Mystery of Sargasso Sea

That's for sure, a lot of people have stopped reviewing at BFG. I used to regularly check Valdy's reviews. She always put a bit of tech info in them. If a game didn't play widescreen for her, I knew it wouldn't for me, either.
I prefer widescreen, but it's not a deal-breaker...better have a damn strong storyline, so I don't notice the black bar sides.

Voting someone's review "Not Helpful" because of differing opinions is just childish. Different strokes for different folks and all that. Read it & move on, geesh.

I'd like to think we were all adults over there in the now defunct CCC. I had my doubts about that after reading some of the remarks people made. Sometimes, they were very cruel & totally off-topic. There was absolutely no reason for it.

Yes, it was very depressing for me to read the way people dealt with each other in the bfg forums. I have never been one for chat rooms, but whenever I did drop in, the conversations were so not nice. Until bfg forums I'd never been in one. Hoped for better. But people are so mean and hostile! It was either that or sickly sweet.

As for off topic! Don't get me started.   Not that we can point a finger, this thread is not exactly a tight discussion of this game either   But we do actually talk about the game and the things we like or don't like, what we're playing - all cool.

I am currently playing Maestro 3, another ERS series I'm fond of. This one is not as dark and eerie are the first two.

lol, JustTheFacts, oh yes, the game. Sometimes, I forget what topic I'm on. I'm glad Genki's not as strict as the BF Mods.
Well, from partly demo'ing Mystery of Sargasso Sea, it did seem a tad bit dated in the graphics style with no frills at all, which is fine by me. But it felt alarmingly spooky, so I bought it.
There we go.  

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I agree that Big Fish's default of 5-star ratings first definitely causes people to up their star-rating to get on the first page.  I think the default should be newest first, with sorting by star-rating in the drop-down box like the rest!

By the way, I don't mind y'all going off-topic, as long as you're enjoying yourselves.  I might start a new topic to move the discussion to if it's something I think people will want to revisit, but otherwise, have at it!

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Yeah, honestly I wondered when BF was going to make that change. So often in the past I'd see game pages starting with low-starred reviews and I'd think: oh they can't be happy about THAT, lol. It seemed only a matter of time before 'adjustments' would be needed.  

I realize they're a business and all about the bottom line. Sure, but what annoys me is that for so long they seemed to promote themselves as a noncorporate-ish community-minded company; it was all about "the pond"... how friendly and intimate does that sound, lol. The change this year to a shark-infested ocean was HUGE but at least the fish scales are off, so to speak.  

I for one am happier - and freer - in this forum.  

Yes, there's really no excuse for the top ratings first, and I think in the end they'll suffer for it. I lobbied them eons ago to change to newest first with most helpful as a sort option - I'd just left GH where they do that, and thought it much fairer. I can't stand them for a bunch of other reasons though.

I feel a little guilty because I did carry on long and loud about how stupid the whole sorting/rating system worked, and I did point out to them on a number of occasions that the best reviewers weren't always the first to submit etc. NOW look what they've gone and done! The old system was bad, but this is silly.

I bet 6 months tops before they redo it - maybe to what was obviously the solution to begin with - to me anyway. Newest first as default sort and helpful only votes. If a review is not helpful, don't vote for it. It would be nice, too, if they had a rating-only option so we could do without all those 1 line reviews where really people just want to give a game the thumbs up or whatever.

All of this I have patiently suggested to them in my most diplomatic way. Oh well, they still answer me, but that's all that can be said for my efforts   

Sportygal, I'm getting like you about those side bars, but if the developers make the effort to decorate those bits with something game-appropriate I don't mind. The recent game I played was Maestro 3 and it impressed me by creating side bar wallpaper that made it look like you were playing the game within the boundaries of a music sheet, placed on a music stand. I didn't even realise that it wasn't a wide screen game till halfway through!   

Side bars don't bother me so much, but that's probably because I play a lot of older games that I    that have them. If a game is good - or even better great - I'm willing to overlook stuff like that.

I don't have much of a disciplined approach to gaming - I will allow any amount of sins by developers because I am just an addict for games, games, games. If I review 'em, and they're not actually appalling, I gotta have 'em.   

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Regarding black-bar sides, I find it very strange that some of Blue Tea games play wide-screen...and some don't on my laptop. Their latest game, The Crooked Man and the Crooked Cat (title?) doesn't.
I haven't checked my settings to see if anything's changed, I know I haven't changed a thing.
I'm starting to suspect someone is using my laptop while we're sleeping. Funny thing is only DH & I live here and he hates computers.   

I'm not a disciplined gamer either. I'm willing to overlook certain things if other things are of exceptional quality.

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Not only is it not fixed, it is definitely being abused far more than when I first started reviewing a year ago. Disregarding the sort nonsense for a moment, the earlier you submitted your review, the higher up the list you were and the degree to which you were 'known' all guaranteed you a higher number of "not helpfuls"

As I said, the voting system has always been a sick joke.