Supporting Authors Through Other Avenues - Writing Reviews

Making it rain cash is definitely not the only way to show love for writers and boost their careers if you’re looking to help. Reviews, favorable feedback and/or criticism, are among the most important shows of support you can give too. Especially since they’re so unlikely to be given. For every ten readers, you can probably expect at least eight of them to read in relative silence in the review department if not fandom as well. Of course, that is partial speculation based on observation alone, but I’m sure I’m not too far off in many or most cases.

I didn’t used to write reviews very often because I thought “no one cares what you think [redacted],” “what could you possibly have to say that the author hasn’t already heard, [redacted]?” So on and so forth. Turns out, I had a lot to say, and it was needed just as much as the next buyer’s. All of these ratings add up. Reviews attract buzz and a wider audience willing to go for it to discover what all the excitement is about. The engagement is encouraging/constructive. And arguably most importantly, creators void of diverse feedback cannot grow; anyone void of diverse feedback (in a sense) cannot grow really. So spread the love, take some time and back that feed. Who knows, you might only be setting aside mere minutes, but those minutes may make your favorite author’s entire week!

If anyone would like to drop other (small and big!) ways to support authors, that would be peachy. Either way, this topic was sitting on my mind having gotten many enthusiastic thank yous lately from surprised authors.

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And I would add to that–there are certain breakpoints that make certain numbers of reviews particularly valuable. On Steam, for example, I believe that getting to 50 reviews can push a well-reviewed game from “Positive” to “Very Positive” which makes it much more visible.

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50 reviews on Steam for CS game. Is that even possible? :smiley:

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Remember that Steam has anti-review-bombing measures in place, any sudden surge (positive or negative) is usually tempered.

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Wayhaven Dos says hello, is it me you’re looking for?

Admittedly, you are right that the vast majority of Choicescript games will take many years to clear the 50 review mark, if ever. And even then, fewer still might hit the high percentage of positive reviews required for it to avoid being Mixed or something else a lot more damning.

Actually, upon a quick glance at the storefront it looks like there have been a few of them hitting the 100 and even 200 review mark, and it’s mostly the ones you would expect. Still, for every one that does, half a dozen won’t. Especially since a good chunk of HG releases never even see the light of day on Steam.

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Ejem Wayhaven. I won’t even consider it a Cog It is basically an Otome with the style of a virtual novel. So for this endeavour, It plays another league.

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I have 182 reviews right now on Steam, my favorite one is this:

Yes.

That’s all :).

But yeah, reviews are SO important.

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Even so, there’s CCH, ZE: SH, Fallen Hero, Tin Star, Study in Steampunk, and they’re all above the 100 review mark and managed to keep their review ratio at Very Positive. And that’s just some of the ones I saw on the HG side. Undoubtedly CoG has some as well.

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Very few things are as disheartening as showing your work and feeling as if you’re screaming into the void.

Reviews and feedback are, to me, the most important gift anyone can give a writer.

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Steam used to allow a simple thumbs up or down, but now they demanded text in the reviews. So, yes.

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It’s a shame that we are losing our reviews because of the shift to Omnibus. With CCH1, I think I got over 500 actual reviews, between Steam, Apple, Android, etc. It was that response that really pushed me to keep going with my writing. :smiley: Had it bombed, I probably would have re-evaluated things.

With Zip, I got…4 reviews. :neutral_face:

Let me tell you, there is a :earth_americas: of difference between the two, at least for me, psychologically.

An aggregate number rating just isn’t anywhere near the same. It doesn’t tell you what you could improve on, or what aspects the audience liked/didn’t like.

So while we still have this opportunity on Android, I’d 100% encourage people to please give reviews! Even if you read the story a year ago, if you realize you didn’t give a review, please consider going back and giving one.

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Even with the omnibus you can leave a review If you reload the normal Demo Version of the game. Only as an Info, for the people that did not know

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I normally not let reviews on pages, because I don’t want to harm authors. A small criticism in a page of ratings can really harm the scores or dissuade a possible buyer.

I prefer to come here and tell the author in a place that my criticism won’t hurt its revenue

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I’m 6 away!

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One of the worst things about the omnibus is that it shields you from text reviews. Which is funny, because one of the best things about the omnibus is also that it shields you from text reviews.

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I can’t compete with Malin, but: yes. :slight_smile:

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Nice there are some. Those who are really popular and are old enough.

Checked recent ones and it looked bleak.

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The thing I find interesting is when you compare the ratings of the various stores. UnNatural averaged about 4/5 on google and apple with amazon and chrome being about 3/5 and Steam its currently 6/10 (with a mixed rating).

It doesn’t make me feel sad to not be rated as highly as I put it down as different types of customers.

Specifically about reviews though, both good reviews and good critiques are a god send. While I love hearing how much someone enjoyed my writing. I enjoy it just as much when someone likes it enough to point out what they didn’t like so if its an actual issue it can be fixed. Or if its more of a personal opinion it can be considered in the future.

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This is so incredibly true! Feedback makes or breaks a good author.

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Yes! Reviews are a lifeblood and lifesaver. Moonrise got review-bombed when it first came out, so the reviews left by actual players and members of the intended audience meant all the more to me. :relaxed:

Word of mouth is probably one of the most effective and powerful marketing tools, and reviews are the digital cousins of that. If you have a kind thought, if you have a good idea for how to improve: please type it out and leaving a star rating.

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