Jimquisition: Metacritic Isn't the Problem

Mangue Surfer

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May 29, 2010
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A substancial part of the gamers and reviewers are rednecks that don't know how to count. For this peoples, in a scale from 1 to 10, 8 is in the middle. This is the real problem.
 

freaper

snuggere mongool
Apr 3, 2010
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Yes! Shine forth your scorching light of unsealing truth Jim, and let your enemies be struck by your lightning of undiluted humour! *victoriously shakes fist*

Loved it, and you know, haters gonna hate.

<img src=http://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c=03AHJ_VuvizGxQD_BUxRFIq5M7MirSEgWAyNHjTF0opTd6WftbztvmP3dEaAjW5qKTBejcpGR8kOXys_vVibXKlNLkCHjflpOARS-ixHSz5rHCr2QdFKv4toMsLTn60Kxk8yp--XrtrryaDxoQLG6jzw1FsnetOP_aGw>

(apparently Captcha now provides words that are upside down)
 

Zom-B

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Feb 8, 2011
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He's essentially right. And furthermore, you don't hear anyone complaining about how RottenTomatoes.com is ruining the movie industry.

As usual, a whiny minority seeks to change/ruin something for everyone else because they got their knickers in a twist of a perceived slighting.
 

Roofstone

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May 13, 2010
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I feel sorry for the guys who dont really have any criticism, they just *****, or complain about Jim's obvious big bones.

But anyway, as always. And as you surely know Jim.

Thank god, for you.
 

Seventh Actuality

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Apr 23, 2010
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'Kay Jim, you've kind of won me over. Still don't see why this was commissioned in the first place, but now that it's here I'm starting to really enjoy it. One thing though...why keep up the live-action segments? The audio quality nosedives, they're always worse than and disconnected from the recorded bits and they're visually boring (don't get like that, they would be even if you were prettier). Like most reviewers, you're a lot better at talking into a microphone than trying to ham it up on camera.
 

ManupBatman

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Jun 23, 2011
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Easy fix, just don't take metacritic seriously. Find a few reviewers who share your views and trust their judgement, or rent the game and trust your own.

This industry takes itself too seriously.
 

Imp_Emissary

Mages Rule, and Dragons Fly!
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May 2, 2011
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Don't worry Jim. When you die, us loyal fans will just turn you into a zombie, or at least find a person who sounds like you and can use you as a corpse puppet. :)

Also, it is said that the people working on the games are all getting affected by some meaningless number. (I only talk about the number because somehow I doubt the people making this dumb decision are actually reading the whole review.)
 

Juuel

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Jun 2, 2011
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I love Jimquisition's arrogant style, people seem to be taking him too seriously. I don't get all the hate he's getting.
 

electric_warrior

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I like the bits where its just a voice over, the rest is deeply irritating. I personally like Metacritic and use it as a handy guide to games I should or shouldn't buy. It's better than wading through dozens of long reviews and its often fairly accurate in terms of representing the quality of a game. Fable 3 and Dragon Age 2 both got 79(ish) which shows their relative merits but also their mediocrity when compared with expectations. L.A. Noire got 89, which, again, shows us that its a great game but not one without its flaws, and Oblivion got 94, which just shows its awesomness. There are sometimes mistakes (GTA IV) but that isn't its fault, it just averages numbers, its the fault of the people providing those numbers if a score isn't truly representative.

Jim, I don't dislike you because of your weight, but because of your style of delivery. Stick to the voice overs, they seem to be less theatrical and dickish.
 

MrFunsockz

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Oct 15, 2010
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Awesome, great video Jim, and I have to agree. I use metacritic all the time to peruse reviews of a game I want to purchase in one easy to examine database. It's when I hear Molyneux, Kotick, or others speak about how they are need a "90s metacritic game" that I get frustrated, because essentially it just feels like they are playing a simulation. Finish a game, check the score of the game, restructure based off of said score, repeat. It's diluting games by basing it solely off of the final numbers not what went into the game, or what people got out of it.

I always enjoy your stuff Jim, keep it up.
 

ThatDaveDude1

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Feb 7, 2011
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I dislike Metacritic because I dislike the idea of numbers on a scale being used to quantify a game. Since there is no "perfect" game, then the score of a game in relation to a "perfect" score is useless. Since all Metacritic does is collect scores, it too is useless.

I'm much more interested in specific opinions reguarding what is wrong with a game, not "how many numbers out of 100" are wrong with it. Numbers are fucking useless to me, and I don't think anybody should make purchasing decisions based on it.

This is why I think "Metacritic is bad, and should go away."

Not because of "the negative impact Metacritic has, unfortunately and accidentally, had on various aspects of this industry," as Jim suggests. I agree with him on his stance reguarding that.
 

