Jimquisition: Hate Out Of Ten

RikuoAmero

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Jan 27, 2010
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"If your reviews consistently differ from the rest of the community, then you are not fit for your job"

Oh my god. Who wrote that? Who wrote that and didn't have their brain explode? The point of a review is to offer your own personal individual opinion on something. If you write a review merely to agree with the rest of the community, THAT is when you are not fit for the job. Because that is when you are NOT reviewing and just spewing forth utter bullshit.
 

Badwolf14

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Aug 6, 2010
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0waGDZVCagQ
skip till about 3:50 (if you don't want to watch the episode :p) till about 4:00 and that is my reaction to the 9 out of 10 comment
 

42

Australian Justice
Jan 30, 2010
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It's about time someone called the gamer meteoritic bombers. but then again any attempt to point out the stupidity of others will just be all for nought by the fact that their stupidity is on a level of such a high scale.

In all seriousness Jim's right this is becoming a problem, and if were not careful it'll be gamers not publishers responsible for another fricking crash.. although i don't know why N4G gets a lot of his hate. i wish he would show some examples and then i would be in a position to agree.
 

Ihniwid

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Nov 8, 2010
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Rating aggregates like metacritic have made scoring games more of about the majority opinion than about a critics actual opinion. The players and website members feed into this as well, so we're to blame just as much as the reviewers who feed into it are.

Anyone remember Crispy Gamer? Back before they gutted their (talented) review team? They never used rating systems. Just stated their opinion and left the reader to discern for themselves.

They couldn't join metacritic though.

And I noticed yesterday The Escapist is now on metacritic. Hmm...

Does gaming have its "true" critics yet though. Any of you guys out there actually relate and TRUST anyone who reviews games?

I've got a few (Scott Jones!) but I'm just wondering, can anyone name names? Or do you guys just load up the review page, look at the score and then post comments based on the flat number?
 

Kingsnake661

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Dec 29, 2010
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Ok, I admit it... I'm starting to become a fan of this show... It took losing EC and having that time gap to fill during my lunch, but it's growing on me.

And I agree, with everything said. And laugh evertime someone rants over an 8, or heck, even a 7, which i tend to read as being "good".

And WHY... please explain to me, because i really don't understand, why do gamers even CARE about the game score... I'm honestly at a lose, i don't understand why it matters to people. I don't know, maybe being a older person who grew up loving all the movies that critics seemed to hate altered my view of critics in general, but game score have never ment a darn thing to me. Not ONCE has a review of ANY kind prevented me from playing or watching something i wanted too...

And I always assumed most people worked the same way, it honestly supprses me that anyone would be swayed in any way by a review.
 

gigastar

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Sep 13, 2010
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Giest4life said:
gigastar said:
And there is the root cause of most Escapists being Escapists rather than being in the slew of other review sites.

While i forsee that not many people not part of the Escapist wont see this video and of them even less will care about it, it raises some extremely good arguments.
Not only don't the Escapist hand out 5 stars cheaply, they also have a very reasonable and clear definition of what their scores actually mean.

Five stars. This is as good as gaming currently gets, the crème de la crème. This doesn't imply perfection, merely that the experience you'll have will be exceptionally enjoyable.
Im aware of that page and have seen it before. What i meant about reviews on the Escapist was the comment threads, which are not bathed in the flames of fanboys just because a game is not perfect when the fans think it is.

And with the addition of (X)-and-a-half-star scores that page needs touching up.
 

Unhappy Crow

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Mar 14, 2010
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It's hard to please gamers nowadays. I see people on sites such as Gamespot, Gametrailers, IGN (being the highest on my book), YouTube, etc. complaining on how a 8 is not a good score and compare it to other site that gave it a higher score. Thank god I don't take score seriously to post stuff like this on forums. I just keep it to myself to save myself from looking like a a-hole on the internet. Even if the score of the game is lower than a 8 (case in point, Pokemon Black/White getting a 7.5 on Gamespot), I just ignore the score and enjoy the game. And to this day, I'm still playing it (I just played Pokemon Black a few minutes ago).

At the end, gamers are just selfish people.
 

