Comments on: Symposium Part One: Review Scores

By: Twanna Mcguinness

Twanna Mcguinness — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 13:07:41 +0000

This is really one of the much better content articles regarding those who We’ve read on this issue nowadays. Wonderful do the job.

By: Down Rodeo

Down Rodeo — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:32:37 +0000

It has taken me many days to get through this but I’m glad I have. I reckon I could cope without review scores. I also like to think I don’t need Metacritic appearing on Steam but then I still look at the damn things and think about what prompted them… what’s worse is I wonder if some of my purchases were slightly misguided based on the scores. Though as a final disagreement with myself generally speaking I can remember the things said about games in PC Gamer’s reviews (UK version) but cannot remember the scores, generally speaking. Maybe I’m not too bad.

By: Dante

Dante — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 09:52:21 +0000

@ Pags

Yes, they are to be confined to the fourth circle, just ahead of people who talk in text speak but better off than murderers, DRM creators and Cliffy B.

By: mrrobsa

mrrobsa — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:36:49 +0000

Just looked up the meaning of tldr…
Anyone using it without wearing their ‘irony hats’, are the people who need their reviews quantified by a number at the end.
Not saying I’ve never used a score when researching a game, but I could happily see them tossed out, and the focus shift to the review text. And the criticism/buyers guide divide can depend on the publications’ target audience.
I think maybe I’d settle for a non-numerical rating system.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:28:23 +0000

Comment.

I was a part of this.

Seriously, I’m stoked for the rest of this.

By: Tom Camfield

Tom Camfield — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:47:22 +0000

No time to read all the comments, and indeed, this may go unread, But! I use review scores for a slightly different reason than those stated, — to see if I should be interested in the writing or writer — maybe my tastes correlate or maybe he/she/it has a different take on something which may make it interesting to read (eg even though Alec Meer was writing /another/ Fallout 3 review the fact it got about 5-15% less than others made me want to read the full review). This Kieron came close to saying in light of high marks for Briad – encouraging people to take interest in the game, but what I specifically want to say is that scores can make me interested in reading the review as something interesting to read, not for a recommendation as to what to buy.

By: Gnarf

Gnarf — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 00:37:12 +0000

More concretely on the point of scoring itself: To my knowledge reviews still follow a pretty generic article structure. The conclusion, even when a score is present, sums up the thoughts of the reviewer. Surely those unwilling to invest the time to read a 5000 word article are at least capable of reading a 200 word conclusion. Frankly, if I’m new to a site and unfamiliar with their scoring system I’m often forced to read more than that just to understand the figure they’ve given a game.

Well yeah. If you’re interested in one particular game, the score shouldn’t really be what is important anyway. However if you’re looking through a list of a bunch of reviews, just hoping to come across something interesting, scores are handy.

By: Winfred van Heerebeek

Winfred van Heerebeek — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:16:39 +0000

Regarding 10/10 reviews: I think, as was mentioned in the article, that games are always put into a context of the time they were made and other games that share characteristics. Thus 10/10 reviews, to me at least, don’t mean a perfect game. They mean that for now that game is the benchmark other games are to be scored by. As Kieron said, high profile AAA games are scored from 9 and lose points for faults. I would argue that, if they are not direct competitors for the 10/10 game, that is indeed true. They start with a 9 by default for sheer lack of hype, marketing, or ambition compared to the GTA4′s in their genre, and from there on out lose points for every element that isn’t as good as the 10/10 title it was compared to. Saints Row 2 was a great example of this kind of reviewing. Despite the game being more true to itself and the developers emphasising the game is more of a parody of GTA than an imitation, it shared a great deal of characteristics and was thus continually compared. Out of some 70 reviews on metacritic, 22 have the words GTA in the conclusion, not one of those in a favorable way.

By: Winfred van Heerebeek

Winfred van Heerebeek — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:34:35 +0000

What is interesting to me, and only slightly mentioned in the symposium pieces, is the difference in readers who look at reviews. Games, obviously, have different target audiences. A game like “My horse and me” will attract a different kind of player than “Gears of war 2″, the target audience for the reviews of these games will reflect the target audience for the games themselves. I believe that, for example, the 13 year old girls playing “My horse and me” will not be as inclined towards a desire for a score to validate their love for, and purchase of, the game, whereas the raging gears of war fan who’s just spent 250 bucks on the limited edition of the game will.

Now lets take a game like “the Graveyard”. The target audience for this game are the kind of people who like to think about a different approach to gaming, or in fact, who like to think in general. The subjectivity of the game and the thoughts of the player as he experiences it are the entire point of the game, so if a reviewer went and gave this game a score it would be saying more about himself than the game really. Not that it would even matter, as the target audience would most likely not be the kind of people who would skip to the score anyways, or even base a purchasing decision on the review in the first place. What seems strange to me then is why publications that report on and review as many different games as possible use a publication wide scoring system. Occasionally it will inevitably become a case of: “if you give it a score you’ve missed the point”. I don’t see how varying the structure and scoring mechanics of a review based on the type of game (and thus target audience) is really a problem, especially if you’re already varying the length of the article and advertising keywords on those same criteria.

More concretely on the point of scoring itself: To my knowledge reviews still follow a pretty generic article structure. The conclusion, even when a score is present, sums up the thoughts of the reviewer. Surely those unwilling to invest the time to read a 5000 word article are at least capable of reading a 200 word conclusion. Frankly, if I’m new to a site and unfamiliar with their scoring system I’m often forced to read more than that just to understand the figure they’ve given a game.

Essentially the only real benefit I can see to review scores comes in the form of metacritic. With the horrible manipulation of user scores as a result of trolling, console wars, DRM comments etc. I’ve come to trust the reviewer scores as a general indication of quality where my fellow users fail me. Not only that, the scores also offer me a portal to the views of the reviewers on both extremes of the spectrum without having to read all the reviews. With scores gone I’d have to read at the very least every review conclusion to find the most positive and negative views on the game.

By: Dinger

Dinger — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:33:59 +0000

Tei, benche’ non faccia mai brutta figura citare il poeta, in questo caso la citazione deriva da Firefly, Reverend Book, l’episodio in cui Mal si “sposa”.

Still, I’m a pedant, and would translate it as “suffering city”, “eternal pain”/”Lost nation”,”"great maker”.
But, of course, the translator/traditore needed to keep the rhyme.
Hell, you can’t pull off an endecasyllable worth a damn in Inglese.

By: Tei

Tei — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:34:46 +0000

well… @Dante lyrics are like that in english/original italian

Through me the road to the city of desolation,
Through me the road to sorrows diuturnal,
Through me the road among the lost creation.
Justice moved my great maker; God eternal
Wrought me: the power, and the unsearchably
High wisdom, and the primal love supernal.
Nothing ere I was made was made to be
Save things eterne, and I eterne abide;
Say the word Friend and enter Moria
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

Per me si va ne la città dolente,
Per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,
Per me si va tra la Perduta Gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio Alto Fattore;
Fecemi la Divina Podestate,
La Somma Sapïenza e ‘l Primo Amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
Se non etterne, e io etterno duro
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate

I have added a bit of Lord of the Rings to make things interesting.

By: Dan Harris

Dan Harris — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:48:35 +0000

I haven’t read this article.

Merry Christmas everyone!