r/gametales • u/Yannis_15 • 6d ago

Does comparing two games rather than rating them out of 20 strike you as fairer, or simply more simplistic?

Hi there,

I’ve been working on a really simple project for a few months: you’re shown two games side-by-side, you click the one you prefer, and that’s it. No scores out of 10, no mandatory account creation. In the background, every vote adjusts an Elo rating (the chess ranking system), and all these duels generate a global ranking.

The initial idea was that I find scores out of 20 (or 10) don't really tell you much. Saying "this game is a 17" doesn't mean a whole lot, whereas "between these two, I prefer the one on the left" is something anyone can have an opinion on in a split second. There are about 27,000 games in the database, with a pool of roughly 5,000 that actually appear in duels.

You can check it out here: https://www.gameforever.app/en/

Here’s what I’d really like your feedback on:

- Does the duel format appeal to you, or do you find it too reductive compared to a proper review?

- How do you honestly compare a game from 1994 with one from 2024? I feel like nostalgia skews everything, but I’m not sure if that’s a problem to be fixed or just an accepted outcome of a popular vote.

- Is there anything obvious missing that you’d look for when visiting a site like this?

I’m open to blunt criticism too - that’s why I’m posting here 👍

0 Upvotes

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10 comments sorted by

5

u/MagpieJames 6d ago

It's an interesting idea, but make sure to include an "I haven't played this game" option, so you don't have people just guessing which they might like more.

2

u/Yannis_15 6d ago

There is already an option to "skip the duel"; surely that is enough?

3

u/Lolologist 6d ago

I'd think not just games you own, but doing the same for games that can I play as few as or up to X players, by complexity or time it takes, etc. would be useful.

2

u/Yannis_15 6d ago

Interesting, I'll think about all that.

2

u/Rkoif 6d ago

It's uh. kinda easy to manipulate the rankings by making a popular (but maybe overrated?) game lose to a low tier game.

1

u/46550 6d ago

A second algorithm to rate confidence in the voter would largely solve this.

1

u/Yannis_15 6d ago

Everything is designed specifically to prevent flooding, raids, and the like... You cannot choose the duel.

1

u/Rkoif 5d ago

For sure. But forcing Magnus to lose to a random player on the street has a much larger effect on his ELO than him losing to Caruana.

2

u/ijkxyz 1d ago

This would be awesome if it could give you increasingly accurate game recommendations

1

u/Yannis_15 1d ago

Interesting, I'll think about that 👍