Every game I've looked at (even ones I'm not familiar with) all have 4-1/2 or 5-star ratings... does this mean GOG only carries great or fantastic games, people here only rate games they like, or do people here think 5 stars means they liked it and 4 stars means they didn't?

Meet your new friend Master of Orion 3.

TIP OF THE DAY: Random people on the internet are not trustworthy sources of information.

The majority of people on gaming related websites (even in a community as awesome as GOG's) are not professional reviewers. Some of them will be great at assessing the quality of a game and turning that into a star-based rating. Others will not be that good at it, and will have a more dualistic approach, in which they will give a game they like 5 stars and a game they didn't like 0 stars - and those are the only two options.

In other words: Take the ratings with a grain of salt. And more importantly, consider who's giving the ratings and how the ratings are put together.

Ratings are meaningless. It's the words underneath that should really tell you about the game.

Exactly. User reviews can be useful sources of information. Even more so than professional reviews sometimes. But not when it comes to the ratings. Never the ratings.

I don't even look at the number rating... Cause arbitrary numbers don't tell you anything. I read the reviews, since words can tell you more about what the person thinks about the game play ect than a number.

You also have to take nostalgia into consideration.