Review score suggestion

[Tiroe]

As Yahtzee said in one of his episodes, numbers shouldn't be used to resume a complex opinion, but most sites and review shows still use the 1 to 10 scale that isn't very adequate since most games are rated between 6 and 10.

So, how about a scale from -5 to 5. That way, if you like the game, you give it a positive score and vice-versa, and if you thought it was just "meh", you give it around zero. It's kind of like a graded "thumbs up or down".

What do you think? Do you have other suggestions for numerical rating systems?

 

[migo]

Here's what I'm aiming towards. If I like a game, I give it a thumbs up, or a +. If I really like it, I give it two thumbs up or ++. If I like a game, but find things annoying about it, or some aspects suck, it gets one thumb up and one thumb down, or +-. If a game is just ehh, average and polished it gets nothing. If it's bad and doesn't have anything to like about it, it gets one thumb down, or -, and if it's absolutely terrible it gets two thumbs down, or --.

In words that can be done as "Recommended Without Reservation"(++), "Recommended" (+), "Recommended With Reservation"(+-), "Not Recommended" ( ), "Recommended Against" (-), "Strongly Recommended Against" (--).

For those who want, it can be converted into letters, stars, ratings and percentages.

++ = A = ***** = 5/5 = 100%
+ = B = **** = 4/5 = 80%
+- = C = *** = 3/5 = 60%
0 = D = ** = 2/5 = 40%
- = E = * = 1/5 = 20%
-- = F = 0 = 0/5 = 0%

What I like about this system is that it's based on pros and cons. No matter how good it is overall, if it has a serious drawback, then the highest it gets is "Recommended With Reservation" which translates to 60%, and really only someone who's a major fan of a type of game, or is willing to put up with the drawbacks should go for it.

Some examples for scores for JRPGs.

Final Fantasy X, Persona 3 FES, Recommended Without Reservation
Tales of Vesperia, Final Fantasy VIII, Recommended
Infinite Undiscovery, Final Fantasy X-2, Recommended With Reservation

I always research most of the games that I buy, so I can't think of any JRPG that's lower than that, but a few other games certainly come up.

 

[Brickcups]

I'm not much for numerical ratings in reviews. I just like to see what people thought of a game(tend to ignore the numbers =P). Reviewers should just implement a ridiculous score value so people will stop complaining about "imperfect scores."

Something like a rating between 0 and 9999999999999999999 should do the trick.

 

[Continuity]

I don't like x/10 scoring because there is not enough definition, you could pick any 20 games rated 9/10 and you can be sure that they all wont be equally as good.
I think at the very least a percentage system should be used, preferably also broken down into scored categories so you can see at a glance what the games strengths and weaknesses are.