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Many PS4 units dead on arrival

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Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#51

Post by city41 »

jlgreco wrote: post #44
city41 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The RROD was really crappy, for sure. But ultimately MS did do do the right thing, or at least they tried . On the other hand, Sony has never stood behind their consoles. From the PS1 cd drive wearing out prematurely [0], to the PSP's analog nub falling off[1] to PS2 disc read errors [2] to... on and on. Sony has never once helped the consumer in these situations. For most Playstation owners, buying multiple systems…

The fact that I have never even heard of those issues probably says something in itself.

Perhaps you're younger than me? I was in college when the PS1 was in its prime. I literally know of no one (both personally and on the internet) from that time that didn't buy at least two PSXs, if not three. The PSXs poor reliability was a huge deal and controversy at the time. The PS2's poor reliability was enough to warrant a class action lawsuit (that Sony lost).

I've not kept up on PS3 reliability, as when my PS2 died, I decided to never buy another Sony product again.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#52

Post by lnanek2 »

[deleted] wrote: post #48
thetrb wrote: post #28

I find it interesting that as of now with 516 5 star reviews and 332 1 star reviews (and very few 2, 3 or 4 star reviews) the average still shows up as 3.5 stars. It's interesting since the lowest value possible is 1, so more realistically it's not 3.5/5 but 2.5/4. I'm wondering if this makes a psychological difference and if less people would buy something on amazon if they changed their rating system to go from 0 -…

[deleted]

Please read the comment you replied to again. He is saying that, because it is impossible to rate 0 stars, as people who received broken consoles surely would have, the rating system should be considered 0-4 rather than 1-5. The comment is about the psychological effects of changing the number system to illustrate that better. It isn't about math errors.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#53

Post by mashmac2 »

mcpherrinm wrote: post #46
idProQuo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always bothered me, both on Amazon and the iTunes app store. No lie, when I published my first app, one of the comments was "I'd rate this zero stars if I could." and my first thought was actually "wait, why can't you?" Overall, I think YouTube was on the ball by switching to a "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" rating system. "Out of five star" rating systems are always sabotaged by the fact that most people think in…

I find the 5 star system on Amazon useful. I don't always look at the average rating, but rather the distribution graph of ratings. For example, one common shape looks like this: 5 stars: ||||||||||| 4 stars: |||||||| 3 stars: |||| 2 stars: || 1 star: ||||||| There's way more 1 star than 2 or 3. That usually indicates the product shows up DOA for a lot of people, or is otherwise probabilistically totally unsuitable f…

This would make a fascinating study of reliability - can you determine statistically if a product will be reliable based on rating distribution.

You could study Amazon, App Store ratings, etc. Cool insight!

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#54

Post by fjarlq »

hga wrote: post #43
idProQuo wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has always bothered me, both on Amazon and the iTunes app store. No lie, when I published my first app, one of the comments was "I'd rate this zero stars if I could." and my first thought was actually "wait, why can't you?" Overall, I think YouTube was on the ball by switching to a "Thumbs up, Thumbs down" rating system. "Out of five star" rating systems are always sabotaged by the fact that most people think in…

While you both have a point, I'm not sure it makes a difference in practice. OK, granted, I've been an Amazon.com customer since 1997 or so, but to me a 3.5 star rating is like writing BEWARE! in flaming letters across the sky. I never buy something that poorly rated before thoroughly investigating what's behind it. E.g. Kindle version's content is messed up I discount since I don't play in that ecosystem except for…

http://xkcd.com/1098/

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#55

Post by jlgreco »

barista wrote: post #49
jlgreco wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that I have never even heard of those issues probably says something in itself.

that you are ignorant?

I'll rephrase: The fact that I was previously ignorant of widespread hardware failures of Sony hardware probably says something itself.

Hell, I'll spell it out for you: those issues were not in the same league as the Xbox 360 failures. Even non-gamers, such as myself, are aware of the 360 RROD. There are fucking Cracked articles about it for crying out loud.

