Jimquisition: Review Scores Are Not Evil

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

For what it's worth, Jim, you're one of the few people who uses the review scores PROPERLY.

As in, beside the score, you say exactly what the score means. 8 being a great game with a few flaws, 6 being for genre fans only, etc.

A lot of other sites seem to arbitrarily slap the numbers on and make it seem that a 7 is a bad score, when it's really not all that bad.

 

[Jimothy Sterling]

Yes. Yes there is a "should."

What is the average of 0-10? 5. Start with the hard numbers, not the opinions.

The average game should, therefore, mathematically be *set* at 5. Just do it. Statistically, most of *anything* that has a large enough population, will be average. Reviewers should give a game that you consider to be completely average and unremarkable but still playable, a 5.

At this point, fairly good games will be then compared to this 5, and they will get around 7 or so...but right now, *average* games are at 7. So you have a massive, enormous range of "how much games can suck" (because 0-6 is apparently considered bad), and a tiny range of "how much games can be good," which are three numbers. In three numbers, can you really describe how much one game is better than another? No. Not really.

We messed this up because we started out by putting early reviewed games around the wrong number. Average games were given a seven. I like the theory that it's because Americans think on the grade-school report card system, but who knows why. So if your first unremarkable games are given a 7, then the rest of your games are going to be compared to that, and we're off to the races.

If you start out asking what your average game *should* get, mathematically, you will start at the right point.

Set your ratings at average 5.

No that is a misconception, an error.
In a class of students, you can have the average be a B+ if your students are great. Or well any score that THEY AVERAGE, this doesn't mean the AVERAGE SCORE should be the mathematic average of the scale. SO if there is a clear evaluation criteria, and games accomplish to effectively fulfill most of the criteria, they should get the numeric score that applies, and not the average, even if in general most games succeed to a certain measure.

IE: if most games are GREAT, you shouldn't give them an AVERAGE score, because they are the average quality of games, obviously.

 

[CapitalistPig]

Jim my boy. It must be a slow season. I love your show but I find the irrelevance of this episode almost as irrelevant as the 10 billion review scores that are shouted at me from TV commercials.

But since were on the stupid subject. The only review scores I've ever respected come from X-play which I've watched since it was extended play and it was just Adam (huh? anyone? yeah!) This opinion has been formed over almost a decade of watching this show, understanding the nature of the game reviewers, and overall being entertained by the whole process. I trust them because at this point I know what they like. When some commercial flashes up with whatever the latest pop/rap crap stating "review junkie gives this a 5/5" or "game monster weekly 5 stars out of 5." Well you get the idea. That crap doesn't matter. You have to know and trust a reviewer to respect their ratings. Therefore most ratings don't matter. And vice versa from Jim's standpoint I don't know why he cares about the trolls. Because if they don't trust his review numbers then they don't really have much business reading his reviews.

On that note I've watched this show long enough to say Jim probably gives pretty fair reviews.

Keep on keepin on Jim. But please find some new topics, these past few weeks are topics that only the darkest corners of the internet are even privy to.

 

[CapitalistPig]

I see much more complaining on the internet about how scores average around 7-8, and any game that got a 5 (which *should* be average) is seen as total crap, than how scores suck altogether. They're just weighted funny, giving them much lower resolution. Has any game ever gotten a 1? Ever?

Indeed. They do exist.

 

[LazyGlader]

~deleted~