I won’t speak for Brian - I know he uses a rubric so it might play out differently - but I often find that a game is flitting right between say 2 stars and 3 star, since the IFDB system doesn’t have a lot of granularity. I’m not sure it’s possible to be completely rigorous about how to resolve those edge cases, but I know sometimes I’ve been in that position and felt like “well, this could go either way, and I know this person often struggles with criticism they perceive as overly negative, so might as well just go with 3 stars.”
As Brett said above, in some ways it might be fairer if reviewers just descended from above to gift our opinions to the grateful masses - and funnily enough that’s kind of how I was when I first started reviewing, since newsgroups were enough of a pain to engage with that I only really posted once a year, when reviewing the Comp! - but here we are.
This is crucial for me. I don’t feel particularly afraid of “telling it like it is,” but I only have so much time and prefer writing about things I like.
Mike is right, by fudging I mean if I’m at 2.5 and don’t know whether to go up or down.
There are a few times I think I’ve changed a score more than 1 point. One was for Spy Intrigue. I thought it was skillful but I don’t like games with strong profanity or sexual content. I later changed it largely because I got to know furkle better and realized that she wouldn’t ever really share my views and it seemed unfair to her artistic vision to give a lower rating, especially given the amount of influence Spy Intrigue had in the community. There are also a few games in the last few year where I felt it was a 1 or 2 star experience and thought everyone would agree, only to find out that many people had given it 5 stars (not just friends of the author, a large number of people from many areas of the internet). I felt nervous being so different from the crowd that I gave it a 2 or 3. Similarly, there are a few times in the last few years where I was convinced a game would be a 5-star game, but was surprised to find no one had the same opinion, and i have on occasion lowered it to a 4. Not every time though; I am the only 5-star rating for Stowaway and I feel confident that my rating is accurate (for my tastes).
Due in part to my Spy Intrigue experience I just don’t play games with sexual content or strong profanity or extreme gore at all (although for several games I’ve opened them up in an editor and just changed everything). So I have taken the path that you’ve suggested before.
Edit: I should also say that the vast majority of my 1- and 2-star ratings are there to say “This game has problems but if they were fixed I would raise the score” or “I didn’t like this game but if the author changed stuff in the future I would like it”, and I’ve done that several times to authors who fixed things in that game or in future games. In my mind it’s not as bad since everyone is growing and can do better. But sometimes people have no desire to change because they don’t hold the same value system for games that I do. So there’s not really any point in giving a ‘this person might do better in the future’ score/review. An example is Jim MacBrayne; his games are fun and remarkably consistent with some quirks to them that make them a little frustrating to play at times. Every one of these games is a 3.5 to me. Early on I gave a 4 star rating since I thought they were new and wanted to encourage him. Then I realized a lot of his games were really similar, so I pointed out more flaws and gave a lower score, and wrote to him asking if he would consider fixing some of the problems. He was super nice and said he didn’t really have time to rework the engine from ground up. So now I give 4 stars.
I didn’t address reviews in my earlier reply, but I definitely include constructive criticism in my reviews if I have thoughts on how a work could be improved, while being mindful that even well-intentioned criticism can hit hard when you’re on the receiving end. If I actively dislike a game and feel like my response would be less constructive criticism and more just a takedown, I probably won’t review it (and I try to avoid playing things I know I’ll dislike). But I have written a few reviews specifically to point out content in a work that I considered harmful.
As a player I’m not too happy at the thought of people in general - not targeting this comment at particular posters here - not leaving poor IFDB ratings for games that did not work for them, or that they think are subjectively poor. That seems to significantly undermine the site’s ratings as a tool for users.
Against that I’ve been an enthusiastic reviewer during past competitions, especially in recent years. And I try to give constructive criticism, but equally say where I don’t like things, or feel that they needed to be developed differently. I have had some extremely strong reactions from authors to my reviews, and it’s making me feel very hesitant about reviewing again. I don’t just want to review games I like.
Alongside all that, as an author myself I honestly want to hear poor reviews of my games, hopefully alongside more positive ones. I especially appreciate constructive criticism to help me improve in my craft. Equally though I know not all authors feel the same way. Though personally I think if you enter your game in a competition, especially one with a tradition of reviews, you should expect the good and the bad.
But it is a difficult situation. Ultimately reviewers and people rating need to decide what’s appropriate for them. But I am concerned if things become too sanitised. While at the same time wondering if I will keep reviewing en masse …