I'm Pissed Off About Those Who Rate Modder's Work

[David Brasher]

I am probably one of those villains you are talking about. If I don't like a mod, I say so and say why. There is much hasty work done. Inadequate play-testing. Alphas released as betas. Betas released as final products. Some people fail to look at play-balance.

 

There are the impossible mods that level 45 characters can't beat. There are the wimpy mods that a level 5 character could breeze through to win the prize of a full suit of daedric armor, a magic sword, some choice spells, and 20,000 septims.

 

Sometimes the rating system suffers from grade inflation. Everyone gives everything a perfect 10. Most mods should get 5's and 6's. I like the rating system because it saves me time. I don't have to download someone's piece of junk that earns a 3 because some other poor slob has already tried it out and realized that it needs a lot of work.

 

I am learning to mod myself and believe I have reasonable expectations of other modders.

 

One thing drives me crazy. People who rate mods before they download them and play them. (That looks cool man! I give it a perfect 10.) Why on earth would they do that?

[dezdimona]

One thing drives me crazy. People who rate mods before they download them and play them. (That looks cool man! I give it a perfect 10.) Why on earth would they do that?

 

well,its not common sense thats for sure!

[jonesjoshuar]

I am learning to mod myself and believe I have reasonable expectations of other modders.

 

I agree that play first rate later. However, to be fair. Tastes differ. To one person, every last texture and every last mesh has to be perfect. Or the lighting has to be just right etc etc.. To another person, it may not matter to them. It doesnt impact their gaming experience.

 

I do not know how much you have learned, but A LOT can go into a relatively simple mod. Different standards apply to different people. If someone feels its an alpha and you think its a beta...so what? Despite the rating system, no one should judge good or bad, without truly appreciating the time these mods take and the hard work done with them.

 

I noticed an admin rating once. The rating was an 8 i believe and it went through and actually said +1 for textures, -1 for no screen shot, etc I felt that was an intelligent way to go about it. Not only does it give good feed back to the author, but sets an obtainable standard.

 

If i want this mod to be a 10 i need to work on this aspect. I have a feeling he has a template ready in categories he rates mods. I wish this was hard coded into the rating system.

 

Although i have said before, The ratings reallly do not matter. Mod for yourself. If you are feeling nice share it with the community to enrich those whose tastes are similar to yours. Happy modding.

[Crimsanity]

I think the people who give 10s without playing are just as bad as the trolls who come by and post "looks dumb" and give it a 1. Or those who feel the need to rant on and on about how they feel the mod's existence has violated their personal sanctity, or whatever drivel is the rage nowadays. You're not really helping the modder(s), they need both constructive feedback/criticism and to hear of experiences from people who've actually played. Random 10s without even downloading can give false impressions that a mod is better than it is. Hateful speech only serves to rob us all of excellent creations, as seen by those who've left modding Oblivion and taken their things with them after feeling unappreciated and/or getting tired of the bull from tactless idiots. Both are a plague upon the rating system.

 

Other thoughts: If you can't say anything productive about a mod, don't say anything at all. Provide constructive criticism if you've got a problem with it, or don't bother rating. Note: "You're dumb for making crap like this" isn't criticism, much less constructive criticism. "This quest is really confusing, could you maybe rephrase some of the dialogue/text to make it make more sense?" or "Hey, X seems to not work after doing Y, is it broken or am I missing something?" is. Don't be unreasonable, but do voice your concerns on how to improve if you feel the mod can be better.

 

Not all mods deserve 10s. This is common sense. However, a non-perfect mod doesn't deserve a 1 automatically either. Also common sense. Use guidelines to see what you feel a mod is worth. Ask yourself questions, like "Did it do what the author set out to do?", etc. I try to use less personal preference and more general "Does it work as intended?" basis for judgement, as I may not like everything within a mod, but that doesn't mean it's not an excellent mod with a lot of work put into it. Not sure if I'm being clear what I mean here, but whatever.

 

Note any bugs you encountered and post them, either you will find a solution already exists or you'll help the author know about it. Either way, it's better to post what happened so it can be fixed than to give the mod an incredibly poor rating and never say why. If nobody helps the creator by letting them know, it'll never get fixed. "It's broken" doesn't help. Explain exactly what is broken and where, what you did to trigger the brokenness. This helps recreate and fix the problem.

 

Give a mod some time before rating. Playing it for five minutes doesn't allow for a very thorough examination. Nor will your rating provide a very accurate portrayal of how good the mod actually is.

 

Finally, and probably most importantly: People who create and share mods deserve respect. It doesn't matter if you disagree with all of their creations, or if you think their mods are terrible. Show them the respect you'd want others to show you if you shared something you'd spent hours, days, or even weeks/months/years creating. If you dislike everything they do, stay away from their mods and keep quiet. If you love everything they do, tell them so. Make them feel appreciated. They're doing this for free, after all. A "thank you, love your work" or other such compliment can really brighten someone's day, and make them feel much more inclined to share their work in the future.

 

Sorry for the long post, btw. Just felt the need to voice my thoughts.

[ElricDeMelnibone]

I have come to the conclusion that the amount of people that mindlessy rate all mods 10, and those that mindlessy rate all mods 1 is equal.