Exar Kun85

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Apr 4, 2011
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I remember the Kane and Lynch fiasco way back in 06' when a Gamespot reviewer was fired for giving the game a bad score. I played only the demo and it wasn't so bad but the controls and gunplay were shoddy when compared to an otherwise interesting story. I used to follow the review system but stopped because I realized that when all is said and done it is really up to me to decide whether or not I like a game despite what reviewers say. The sooner people understand that their OWN OPINION is what really matters the better.
 

Something Amyss

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Dec 3, 2008
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I was onboard with him until he said he gave Arkham City an 8.5. OMG! How DARE you give a game I haven't played such a nasty score in a review I (probably) didn't read!

But seriously, I saw this coming back when the PS2 was still a relatively new thing. Don't point your fingers at everyone, I've been mocking score inflation for around a decade now. I'm glad to have you johnny-come-lately folks onboard, but this has been a problem for a long time.

Link XL1 said:
ya no sorry, i watched the first episode and didnt like it. thought maybe i'd give jim another try, but NOPE i still cant watch this guy's videos. i just dont like him
Does that mean you're giving him an 8/10?
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Apr 1, 2009
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I can only remember one review that really pissed me off and it wasn't the number that it got, it was one of the things the review mentioned, it said that the game had bad graphics, specifically it said this game had bad graphics

That is a shot from kings bounty: the armored princess, the only way you can say that is bad graphics is if your so shallow you need every little fucken thing to be bump mapped out the ass.
 

Callate

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Dec 5, 2008
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Wow, I actually get to agree without equivocation for once. It is ridiculous that anyone should give reviewers grief for using more than the highest 20% (or less!) of a grading scale. Reviewers don't owe anyone to be consistent with the marks on Metacritic; they only need to be internally consistent (and, ideally, consistent with the grading within their publication.) As pressure mounts to give every triple-A game a 9 or a 10, we should recognize the value of those critics who are willing to give 7s and 6s (and lower) more, not less. We who have limited budgets and limited amounts of time to devote to games (and that is everyone, yes?) ought to be glad for a critical response that actually gives us some insight to flaws that may make one gaming experience less worth our time than another, rather than licking publishers' boots out of fear of reprisal (even if that reprisal doesn't come from the publishers or devs themselves.)

Heck, maybe some of us could stand to actually read reviews now and again, rather than just look for aggregate scores... Though if pressure is placed to give those 9s and 10s, again, we're less likely to see reviews that have any meat to them, because critics will feel compelled to write "towards" the rating they "have" to give.
 

Xanadu84

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Apr 9, 2008
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Lots of good points, but I do need to point something out. In the frame of reference of most people reading reviews, 8 out of 10 is a B-. That's slightly better then an average, phone it in slackers grade. And I'm not totally aware of where grade inflation is these days.Demanding perfect scores is ridiculous, but using a standardized metric, review scores arn't THAT bad.
 

Qitz

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Mar 6, 2011
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Yeah, number scores are pretty stupid. Boiling down an entire experience and opinion to a number is insane but most people don't want to sit and read the whole review.

Though the real pain in the ass is the decimal systems. Just what the hell is the difference between a 8.5 and a 9? What's the .5 of a difference?
 

Zachery Gaskins

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Mar 29, 2011
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Here's a qualitative rating system used by the site boardgamegeek.com which tries to describe the willingness of a person to play the game given a choice, combined with its "addictive" qualities:

10 - Outstanding. Always want to play and expect this will never change.
9 - Excellent game. Always want to play it.
8 - Very good game. I like to play. Probably I'll suggest it and will never turn down a game.
7 - Good game, usually willing to play.
6 - Ok game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood.
5 - Average game, slightly boring, take it or leave it.
4 - Not so good, it doesn't get me but could be talked into it on occasion.
3 - Likely won't play this again although could be convinced. Bad.
2 - Extremely annoying game, won't play this ever again.
1 - Defies description of a game. You won't catch me dead playing this. Clearly broken.

Within the site's community, a rating of 8+ is a guaranteed purchase. 7+ indicates a game that would be a surefire rent for fans of a game's particular genre. High sixes would be entertained if the price point was lowered / game wasn't purchased by the player. Anything from 6.25 on down would be largely passed on if there were other better alternatives. Ratings of 4 or less are more accusations of shoddy publishing/development more than anything else.

And really, critic valuations do come down to how much bang you're getting for your buck.