Short form: Split the 5-star ratings bar into two 5-star ratings bars. One for 'Plot' and one for 'Risk/Reward'. Also, allow any mission/arc in the game to be rated by players.
Long form: It seems that one of the core causes of the Mission Architect abuse problem is that people who like aesthetic plot and people who like rewards are being lumped together as one type of player. When a mission is rated on the 5 star system, the intention is for that rating to represent the quality of the aesthetic content of the mission and not so much the quality of its rewards, but a majority of players rate on ease of rewards and completely ignore aesthetic factors.
So, maybe the problem would be better served by unlumping the two cross-purposes. Provide one rating bar for plot and one rating bar for rewards. Given the current ratio of high amounts of rewards-driven players to low amounts of plot-driven players, I might even make the rewards rating bar prominent and make the plot rating bar difficult to access.
If both rating bars were set up in this way, the missions list could then be capable of filtering for either rewards or for plot, potentially serving both player purposes. It probably wouldn't be perfect, but it seems like it would be at least a step forward.
Also, I might suggest for data mining purposes it would be interesting to see what ratings all the normal content in the game would get. My guess is that almost all missions in the game would average a(n unfair) 1 or 2-star rating in the current system over the entire current playerbase.
Short form: Split the 5-star ratings bar into two 5-star ratings bars. One for 'Plot' and one for 'Risk/Reward'. Also, allow any mission/arc in the game to be rated by players.
Long form: It seems that one of the core causes of the Mission Architect abuse problem is that people who like aesthetic plot and people who like rewards are being lumped together as one type of player. When a mission is rated on the 5 star system, the intention is for that rating to represent the quality of the aesthetic content of the mission and not so much the quality of its rewards, but a majority of players rate on ease of rewards and completely ignore aesthetic factors.
So, maybe the problem would be better served by unlumping the two cross-purposes. Provide one rating bar for plot and one rating bar for rewards. Given the current ratio of high amounts of rewards-driven players to low amounts of plot-driven players, I might even make the rewards rating bar prominent and make the plot rating bar difficult to access.
If both rating bars were set up in this way, the missions list could then be capable of filtering for either rewards or for plot, potentially serving both player purposes. It probably wouldn't be perfect, but it seems like it would be at least a step forward.
Also, I might suggest for data mining purposes it would be interesting to see what ratings all the normal content in the game would get. My guess is that almost all missions in the game would average a(n unfair) 1 or 2-star rating in the current system over the entire current playerbase.