Jimquisition: Hate Out Of Ten

godofslack

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May 8, 2011
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You're right. Given the metrics provided in your review guide it's good to be a 8.5
But, the bigger issues is with inferior games getting equivalent or even superior scores. That's an issue with major gaming sites having multiple reviewers labeled as a site rather than a person. As for 6/5s, those are evil and should be abolished.
 

Brawndo

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Jun 29, 2010
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This user from the g4tv boards said exactly what I was thinking:

Avaj

It is validation. People want to be validated in what they think of something. Someone buys a game and they want to be validated that they made the right choice. Similarly if they don't like something about something else they want to feel validated by hearing that other people have had the same response.

What simpler way is there then to boil something down to a number?

Everyone wants to hear that everyone else was scared while playing Amnesia. Everyone wants to know that everyone else teared up near the start of the movie UP.

Read more: http://www.g4tv.com/videos/55954/sesslers-soapbox-i-hate-numbers/#ixzz1dojAtJzG
 

Reincarnatedwolfgod

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Jan 17, 2011
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zeldadungeon.net comment criticizing 9/10 wow stupid fanboy/girl
i go on the that site every day
it is good for zelda news but the forums i avoid because fanboys/girls exist

edit found the link to the page
http://www.zeldadungeon.net/2011/11/gamesradar-skyward-sword-review-910/
 

Xanadu84

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Apr 9, 2008
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SenseOfTumour said:
Xanadu84 said:
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.
Damn good point, I've always thought that 5 outta 10 shouldn't actually be average, but never really could explain why.

If you take 5 outta 10 as 'does half of what it should do right', then sure, most stuff should do better than that.

Someone who gets half an exam right, isn't average, they're pretty bad.

In short tho, 7 out of 10 is considered average, right or wrong, and we're gonna have to accept that.

Of course EVERYONE wants the thing they've worked hard for years to create to get perfect, 10/10 reviews across the board, but that's not going to happen for most people.

as is, I consider 8/10 to be something that's pretty good for its genre, and I'd not rule out buying a 6/10 game if it interested me.

Last of all, everyone should remember, it's a single reviewer's opinion. Someone could give the next big RTS 11/10 across the board in every category, and I'd not go buy it, as RTS just doesn't do it for me. (I admit I might try the demo if there was one however, in case I really was missing out - more reasons to release a demo, folks!)

I'd suggest I've probably got some 3 and 4/10 games in my collection that I love, but I'd not rate em as 9/10s because they're only great to me.
I think its important to remember that a review score is a single data point. You need to look across the board, see what the average is, what the deviation is, and generally the picture of the whole bell curve for that particular game. Even Portal got a few 8's, and that doesn't mean the reviewers were unreasonable, it means that your always going to get a few people on the high and low end of the bell curve.

Also, I think I need to point out the counterpoint to this little problem. For every 1 person lamenting actual score creep who feels that a hyped game needs a 10 out of 10, you have 10 Whiners who hate Call of Duty or Starcraft or whatever, and scream at how unfair a perfect score is, and decide that they need to be the paladins of the internet and bomb Metacritic in order to get a, "Fair" score. In reality, if a game sells millions and millions of copies and gets a hugely devoted fan base, and a sequel is made by those same developers, theres a really good chance that the sequel will be pretty good.
 

Darth Rahu

Critic of the Sith
Nov 20, 2009
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Mister Sterling... I completely agree. Your show is getting better and better. Originally it felt baseless because it was used as a platform just to get pissed and rant. Now, the rants have structure, context, reasoning behind the anger, and while your opinion is your own, it's a lot more serviceable in this style. Keep it up and I'll keep listening.
 

TJC

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Aug 28, 2011
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I'm still surprised that people actually try to grade creative work as if developers are nothing but a bunch of adolescent kids back in school which, judging from the behaviour of some, isn't that far fetched. Turning it into a numerical scale doesn't change anything. Whether you grade from 1-5 oder from A-F, same shit, different name.

Games (and movies and books and music and art in general) aren't maths tests where you can check off every correct answer and give a score at the end of it. Which is why I've come to enjoy and prefer critics like Yahtzee and MovieBob because there aren't fucking scores at the end but honest-to-god opinions that give me insight to the subject matter when I eventually form one of my own.

But there's anothing thing that puzzles me:
If we ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO stick to the whole x out of 10 business: why do sequels EVER get a high score AT ALL?
Let's go back to the school simile: If you had to write two essays for class and the first one was decent enough to earn a B+, would you expect an A if you just handed in a copy of the previous one if you changed some names or copy-pasted one paragraph about a dozen times?

OF COURSE NOT! That would be batshit bonkers.
So why are we so readily squirting out (AND ACCEPTING) high scores for sequels?
Neither Modern Warfare 3 nor Battlefield 3 nor fucking Uncharted 3 deserve more than 5/10
They're adequate at best. A sequel that adds something to a series or changes enough to make the sequel able to stand on its own might earn a higher score which is why I would give Arkham City and Skyward Sword a 6/10 (and even there only begrudgingly)

Will that stop enjoy any of these game (except them shooters of course, because shooters are stupid)?
Hell no, I'll enjoy them because I'm darn sure that I'll like these games because I liked their predecessors and I really do not need any validation from random internet passersby throwing random numbers at my head.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Jul 29, 2010
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bahumat42 said:
Worgen said:
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.

looks like warcraft 3
i kind of want to play it.
hmmmmmm
True that. I played the game, and it does look a lot like WC3. Just got a little too tedious and repetitive for me, looking for all the right fights to level up, too much travelling, micro management, building the perfect army for each encounter. Should be somewhat quicker once you've discovered everything. Anyways not to go into a review of the game myself, but I'll agree the graphics aren't bad at all, it's a case of the graphics vs. aesthetics thing really, the game and the different environments look fantastic, it just happens to be playable on a non-gaming laptop. Same as Torchlight, which looks superb in my books.

