The Epic Games Store will use randomized ratings to curb review bombing

The Epic Games Store has finally implemented ratings and polls to let players dish out feedback about the games they're playing -- but there's a twist. 

In a bid to protect games from review bombing and ensure those assigning scores have actually played the games they're rating, the Epic Games Store will ask random players (who've played a game for more than two hours) to rate the experience on a five point scale.

Epic believes that randomizing the process will prevent Epic Games Store users from piling on specific titles to artificially lower (or perhaps even inflate) its store rating.

Detailing how the system will work in a blog post. Epic explained that players will be selected at random following a play session to score a game up to five stars. Over time, those scores will populate a title's "Overall Rating" on the storefront.

"Because these requests are randomized, we won’t spam our players, and we probably won’t ask about every game or app used. This approach protects games from review bombing and ensures people assigning scores are actual players of the games," added Epic.

In addition to ratings, players may also be chosen at random at the end of a play session to take part in a poll.

Each poll will encourage players to choose from a variety of responses -- such as a simple 'yes' or 'no' and multiple choice options  -- to answer questions such as "Is this game good to play with a group?" or "How challenging are the bosses in this game?"

Once enough players have responded to those polls, their answers will be used to generate tags for respective product pages and help filter games and apps within the Epic Games Store.

"As these tags grow over time, they'll be able to inform players on content and improve discoverability—helping our players find more games to enjoy," said Epic.

"Over time, the store pages will accumulate a wide range of tags from confirmed players that will inform the community about more aspects of each game’s content. Over time, these tags will also populate our Category pages, and will be used to generate custom tag-based categories driven by our players that will appear on the Epic Games Store home page."

You can find out more about ratings and polls on the Epic Games Store blog.