Seriously I think this is needed, just something simple like a five star voting system. Course I say simple, yet have no idea how hard that would really be to program, this site is already pretty awesome. Just kinda tired of playing bad games, or really good games with robotic GMs that I feel hate me in some way.

Am I the only one that feels this way?

Probably not, but RPoL will never implement such a system.  Sorry.
          /help/?t=faqs&page=frf

I have to say I agree with policy on this one.  The thing is, above and beyond what Ron said, each person's gaming style is different.

The thing that might make Ron love me as a GM might be the exact thing that makes you hate me.  I don't see any way that would ever come about as a fair rating.  Plus if you're like me and have only one game, (and adding that usually only unhappy people post ratings) that could make me look horrible.

NOt only that, but I hate anything which comes across like a popularity contest. And how are people who are, in your opinion, 'bad', meant to get better if everyone just blacklists them, effectively?

But the big thing for me is... have you ever been that kid picked last for sports teams? There's going to be someone, that is like that if you have a rating system. I don't like 'proving' myself, and why I rarely apply for games with writing samples.

There needs to be a dating site but instead of dates, it needs to be people chatting with and meeting up with there soul dm/players

I would pay for that.

Believe it or not, three of the games I'm in now are games I was invited to play, because the GM read stuff I'd posted here in CC and liked how I wrote and how I thought (not necessarily in that order).

So, in a way, that not-a-dating site is already here...it's just a question of how people choose to use it...*grin*

It is a bad idea, sorry. You will get false impressions from pettiness, inexperience, and simple incompatibility of visions. You'll also get GMs down-voted because a player had issues with other players, because they didn't get the game or it was different from what they expected... add in that it's meaningless if someone is new to the site, so has no votes and the people who use RPoL to only play privately with select friends...

And it's not like rating an item on deviantart or a writing community website. It would be rating a person. there is no way for that to be inoffensive.


As it stands you can check the public forums for a username,
search for games by user name,
and even rmail other users to say "Hi, I'm thinking of joining {game}. Would you mind giving me your impression of {user}?".
If you really want to vet a prospective player/GM there are ways to do it.

I'd prefer something along the lines of a 'favourite' button that you can check and can search by games by anyone on the favourite list. Wouldn't be visible to anyone else, no blacklisting or shaming, just a way to keep track (site wide and on the site as a whole) of those GMs and Players that you enjoyed working with along the way and would like to continue doing so.

I know you can do this is a Notepad or similar but if it were integrated into the site I think it'd hold more use and accessibility, without the downsides to most 'rating' systems I have seen.

Would something like that be possible, or are there also problems with it that I am yet to see?

I still don't really like it; as it does mean it makes it harder for newer players to crack in, as well as it assumes there is no development of GMing/playing skills. But no, it's not as likely to hurt people's feelings.

So once I thought I'd try to play in this campaign, real life.

I went to about three sessions over the course of a month and realized quickly that:

- There was no plot.
- There was never any in character speech.
- Every session was going through a labyrinth of elaborate traps and monsters, very old school style.

Now the thing is, when I first started playing, that's how it was done.  I've kind of moved beyond that now, but this style is still out there and it's not my cup of tea any more.  I like there to be SOME of this kind of thing but not ALL this all the time.

But I know there's people who feel very differently.  Frog God games has made a whole line of products for people who feel like that, for instance.

I went to them one day and said, essentially, you guys are too hardcore and technical for me.  They took it as a compliment to their game I couldn't maintain personal interest in it.

The point is, if I had to "rate" that campaign, do I give it 1 star because it was a terrible fit for me, or do I give them 5 stars because they were nice people and the game is clearly fulfilling a need for others?

Youtube has this problem, people don't rate the video on how good the video is (its production values etc.), they rate it on whether they agree with what the video is supporting or stating.

I think the existing rating system is most recently discussed in this Community Chat thread: link to a message in this forum

In reply to chrisormie (msg # 8):

Since your system would be a purely private thing, why not create your own list?  That way you can adjust it to suit your own needs.  Just cut'n'paste the GM's name into one of your scratchpads (it's still "integrated" with RPoL, so you can check it from anywhere where you'd normally check the site).  Assign numeric values, colour codes, whatever... to make it easier to spot the ones you are most interested in.

Keep lists of GMs you like, and ones you don't like.  You can use the Main Menu search function to find games run by those GMs (note that RPoL will never give you a means to search for games that a specific person is playing in - because, frankly, that's none of your business.  If you want to know what games I play in, for example, you need to ask me and I will decide whether or not I want you to know, not some automated site function).

