GameRager: Wait.....you're serious(on the bolded part)? It is very relevant when gauging user interest or using such data to prove a point. If they aren't reliable then how can they be used to show how/prove how good/bad a game is?
Because it is such a small number of reviews, that it shows it isn't popular, and didn't sell well. The content of those reviews is irrelevant. I am very confused as to why this is so hard for you to understand.
Lets take a couple of scenarios involving a game with only 80 reviews over a period of 5 years:
1) All the reviews are negative, and they're all true- The game only got 80 reviews over a period of 5 years, so it is not popular, and didn't sell well
2) All the reviews are negative, and they're all false- The game only got 80 reviews over a period of 5 years, so it is not popular, and didn't sell well
3) All the reviews are positive, and they're all true- The game only got 80 reviews over a period of 5 years, so it is not popular, and didn't sell well
4) All the reviews are positive, and they're all false- The game only got 80 reviews over a period of 5 years, so it is not popular, and didn't sell well
GameRager: I wasn't talking about the number of reviews being a lie or not...I was talking about those review's being reliable or not. There could be 80 or 800 reviews and they are only as reliable as one can verify the opinions posted by said reviewers...through playing the game one's self, etc.
I
was talking about the number of reviews. Whether they are 80 or 800 makes a very big difference. I'm not taking the reliability of the reviews as a data point. You can't really measure reliability. You can measure the number, though. If there are only 80 reviews over a period of 5 years, whether those reviews are reliable or not is irrelevant, because either way, it leads to the same conclusion: The game was not popular, and likely didn't sell well.