XNA Gamer An indie Game Dev blog.

Why Indie Game Rating is a good thing.

I'm worried because I don't think people really get the whole point of the rating system.

Watch this video from just before Xbox Live community games marketplace opened(now called indie games) you're looking for the way Kathleen says "honestly you've got pong clones" it's around time stamp 1:50, to me it sounds like what she wanted to say was "FFS Pong clones!"

Go on try and tell me I'm imagining it or for another example, listen to Show #328 on Xbox Live's Major Nelson this time you're looking for time stamp 17:50 Kathleen "All the Games are Great... But some are...", E's the one to go all out and say "...but some are greater than others..."

The overall feeling I get from hearing the way Kathleen & other people talk about the games on the indie channel is that the XNA team are disappointed in the excrement that some people have made, and I don't blame them. People aren't taking our XNA games seriously, and with the current offering of games there's little to convince them otherwise.

Major Nelson's reaction to "Who Did I Date Last Night" made me laugh, and if you're unsure what's wrong with that game then spend your points.

The fact XNA has led to no less than SIX "games" to turn your game pad into a masturbation aid/massager is beyond reproach.

Then there are the "games" that are nothing more than a screen-saver for your Xbox that you have to start manually. Come on people! have you read the specs for the Xbox360, after almost 4 years it's still holding it's own against the PS3. The hardware is amazing and we are producing the most benign rubbish, the Public Domain scene on the Commodore Amiga was better than this.

That's not to say every game on the market place is a waste of bandwidth, in the same show they do highlight some fantastic games, like Miner Dig Deep, ZP2K9 & Groov there are loads more that are worth the points.

Anyway back to my point, yes I have one, for once. They have given us a new tool to show on mass what the games are like, it's the new ratings system. You have to use it especially if you hate a game that's what one star means it tells the developer and the rest of the world that this game stinks.

A few days ago I posted a tweet :-

step 1 :- Search xbox.com for "Massage" step two : - Rate every one of them as one star #xna #xblig

a short while later I got a reply from @theBigDaddio :-

@mort8088 Do not even rate any game with Massage. They don't deserve the one star.

I was a little perplexed then I remembered the myth of voting it goes like this :-

If I don't vote then they'll know I don't like them...

and that's wrong for all kinds of vote, if you don't vote they don't know you exist.  Think about it this way:-

A game is played by five people and four think it's a steaming pile but one person thinks it's better than Peggle.

Going by the myth the one vote of five stars makes this a five(5) star game as voted by one person

Going by my way the game is now a one(1.8) star game as voted by five people.

If I saw the two games I might be tempted by the five star but I'll know not to bother with the 1 star game, Texas is the only time a lone star is almost cool.

In short vote for every game on Xbox Live Indie Games and let everyone know what to expect from the game they're about to download.