What would make a bad user review more acceptable?

If I write a user review for a game and give it a bad review and low score, what would that review require for you to not give a thumbs down or not give thumbs at all?

I have written some bad reviews in the past and I've always thought that random fanboys toss around thumbs without much sense of it. But I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. What is required for a bad review to be acceptable in your opinion? Or are all bad reviews unnecessary in your eyes? Is it wrong to point fingers at the developers regardless of any issues or any proper condemnation?

Feel free to check my reviews for examples, but please consider not adding any more thumbs than I have already received.

I'm just wondering. If I am not contributing something then I would like to know how to make a bad review more acceptable in the eyes of the gaming community.

Developer and/or Publisher opinions are not welcome here. Consumers only please.

Perhaps a specific example of what you consider "bad" would be helpful.

Click my name. It's not difficult. I told you most of my recent reviews gave low scores and bad reviews.

One review is 3 points lower than the user average and another is over 4 points below the user average. Without even reading them I can tell you that when you go against the masses that much you are going to get burned. This is the problem with systems in which everyone gets a vote; outliers, no matter how good their points are, will be alienated.

Yeah, that's true I suppose. :x

What makes it more acceptable is if it is well-written. If you're gonna bash a game, explain why you dislike it without resorting to the 'this game suckssss!!!' styIe. Even then, fanboys will just downvote your review for its score without reading the text body. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

I think the whole 'thumbs' system is flawed anyway. They should be replaced by a comment box so that people can actually tell you WHY they did or didn't like your review.

Justify your opinion with specific examples - gameplay, story, characters, bugs, etc. That goes for good reviews as well as bad. And don't worry about what people think of your review - the site is full of fanboys who just thumbs-down anyone who disagrees with them.

I have been here only for a very short time. I have been in gaming for a very long time.

I have no problem giving a bad review on something, including the first one I did that brought me here to leave that game. What i have found most annoying in the reviews is reading some of them in something you have played, and to see how terrible they are representing that game.

In truth, I look for the bad reviews if I am actually interested in checking that game out. All the clone great reviews, offer very little into actually what the game is. In these reviews though I really skip through or ignore the devs suck, with out explanations.

A review should be everything in the game, those two sides of goods and bads should then end that game somewhere along the grading scale. The common problem is that people like it, and only list the likes, or they hate it and only list the dislikes.

This is where I see the problem, and since lately I have really been tracking Rift to see if it is something I want, it makes a good example. People rating this game 10's, or 4's. Where in the most part reading these things you get nothing much more than someone things its great, similar to "blah blah" Out of all these 10 ratings, things you never see in there, are the mounts are always attacked, interface window issues, authentication, or hacked account issues, and other things going on that are all over this games forums. This is why you need those poor ratings in the mix, so things like this are also viewable by readers, wanting a good overall review in all sides of the game.

After checking out your reviews, I can say what keeps you from being a good reviewer is that you are too superficial and subjective: you keep saying you disliked this or that, while it's far better to think objectively if gamers in general will like or dislike an element. Second, you can't review a game on a rental, you just can't figure a game out without beating it and I get the impression you haven't beaten most games you reviewed. Third: stop giving much importance to graphics over gameplay: you gave Mass Effect 2 a 5.5 when four out of seven negative points you found are about graphics and art direction. My advice is: try reading some reviews for games that look bad but scored well, like Majin or Meatboy, so you can get a feel of how gameplay wins over graphics

I posted some very unpopular reviews myself: check out my Killzone 2 review to see some thumbs down.

I was going to read a couple of of your reviews until i spotted your mass effect 2 review at 5.5, and I quote " the glory days of RPG are dead" :shock:

Think i'll leave it there....:roll:

All your reviews seem to came from a bad player that just rage-quited.

Giving WAR, for excample, 1.0 is just ridicoulus.

There are a number of things that can be done to improve a review.

• Back up your criticisms, and do so professionally. Find evidence in the game of your claims that is not from an outlandishly obscure glitch.
• Don't make pointless flaming statements toward the developers, or people buying the game. It makes you seem juvenile.
• Don't even bring up the game's fanbase. They're not even remotely important in a game review. The game is the important part.
• Don't give a game a score of under 3.0 unless it is truly broken to the point of unplayableness.
• The goal of the review should be to inform a person with little knowledge of the game. Mention the game's good and bad elements, and try to explain how they work together as a whole to create a gaming experience.

That's about all I can think of for now. Also, some of these points go for any type of review. I've thumbed down plenty of high scoring reviews on games I've liked because the writer rambled incoherently without giving any useful information to a person who knows little about the game.

A good review is more than just opinion. You need to back up all you say with the game. Supporting your ideals is very important. You need to control your opinion. I lost count of the times I have read someone say they hate a game because they hate JRPG to start with. You need avoided going to a game with a premade ideals. Things like "All JRPG main characters are whiny blood teens" has a habit of coming true because the person is searching for it.