What Our Review Scores Mean

[TKretts3]

I'm perfectly happy with the US system. Think of it this way. On a 10 question test, with each question being of equal value, in the US system you would have to get at least seven right. To only have to get half right, doesn't sound like you would grasp the concepts very well. Would you want an engineer or doctor to only grasp half the concepts of their craft?

But what do I know? I'm merely an ignorant 'Merican and whatnot. Land of Budweiser and home of the Braves. R edumacatian cystim sux 'n avery pursun nos et.

50% is a passing grade, not a good grade.
Most serious universities and colleges (Heck, even most silly ones!) wouldn't accept or priorities anyone who got a bunch of 50s on everything. You can also bet that no serious employer would employ someone with such bad grades, or no university/college degree/diploma! Passing =/= good. Another example, yes, you CAN live if your arms and legs are shopped off, and your tongue is cut out, and ears and eyes taken off, but it wouldn't be very nice.

 

[Strazdas]

I'm perfectly happy with the US system. Think of it this way. On a 10 question test, with each question being of equal value, in the US system you would have to get at least seven right. To only have to get half right, doesn't sound like you would grasp the concepts very well. Would you want an engineer or doctor to only grasp half the concepts of their craft?

But what do I know? I'm merely an ignorant 'Merican and whatnot. Land of Budweiser and home of the Braves. R edumacatian cystim sux 'n avery pursun nos et.

In such test, asnwering 5 questions right means that you know, theorically, half of the subject. That means that unless your answers are very biased to one side, you have a basic knowledge of the whole subject, however not much in depth knowledge required for higher marks. This gives you a pass, as you understand the basics, however it does not mean you are good as it, which would mean good score (7 or higher). The system that you have however only pass people that are good at it and inore everyone else, making it a broken system.
Engineers and doctors have to study for many years on many different subjects. They also have to work under supervisino for yearsa fterwards. I would ahve no problem seeing an eye doctor that got 50% on cardiology since it was one of mandatory subjects, but he didnt want to be a cardiosurgeon, isntead he wanted to be an eye doctor. your sstem however woudl require the doctor to be good at everything.
Specialization is key to skilled profession, school is supposed to give you a taste of everything so you coudl decide for yourself later on. your system however forces the kids to be good at everything, hence the huge failure rates. As you probably noticed, my language skills are not great. i never inspired to be a writer evne if i wrote 2 books in my time. instead im good with numbers and thus my math scores were good. Had the system here were like yours, i would still be stuck in school because of one subject instead of being productive member of society. I passed local language with 6 (out of 10).

I never said that you are ignorant american, merely that grading people with letters was a stupid system and it is mainly used in USA. Just like another stupid system - imperial measurements, that costs USA billions to upkeep since the rest of the world is using more logical metric system.

 

[Sofus]

I really dislike the perfect scores that so many games get. Then again, I compare all games from every genre to eachother and there might have been a better quest log, voice acting or somthing else which had been done better at one point. Heck I think I even argued that the quest log in DA2 was utter crap simply because I compared it to not only DA:O but also WoW.

Heck I even compare the voice acting of tripple A games with that of movies.

 

[VonKlaw]

Anyone who includes Decepticon comparisons in outlining how his start rating system will work gets my approval. Looking forward to your work.

 

[grey_space]

I don't give the first fuck about what Greg thought of Dragon Age II.

Man is entitled to believe as he wishes. My job is to support, not to censor.

And that comment alone would lead me to believe the you will do a fine job as reviews editor.

Looking forward to your first review.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Nice to see yet another explanation that a "perfect score" doesn't mean a perfect game. Of course, next game that gets a 5/5 is still going to be hailed/reviled as being marked as perfect regardless. *sigh*

 

[animeh1star1a]

Harsh but fair. I really hope you can follow through with that claim.

 

[Amakusa]

More power to you jim heheh
Thanks for the review star breakdown.

 

[artanis_neravar]

wait... 2 1/2 stars is below average?

2.5 out of 5?
50%?
The median?
The thing that is supposed to represent average?

... is below average?

Crazy

1+2+3+4+5=15
15/5=3
3 is the average
(Apologies is someone already pointed this out)

 

[wulf3n]

wait... 2 1/2 stars is below average?

2.5 out of 5?
50%?
The median?
The thing that is supposed to represent average?

... is below average?

Crazy

1+2+3+4+5=15
15/5=3
3 is the average
(Apologies is someone already pointed this out)

Given that it's half point increments and starts at 0.5 it's more like:

0.5 + 1 + 1.5 + 2 + 2.5 + 3 + 3.5 + 4 + 4.5 + 5 = 27.5
27.5/10 = 2.75
2.75 is the average.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

And so the era of Jim begins.

