PLEASE HELP ME SOLVE A MYSTERY!

Wait, how does one filter things like that for their own game? I'm quite curious to see how mine is actually. o_O

For your first question I would put something saying that people had complained of a virus, you got it sorted out and there's no issue there anymore. That way people will see that while it was an issue at one point, it's now been dealt with. Same with bugs. There were bugs, they've been fixed. People will then disregard the earlier comments.
Making it clear for prospective players right off the bat will put them at ease with downloading your game.

As for the percentage thing? I don't really care. As long as some people like my game and it's not universally hated, I'm not going to put it in a percentage. Everyone who plays a game has different opinions about whether it was good or bad, things they liked and didn't. This changes with all games.
Some people might think one of my games is the best thing they ever played while I, myself, might regard it as one of my worst creations. And vice versa. You can't really tell what people are going to like until it's out there and in the public, because people's opinions vary so much.
Hell, one game of mine has a lot more downloads than all the others and it would not have been the one I'd have picked. Others don't have many even though I thought they might have been better received.

I'd say mine as a collective fall into the top 50% if I had to pick a place but that's because I've played a hell of a lot of games out there and can judge them as so. That's another thing - unless you've played most of the games on the site you can't really judge because you don't know what the rest have to offer and how your own game stacks up to them. (I'm going to bet that I'm one of the few people who have played around 250-500 RM games. Out of the 5000 this site represents and the many thousands that aren't on this site... that's just a small drop in the ocean. How can I judge except by the ones I've played? And the same to anyone.)

That said, you can get a good feel for a game on how well-recepted it has been. A good indication of being in the top 10% of this site would be if it was Feature Game material or how many Misaos it brings home or how many reviews it has. Frankly, I've not had a game nominated for a Misao (that doesn't say much since many, many, many great games haven't been), nor had a game Featured, NOR got a shit-ton of reviews (though I've a few that do have more than one or two).

So how do I know my games are above the bottom 50%? I don't know for sure, but having played as many games as I have, judged competitions and been in the RM world since around '98, I'd say I had enough knowledge on the subject to rate them in a general way. Some are worse, some are better, some are like by fans, others liked by me.

Frankly, it's not worth it to try and judge such a thing anyway. Downloads =/= good game. There have been plenty of horrible games that got a lot of downloads because of controversy. There have been a lot of really good games that just got ignored. It's not fair, but it just is.

...if you read all that I wrote above you'd have your answer, instead of just picking the first sentence that allows you to argue your point. ^.^

As I said before:
My opinion changes depending on the game. Some of my own games I like, some I don't. Some I'm surprised people like, some I'm surprised people don't. I do not, nor have I ever, thought that my games are in the top percentile. Anyone with a hint of common sense will tell you that no matter the craft, you can always improve and endless improvements skew the percentile, so it really doesn't mean much to say 'my game is in the top 2%' because if the other 2% improve and make new games that are better than their last, your game falls lower and lower on the scale.

Instead, try to make your game memorable and fun - something that people will remember. That's how you truly get people to play and that's how you win at game creation. Not by aiming for a number that will constantly change but by aiming for people to enjoy and recommend your game to others.

Just based on your title screen alone I would give your
game a passing glance. Presentation is important.

Even if your game sucks, if it has good presenation, people
will download it. And if your game is good and
has bad presentation then people won't know its good.

Advertising your game on other forums is easy. RMN has
pretty strict entry requirements, so you should be able
to post this on another page with what you already have.
I posted a page on the RPG Maker VX Ace forum, there
should be one for VX and XP too.

Also, how did you figure out how your game ranks?

There are a lot of games I don't think are as good as my own... and a lot that are better. Some of my games are better than the others in MY opinion, even if other people don't agree or prefer another. I didn't outright say as such but in my second post I did say that if I had to put a percentage it would be in the top 50%, which indicates there is a lower 50%. Silly me for thinking you'd actually read what I wrote and could read between the lines.

That said, I haven't played all the games to see how they rank against each other so it's an inaccurate guess at most, hence practically worthless. (And actually, my most recent game ain't that good since I made it in, oh, 24 hours, so it's not really a judge-worthy aspect of what I can do.)

Nor did I tell you 'be more humble' but instead 'don't bother about judging your game - others will do it for you and it doesn't really mean anything when you judge because your thoughts aren't the same as the people playing it for x reasons I share with you below'.

'Being memorable and fun' is a valid answer. If your game isn't fun players won't finish it, nor will they recommend it to others. The same with memorable. Tell me, what RM games have you played that you think were the best of the best? Were they fun or memorable or both? Which games would you recommend to others? The ones you thought were cool (fun and memorable) and enjoyed playing (fun) or the ones you didn't enjoy and didn't find interesting?

