Verified Mission Reviews

[Adriella Spencer]

Ratings are insufficient and ambiguous.

As the catalogue of missions grows larger and larger, there should be a better way for players to assess a mission before accepting it. Missions are products on the game and the buyers (mission players) should ideally have all the information upfront to have an idea if the mission is a good fit for them or not before they invest their time and tokens. Only one of those can be refunded. We cannot expect the seller (mission creator) to disclose everything in the description especially since their primary objective is to entice players to accept, not to give them a reason not to. So that's why we need the voices of others

Here's how it can work:

• After a player successfully completes a mission, they are presented with the option to leave a short written review for the benefit of future players. It cannot be anonymous. They have up to 24 hours to submit before the option disappears. Only one review is allowed per mission play.
• Some prompts/guidance should be given so players would have an idea of what to write e.g. overall impression, difficulty and clarity, general theme, unique aspects, whether the mission requires a lot of reading / searching / rotating / typing / travel / repetition / guesswork / eye strain, possible issues they may encounter, tips to troubleshoot difficult or tricky tasks etc.
• All reviews related to a mission can be accessed from the mission panel below the mission's description
• Once submitted, the review becomes publicly available, is timestamped and is not editable. It can be deleted by the mission player or SV moderator
• Mission creators cannot remove reviews but can request removal if the review is spam, abusive or contains unnecessary spoilers (revealing plot without giving helpful info)
• For players who cancel the mission before completing, they are presented with the option to give a cancellation reason. This feedback is sent directly to the mission creator only, along with the task number and total time elapsed so they can identify problematic tasks .

Optional:
Players must be at least Level 20 in the relevant XP path before they can submit a review for a mission in that path
Reviews can be upvoted by others
An additional 10 XP is given to the player for each review submitted

I think a transparent and honest review system would help us to create a better experience for players. It will reduce a lot of the uncertainty involved in choosing a mission and therefore prevent unnecessary frustration. Mission creators, if they are so inclined, can also use the feedback to tailor future missions to their preferred target audiences and differentiate them accordingly. Mission players can find missions they'll enjoy and mission makers can attract the players who who are likely to enjoy their mission. Everybody wins!

[Aribella Lafonte]

I don’t agree with this suggestion at all.

I think quite a few of us mission makers would love to completely do away with the mission rating system altogether. Like the space ratings, they were heavily abused and weren’t used for their intended purpose; to help sort and categorize missions. On SW, and on here, it’s not beyond some jerk to come along, or a competitor for that matter, especially for competitions, to downrate a mission.

The last thing we need is for someone to critique or leave personal comments about a mission to persuade or dissuade players from playing a mission. This can be abused just as easily as the rating system and be far more damaging. It’s hard enough for struggling missions to get plays without having a negative rating or review to further complicate matters. Then you have the other possibility that someone can get their friends to post fake positive comments (nepotism still exists) or a creator posting on alts and post positive comments on their own mission.

Just as it’s frowned upon to quite honestly, critique anyone’s missions or post such reviews on a creator’s mission thread in a negative light, sometimes, some things are better left unsaid. If one has nothing nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all, especially if it’s not constructive. Also, if someone has an issue with a mission, it’s better to mail the mission maker privately.

I think leaving the option for the mission maker to provide information/disclaimers on the acceptance card is the best policy.

There are also player created Discord servers providing mission walkthroughs. These not only provide information on what to do in a mission, they also provide visual guides for locating items or hints to rotate, etc. It’s fairly easy to find someone that knows how to pass on the information to those that are interested in additional help; without such a negative aspect introduced upon the mission community.

Regarding my own missions, I do provide additional information on my missions, however, for those where they are not provided, I am a mission maker known to use dark rooms with lighting and sound effects, I think just about everybody that ventures outside of roleplaying missions knows this, if that is not your thing, simply don’t play. Lighting/sound effects are my niche/identity. I will not adjust my missions solely for one person to play when they are enjoyed by countless others. They are also those of a very few existing on this game of their mission type and the only ones I create.

[Kissy My]

while I find that interesting.
Sadly it would be seriously abused.

To go further, I think mission ratings should be removed also.

[Adriella Spencer]

Aribella and Kissy, I respect your opinions on this as you guys have invested a lot into this aspect of the game. I am not surprised that you guys are against it and I don't intend to try to convince you otherwise.

