Haha...happens with every game. All the owners are jacking the ratings up...it'll even out.
I see this one having more staying power than ACDC probably...just a guess though.

just wait a few days hahahahaha

I'll be monitoring XM reviews extra closely this week. I'm taking the ratings system serious and hope everyone else does too!

I'm glad to hear this. Tron LE got unfairly smashed in my view when it dethroned MM. Tron LE will never get a chance to be in the top 10 (where it should be without question) due to the shill voting by the B/W's crowd to protect their rankings. AC/DC got it too, but not as bad as Tron did being the first one to topple MM over.

Probably should have started monitoring last week in order to filter the fanboys as equally as the haters that will show up...

I think it's a rather fair assumption that the early buyers (the first raters) are fans of a machine/theme and them giving high ratings for the game is more rule than exception. It's impossible to keep track of all approved raters, let alone of al 31,813 approved ratings in our database.

I was thinking recently that I should possibly require a rating comment (make it mandatory) for any rating above 8.8 or below 3.5 - in my opinion rating such extreme scores warrants an explanation.

What do you think?

Noble, but not sure it would do anything.

One of the perfect 10 scores for AC/DC simply states "My fav for today".

I think all reviews should have a rating comment. Even if it's a short one.

15 ratings and #1, yup it will go down like ac/dc. somewhere around 20.

it should have a minimum of rating before starting to go up.

that is an excellent idea!!
maybe more than 8 and less than 4? camon, the worst pinner ever still got to be more fun than a 4 LOL

does the coment needs approval? if so, that is gonna give you way too much work, no?

I think the ability to "call someone out" would be nice. Especially if you can link a thread after the fact, that was written by the reviewer... for example, a low score review and then the reviewer ends up buying the machine.... or what I see all to commonly, a reviewer gives an unbelievabley high score and the rater ends up flaming the game weeks after the review or even dumps the game.
It would add some "accountability" to the rater.
Right now, a good portion of the early reviews are just commical, absolutely no supporting evidence.

Scott
Detroit Pinball

To quote terrable: WOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW

should not even be able to rate the game yet!! how can someone say gameplay or rules is a 10 when its not even finished and scoring absolutely sucks right now. If i HAD to rate this game this early it would get dinged very badly for that, and any rating that has it otherwise now should not be allowed. Just because you buy a game doesnt mean you can jack the ratings up. To give a fair evaluation i would say you need 20 games on it and the code has to be completed, or atleast close. Half the features of the game are not yet right in xmen so how can you rate it?

Exaggerate much?

Do you currently own the game? I'm a little behind on the thread. Funny, neither the guy who posted this nor the guy who gave his post the thumbs up actually own the freaking game. These are the same jackasses who try and tell us not to eat at Chick-fil-A.

I personally don't put much stock into ratings. I could care less if a game I own is number 1 or the worst of the bunch. I've yet to rate a game and not sure if I ever will personally.

As far as X-Men being number 1, I agree it's way to early to tell. I personally don't see it being the best pin ever, but if you ask 100 people what the best pin is you'll get 100 different answers.

I think I may start viewing it this way as well. It is pretty annoying when fans of certain makers vote down Sterns simply because they don't want modern pins to ever be as good as those in the past that they love. Pretty lame and happens every time and usually by the same Pinsiders. I guess there will always be this issue where people rate machines with the sole intention of bringing it down in the rating rather then making a fair assessment. Taking your stance on it will make it much easier to ignore the hater raters.

Making a mandatory comments won't do anything. All someone has to do is put one keystroke in the field and it will count.

It's nice to get opinions on games, but at the end of the day that's all it is, someone else's opinion. That's not to say that games like MM and AFM don't deserve the praise they get, but there are still going to be people that don't care for them. I don't get why people argue until there blue in the face whether a game sucks or is good, at times I find it extremely annoying. I know there are fan boys on both sides, but they're usually easy to spot, so you can usually tell if their opinion on a game is worth considering.

It is also apparent that some distributors or secondary market sellers inflate the new hot pin to push the hype machine forward and these are often some of the early raters.

Heck, the highest current rating is from someone that does not even make their ratings public for view (not saying they necessarily are over-hyping but I think it sucks that someone can sit behind a curtain and still have ratings count.)

I didn't even know that was possible

Sorry, it is not going to last.

Shocking response from a person that doesn't have a single Stern pinball in their library.

I don't buy games because of their ratings or rankings, but rather for mine and my family's enjoyment. However that does make me rate games I have a bit higher since I ended up buying them. If they stink I move them on. I like the game a lot right now, I'm hoping that the code updates in the next months will set it apart from some other Stern games that got left in the dust for updates.

Well you could probably make a character minimum...or umm...moderate them

But seriously I'm against the whole calling out thing. Just breeds more negativity. Especially when, god forbid, you don't like the newest crowned "king of pinballs" and have 30 _X___ owners of the machine getting loud.

I agree, perhaps a minimum number of ratings before cracking the top 20.

Screen_Shot_2012-08-01_at_1.39.06_AM.png

Dude with the bugs and crashing of the ramp I seriously am lost how this is even possible.. Reading those ratings ... Ha..
I don't get it even people that obviously hate the game give it a 6-7-8

“Not a bad game, and the score will likely go up when the rules are fixed. The two figures are large and clunky. Wolverine is an absolute mess...blocks the left orbit, claws hit the ice ramp, elbow traps balls, and it is UGLY. Not good. Magneto spin effect is weak. Better on Twister. Nightcrawlers hardly ever appear. Ice ramp is pretty hokey. Layout is pretty good, but enough with the sinkhole close to the flippers already...the ball is gobbled up by that thing constantly. Glad I didn't purchase one...friend that did is not happy. Here's to hoping the rules are fixed and an aftermarket mod to wolverine comes quickly!”

