Hello everyone,

I use both Steam and GOG for buying games although I have never used Steam forums. When I am buying a game, I read reviews from both sites. What I notice is that one game can have 5 star review on GOG and 50% Positive on Steam while an other game can have 90% positive on Steam and 3 star on GOG.

So I am wondering your opinions about two things.

1. Do you think there is a significant difference between two communities?

2. Do you think the main difference is not because of the communities but the review system itself. And, which one seems better? 5 star or Yes/No system.

Tnx.
Engin.

No
Yes/no

1 - yes, ones here and the other is there, sometime they are here too, and there also, those here go there as well..sometimes.

2 - maybe

1/ I disagree with those that think that the gamers are the same here and on steam. Steamspy numbers and the devs that communicates on their numbers of copies sold here clearly indicates that people on GOG play mostly games of old school genre : point and click, rpg and strategy in particular. And that necessarily influences their gaming experience and their expectations, which can be reflected in the (un)necessary bashing of genre that they despise like "walking simulator" and "weaboo sh*t" to give an example. There is also the overall store experience that plays a part in the rating of games, like age of wonders 3 here is a good game (for me at least) but received an awful reception here at release, being in the infamous "good news" annoucement. Same on steam with games at the heart of bugs or paid mods crying...

2/ Seems to me that rating or yes/no system are pretty much the same thing. Reading reviews before buying is the important part, here as on steam.

I truly think steam has padded reviews, well, GOG has padded reviews too but not to the extent that Steam does...

at GOG you can hit the forums and get a real answer where you'll get a company line at steam.. I shop both as well and have had issues sifting though the propaganda and finding real reviews.

The best review is the one that actually explains in an interesting and informative way how the game works and why you might like or hate it. And while this may be a bit subjective, giving it a numerical representation of quality is supremely subjective. For instance: 3/5 is okay, 50/100 is crap.

Also, there is so much overlap that I find the idea of an actual "community" laughable, TBH.

1. Yes, there is. You choose between a community that is aware of how clients are shaping gaming to the worse, or a community that is aware of how the same clients are shaping gaming to the better. Here on GOG, we believe that clients (at least the forced editions of them, *cough*cough* Steam) shape gaming to the worse. Pick your side. Needless to say, this is neither black nor white. You'll find people who are okay with Steam here, and people who aren't okay with Steam as well (me included).

If we were to talk about ratings, you will naturally find games that are hit with different reviews. GOG is a distributor excelling in holding only quality games (unless the game is part of a quality series despite being mediocre), so you'll naturally find people's tastes here to be a little bit more fine grained and harsher. While on Steam, everything gets in there, so there is no barriers to jump over or harsh tastes.

2. I doubt the rating system changes the way the review itself or the rating goes. I think a scale from 1 to 5 is much better than a Yes/No system. If I were to translate the 1 to 5 system to words, it would be something like No, Maybe Not, Okay, Maybe Yes, and Yes. You can see how you can fine tune your rating and be able to reflect it in words. Meanwhile, if you liked some aspects in a game but not other aspects in that game, and you want to deliver the message that the game is okay for a short summary, you've only yes or no on Steam. Choose your poison. That's why I think 5-stars is better, though be sure to read the reviews, the 5-star/yes or no system was devised to form a general view of the game right on the front page.

Every review, especially here on GOG even with games that are pretty bad, that is about an older game should be taken with a grain of salt, as in many cases people tend to see them through rose tinted nostalgia glasses.

There's also a lot of fanboyism on both stores that does its own part in painting games better than they are, but on the other side, there's also certain amount of "righteous anger" from gamers directed towards devs or games themselves because of design choices what have you.

So basically, don't just stare at the numbers, check out what people actually say of the games, before deciding if the score sounds justified.

I ignore both :P

1. Dunno. I've never been significantly active on Steam's community. Not sure I'd count as significantly active on GOG's either, really.

2. Neither.

The two communities are basically the same. It's just Steam have probably ten thousand times more population than GOG if not one million more.

So basically the numbers speak by itself.

There are more quality and diverse reviews, of course there are more idiotic reviews on Steam than on GOG.

I've always felt I get a more accurate review over on GOG, but it's fairly subjective. I myself feel that a lot of the GOG user-base have been playing older, classic titles for a long time and therefore have a certain standard of quality that new games may or may-not meet.

I know I always think to myself when trying a new RPG; "How does this compare to BG2, Arcanum, Planscape" for example. Whether or not that creates bias when viewing new titles is the big quesiton.

Just my 2c.

deleted

That was the feeling I had when posting this question. GOG community is basically consist of older people who had seen the certain aspects of gaming history. GOG community mostly play RPGs and adventure games. Steam community on the other hand is full of people who Skyrim is the first game they played. Quick games like First person Shooters and MOBAs are their favorite. This slightly effects how they see games.