Microsoft Changes How Xbox Live Indie Games Are Rated

Two weeks ago we discussed news that some indie developers had found a way to manipulate ratings for their games on Xbox Live. Now, Microsoft has amended the rating rules so that only Xbox Live Gold members can rate such games through the service's website. "By implementing this change, we believe our customers will experience more consistent ratings and a significantly reduced potential for abuse across the entire Xbox catalog. We have also investigated rolling back suspect votes, however, we determined it will not be possible to do this. In addition, we are investigating users who may have violated their user agreement during this series of events."

How about only people who actually bought the game

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Seriously, that seems to be the obvious answer to your problems. Only people who actually bought the game can rate it. Tons of people have gold subscriptions anyway. You really think this limitation is going to prevent what happened with one game's users downvoting other games?