I get the impression that user reviews on GOG are a bit more positive than on the rest of the internet. Most of the games really are good, but there are some that were pretty mediocre when they came out and they still got four stars from GOG users. Does anyone else feel the same?

Who cares about them? ;-)

When you look at the reviews do you read just the 1st few or do you skip to last page? The last page is where all the bad ones are.

Also, for me anyway, if I pay 2.39 or 4.99 for a game and it sucks it's still hard for me to give it a negative review. When I fork over $50 for a major let down THEN my reviews will get nasty.

nostalgia plays a factor too

What happens is that a good old game gets released, and original fans who can't see through the nostalgia goggles rush to worship their childhood favorites (I do this regularly with games like Imperialism and Lords of the Realm). When someone reads those reviews, they assume the game is better than it really is.

I can see it leading to a lot of disappointment.

Sure, any respectable establishment has a pretty fair and straightforward system for assessing quality:
5 stars: Excellent
4 stars: Great
3 stars: Adequate
2 stars: Avoidable
1 star: Trash

Now here's us, short on time, money and patience, trying to get the most bang for our bucks:

5 stars: Excellent
4 stars: Okay
3 stars: Meh
2 stars: Meh
1 star: Not my genre

It's nostalgia. Daikatana would probably be well reviewed here.

I'm thinking Daikatana would net 3.5 stars which could be misleading elsewhere but is a big red flag on GOG.

I agree with everyone else saying, it is the nostalgia.

I'm trying to remember now but I don't recall ever seeing a GOG with 1 or 2 stars. Oh, wait. MoO 3 got 2 stars. Maybe there are others.

Anybody know of a 1 star GOG? lol

I don't know about that Ultima IX, Might and Magic IX, Master of Orion 3 and a few others got pretty low scores Ultima IX average score 2 1/2, MOO3 2 stars, ect. Generally bad games, like Daikatana, usually get bad scores granted there are a few who defend them but hey as the War Z and Sonic 06 incidents show us sometimes people just like crap.

Not really. People here tend to vote with a tendency to confirm popular opinion from era the game came out - for example, Ultima IX being trashed, just because it's a popular view this game sucks.

It more affects ratings than reviews, though. People seem to vote on a "Hmm, I remember back in the day people said it sucks, so 2 stars"

Daikatana would have a pretty low raiting here, I think. And Daikatana isn't even that bad!

Typical GOG user, liking that Daikatana! lol

What? People actually pay attention to user reviews? You crazy, mahn! =P I do agree that some of the ratings here are a bit suspect, but, then again, this is the internet so everything really is. ;)

I still say people shouldn't be able to review or grant stars unless they buy the game on GOG. I think sometimes people assign stars to games they never owned or played. And the reviews almost never take into account anything particular to the GOG release, such as any issues running it, etc.

Blood 2 has a few 1 stars.