On stars and rating

this seems a lot better actually.

I am going to put it into use.

And omni-nudge.

@xoaks but I try not to spam too much >_<

The system I use is that 3 stars is average. Most things are 3 stars because they're nothing special. 2 is below average, but not actually bad. 1 sucks. 4 is above average and 5 is great.

@LordXenophon That's what most of us use. But I've found that the new one works much better for me.

It also results in a lot of 2 star ratings.

Thanx, i got the same problem xD

That's good.

Pretty decent way of looking at things there. I generally go with a system of:
5*: Highly enjoyed
4*: Enjoyed
3*: Ambivalent
2*: Didn't enjoy
1*: Intensely disliked
A few things that really stand out to me make the 5* list for me. (Though, admittedly I might be a bit generous with that category when a game initially grabs my somewhat flighty interest) I don't think I have a whole lot that I'd mark as 1* as, first off, I tend to not purchase games that tend towards that direction. Secondly a game would have to be somehow grievously flawed or offensive to my sensibilities in some way that I can't find any merit in the game. And, as I'm relatively difficult to offend, that second classification rarely rears its head.

@mnightwind: Yes, and because of it, I always had almost none of 1-star games/music/whatever and too much of 5-stars

@13xforever I end up like that too, but you're not going to play/use stuff you don't like very much, and I doubt you'd buy something you didn't like how it looked.

You have to resist the urge to give 5 stars to everything you like. Most of the good stuff should be 4 stars, and only the best should be 5 stars.

@LordXenophon Very well said.

@LordXenophon I agree! However it can get a bit blurry when you're enjoying a current game obsession and easy to overlook a particular title's faults. It might be a good habit to refrain from rating any particular title until after the experience truly has time to steep and be appreciated for what it is or is not. Unfortunately this time frame is something that's different to each person and requires a certain level of self discipline that is easy to get bowled over when it comes to gaming and gamers.

@Ransil The hell? I already nudged you! Why are you nudging me?

I generally reserve 5 stars for "this game changed the way I look at gaming, or otherwise revolutionized the medium." sort of games. So I don't often rate games over 4 stars. 4 stars = this is a great game, 3 stars = this is a good game, or this game could be great but has some flaws, and 2 stars = meh.

I reserve 1 stars for stuff that I haven't sent to the bit bucket simply out of laziness.

@LordXenophon we all know about it, but, really, how many times you thought, that there's too much in 4- or 5-star ranks? Shifting the neutral point to the left helps fitting them more precise and to ease the urge to use 5 star too often.
@mnightwind: my tastes are changing with time too, so I re-rate music once in a while, just to fit my current preferences. Most of the games I didn't replay, and the memories of most of them a waning too quick to let them stay to brew. But then again, I try to be fair, but the rating process shouldn't be a burden, IMO, so I rate whatever I feel it.
@dowekeller: pretty much like I do now :D

There's kind of an interesting problem that this discussion highlights. I generally only bother to add a game to my gamerdna page if I really liked it (or really hated it, but that doesn't happen often).

As a result, even if I only give 5 stars to games that are utterly phenomenal, I will still have skewed the average ratings by only rating the games I've enjoyed, not all the games I've played. I don't think I've given out any 1-star ratings, because if I thought a game deserved 1 star, I didn't bother to add it to my profile!

@voltairemodern: That's ok. I, on the other hand, am adding any game that I play or buy, just for the heck of it :D

There's also a lot of old games, that I'm too lazy to add, too. Most of it was never released outside Russia, anyway. ~_~

And, just to highlight it once again, this system is applicable to the most things that you rate here and there (like, music in your library).