I will stress the following points though, for the benefit of others

• Space and mission ratings can be/are abused because they are anonymous and non-descriptive. They are useless as a result. Reviews will not be anonymous and gives the mission player the opportunity to give qualitative feedback. Someone reading can judge for themselves whether the reviewer is giving a fair assessment, fan-girl/guying or being malicious
• Reviews have no effect on the mission itself, its payout, ranking etc. It functions just as a guestbook would, except it can only be used when a mission has been completed
• Reviews can only be accessed by those who purposely seek them out in the mission panel. They are not available in the mission space. They are not prominently displayed to influence everyone, rather, they are there for those players who like to do a little research before they commit to something
• We can't force mission creators to disclose everything upfront and they can't even edit the description after approval so that's why it's important to have an in-game system that allows ongoing updates from the players who actually have the experience of doing the mission

I think a big part of why some players don't like missions is that it's like buying a cat in a bag. You just never know what you're going to get, which is thrilling for some but frustrating for others. So many players gravitate towards the more predictable mission styles after having a negative experience with a mission that was more...creative. That's why most do the same missions every week. Why explore and potentially waste your time?

What if mission reviews can help players avoid the missions that they won't like and find those that they would? For mission creators, isn't it better to attract players who are likely to appreciate your content than to try to attract everyone and have some of them have a bad experience (not because you designed a bad experience) because it simply was not the right fit for them? We need to break the silence! We may feel that the silence is protecting the creators but it's actually preventing them from learning and getting better at creating content that different people want to consume. Right now, creators operate a one-way communications model and expect players to shut up and play. Reviews turn into a two-way street. It's a feedback loop.

"If you have nothing good to play, then play nothing at all."

[Aribella Lafonte]

• Opinions/reviews are rather subjective. Everyone has different tastes and just because a mission is broken down into mission types to what they involve, or if someone elaborates more on whether they like a mission or not, it’s not accurate to whether or not it’s a right fit for someone or that they will like it. It’s like I don’t like puzzle missions, but I have found a couple that I like. And I like story missions, but all of a sudden find one that I don’t like because it’s too wordy or that I don’t like the story itself. Does that mean just because it involves a story, that I’ll like it? Do I really need a category or review break down telling me what is involved when I can just as easily read the mission description to know that I’m not going to be expected to serve up some grub? Just because I don’t like a vast majority of missions on this game (because they aren’t what I’m really looking for), does that give me the right to give a negative review to let everyone know about it? NO. I can tell you, such comments on a mission won’t make one very popular within the community and definitely not when reviews aren’t anonymous. Misnomer there, nobody likes to have their hard work criticized.

• Regarding reviews/comments on whether someone is leaving a genuine comment and not trying to boost plays for a friend’s mission, I see lots of fake, over exaggerated comments all of the time. Surely, they will continue if this is implemented. Are they accurate to that degree to how good a mission is, heck no. But again, opinions are subjective. If we had featured missions, then yeah, we can easily find them and leave us all going, “Wow, that was a great mission” because there would have been qualities that Staff would look for to put them there. We wouldn’t need someone’s friend’s glowing reviews on how they think the mission is awesome.

• Let’s face it, humans in nature share opinions and like to follow in the path of their peers, so if there is a negative opinion on a mission, they will be more likely to veer away from it, the same can be said for positive ones.

• You mention it would be similar to a guestbook; there are some missions that have guestbooks available in their spaces, providing they aren’t instanced. Even if not, I am sure one can request mission makers to provide one where players can leave their comments (if wanting to leave some constructive comments/criticism that the mission maker to use for their missions in the future) without negative consequences or require technical changes.

• It’s rather simple to the types of missions that we have available on here. We have story missions and we have role playing missions. There are only a small few that would qualify as puzzle type missions. All are self explanatory in their mission descriptions. For missions that involve stories with more text, rotating etc, those can normally be found in missions created by our original mission makers and less used by the new and upcoming ones since it’s a new generation of creators. Once you become familiar with the type of missions that one creator creates, and I know that you are very familiar with several of us here, the easier you will find what type of missions that you are looking for. For example, if you like missions with a story with an uplifting feel and simple to play, you can try those by Story Everly. If you like fantasy themed missions with a story and still easy to play, try those by Kissy My. If you like educational, roleplay, you can try those by Luiiis XD. If you like missions that have more a theatrical element, (but still take advantage of environmental elements like dark lighting) there are mine or those by Amethyst Vale. It’s really not hard to find missions that we enjoy or choose to avoid. And I think I can speak for most of us that find one that we don’t like; we either quit or call it a “one and done” and then move on with our day going to those we enjoy more.