Nothing good said but he gave it a 6+

Why do people rip it a new one but inflate the rate?

And yes I don't like the reviews of pins that say things like

4.0 "not my cup of tea"
9.9 "best game ever"
3.0 "what can I say"
10 "a classic"

I don't think it is. I think I remember Robin pointing out a while back that those that keep their ratings private are not taken into account in the rankings.

Personally I think a machine shouldn't be figured into the top 100 until it has at least 100 ratings. You can still show the ratings and reviews for people to read but don't give the final score or add it to the boards until it has enough ratings to actually compete.

I just pick up my game and got it all set up last night. I have not wanted to play a game more since i got my TZ years ago. The game is Kick ass, i mean i cant wait to go home from work and play all night again. I also bought a new AC/DC LE few months back, and i hate it! it sucks. I stoped playing it after 20-30 games. Its a drain king and not fun. I jsut want to punch it.

X-men wow oh wow. Awesome just awesome, #1 on my list. I play all the new stern stuff and nothing compares.

That was funny

A Wolverine causing those probs is easily adjusted. Mine does not block the orbit (I can make those shots easily), claw never touches the ramp, and the elbow doesn't trap balls. And he looks rad. GOOD!

Still laughing!!

So now i am a jackass because i have opinions on rating games? no i dont own it or plan to not my theme. If it turns out to be a great game then it deserves to be there. But not until then. No i dont own it but i know the scoring isnt working, nightcrawlers are not implemented yet as well as others things that people have posted. I love ACDC but i dont think you should be able to rate it yet because the game is not done. (Although way more done than Xmen)

also eggbert52 what does this have to do with chick fil a? Are you insinuating that because i dont think you should be able to rate unfished games you think that makes a person gay?

You state that are behind on the thread, i wasnt saying it should never be there and its a horrible game. I have not rated it, i have not hurt the ratings on it. I just dont get the hate thrown my way for expressing an opinion on the rating system. Never said xmen is a horrible game like you insinuate. If i did then you could bash on me because i didnt like your new game and i would get over it. But it was a comment about being able to rate unfinished games, and i dont think it should be met with remarks like "jackass" and "chick fil a" if you wanted to post a response to it like "I love rating unfished games and every new stern should be #1 when it comes out" Then we could have a discussion on why i disagree with you.

Ok so now you have to own a game to rate it? What a vivid imagination.

Well he looks how he looks so that's all personal taste but those problems are individual game related. When I played it at a release awhile back, That Wolverine got the ball stuck under his left arm ALL the time. Like 4-5 per game per player...literally. I was very worried but the one I've been playing lately doesn't suffer that problem at all.
As for the other issues I haven't encountered those either. Doesn't seem to block anything on the games I'm played.

You're way too sensitive. It's just pinball.

this is my suggestion also. Will also prevent unneeded torpedoing the score to balance 16 votes.

I'm sure this has been mentioned, but can the rating system be slightly modified to be weighted? For example, number of reviews plays a factor and not strictly the rating itself?

I agree with all this. Except he does protrude into the orbit shot by 3/8" or so. If he were thinner it would make the orbit shot easier and more enjoyable. I'd rather have the orbit shot constructed by the rubber post behind the toy than the toy itself.

Really this is what happens every time a game is released - it gets really high because it's all owners who just got the pin, what the game needs to be on location so people can play it and give it an unbiased opinion. Then it will go to where it should be.

I have played two different Xmen and the Beast shot is not tough. I make it probably 50% of the time and I am not a great player. I would say that I find that shot easier to make than on TAF or TSPP. So I don't think he is too wide. Make him thinner and it might break. He is a bash toy.
They fixed the arm issue. If yours isn't fixed then I would call Stern and exchange your Wolvie for a modified one.

I don't have a tough time making the that orbit shot...well compared to similar shots on other machines. Heck maybe Wolverine blocking the view is helping me!

I hope they would only do this if they let rankings expire and no longer be counted, something they should do anyway as the game of pinball has changed and all these relic votes from five years ago really are not relivant (but they still count).

Whats funny to see is that when looking over the ratings reviews every single rating of 9.4 or higher is by someone who own's the game. I own it and couldnt give it a rating of over 9.0 with the current software code it has on it. Hell I may not be able to do so even after it gets an update. It seems like a game with good potential but doesnt seem to have the Flow of the better shooting games like ACDC, SM or Tron.

It would seem that those that bought it & have rated it already are a little premature. But hey to each their own.

I don't own either (yet ) and just on gameplay alone I would rather play X-men over Tron and AC/DC. Thats saying a lot because I do love to play both Tron and AC/DC great pins. I get that it is inomplete but to say all that rate it 9 and higher own the machine is not 100% accurate. Some pinheads will like a game more then others do that is a given.

I would love to get more play time on X-Men but as it stands I had a good number of plays on pro and LE and it's just flat out fun to me. But as you said to each their own especially in pinball. As long as we love flippin on the machines whichever we prefer that is all that really matters in the end.

Actually as of this post it is 100% accurate.....every single rating of 9 or higher is by someone who owns or owned the game. You arent really surprised though are you???

I don't own the game and rated it above a 9 (pro version) well before your post so it is not 100% accurate. And of course owners that get a game and keep it are going to love it why else would they keep it? Not sure why people get offended that owners love their pins.

What happened to the ratings update? It was supposed to update today, now says 7 more days and no change. Whassup?