Microsoft is overhauling its indie game rating system in an effort to stop vote spamming.
In the past, Microsoft has allowed anyone to rate a game regardless of whether or not he or she had actually played it. Combined with the “Xbox Live Indie Games” channel – which allows anybody to upload games and orders titles based on user reviews – that created a system that was ripe for abuse. Certain indie games would be spammed to the top with false praise and reviews, while others would be unfairly punished and sent to the bottom of the list regardless of the quality of the game.
Microsoft, however, has listened to the complaints, and has decided to make some changes to the voting system. The company has announced that only Xbox Live Gold members will be able to rate games on Xbox.com, and adds that they are “investigating users who may have violated their user agreement” by using their vote illegitimately.
The changes went into effect yesterday and Microsoft believes that the new policy will “significantly reduced potential for abuse.” Personally, I think a better solution might be restrict the vote to people who have actually downloaded a game, but hey, that’s just me.
Source: Team Xbox
