Is there any way to formally request a rating for an AGS title?

[LRH]

I know it's been quite some time since I've posted, but I'm quite genuinely wondering about this: is there some method by which I can formally request a rating for a game I've made?  You see, I made this little nugget a while back: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1788/

-and, petty as this may be, I really wish it to receive a cup rating. Is there some process by which this can happen?  I did a quick search, but I did not find a concrete answer.

[LimpingFish]

Short answer...no, ratings cannot be awarded to order.

[LRH]

Ah, oh well.  Thanks for the reply.

[Gribbler]

You just have to be patient... and lucky, I guess I've been waiting almost two years for panel to rate my game. And still counting

[m0ds]

In this case, one of the panel saw your request and happened to have played your game so they will be rating it soon!

As for rating requests, there's no reason we can't at least discuss that and see if we can find something to help get more ratings for active developers who are asking for them. It's understandable that ratings are important to many AGS developers and that not getting a rating could be detrimental in the sense that an active developer may be put off making a new game until their last one gets a rating, and then the community suffers from it by getting less games So what, IMO would be nice, is if the game developer (the person who added the game to DB) had an extra option on the games page something like "Flag for rating". Then the panel would see a list of the flagged games knowing the developer is keen to have it rated (and that the games actual developer is active and present in the request), and could prioritize those ones. Additionally it could just be available to everyone and the highest ranking/flagged games get the rating priority. Once its rated the flag option is removed. I'm all for every game being rated ever, but there are so many 1 cup games that get the time and attention of the panel, it would be kind of nice to see a priority system of some kind that allows developers to "poke" the panel. LOL. "Poke the panel" should be the name, not "Flag for rating"

[Ubel]

So what, IMO would be nice, is if the game developer (the person who added the game to DB) had an extra option on the games page something like "Flag for rating". Then the panel would see a list of the flagged games knowing the developer is keen to have it rated (and that the games actual developer is active and present in the request), and could prioritize those ones.

That feature would probably cancel itself out though, because everyone who adds their game to the database would flag that option and therefore no game would be prioritized over the rest so the situation stays the same.

Additionally it could just be available to everyone and the highest ranking/flagged games get the rating priority.

This raises another problem as games with bad user ratings get much less attention. If a prioritizing system was implemented I think a better solution would be to prioritize games that haven't been rated yet by date so older games get priority over new ones since new additions get exposure regardless of rating anyway.

[Cassiebsg]

If a prioritizing system was implemented I think a better solution would be to prioritize games that haven't been rated yet by date so older games get priority over new ones since new additions get exposure regardless of rating anyway.

I agree with Pablo, though I also think it is important to rate the new games, so maybe some sort of "New, old, old, New, old, old...etc" system. So games that are just released get rated ASAP, and then go back and rate the older games by date added.
There's a good change that a dev that has just added a game to the DB is active and egger to get rated (if nothing else, to figure out what to do to get his next game better). Eventually, in a perfect world, the old would meet up with the new, and you guys would only be left with rating new games.
Or some other system that makes sense and helps the panel to decide which game to rate afterwards and at what pace one should rate. 2 a month? 10 a month? is probably too few, 10 probably to high... just have a target, and hope to keep it. 1-2 long games, 5 short games a month?

[Gribbler]

How about rating Games of the Month first?

[LimpingFish]

If a prioritizing system was implemented I think a better solution would be to prioritize games that haven't been rated yet by date so older games get priority over new ones since new additions get exposure regardless of rating anyway.

This is basically how it is at the moment. We try to prioritize games from the "backlog" to rate, above newer titles. That being said, if a panellist happens to be playing newer titles on their own time, ratings for those games will also appear.

I'm not fan of developers being able to flag their games for a rating, for the reasons already highlighted.

[elentgirl]

Hello All

Writing as a game creator, I can confirm the importance of official game ratings as only blue cups are considered when anyone filters a search for games.  I also appreciate that the rating of games is voluntary and only so much time can be put to doing it.  As a different approach, could the search for games criteria be altered to include orange cups as well as blue cups?  My game has been on the database - unrated - for nearly two years, but it has received a reasonably good orange cup rating.

Elen

[m0ds]

Certainly some good points as to why it may not be ideal. The backlog is a finite number that can be beaten in time I'm sure