Poll: Is "average" a five or a seven?

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Hey guys, I was reading an article on how video game review scores are inflated and the average review score on many websites is around seven. They act like this is a really bad thing, but if I remember from the academic grading scale, seven is average and anything below that is bad. If it works for schools, it should work for us, right?

What do you guys think, on a 1-10 scale, what should be the average score and why? This doesn't apply to only game scores, really any scoring system based on 10s or 100s. (including, as I mentioned above, academic scoring)

 

[Jadak]

I go with 6-6.5 as average. As in maybe worth playing, but not worth recommending

 

[dbphreakdb]

well, this falls into Mean, Median or Mode.

I would think, personally, considering average is middle of the road, then, it would have to be Median. So, on a scale of 1-10, i would say that it would be somewhere in the area of 5-6

 

[Arluza]

average is not the correct term we should be using. In game reviews (aside from people like Angry Joe who review on a REAL 10 point scale) average is about 8. Yes. 8. an 8 is both superb, yet also horrible. Check IGN and Gamespot coverage on games. only 9s or 10sare counted as good. 8 is called an "ok" game.

 

[Bucky01]

when it comes to my parents and the education system, they expect nothing less than 100% or your sh!t -_-
an average game should be 7? out of 10, but i prefer to look at the details of the review rather than the scores it gets. thats how you tell if its any good or not.

 

[crudus]

is the 1-10 scale a bell curve? If so then 5 should be the average at all times. If it is arbitrary and reviewers probably don't have the drive to build a proper bell curve with all of the games in it, then average can't be determined without prior scores. Then again if the latter were true, all games every would have to be in that average not just Triple A games.

I still think the number system is stupid. Reviews and opinions are a complex list of pros and cons and cannot be reduced to a number(while still maintaining meaning).

 

[The Blue Mongoose]

Reviews are all about personal opinion and other subjective intangible things. Thus the "average" score doesn't mean much. You might rate a game 10/10 because you like the genre and control-scheme and think the atmosphere/art style/soundtrack is amazing. I may give it 2/10 because I hate all those things you like.

Academics have more tangible measures. You either get the answer right or wrong (in the case of maths/science) or you demonstrate a level of knowledge that can be quantified (in the case of humanities subjects). This is where averages matter, but again there are a number of variable factors.

I had a Commercial Law class where the average mark was below a pass (50%), so the lecturer boosted everyone's grade by 4% in order to maintain a 50%+ average. This doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate solution, obviously the course was not taught effectively or the exam was poorly written/scaled.

My point being, averages are helpful, but have their limitations and should not be the sole basis for evaluating a set of data.

TL;DR: Averages suck.

 

[deshorty]

5 is average. However, as a rule of thumb, I wouldn't get a game unless i was very interested in it and it was a 7 or better (not always, but this is the best way for me to decide to buy a game) which has caused me to think of 7 as average despite reality.

 

[trollnystan]

I interpret average as half-way between bad and good. Therefore, in my book, a 5 should be average in a 1-10 scale, 50 in a 1-100 scale, and so on.

I honestly don't remember much about school and its grading scale - repressed most of it - but it's probably pretty different from the American scale.

And why on EARTH should a grading scale for games follow the same logic of the school scale? Confuzzled I am.

 

[Wushu Panda]

this thread does not have the subject i thought it would have based on the title.

Hey guys, I was reading an article on how video game review scores are inflated and the average review score on many websites is around seven. They act like this is a really bad thing, but if I remember from the academic grading scale, seven is average and anything below that is bad. If it works for schools, it should work for us, right?

What do you guys think, on a 1-10 scale, what should be the average score and why? This doesn't apply to only game scores, really any scoring system based on 10s or 100s. (including, as I mentioned above, academic scoring)

How do you mean the average was 7?

1. The total cumulative scores the reviewer had given mathematically equals 7.

or

2. A game receiving a score of 7 is considered average, not the greatest game you ever played but interesting enough it doesnt suck.


Also, the average of one system cannot necessarily be used the same way in another. You cannot say the average of a 1-10 system applies to a 1-100 system. two completely different levels of grading. you cant have a standard average. you look for the average to find out what the standard/most common value is.

i think you should read up on mean, median, mode, range and even bell curves.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

see i think maths when i read scores. Isnt average supposed to represent the middle ground, or 5 in the case of a 1 - 10, or a 50 on a 1 - 100?

 

[lady man lady]

i like to think of 7 as average

 

[Megnaman]

5 is average but anything below a 6 usually isnt worth playing so i guess average games are garbage

 

[DanielBrown]

I'd say 5 is average. Neither great nor horrible.
Though when I see a game with a score below 7 these days I get pretty sceptic since most reviewers I watch put an 8/10-stamp out like it's average.

 

[Knusper]

It makes sense for it to be 5, but I generally consider it to be 7, even if the reviewer doesn't. I put it down to playing Warhammer for the majority of my childhood, where a leadership value average was 7 out of 10.

 

[Rkngl]

I go with 5 being the lowest a game can go and still be entertaining, below 5 tends to have major flaws that prevent me from enjoying it. This makes 5 the bottom and 10 being the top causing 7 to be the average game within the field of games I am willing to consider.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I'd always say a seven is an average, because I'm thinking in terms of rating people based on looks.

Also a reason (in terms of games), the 1-10 scale literally never works.

 

[NoOne852]

Well it is hard to say because putting a score into numbers usually gives a differnet impression then that of the person who gave the number.
But to give an answer, I would say a 6-7 is average.