 

There are just as many angry people that will flame anyone who doesn't rate a mod with a 10, as there are that flame any uploaded file and rate it 1 for the heck of it.

[Pineapplerum]

JonesJo, that's a great idea. Thank you and the moderator for that. I was going to shy away from commenting and voting altogether but I think I'll try that method and see how it goes.

[ChalkLine]

Things that lower a mod's rating for me;

 

- Buildings that suffer from 'TARDIS'; they are way larger outside than they are inside, through oversight and not design. For an example, look at Castle Battlehorn. It's twice as long as the building but half as high.

 

- Quests that are poorly envisioned. Making a quest is like making a roleplaying scenario; you start at a distance and work closer. Quests that feel like they are nothing more than a reason to score phat lewt don't rate highly.

 

- No attention to balancing. You go somewhere and the local farmer is wearing Daedric Armour. A good reversal of this is Faregyl Village, where the wearing of good armour is a cause for suspicion (I rated Faregyl highly, but it was one of the few mods that actually scared me).

 

These are design flaws that are intrinsic, and not just something that can be bug reported. If a rock is floating, I tell the modder and don't bother to include that in the rating. Same with other errors and bugs, they have nothing to do with design and later versions will probably have them ironed out, so they should have nothing about the design rating.

 

Trying to comment is very difficult. I don't want to come across as if I want to have someone's babies if I like the mod, but I don't want to sound like I'm going to stalker-murder someone if I don't like the mod. Usually I limit myself to mentioning the features I found affected the rating significantly.

I do tend to rate mods more highly if the modder created objects themselves, especially things they let loose into the modder's resources pool. These people are saints.

[Mogadin]

I've never posted here on the forums before, I'm not usually one to voice an opinion one way or another unless it's something that really gets to me.

I've been on and off playing Oblivion sence I played thru it the first few times but the one thing that always got me re-interested in it were the mods.

I've played enough games over the years to know that any rating system is usually bad news as far as mods go JUST because of the ignorance many show by the ratings they give and the reasons they give those ratings. All to often the main problem with a mod is the computer it's being put on..NOT the mod.

But ego and know-it-allism usually gets in the way of seeing such things. PLUS the fact that if the mod isn't made to make females look like supermodels with huge hooters the mod usually gets a trashing. As in the case of Alienslof's mods..which is the reason I'm really pissed. Many of her mods were for her LADS, not for the females and now we'll never see anymore of her great work because so many MALES out there have such issues with there own manhood and couldnt'nt put a mod together themselves if it meant there lives couldnt resist trashing here mods. I for one will miss her talent greatly and the kindness she showed in sharing here creations with the rest of us. Rating a mod purely on the basis that it isn't something you like or YOU think it looks gay is PURE selfishness and ignorance. The rating of any modification without dl'ing and useing it isnt worth the time it takes to read the reason you dislike or like it.

And as I was always taught, if you can't say something nice STFU. period.

And to that end I am also going to say my goodbyes to the ES:Oblivion Community, Without Alienslof's talent it no longer interests me.

There are many many great mods out there and a hell of alot of talented people putting them together, give them the respect they deserve, you only go through this life once, don't finish it being a selfish a--hole, and by all means MAN-UP.

[Sangel2525]

I'm not a fan of ratings, but at the same time if a mod is well done and enjoyable to the user, I feel the author deserves a pat on the back. This could be done with comments alone, but I suppose a rating of some sort kind of affirms it. However, the 1-10 system that is currently in place encourages trolls to rate astonishingly low just to get a rise, and among a few not many but a few mod authors it brings out a competitive streak that makes them obsessive over ten ratings, which in the end degrades and dumb's down down the actual artwork they're presenting into a puerile popularity contest. On both sides of the coin for commentators, and authors this can lead to childish behavior. Therefore I totally endorse a simple thumbs up system for mods as it would inhibit such behavior to an extent. Of course crude comments from trolls will still be pervasive, but the moderators can handle that.

 

In a nutshell the 1-10 rating system in place seems to be more of a negative than a positive for the overall community. Also I should add there will never be a perfect system, because there will always be a couple of jerks out there that will go out of there way just to slander something. Even with a thumbs up system trolls will still be pervasive among the comments. But the staff here is very efficient with cleaning up their messes.

[Pineapplerum]

From the last few posts I think it shows the mods ratings may work better with just a thumbs up vote instead of a number rating.

But people will still say mean things in their comments. Unfortunately. But, you know, sometimes, it may sound like you're being mean when you're not. I think I may have done that a couple of times but I erased it and rewrote the comment. Some people don't catch themselves though. They may not even realize they sound mean. Not everyone is good at expressing themselves.

And if the number rating does stay than they'll have to get rid of the 1 through 7 numbers if choosing less than 8 can be considered flaming or seen as unfairly mean and if the "don't vote if you don't like" attitude is sincere by the staff of the forums.

Why would it be there to use if it's not to be used? Maybe we should just have a 3 number system where none of the numbers are mean at all. They say they like the work but it comes down to good, excellent and Unbelievably great!

But I guess that would have it's problems, too.