BioShock Developer Hiring Based on Metacritic Scores

The Wooster

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Jul 15, 2008
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BioShock Developer Hiring Based on Metacritic Scores


Irrational games is looking for the best of the best, on Metacritic.

The games industry takes review aggregator, Metacritic, very seriously. Not only do some publishers use it to determine how much cash should go to developers, [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/15/obsidian-missed-fallout-new-vegas-metacritic-bonus-by-one-point/] at least one company is using Metacritic scores to screen potential job applicants.

A recent listing for a design manager position at Bioshock Infinite developer, Irrational Games, lists "Credit on at least one game with an 85+ average Metacritic review score" as one of its requirements

The listing is obviously referring to professional Metacritic scores, otherwise the position will most likely go forever unfilled.

The other requirements include at least six years' worth of game design experience, four years in management and credits on at least three games that have been completed and shipped.

Looking for staff who've worked on popular titles makes perfect sense, of course, but Metacritic's accuracy and relevance have been questioned several times before. The way it converts non-numerical review scores into a 1-100 figure, its policy of assigning numerical scores to reviews that don't already have them and the fact the site produces a weighted average [http://www.metacritic.com/about-metascores] (IE: Reviews from larger publications have a bigger effect on the final score) are often singled out for criticism.

Source: Gamasutra [http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=30986&accountno=362]


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Darks63

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Mar 8, 2010
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Considering the shenanigans that go on with rating games on metacritic that's kind of a a foolish way to rate future employees
 

Sis

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Apr 2, 2012
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I am going to hire someone that got a free pass from Yahtzee. SOUND BUSINESS, NO?
 

McMullen

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Mar 9, 2010
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Why do game studios not understand how worthless metacritic is, how ineffective DRM is, how unpopular escort missions are, or any of a number of things that are common knowledge among gamers? Shouldn't it be part of their job to understand these things?
 

Kargathia

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Jul 16, 2009
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draythefingerless said:
spectrenihlus said:
And thus the second video game crash began.
And thus, people did not understand what the video game crash was.
Disregarding whether he does or doesn't: he doesn't have to understand the causality behind the first to predict another crash due to entirely different reasons.

OT: "LF 2 MORE GAME DEV NEED ANIMATOR DESIGNER +85 METACRITIC RATING. /w Irrational games"

McMullen said:
Why do game studios not understand how worthless metacritic is, how ineffective DRM is, how unpopular escort missions are, or any of a number of things that are common knowledge among gamers? Shouldn't it be part of their job to understand these things?
These things are put in because gamers aren't game devs highest god. That honor goes to Making Money - with its faithful priest The Shareholder.
 

FEichinger

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Aug 7, 2011
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Evil Smurf said:
BloodRed Pixel said:
Metacritics: the Lehman Brothers of Review-Sites.
they ar'n't that bad......are they?
Oh yes, they are. In fact, the more our precious developers listen to MC, the more fanboiism we'll see, and thus VALVe will monopolize the entire market at some point ... Oh wait, that does sound kinda good. Go ahead, nothing to see here.
 

Still Life

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This really doesn't make sense to me as any kind of recruiting benchmark. A lot of really solid games have metacritic scores below the arbitrary 85 mark, but that's besides the point.

Seems a little irrational to me.
 

Clearing the Eye

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Jun 6, 2012
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rhizhim said:
yes, lets hire people based on an easy to manipulate and inaccurate rating website.

what a bunch of idiots.
*Yes, *let's hire people based *upon an easy to manipulate and inaccurate *aggregating website.

The lesson here is: don't be so quick to call others names. You achieve nothing constructive and look silly.
 

The.Bard

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Still Life said:
This really doesn't make sense to me as any kind of recruiting benchmark. A lot of really solid games have metacritic scores below the arbitrary 85 mark, but that's besides the point.

Seems a little irrational to me.
[Initiate Sarcasm Protocol... 0100100010001001010101011100010101001...]

No, no, this makes complete sense. Look at Hollywood. You see this kind of thing all the time. Movies that are looking for actors with at least one oscar. Calls for directors with at least one "two thumbs up" review from Ebert.

[End Sarcasm Protocol]


Oh, right. You don't see that. Because hiring people based on the 100% subjective opinion of the often purchasable media is COMPLETELY STUPID.

Irrational indeed!
 

sethisjimmy

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May 22, 2009
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This is just dumb. Developers have different sections for different elements in games. A game could have atrocious gameplay but amazing writing, graphics, or music, but just because it might not get amazing metacritic scores, Irrational will miss out.

The industry seems so ridiculously out of touch with the consumer these days.
 

Clearing the Eye

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Jun 6, 2012
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rhizhim said:
Clearing the Eye said:
rhizhim said:
yes, lets hire people based on an easy to manipulate and inaccurate rating website.

what a bunch of idiots.
*Yes, *let's hire people based *upon an easy to manipulate and inaccurate *aggregating website.

The lesson here is: don't be so quick to call others names. You achieve nothing constructive and look silly.
the lesson is that if you are going to correct my grammar you should at least keep my message intact.

rating website not aggregating website.

even if the website really just accumulates different critiques/ ratings.
Metacritic is an aggregator; it organizes reviews from a wide variety of other groups, calculates the average and displays the result to the viewer. "Rating website" is simply poor English.

"Aggregator refers to a web site or computer software that aggregates a specific type of information from multiple online sources."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator

Again, don't insult others if you aren't prepared to face valid, informative criticism.