In the business world the first thing you learn is to appreciate customer feedback and hope for your customers to spread the word about your services. It's the same in game creation. There are many threads by many people on many forums asking for others to recommend them games to play and most of the time certain names keep popping up - the names of games that were fun and memorable*.

@Kory:
There's really no official ranking of games apart from those ones I shared in my third post, which aren't really 'rankings' but more guides as to what are the better games on the site. Better not necessarily meaning Best, though it indicates as such. Some people have disagreed with some of the choices for Featured Games in the past due to their own expectations as to what makes a game stand out as deserving of the honour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Memorable games stick in your mind and keep with you forever. A Blurred Line; Three, the Hard Way; Love and War; Ara Fell; The Reconstruction; Hero's Realm; Star Stealing Prince ... et cetera
These are games that are touted as the best not just because they have great heart and are quality games, but also because each is memorable in their own way.
ABL's story and characters were written very well and the atmosphere was great.
TtHW has a great cast, a very deep yet approachable story and interesting gameplay mechanics.
Ara Fell had fantastic mapping, an endearing cast and amazing atmosphere.
Love and War had heart, a gripping storyline, funny endearing characters and a lot of extras that just made the game interesting and a joy to play.
The Reconstruction had interesting gameplay, a good story and great graphics.
Hero's Realm took the best of the nostalgic games and made them work, had almost-perfect balance, was fun to play and had lots of things to do in the world, as well as interesting gameplay and flexibility in creating your 4 parties.
SSP had great atmosphere, an interesting story and cast.

I'm not saying each doesn't have some faults because they do. They aren't ever going to be the best games ever made nor would I count all of them in the top percentile, but ultimately that doesn't matter because they are considered by the majority to be the best... which makes them so.


And just for the record, I have played the worst games the RM world has had to offer. I have played the best (insomuch as there is a best) the RM world currently has to offer. So when I say it's impossible to really pin down something, it is. Why? Because people are constantly refining, redoing and remaking games to be better than they were.

And frankly, I am 100% okay with that fucking up your top percentile.
Good day, sir.

EDIT:

author=Raoul589

author=kory_toombs
Also, how did you figure out how your game ranks?

I did it manually by going to the games list, and filtering by the categories I described, then sorting by number of downloads. I then just looked at where my game came up in the 80 or so pages.

This only tells you how many downloads you have. That has nothing to do with quality as:
- games that have been on the site for longer will naturally have more downloads.
- games that caused controversy will also have more downloads, no matter the quality. Yes, I'm calling out Final Tear 3.
- games that were released during/for events will have more downloads off the bat.
- some games just don't get noticed, no matter their quality.
- bad presentation of a good game will mean less downloads. It doesn't mean the game is worse than a crappier game with higher downloads.

Just for the record, the best way to tell how your game fares against the rest on the site is the stars system we currently have. Granted, the more reviews a game has, the greater the star 'weight' - that is, the stars are averaged out by the reviews, so a game with one review at four stars, while good, can't automatically be called better than a 3-star game with 10 reviews. It may just be that adding an extra 9 reviews brings the once-4-star game down to 2.5 instead.
You could also check the statistics thread for fun (Site Feedback forum) to see the top 10 of certain lists. It's for fun, not a definite 'this is the law, these are awesome' but you do get a decent look into what is considered 'up there'.

author=Roul589
if my game had 10,000 downloads, don't you think you might have been more inclined to look past the poor presentation, and try the game anyway?

Nope! And I don't think almost anyone would, at least not here. We're a close-knitted community of first-developers-then-players. We're very critical of that sort of thing... At best, I'd be more inclined to sit trough the comment sections of your game and try to form myself a more informed opinion of it, but with those images I still wouldn't think of downloading it. ;P

Is for those same reasons why I don't think anyone here expects to break more than a couple hundred downloads with their games, even if they think what they do is top quality. I'd say that in order for a game to even get like 1k downloads it has to (besides being 'good') make noise outside of RMN and/or let a few years pass. Therein lies the answer for your question...

Step 1: Whore your game in every venue that you can. Fork over the money to pay for publicity if you have to.
Step 2: Make sure your game is short, has a little bit of everything and/or deals with pseudo-complex issues.
Step 3: ???? (Presumably, make your game actually fun to play.)
Step 4: Sit back and watch flocks of simpletons downloading your game to never hear from them again...

Seriously though, I'd be more concerned with the 'quality' of the people playing my game than with the 'quantity', but that's just me. ;P