Review Score Inflation

[HeySeansOnline]

It depends. Now you're talking a shooter. Shooters are a tough arena to enter, you got Halo, Call of Duty, and nowadays Battlefield to an extent to compete with. If It's not a A or 8-9/10 you're kinda screwed as the average consumer may only purchase 1 shooter a year.

 

[Professor James]

When we see 7.5 we think 75. 75 in most schools is a C and you're not getting college with a C average.

That's why, we subconsciously equate everything to school grading. When we see 5/10 we see 50 then we see F then we see FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Um. Isn't 50% a pass? According to pretty much everyone?

And 75 is like 2nd class honours? At least, that's what my university says.

On topic: The scoring system for games is completely screwed. A film review that gives 3 out of 5 stars does not say that the film is bad, merely that it is average. And yet 3 out of 5 is only 60%.

I'm pretty sure The Escapist has done an article on this very topic at some point. If I find it I'll edit it in.

Found it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_260/7750-1984-Out-of-10

I wonder what school you're at at mine a F is 64 & below

Edit: Ignore didn't read all the quotes when I posted this

 

[Something Amyss]

When we see 7.5 we think 75. 75 in most schools is a C and you're not getting college with a C average.

That's why, we subconsciously equate everything to school grading. When we see 5/10 we see 50 then we see F then we see FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Of course, these days, those "average" reviews are often treated as "failures." Hence inflation.

More and more games are getting high marks despite obvious flaws, and average so sort B range now. I've seen several people at this point talk about how Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock was "ripped on" or similar when it has about a 75 average on GameRankings. Granted, it doesn't look like a good game, but 75 (80 for the Wii version) doesn't look all that bad.

 

[Something Amyss]

When we see 7.5 we think 75. 75 in most schools is a C and you're not getting college with a C average.

That's why, we subconsciously equate everything to school grading. When we see 5/10 we see 50 then we see F then we see FAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Um. Isn't 50% a pass? According to pretty much everyone?

And 75 is like 2nd class honours? At least, that's what my university says.

On topic: The scoring system for games is completely screwed. A film review that gives 3 out of 5 stars does not say that the film is bad, merely that it is average. And yet 3 out of 5 is only 60%.

I'm pretty sure The Escapist has done an article on this very topic at some point. If I find it I'll edit it in.

Found it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_260/7750-1984-Out-of-10

I wonder what school you're at at mine a F is 64 & below

At my school, 60 was a D- and the threshold for passing.

59 or below was an F.

 

[number2301]

Regarding school grades, I'm in the UK and I can't remember school (you leave at 16, I'm now 26. Wow 10 years) but at university over here 40% is a pass, 50% is a 2.2, 60% is a 2.1 and 70% is a first. And the guy who made the points about 50% not meaning you only know half of the course is dead right. Also, I understand many American tests are multiple choice, in which case there should be a very high pass mark, our tests generally aren't like that.

Anyway on topic, PC Gamer (UK) used to run a sensible scoring system, 70% was a good game, 80%+ varying degrees of greatness. In fact they re-released some old games as part of a special 80%+ series. Down to about 60% were recommended if you were a particular fan of the series or the genre.

It worked and it was sensible. I'm a big fan of percentage systems as they're more sensible than any 5/10/11/12/whatever point system. Perfection would be 100%, any less is well, less.

The big advantage of the times when they used to score games properly was that you had more differentiation. GTA IV, COD MW2 etc all get perfect (or near as damn it) scores, what then happens if Black Ops is better?

 

[latenightapplepie]

I wonder what school you're at at mine a F is 64 & below

50%? You only have to know half the stuff to pass? My school has 65 (maybe 70) as passing.

Well, I don't know what schools you're going to, but where I live, Philadelphia area, 65 and below is a fail. Must be a shitty college you're going to, heh.

I go to the University of Melboure, and it's not too shabby [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Melbourne#Rankings].

As far as I know, a 50% pass is standard for Australian universities. I thought this would be the case elsewhere as well, but there you go. In any case, those marks are terrible, and would seriously hinder your chances at getting a job or further study, but they are still technically 'P's; that is, a pass. And 'P's, as they say, get degrees.