So this works in the same way as a "like" button, except for a couple of things:

1. It isn't just restricted to people you like.
   
2. It doesn't require us to code something that we aren't actually in favour of.

I'm part of a trading site that runs a point system that simply puts a "Successful trade" vs an "Unsuccessful Trade" Now I'm not in favor of  that, but they did have a spot in the forums for people to simply post reviews of the trades after they were done.

Possible to do that here with a "Game review". Can this be exploited by personal opinion, sure, but it also has the potential of showing the reviewers state of mind. Now Mind you, this would be a GAME review not a GM review. It would however allow those people interested to at least read reviews of the games that the GM had run.

I really think any kind of system other than making your own list would mess with the community dynamic and make it less of a community. The minute you start creating any kind of popularity stats, you marginalise some of the members of the site.

I think I've said that before somewhere... but it still stands. Why is everyone so pre-occupied with green/red lights? This isn't purchasing a dvd, it's playing alongside other people. Maybe you won't like all of them, maybe you really hate some of them and want to steer clear, but why in the world would you ask strangers to make that choice for you? You're the only one who can know whether the chemistry between you is good or bad.

Any game review would be in breach of the sites rules, which do not permit the naming, linking to, or identification of any game in any public forum (with the exception of the advertising forums, where it is limited to GMs who are advertising their games).

Once again, RPoL does not (and will not) support any form of public rating system.

I'm also against a site-supported rating system here. I'm glad there will not be one.

I think the end result would be a massive upswing in duplicate accounts/sock puppets while the Mods get bombarded with name change and "delete this rating/review" requests.


On my favourite forum, at the bottom of each post* is a row of toggles, like so:

educational | interesting | funny | agree | disagree | love

They tally up each click for everyone to see. Any user can click them, but it's a toggle. One person can't just click for an hour to rack up numbers.

I love it. It's visually discreet. It makes getting a quick vote easy. It cuts down on thread bumps. We post a lot of photos on those forums. And I'm the kind of person who gets annoyed scrolling past dozens of "SO CUTE!!" and "OMG! ME TOO!" posts.

But some users hate it. Some get angry and make posts demanding to know why a button was clicked. Some feel pressured to Own A Click and make a post just to say which buttons they clicked. To me, this is like a thread bump, so it drives me up the wall. And many users pester the admins with requests to release the names of the clickers. Worst of all, some users attach their self esteem to the buttons. They write posts describing how hurt they feel when they don't rack up a certain number of "good" clicks or how they feel threatened by "bad" clicks.

Sometimes, I'll read through games or posts and think "HA! disagree 1!" but I wouldn't want that system in place here. First off, low visual content and the no hyperlinking rule. Second, I think the roleplaying hobby attracts a lot of fragile souls. I think one reason RPOL has such a good reputation is because it's a game site, not some ProBoards site with a die roller attached.


*well... at the bottom of most posts. There is the option of joining or creating a group (which would be like a game here) in which the buttons are hidden or unclickable to outsiders. Or a member may turn off the buttons, so others can click away while the clicked user remains unaware of the results. These people are generally ridiculed.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:57, Mon 19 Jan 2015.

So much of how 'good' a game is can come down to personal factors...was it what you expected?  Did you get along with the GM?  The other players?  If the answer to any of these is 'no', it's likely to color your view of the game.

Did you have a series of bad experiences with the Dice Roller at a critical juncture?  Was there some part of your personal life that was going to pieces while you were in the game?  Did some aspect of the game arouse unpleasant associations with some other experience in your life?  If you answer 'yes' to any of these, once again your opinion of the game is likely to be tainted by it.

But these are all circumstances that are largely beyond the GM's control, unless he was actively unpleasant toward you.  But outside of that, the GM may be blameless.  And while you may dislike the game, there may be other players who really enjoy it.  But do they frequent any of the public forums on RPOL?  I'm in several games with players who never look at the CC threads...so, suddenly, my opinion of the game becomes more valuable than theirs, in terms of public perception of a game.

These are just a few reasons why any sort of rating system is problematic.  As was mentioned, this isn't like rating a transaction, where there are a few definite criteria that can be analyzed.    A seller may be a toral jerk, but if they send you what you bought in a timely fashion, that's not going to have much impact on the transaction.  But your assessment of whether or not a GM is a jerk will have a HUGE impact on a game rating...and it may only be your opinion and the GM isn't much of a jerk at all.  You can't convince me that perrrsonal opinions of GMs would NOT influence game ratings...so much of what a game is comes out of who the GM is, and what they bring to the game.

I agree with all of the above. Any kind of public rating system would cause far more problems than it could possible solve.

Remember when Rpol didn't even list a GM's username?

THOSE were the days. :p