Overhaul sbox.game review process

[matekdev]

For?

S&Box

What can't you do?

These tickets are somewhat similar so I'll link them here https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-issues/issues/6106 https://github.com/Facepunch/sbox-issues/issues/6323

In the long term, the reviewing system should work similarly to how the Steam store works. At least, I feel like that is a good example of a good implementation of reviewing.

• You should be able to reply to reviews as the developer
  • The user who posted the review should get a notification letting them know of the response. To let them know to change the review if they feel the issue was fixed.
• The reviewer's play count should be shown in the review
• Add functionality to report reviews in case they are extremely unhinged (i.e. threats of violence, etc.)
• Let people delete their own reviews
• Players should be able to upvote/downvote reviews depending on whether or not they are trollish reviews

How would you like it to work?

The bullet points I outlined at the top.

What have you tried?

...

Additional context

No response

[youarereadingthis]

I'm not satisfied with the current review system either.

If reviews themselves don't have helpfulness ratings, it's not nearly as clear how those particular opinions reflect the majority. That makes it harder to parse how relevant that feedback is, which really is a polite way of saying they're often not helpful at all.

Being able to reply to reviews is a very good feature for a variety of reasons.

• What if the review gives false information?
• The user might have a question or concern I could answer.
• Developer replies typically show that they care about the game/community.
• It's another way of interacting directly with your audience.

Also, it's very possible for a game to start off with a lot of problems or lack of content/polish and improve in those areas over time, thus receiving a higher rating average in that time period. The opposite is true as well where a game might make some bad/controversial changes later on. Being able to see the average of RECENT reviews is important for that reason.

[MrBrax]

Agreed, quite annoying with reviews just saying "not working" or confusing criticism, trying to figure out what's actually wrong is hard when you can't reply and ask follow up questions. And if you fix the issue in five minutes, the review author won't ever update the bad review because they don't know it's fixed.