidelines" for this forum? You could for example have a look at how the German RW forum does this (link here: http://rail-sim.de/forum/index.php/Boar ... erial-USA/ ) It's quite a simple system they have in place, the first post is always a poll (1 to 5 scale of how much user liked the add-on) and a brief product description with store page link, and the thread replies are for optional detailed reviews by users. No discussion is allowed in these review threads, which I think is quite crucial. If somebody does not agree with a review posted by somebody else, they are supposed to write their own and add it to the tread.

One might also consider expanding this system, maybe by having a more detailed poll system in place with a (or three?) set(s) of template polls (for example one for each route add-on, rolling stock add-on, scenario add-on). Polled items could include such things as satisfaction with level of detailing, general impression (does it *feel* right), replayability, amount of content included, documentation, ...

Seeing the thread title of the first review, I think some thread naming conventions would also be helpful. "That GP30" is fine on its own, but as soon as there are a few dozen review of different products (or even different GP30 add-ons) it might get confusing. Something along the lines of [DTG] GP30 Union Pacific, for example, might work better in the long term.

Anyway, that's my

I'm glad to see this review board here, with the wealth of add-ons available this should be very helpful once a nice selection of reviews have been added.

Cheers
Michael

[Antwerp]

Can I say we work off this scale Buzz?

5 - Masterpiece
4 - Great
3 - Okay
2 - Bad
1 - Disaster

[mrennie]

I trust in the future reviews will be more of some kind of analysis of new content and not some debate of this or that. If you don't like what someone wrote then write your own review with your opinion. I think it would be worthwhile to rate any offering with a scale of one through five. Let's give this a chance and see how it works out.

To be fair to the developer, there ought to be a way to respond in the same thread as the reviews are posted. However, a response to a review could quickly turn into a debate and you'd be back to square one. If you look at the reviews on the Steam product pages, they do allow for replies to the review comments, but as the replies are nested, it doesn't all get jumbled up. It's unfortunate that the way of replying in forums like this one is a bit cumbersome - quoting a bit of someone else's post before making your own reply is fine until there are several other un-related posts in-between, at which point it starts to get unwieldy. I honestly can't see a way around it though.

Incidentally, the Steam product page review system still leaves a lot to be desired. The simple thumbs up or down, with no middle ground, is far too limited, as is the rating system for the reviews themselves (adding "funny" to the existing "helpful" and "unhelpful", while being quite funny itself, was at least a step in the right direction). I think your scale of 1 to 5 is a lot better than what Steam currently supports.

[buzz456]

I think the developer can feel free to comment on anything the a reviewer says however what I don't want to see is someone writing a nice review of a product and then some nit picker get on and start picking the other persons review apart. I love your rating idea Antwerp. Let's do that.

I guess what I am trying to say is it's way too easy on the internet particularly on forums to be rude and ill mannered sometimes without even meaning to do so. I often wonder why some folks just seem to forget about PM'ing someone instead of making everything a public issue. I have been writing letters and e-mails to people in business for forty years and every time I am annoyed I try real hard to wait overnight and make sure I still want to do that the next day. This is a wonderful group on here and it offends me when squabbling breaks out. Let's just all vow to try to keep it civil.

[JerryC]

Hmmm. This could go good, but this could also go bad. VRC welcomes input from the fans, as it helps to make for a better product. Honestly though, we can better use that information if it is one-on-one dialouge through e-mail or PM. That also encourages us to talk to the customer more, to better understand their situation.

One question that I have of all this is how you intend to regulate who posts a review for a certain product? How do you know that a person who is posting has actually purchased the DLC or downloaded and used it if it is freeware? To be more specific, a time or two i've seen folks in here slam VRC's products based on a photo or a video, and I know darn well that person is not on the customer list. People put a lot of stock in the reviews of folks who have actually experienced the product, so a false negative review by someone who just has an axe to grind (or nothing better to do) could really hurt the chances of a DLC ever becoming succesful. A false negative review could also put the website in danger, depending on the humor of the recipient, how serious they are about their business, and how deep their pockets are. Remember when UKTS was threatened with a lawsuit over negative reviews and smack-talk about a certain third-party vendor's products?

[buzz456]

I for one don't plan to regulate anything. It's like anything else, even the ill informed are entitled to a opinion. I think the rest of us being hopefully of some semblence of sound minds will be able to ferret out the somewhat dingy opinions of some. As far as anyone suing anyone, I suspect that would be between the vendor and the person who thinks they can say untrue things. If you ever go on sites like Trip Advisor you will always find someone giving a eatery a rating of one while everyone else is giving the place 4s and 5s. I always go look to see if this individual has rated other resturants and it usually turns out they are never happy no matter where they go. I suspect the same thing is true in the world of TrainSimulator2015 with particular venom saved up for any offering from DTG.
Anyway we will do the best we can to make sure everyone is treated fairly.