Star Rating Anomaly

Some commenters in the /levels area deliberately give crappy levels a 5 star rating. That seems to be because they find them so pathetically interesting and funny that they want others to look too - It's so bad that it's good! they are saying.

For example "The D!" (doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/d-f/d2) is a level with no monsters, no exit, and you cannot even walk round all of it; and the author says we should not modify it either! It deserves zero stars and should really be deleted from the database. Yet, in an attempt to be funny, someone gives it 5 stars and says that the inaccessible area " represents a desire, one which we cannot access. This teaches us how to cope with failure. ... this wad ... teaches us how to view Doom - indeed, life - in a whole new perspective"

I also get a laugh from looking at really bad levels and have been picking some low star-rated levels out for comment myself lately. However it is a mistake to give these crap levels high ratings. This is because other reviewers will correctly give low ratings, so the resulting overall star score will just be average, which is not going to induce others to look at the level for either how bad or how good it is.

I've got a bad feeling about this... Could it be...?

every time i play a bad wad and rate it 6 stars out of 5 i have to commit immediate dishonourable sepookoo it's so horrible :(

The tendency for people to slap 0 and 1-star reviews on wads will balance out the jokesters with their jokey jokes.

I don't think it's that big of an issue, just use some common sense. Don't pay attention to the stars, read the comments. It's generally obvious when someone is serious and when someone is just messing around.

Memfis said:

I've got a bad feeling about this... Could it be...?

Oh no, is HE back!?

Bad King John said:

the inaccessible area " represents a desire, one which we cannot access. This teaches us how to cope with failure. ... this wad ... teaches us how to view Doom - indeed, life - in a whole new perspective"

I heard this in Patrick Bateman's voice and now I feel strangely moved.

Cyanosis said:

I heard this in Patrick Bateman's voice and now I feel strangely moved.

"I can't believe he prefers skillsaw's wad to mine."

People being stupid is an "anomaly"?

Bloodshedder said:

People being stupid is an "anomaly"?

I find people being stupid just a natural thing

Zed said:

.... Don't pay attention to the stars, read the comments. It's generally obvious when someone is serious and when someone is just messing around.

But you only see the comments if you open the page for that level. When browsing the lists of levels looking for one to download and play, you only see the author's own summary and the average star rating. Because of some people messing around, that average is only meaningful if it is 0 or 5. If it is 2-and-a-half it could be that everyone thought it mediochre, or it could mean that everyone though it crap but half of them put 5 stars in a misguided attempt to draw attention to it. (Or it could be that most forgot to set the star rating before they pressed the Vote button)

Memfis said:

I've got a bad feeling about this... Could it be...?

"...the resulting overall star score will just be average, which is not going to induce others to look at the level for either how bad or how good it is."

using the notoriously trolled /idgames ratings as an objective measure of pwad quality... check

Bad King John said:

Because of some people messing around, that average is only meaningful if it is 0 or 5.

That's generally true anyway - 5 star rating mechanisms are worthless because you can't rely on people to have any kind of consistent shared understanding of what different star ratings mean. That's why most sites nowadays just use like/dislike and don't bother with anything more nuanced.

I used to dig up bad .wads and remake them or add to them as a learning experience. They were never released, but after a day of work, they were better.

As for up voting crap .wads, people make their own fun. I see it all the time on Steam.