Anyone else notice that the XBL ratings (at least for Indie games) have just sort of 'stopped'.

The one I'm watching is this one: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855035c/ it's selling pretty well at the moment, but I noticed that a few days ago that it was at 99 ratings. Now it's still on 99 ratings. It should have like 500 ratings by now! I saved some numbers and looked back the next day and none of them seem to be updating.

Have everyone stopped rating or something?

Yup, I noticed this too.... I wonder why?

I've long since stopped trying to figure out how the marketplace works... Maybe people who bought the game don't use ratings for some reason?

Not everyone, infact I would go so far to say less than half the people who play a game would not bother rating it. We all knew XBLIG doesnt get 20 million people looking at the games so I think this has just hit a point where all the regulars have rated their favourites and it's slowed down dramatically.

I hope this doesnt continue, ratings are one of the best things to happen to XBLIG since its conception. More people/sites/blogs need to encourage people to rate games. Easier said than done I know, but if it starts to become second nature for people to rate a game this will increase the value of what ratings mean.

But not a single game, of the 20 or so games I've been watching have had a SINGLE new rating in the past 3-4 days. Before that most older games might get 5 ratings a day, and the new ones more like 50. Although the points you're making are valid, they don't explain such a sudden stop in ratings for all games, even the brand new ones.

Huh, I just noticed that my sales have dropped to a third of what they've consistently been the last month on the 5th, I wonder if some big new game came out recently like with when ODST came out...

I'm glad I found this discussion.  I noticed this, too. Even "I maed a game with zombies init" is stuck at 23,832 (note the palindrome if you check it) and it has been for a couple days.  It's pretty hard to imagine that game has accumulated 23,000 reviews since its launch but has had 0 in the last couple days.  While still being #1 on the popularity list.

And I just thought no one was rating my game anymore... it's been stuck at the same rating for a while now... typically I would get a new rating every couple of days at least.

I'm at work so I can't try it now, but someone should try rating a game and see what happens.

Could it be that they put the ratings updates on hold during the dashboard preview? I have it, but hadn't check it lately. I'll check this evening. Any of you have it?

Tommy McClain

I just Hated It and it didn't move from 99.

It doesn't work instantaneously, but we also don't know when & how often they are updated either. It's some secret sauce that Microsoft is keeping close to their chest.

Tommy McClain

Jim Perry:

I just Hated It and it didn't move from 99.

Well, I sure hope you don't LEAVE it there, and you rate it what you actually thought of it  (4.5 stars)  ;)

Alright, now I'm seeing a fairly decent looking game on the Best Selling list at page 1 without a single rating. No more saying that people aren't rating anymore or whatever, quite obviously something is wrong with the system.

Can anyone here from Microsoft confirm/inquire?

I apologise for the rampant speculation.

Maybe they noticed naughty behaviour, and so have stopped updates whilst they lock it down?

If so this could be construed as good news, as it shows they are monitoring for odd behaviour.

If this is the case, maybe MS won't be able to comment at the moment?

J.

ps.. I am a bit of a cup half full kind of guy

Joopsy:

ps.. I am a bit of a cup half full kind of guy

Good, because if you were a cup half empty guy you would be dividing by 0, which is impossible.  ;)

Actually, you'd be dividing by 0.5, but then you'll end up with floating point problems. :)

I've escalted to the XNA guys - they don't control ratings so it might take them a while to respond.

Jim Perry:

Actually, you'd be dividing by 0.5, but then you'll end up with floating point problems. :)

Oops, ok you got me there.  Half of 0 is still 0 though. LOL

Ah, I see they've just updated. Cool :)

Hmm.  30,000 downloads this week for Scare Me   -   and still less than 500 ratings so far.

Goes to show that most people don't rate games...

WolRon:

Goes to show that most people don't rate games...

Or that the apps sucks so bad that it's not worth posting a rating. It boggles the mind that there's even 30K downloads for the POC.

POC ? ? ? ?    Did I do something to deserve this?

Are you pointing the finger at just MY game specifically?  Have you SEEN some of the other titles (anyone have a Flashlight?) that's on the system?  My game can do everything that that one does and a 100 TIMES MORE for the same price.
Even compared to a game like OMG Cats Game, mine has MUCH more to offer, once again, for the same price.
I got nothing but good reviews and comments in Peer Review as well.

Peer Review comments:

I passed Scare Me.Good luck. There is a bunch of great content in the game.
Nice idea, well designed ;)
Pass.  It's amazing how you can be scared over and over again even though you know it's coming.
Got my mum a few times with this, good game :)
Nice job on having the editor in there.
Solid. Impressed because theres so much that can go wrong here with the editor. The game is pretty scary too!

I don't know what prompted you to start bashing my game.  It does exactly what it says it's supposed to do.  Obviously a lot of people are interested in getting scared.

What's wrong with that?

Original thread topic has been solved.
Now it seems like it's going into a wrong direction, and OFF TOPIC. This is not the place for this kind of discussions.