BlueInkAlchemist

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Jun 4, 2008
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Let's say I get a message in the mail, like this, from Jim or a similar observer of popular culture.

The contents of the message could be poignant, topical, relevant and completely on the nose from my subjective point of view.

But if the envelope is covered in slanderous messages about my obvious lack of intelligence (since I'm not Jim) and disparaging remarks about my mom's performance in bed, written in human feces (because that's always funny), I'm not going to open the envelope.

Call me crazy.
 

MowDownJoe

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The thing I don't get about Metacritic is this: that Metacritic uses a different scoring scale for games than it does for other media. And as such, the scale it uses warps reviews because of how they appear on Metacritic. Big example: Joystiq. When they launched their current design, they started adding scores to their reviews, in the form of 5-star ratings. They had their own scale that made perfect sense (5-stars is a must-buy, 3 is "buy if you like the genre", 1 is "avoid"). Then they started to notice that their 3-star reviews (again, "buy if you like the genre") were apprearing on Metacritic as "60", which was a bad review according to Metacritic. So, they had to introduce half-stars into their grading system to work around Metacritic.

Maybe to hit the point a little closer to home for Jim, I should point out this: Metacritic's scale is kinda bent around how IGN and Gamespot grade, i.e. not using the full 10-point scale. What does Destructoid pride itself in doing? Using the full 10-point scale. [http://www.destructoid.com/the-official-destructoid-review-guide-2011-203909.phtml] So, again, a game that Destructoid grades as "average" would get a failing grade on Metacritic.

Honestly, when it comes to movie review aggregates, I prefer Rotten Tomatoes to Metacritic. Why? Because of how they do their aggregation. They don't look at the score, yank that, run it through an algorithm to get an adjusted score, find a pithy quote that fits that adjusted score, then average those adjusted scores. They look at the review, judge if the review was positive or negative, find a good quote that sums it up, then they display the percentage of reviews that were positive. I honestly want a site like Rotten Tomatoes for games. I don't want my review aggregates trying to show an average adjusted score. I want my aggregates to tell me what percentage of critics liked it or not. After all, so many different sites grade on different scale, and trying to find a universal scale will just ruin it for everyone involved.
 

Vault boy Eddie

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Feb 18, 2009
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Last episode was good, this one was more in the line of Captain Obvious, like the other episodes. The gist of it was people are assholes and ruin everything. The whole Portal thing was a prime example.
 

Alar

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Dec 1, 2009
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Roocifer said:
Telegram from Capt. E. Blackadder.

Dear Mr Chaplain. Stop. Have discovered only person in the world less funny than you. Stop. Name Jimquisition. Stop. Oh and one more thing, please please please. Stop.
Just enlighten me, but... why do you bother watching his show if you despise him so much? Just... ignore him. Ignore him and he cannot hurt you.

I'd have to agree that it's likely publishers will overreact to review scores. They should be paying more attention to the profits they make, and the things that the fans tell them they like (and dislike).

Yes, reviewers can often have important points for publishers and game developers to pay attention to, but that doesn't mean they need to freak out if some of them give them a bad score.
 

MrFunsockz

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ThatDaveDude1 said:
I dislike Metacritic because I dislike the idea of numbers on a scale being used to quantify a game. Since there is no "perfect" game, then the score of a game in relation to a "perfect" score is useless. Since all Metacritic does is collect scores, it too is useless.
While I agree whole heartedly that quantifying a game with a score is pretty useless, I still like metacritic for checking on a game. At the very least, it lets me quickly and easily find the highest and lowest reviews for a game out there, open them in another tab, and read each of them, so I can quickly get the most positive and negative opinions on a game quickly and easily.

The idea of basing a purchase off of the number however is a joke to me. Everyone out there has a game they may love, that critics hated. I personally love Raw Danger, even if it is a horribly, horribly flawed game, and at the same time, I personally can't get into Assassins Creed, a critically acclaimed game.

It's always best to read reviews to get an idea about how the game works before buying it, not just look at a score and be like "Welp, that was below 80, guess I'm not getting that"
 

Jim Grim

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I don't care what people say, I bust out laughing at "...You prick." You tickle my funny bone.
 

Woodsey

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BlueInkAlchemist said:
Let's say I get a message in the mail, like this, from Jim or a similar observer of popular culture.

The contents of the message could be poignant, topical, relevant and completely on the nose from my subjective point of view.

But if the envelope is covered in slanderous messages about my obvious lack of intelligence (since I'm not Jim) and disparaging remarks about my mom's performance in bed, written in human feces (because that's always funny), I'm not going to open the envelope.

Call me crazy.
That analogy would work if you were able to recognise the remarks about your Mum and intelligence are accompanied by a joking wink, and that the shit is actually just a brown felt-tip with a funny smell.