• Since you are new to the game, I would be more than happy to pass on the links to the Mission Discord or thread to help you. It’s what many of us use to find a mission that we are looking for, though most are looking for fast and easy and find the roleplaying type of missions fitting their needs the best since they don’t involve a lot of text or high demands for tasks such as rotating. Also, players tend to gravitate to the easier and faster missions for the mission reward, there really isn’t much interest in its overall content. Once they find one fulfilling what they want or what they enjoy, they play them again and again, much like they did on SW that was no different. This game is exactly the same and SW was good enough for us all back then, with very little complaints regarding the mission panel or the missions available. To be honest, I don’t remember any but the complaints over the lap missions.

But since you mentioned my mission on my thread and probably what inspired you to create this thread, my missions tend to take advantage of environmental elements to influence a player’s mood in order to create realism so they will always include lighting or sound effects so you know what will always be involved. As for the one that you attempted to play, the key is located where one can expect a “hidden” key to be, near its entrance. There really isn’t much effort involved in looking for it nor additional explanation required on its walkthrough. I provided walkthroughs for all of my missions, which took a lot of time. Aside from telling players what to do on tasks, that particular guide provides a map for a more challenging task but even it has been modified from its original form by removing its need to rotate and locations where they can be easily found, two automatically completing the task, so long as some sort of effort is made on behalf of the player. I am not certain what additional accommodations can be made for you other than turning the lights up, which I as a mission creator, I am not responsible for your own personal screen settings and shouldn’t be expected to change what I create to make you happy. As far as the cluttered space, it was my very first mission and I used the small amount of gold given to me in the beginning if the game to create it. Considering the cost to create a mission being a new player and only having a starter space, I find it well decorated and not overly so that it complicates a player finding things to interact with. The front yard is only so big, it shouldn’t have been that hard to find a key. I’m sorry to disappoint………

[Aribella Lafonte]

Want to step the mission panel up a notch?

• Bring back featured missions to inspire us and give us something to want to add more effort and “wow” factor into our missions and put them in front where they are easy to find on panel. They are also picked by Staff and can hopefully for the most part, escape the nepotism of friends favor for them.

• Inspire us to bring more variety to what is available on panel, more theatrical type missions, puzzles, quizzes, challenging missions, something for everybody and extend out from the already available story and role playing missions. Get us to further explore the possibilities of our own capabilities and creativity and interactions available to us.

• Improve the panel by putting most recent missions first on panel so we can explore what missions are out there and step away from our usual habits.

• Remove space ratings. If anything, change them to like/dislike as that’s really all that’s really needed, if anything at all.

• Add fast links ‘go there’ on the completed missions tab for easier accessibility.

• Review older missions from early game as they don’t really fit under today’s guidelines and were accepted because the mission panel desperately needed missions to test its functionality and give us something to play.

The entire mission panel needs an overhaul.

"If you have nothing good to play, then play nothing at all."

I think the problem with mission panel and to why it’s hard choosing a mission is because of having less variety than what was available on SW due to a new era of mission creators and lower expectations for what inspires us. And pressure to play from loyalties pushes players to fast and easy though they have always been in favor. But that pressure has also created a hatred among those that don’t like to play them. All I know for myself is; that missions were better on SW and MM and on here, they fall kind of short. And I think Staff are partially responsible for that for the lack of interest in providing its players incentive/inspiration to want to provide “more” or something”different “ for players to play. It’s become just about creating a mission and one that caters to the desires of most players (fast and easy) and venturing away from the types we had on SW with more content.

