Yeah I agree!
Don't understand what the problem is OP...

I'm just a bit confused, because I didn't think this was the intention of rating the user reviews.

OK then?
What do you think is the intention of rating the user reviews?

I thought the intention was to rate the well-written detailed reviews higher and the short one-word or two word reviews (like: "it's good" or "awful") lower, since these are probably less helpful to people trying to learn about a game.

In this case, the most informative reviews would be rated higher regardless of whether I agree with the reviewer's opinion of the game.

If this was the intention, then I would expect to find both positive and negative reviews highly rated so long as they are well written and based on different aspects of the game.

Well, if you have a different view and opinion on a game than a reviewer of this game (which basically mean you dissagree with him), then that means you don't think what he says is informative. Therefore it's not as informative than a review you agree with!
But that doesn't mean people aren't also downrating reviews that are poorly written...

★★★★★
ZOMG AWSUM GAEM IF U DONT PLAY IT YOUR A DORK

The problem is that certain people will upvote unhelpful reviews if they agree with the rating and vice versa.

Oh, so everyone who doesn't have the same opinion as you is not worth listening to?

I know. But it could also be a bit confusing if people are rating things for different reasons.

If 2/3 of people are giving a review a 'thumbs up' because they think it's well-written, and 1/3 are giving the review a 'thumbs down' because they disagree with the reviewer's opinion of the game, then how is someone looking at the review supposed to interpret that?

It could be confusing, because it's very difficult to know whether a review is highly-rated because most people agree with how the reviewer feels about the game, or because they believe the review is well-done or even for a different reason altogether.

Similarly, it's difficult to know why a review is split between 'thumbs up' and 'thumbs down' if everyone is voting for different reasons. That's why, maybe it could be a bit clearer how GOG wants us to use the up-vote or down-vote, so we know what the goals are for the 'thumbs up' system.

Yes, you are correct. The reviews are there for people who don't know much about the game, and the question is directed towards the people who don't know much about the game. It is not intended to be answered by a bunch of people who have already played the game. If somebody has played the game and disagrees with what a reviewer said, then they should write their own review, not just click "no".

I agree, but there's also the issue of higher rated reviews showing up first.

If everyone is rating the reviews for different reasons, then does the highest rating really even mean anything?

If everyone is rating user reviews for different reasons, then there will probably be many useful reviews that end up split between negative and positive votes.

The question you're answering is "was this helpful?", which means that by clicking no, you're saying it was not helpful. If you do that because you disagree with the review, you are effectively saying disagreement is not helpful. That's quite elementary logic.
Oh, it does. It's a terrible practice, pushing "unhelpful" because "unpopular" opinions towards the back where no one is going to read them. Surely I don't have to explain why that is wrong?

But usefulness is subjective!
Even if a majority believes a review is unhelpfull, it's still up to the newcomer to decide whether to read it or not!

If people don't read them, it's their own fault, people can make their own decisions...

But you're making their decisions for them by pushing the other reviews back! What's so hard to understand here?

Isn't there a way to read the reviews that have been pushed back?