Let the churches be raised and the torches be lit. No matter what happens, there is going to be some discussion amongst the bloodshed.

Keyboard warriors are lining up as we speak.

Prepare for the war.

[sub][sub][sub]Actually I think a similar guide to the review scores was posted once before or something. A lot of this I knew but it's Jim saying it this time so...[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Abomination]

My main question is if the review score will take into account how much the individual paid for the game. Some companies are starting to ask us to shill out U$D80 for a title and I would be willing provided the experience is considered worth that financial investment. At the same time a game going for $20 doesn't need to be very good by comparison to score higher because it's a "get what you pay for" scenario.

Then again I try and use reviews as a measure of worth from a purchase perspective and not one as to an overall quality of the game perspective.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I've never understood why people get so upset over review scores. They seem to think that because you don't like the game that they like, you are somehow slighting them by giving it a less than perfect score. About the only time I get upset over review scores is when users congregate and seek to destroy a game's user review score average on Metacritic, like what was done to Darksiders II and the Devil May Cry reboot.

I've always enjoyed reading your reviews on Destructoid so I'm very glad to see I can continue to rely upon your point of view in the future here on the Escapist, Jim!

 

[artanis_neravar]

wait... 2 1/2 stars is below average?

2.5 out of 5?
50%?
The median?
The thing that is supposed to represent average?

... is below average?

Crazy

1+2+3+4+5=15
15/5=3
3 is the average
(Apologies is someone already pointed this out)

Given that it's half point increments and starts at 0.5 it's more like:

0.5 + 1 + 1.5 + 2 + 2.5 + 3 + 3.5 + 4 + 4.5 + 5 = 27.5
27.5/10 = 2.75
2.75 is the average.

Yeah but having quarter stars would just be silly

 

[saxman234]

Is there any game on the escapist right now with a 1 star or below rating?
Even Duke Nukem Forever got two stars, and I can't find reviews for any of the more notorious stinkers.

The one thing that metacritic does really well is compile data. According to metacritic's database for the escapist, I see two games that got 1 star, some game called "Impire", and some game called "Fray". According to metacritics data the escapists average review score is a 75 (3.75 stars). http://www.metacritic.com/publication/the-escapist?filter=games&sort_options=critic_score&num_items=30.

This is the only reason I don't like when we say some star value or score value is called "average", cause when I think of average, I think of the mean score or all games, but they just mean average in quality, such as the game is mediocre, or I guess they just mean the average star value that it possible (so 2.75).

 

[Lono Shrugged]

Seriously Jim, you are the only thing keeping me on this site. I am very happy to hear this news.

 

[Edl01]

I'm really happy Jim's still reviewing. Not just that but his first review is Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus. I'm exited to see what Jim brings to the site although the fact he is starting off with one of my favorite game franchises of all time may mean I may have to rip hm to shreds if he doesn't give it at least a 10/10.(I jest, of course)

 

[Kahani]

Four Stars: They may... contain a number of elements that aren't to everybody's taste.

This can't be accurate. There is no game in existence, or that ever will exist, that does not contain a number of elements that aren't to everybody's taste. According to this scale, it's impossible for any game to ever score above four stars.

Also, congratulations I guess. Welcome to the world of even more whining and pointless nitpicking of things that were perfectly well understood in the first place.

This is the only reason I don't like when we say some star value or score value is called "average", cause when I think of average, I think of the mean score or all games, but they just mean average in quality, such as the game is mediocre, or I guess they just mean the average star value that it possible (so 2.75).

The trouble with that is that there is a huge sampling bias involved here. The Escapist does not review all games, it reviews a very small subset of games that they think they're readers will have some interest in. The vast majority of low scoring games are crappy shovelware that most people will never even hear of, so they're unlikely to actually be featured on this site, or most others for that matter. Hell, there are games that Metacritic can't find a single review for, and when things I haven't heard of pop up on Steam I quite often find that there are only a few foreign language reviews. This means the average of scores by the Escapist is always going to be much higher than the theoretical average would be if they could review everything.

 

[Fearzone]

Congratulations on this, well deserved, your reviews are always the best, except for Final Fantasy 13, and sympathies to Destructoid for losing you. This is a good objective standard to work toward.

I wonder though, about those games which have a lot of good going for them, and also a lot of things wrong with them. Like say the storytelling and graphical design is masterful but the code is full of bugs. How are they scored? By the good parts? By the bad parts? Some weighted average? Usually it is the holistic sum that ends up coming through. I was just thinking about some games that I really liked but had problems, and sticking rigidly to this scale they probably would have gotten 2.5 stars. Who knows maybe that is what they deserved--still though I would rather play one of those games than your 3 star game.

 

[Estelindis]

Congratulations on the job, Jim. The new scoring system sounds like it will be great. I look forward to reading your reviews!