[Adriella Spencer]

Aribella, with all due respect, I think that you are taking things way too personally so it's a bit difficult to gauge whether you are truly against the idea or just against the person proposing it. Either way, I will message you in-world

For the record, this 'What do you look for in a mission?' thread is the impetus for the suggestion. It's sad that only a handful of people will ever see it and mission creators will continue doing things that annoy players and then complain that no one wants to play their missions

[Aribella Lafonte]

I can understand your point of view as far as the frustration from the perspective of a mission player and why I try to accommodate players to a point. I too get frustrated since I probably hate what a lot of others do as well. I respect your opinion and the fact that you are being real about it, I just don’t agree with how you go about voicing it, being more public about it. I have nothing against you personally, but no, I don’t agree with the suggestion. I gave plenty of reasons supporting why I feel it isn’t the best solution as there are other ways to help players communicate to mission makers/other players so it is pretty clear on my motivations for commenting. I mentioned my own since it’s a good example to how reviews that you are suggesting may go and plenty of us mission makers will take such criticism personally. I don’t but can be easily annoyed by it. But please, do mail me in world, as it should have been in the beginning. Thank you. ❤️

For mission makers that continue to do things in their missions that are not favorable, we are creatures of habit and fall into our niche of how we identify ourselves, what features we want to add and how we program our interactions. Some of us are more stubborn than others and choose to stick to what we know. It’s hard to want to change things. I think just as players choose to play what missions they want to play, mission makers will create missions to how they want to create them. Personally, I would love to see them branch out and explore new things, same for mission players, but, it is their choice to do and in the end, they will see what results they get for those choices. And if they aren’t as expected and they repeat them, its a conscious decision that they don’t mind not being as popular, they get to be who they want to be and we can’t tell them otherwise. We need to respect that.

[Amanda Taylor]

I don’t agree with this suggestion at all.

I think quite a few of us mission makers would love to completely do away with the mission rating system altogether. Like the space ratings, they were heavily abused and weren’t used for their intended purpose; to help sort and categorize missions. On SW, and on here, it’s not beyond some jerk to come along, or a competitor for that matter, especially for competitions, to downrate a mission.

The last thing we need is for someone to critique or leave personal comments about a mission to persuade or dissuade players from playing a mission. This can be abused just as easily as the rating system and be far more damaging. It’s hard enough for struggling missions to get plays without having a negative rating or review to further complicate matters. Then you have the other possibility that someone can get their friends to post fake positive comments (nepotism still exists) or a creator posting on alts and post positive comments on their own mission.

Just as it’s frowned upon to quite honestly, critique anyone’s missions or post such reviews on a creator’s mission thread in a negative light, sometimes, some things are better left unsaid. If one has nothing nice to say, it’s better to say nothing at all, especially if it’s not constructive. Also, if someone has an issue with a mission, it’s better to mail the mission maker privately.

I think leaving the option for the mission maker to provide information/disclaimers on the acceptance card is the best policy.

There are also player created Discord servers providing mission walkthroughs. These not only provide information on what to do in a mission, they also provide visual guides for locating items or hints to rotate, etc. It’s fairly easy to find someone that knows how to pass on the information to those that are interested in additional help; without such a negative aspect introduced upon the mission community.

Regarding my own missions, I do provide additional information on my missions, however, for those where they are not provided, I am a mission maker known to use dark rooms with lighting and sound effects, I think just about everybody that ventures outside of roleplaying missions knows this, if that is not your thing, simply don’t play. Lighting/sound effects are my niche/identity. I will not adjust my missions solely for one person to play when they are enjoyed by countless others. They are also those of a very few existing on this game of their mission type and the only ones I create.

I total agree with you

[Jamie Bondason]

I think the current system is probably the best middle ground, though I agree with other posts that, actually, removing the star rating system could actually be even more beneficial. The way I see it, the forums are - for the most part - the best place to review a mission, if a thread exists to do so. A lot of mission makers also put widgets like guestbooks or kiosks in their spaces where people will leave comments too. I think, to avoid any abuse of a rating/review system, using the current tools at our disposal to review and comment on missions is probably the best we're going to get, short of removing a player's ability to comment on a mission altogether. No mission maker wants to put countless hours of writing, interaction, decoration and lots of currency into making a mission just to have a coordinated effort led against them where a player, or players, can leave a wave of bad reviews to put other players off of playing the mission.

[Kissy My]

I welcome criticism, it gives me insight into what a mission player likes or wants. So yes, if you don' like something about any of my missions... feel free to send me a note.
But again, If it were to be an option, there would be a disturbing number of people saying horrible and not accurate things.

Look at the ratings...
I have 1 mission in particular that is fairly new and while I know it won't be to everyones liking, it isnt great or extremely "painful" LOL
and I don't think all that bad...
because it doesnt get a lot of plays, maybe 1 a day (if lucky)...
I have watched it play by play (I have no life lol) get rated down to a 4.5 then back to a 4.6.
literally ... every other play it goes down and then back up LOL

There is one player who makes missions and while they may not be "great" by some peoples standards... they arent bad...
but I have noticed her missions get seriously down rated, I am talking down to a 3 level and that is extreme and clearly personal.
ratings suck and need to go ...