A mechanic might know that a 2005 Toyota Tacoma has an issue where the fizzbuzz widget wears out after too many miles... Everybody knows that the Ford Pinto had an issue. The 360 RROD was Microsoft's Pinto.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#56

Post by sanskritabelt »

mashmac2 wrote: post #53
mcpherrinm wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the 5 star system on Amazon useful. I don't always look at the average rating, but rather the distribution graph of ratings. For example, one common shape looks like this: 5 stars: ||||||||||| 4 stars: |||||||| 3 stars: |||| 2 stars: || 1 star: ||||||| There's way more 1 star than 2 or 3. That usually indicates the product shows up DOA for a lot of people, or is otherwise probabilistically totally unsuitable f…

This would make a fascinating study of reliability - can you determine statistically if a product will be reliable based on rating distribution. You could study Amazon, App Store ratings, etc. Cool insight!

It's been done, and I've seen it as a worked example in introduction to Bayesian stats pages, maybe some of which were posted on HN.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#57

Post by jlgreco »

city41 wrote: post #51
jlgreco wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that I have never even heard of those issues probably says something in itself.

Perhaps you're younger than me? I was in college when the PS1 was in its prime. I literally know of no one (both personally and on the internet) from that time that didn't buy at least two PSXs, if not three. The PSXs poor reliability was a huge deal and controversy at the time. The PS2's poor reliability was enough to warrant a class action lawsuit (that Sony lost). I've not kept up on PS3 reliability, as when my PS…

I use to own a PS1 and a PS2 (The PS2 being the last console I have owned). I never heard about these problems until now.

You'd be hard pressed to find a 360 owner that doesn't know of the RROD. You'd be hard pressed to find a non-gamer below their 30s who hasn't heard at least once something about the RROD.

Don't mistake this for praise of Sony. Obviously they have a serious problem with the PS4, and I despise the corporation for plenty of other reasons. All I'm saying here is that Microsoft's 360 problems are in a class of their own (it is too early to say if the PS4 will match or exceed the 360 issues, perhaps it will).

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#58

Post by city41 »

jlgreco wrote: post #57
city41 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you're younger than me? I was in college when the PS1 was in its prime. I literally know of no one (both personally and on the internet) from that time that didn't buy at least two PSXs, if not three. The PSXs poor reliability was a huge deal and controversy at the time. The PS2's poor reliability was enough to warrant a class action lawsuit (that Sony lost). I've not kept up on PS3 reliability, as when my PS…

I use to own a PS1 and a PS2 (The PS2 being the last console I have owned). I never heard about these problems until now. You'd be hard pressed to find a 360 owner that doesn't know of the RROD. You'd be hard pressed to find a non-gamer below their 30s who hasn't heard at least once something about the RROD. Don't mistake this for praise of Sony. Obviously they have a serious problem with the PS4, and I despise the c…

That's not my point. Of course the RROD was a monumental issue. Probably the biggest video game hardware related issue ever.

My point is Sony's hardware is quite famous for being extremely unreliable. Every Playstation generation has been plagued with issues. Widespread, class action lawsuit worthy, issues. Sony has never once addressed them, admitted them, or made any effort to improve their quality. Sony simply doesn't care.

The PS4 already having quality issues is not a surprise at all. Yet the Xbox One having quality issues would surprise me. And that is where the difference lies.

Re: Many PS4 units dead on arrival

#60

Post by brownbat »

mistercow wrote: post #41
brownbat wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if a five star rating system could secretly count only the 2 and 4 star reviews without telling anyone, sort of filter out anyone passionate enough to try to game things...

That might work, but I have doubts. Interestingly, it's the opposite approach the the one taken by pre-employment personality tests, in which each question has no partial credit and exactly one right answer, which is either "strongly agree" or "strongly disagree".

Oh right!

I think Barbara Ehrenreich mentioned that in Nickel and Dimed. At Walmart, one of the hiring surveys included some question pitting personal considerations or ethics against loyalty to management, and the only correct answer was absolute loyalty to management. When she debated the point, she was not offered a job.

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