Criticizing a game like that on graphics seems to be nitpicking that it's just not pushing the boundaries of technology or Direct X features, which is not the point IMHO. The characters, pieces and animations are great, and the colors breathe so much life and personality into the game. Btw. This is *totally* related, graphics is but one point in which reviews can be severely skewed.
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Jul 29, 2010
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Yan007 said:
I'm a teacher and the same logic applies to grading students.
Hah, you must be kidding I'm also grading papers and writing report cards right now, and the exact same thing just popped into my head =P

We have a head teacher in our school, who has been here for 20+ years, her way of going about it is to "always leave room for improvement", it keeps yourself and the students in check. Basically, a perfect student doesn't exist at the start of the year, and if by the end he/she has ALL perfect marks, well then they shouldn't be in that grade level (which does happen). Likewise, you don't want to set a bar too high that an average student suddenly becomes a genius on paper, and then goes to another school and struggles - reflects badly on you too.
 

RandV80

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Oct 1, 2009
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I think the first time I saw this happen was the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess review on Gamespot. Got an 8.8 or 8.9 / 10 review and my god the fan response was atrocious for the fact that it wasn't at least a 9/10. Especially considering that no one played the game yet and if you actually read the review it perfectly justified the score, the reviewer gave it tons of credit but dropped the review score a little because the game still used N64 quality midi music and sound. It wasn't long after that Gamespot dropped the 1/10 decimal marks from their reviews and a made them all .0 or .5.

I for one have always appreciated review scores for what they should be and have hated what it's become. The way I see it a 7/10 (and that's under the current system of overinflated ratings) should be a perfectly solid purchase if it's a specific genre that you like. The problem is the AAA games that cross genre boundaries aiming for wide spread appeal and earning a reputation among the gaming community as "must have!" games, which has basically turned the main chunk of the gaming community into a bunch of sheep.
 

brainslurper

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Aug 18, 2009
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mysecondlife said:
brainslurper said:
Bara_no_Hime said:
So fucking true.

I sincerely hope that the various review sites, internet wide, can be inspired by this video, grow some balls, and go back to giving games proper scores.

Nothing is perfect. Not the best game ever made. Nothing - ever - deserves a 10/10.
Especially not uncharted 3. Can anyone in their right mind rate an 8 hour standard shooter over a 300 hour multi play style open ended epic like skyrim?
You're no different than those people complaining about the review score because something got 8/10. Quite sad.
I don't care what our review scores are, but they will always be judged against eachother, so they need to hold up there.
 

mysecondlife

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Feb 24, 2011
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brainslurper said:
mysecondlife said:
brainslurper said:
Bara_no_Hime said:
So fucking true.

I sincerely hope that the various review sites, internet wide, can be inspired by this video, grow some balls, and go back to giving games proper scores.

Nothing is perfect. Not the best game ever made. Nothing - ever - deserves a 10/10.
Especially not uncharted 3. Can anyone in their right mind rate an 8 hour standard shooter over a 300 hour multi play style open ended epic like skyrim?
You're no different than those people complaining about the review score because something got 8/10. Quite sad.
I don't care what our review scores are, but they will always be judged against eachother, so they need to hold up there.
Then it seems like you care more than you think.
 

mannaroth

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Aug 19, 2009
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I did not think the issue was that bad, and then I did research... Jeez people are so dumb. It's a fucking review, if they don't think it's perfect THEY DON'T THINK IT IS PERFECT! IT'S THEIR OPINION!

Sorry, saw a reviewer get several really nasty comments for giving Arkham city a 8.5/10
 

Shia-Neko-Chan

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Apr 23, 2008
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Wait just a second, wait just a second, I usually agree with you, but a 7.5 is NOT a good score.

It's an okay score. When you get a 75 on a test, that's a C. At least on the school grading system it is, and I'm sure I'm not the only guy who bases game review scores on the A-F grading scale.

Games that are only okay get 7.5's, because they're average experiences, but not something you'd want to play for long amounts of time. It never fails, I play a game that I buy spontaneously at gamestop off of the used games rack and feel that it's kind of boring after about 30 minutes of play and nothing special, then go online and its review score is around a 70-75.
 

Mosstromo

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Jul 5, 2008
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Your outrage is righteous.
First I though it was your British delivery and wording that was hypnotic and made me agree with you in almost all your episodes, but now I discover (to my free-will's relief) that you make good points. There is, after all, sense sepulted under the mesmerizing British syntax and passionate abuse you deal every week.
I take much enjoyment as well as enlightenment from your inquisitorial editorial.
:-D
 

Jdb

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May 26, 2010
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Well Gamespot just gave Skyward Sword a 7.5. This probably won't end well. A lot of people are already blowing up over it. Could this mean 7.5 is the new 8.8?