[Amanda Storm]

I don't agree with implementing mission reviews, because not everyone is going to review a mission fairly. I can see a lot of bullying with a review system as good as the intentions might be. The current rating system is a mixed bag, but reviews open a can of worms for favoritism and bullying.

[Penguin Disco]

I agree with almost everything Aribella, Kissy, and Jamie said. The current star system is quite problematic, but I don't think a review feature would be wise either. As a Mission Maker, I am always open to feedback and will gladly accept constructive criticism on any of my missions... but not everyone is, and that's okay.

Going back to the heart of your suggestion, I like the idea of giving players a better idea of what a mission entails. A lot of creators already put this kind of information in the description, but it might be nice to have a few checkboxes to indicate what a mission entails "e.g. this mission requires rotation, this mission has low lighting, this mission includes riddles, this mission includes puzzles, this mission has proximity teleport challenges, etc.). This could give players a better idea of what they're getting into, but could also be used as a filter (e.g. I love puzzles... Aribella does not, so we'd each be able to toggle that on/off depending on our preferences).

[Adriella Spencer]

Part 1
Thanks you guys for the additional perspectives. I agree with everyone who said that the mission rating feature (and by extension the Top Rated' category) should be discontinued. It is my view that it serves no purpose and is not useful to mission players since there is no established rubric to guide players on how to assess a mission and nothing to stop from applying their own. I seriously doubt that anyone, besides creators, pays attention to ratings since it has no effect on payout like it probably used to.

I believe that reviews should replace ratings, eventually. I don't see the devs making it a priority but it's inevitable that, with over 7,000 approved missions and counting, there has to be a way for players to give feedback on the content they consume. It has to be:

1. available in-world and therefore accessible to everyone (not on the forums, not on Discord or any other platform) and
2. consistently applied across ALL missions (not offered at the discretion of the mission creator, re: guestbook, dedicated forum thread etc.)
3. moderated, just as all written communication in-world and the forums are subject to moderation once reported

[Adriella Spencer]

Part 2

While I share your concerns for the potential for a review system to be abused, unlike you guys, I think its likelihood is being grossly overstated. In order for abuse to be rampant, certain conditions must exist:

1. Perpetrators must be able to operate under the veil of anonymity so the victims can't identify or prove that they are targeting them
2. There must be a benefit or incentive for the someone to engage in the abusive behaviour; the perpetrators wouldn't bother to do something if they didn't stand to gain from it somehow
3. Lack of consequences; perpetrators can't be held accountable for abusive actions or even suffer reputational damage because everything is hidden

Coincidentally, all of these conditions exist today with mission ratings because they are anonymous, ambiguous and not reportable. You can suspect that your missions are being downrated but you can't prove it because you don't know who is doing it and why. You can't say whether they are just jealous of you and being malicious or if they genuinely didn't think the missions were up to par. You can't report it. And they know this so they continue to hurt you, for fun, with impunity.

Verified reviews removes anonymity which is 90% of the problem. People act very differently in the light as opposed to when they can lurk around in the dark shadows. I personally don't have a lot of faith in humanity but I believe in the self-governing effects of social behaviour. No one wants to be seen as treacherous and vindictive, so I don't foresee a lot of scathing reviews being published in-game just as it's not done on the forums. Even using alt. avatars will not be an option because the whole point of having an alt. is to NOT draw attention to and out yourself if you're doing something on the sly. People can match CLs to figure out the main.

When you put your thoughts out there in a review, you run the risk of scrutiny (others looking you up), retaliation (blocked, banned and having your mission reviewed harshly) or even censorship (report and removal of offensive review). I think that alone will keep most players in check when writing reviews so they will try to be fair, stick to the facts and focus on being helpful rather than opinionated. And for the few who struggle with social netiquette and the trolls, mission creators will finally be able to report and ban. No more distressing people with no accountability. It simply wouldn't be worth it to bully someone in this way because you'll be leaving a digital thumbprint which can get you in trouble.

I don't think that reviews will solve every problem. I'll be the first to admit that a review system would only be as useful as the reviews themselves. "This was great!" is just as useless as "This was trash!" But I really feel we need to give players the opportunity to share insights with one another in the actual game