Why We're Using Review Scores

[Russ Pitts]

Why We're Using Review Scores

The Escapist's Editor-in-Chief explains why we decided to institute review scores.

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[AvsJoe]

I believe that, although numbers never tell the whole story, review scores are a good idea. Many people feed off the numbers better than a good review. I know I do. I can only hope that this site offers a fair and accurate scoring system that uses every number in the scale, not just the high or low ones.

 

[Irridium]

*sigh* I guess it had to happen sometime...

That being said, I will still read the reviews, and not pay attention to a numbered score.

I just don't believe you can condense a whoe experience with numbers, especially with videogames and how everyone likes different things. What may be a 1 to you could be a 5 to someone else, and vice versa.

So long as your reviews are still good, I don't mind, but I still won't look at the damn score.

 

[Eldarion]

You want to put in scores because some people only want the score? If hey won't read the review and just look at the score, why do you even want their traffic? I know if I wrote something I would want it read and if you only want some artificial number to decide things for you then I don't want to share my opinion with you anyway. Don't read, piss off back to sites like IGN.

I might just be a snob, but that how I feel. The kind of people who will come here just to see the score are not the ones we want here anyway.

 

[chantzzzzz]

It's too bad. I really liked the recommendations you put on the bottom of your page where you say why or why not you'd recommend a game. However, out of all rating systems, the five-star system is probably the one I like best (having watched X-Play review for years), as it still very much a "recommendation based" system, unlike a 100 point scale which almost seems like a teacher giving a student a grade.

I do agree with the part about the people who read reviews only for a score are not likely to be reading reviews now anyway, so saying you might gain people is not far off the mark, actually.

 

[Brad Shepard]

Its just because people rage without numbers next to a review to say "Hey, spend your money on this game, it got a 9.5!"

 

[mikecoulter]

I really don't mind scoring systems... Easy if you want a quick read.

 

[Eldarion]

I do agree with the part about the people who read reviews only for a score are not likely to be reading reviews now anyway, so saying you might gain people is not far off the mark, actually.

So its a cash in. Sacrifice artistic integrity for higher traffic numbers. Thats how this is looking right now.

Just my opinion anyway. You guys review any way you want.

 

[chantzzzzz]

I do agree with the part about the people who read reviews only for a score are not likely to be reading reviews now anyway, so saying you might gain people is not far off the mark, actually.

So its a cash in. Sacrifice artistic integrity for higher traffic numbers. Thats how this is looking right now.

Just my opinion anyway. You guys review any way you want.

This isn't a "cash in". If you'd read about the part where Russ says that this might encourage people who only look at review scores to actually read the entire review, I'd say that that's looking more on the positive side of this change. Maybe people will actually realize that there's maybe something worth reading above those stars. And, as pointed out in the article, The Escapist (hopefully this is the right code to use!) is merely trying to keep up with trends, like online sites have to in order to maintain a presence in the online world.

 

[GameGoddess101]

I'm not sure how I feel about this... If I wanted to a score, I would go to X-Play or something... I come to the Escapist to get really meaningful, insightful reviews. I'm not saying a score will change that. All I'm saying is it's difficult to represent a complex opinion with a number, or star amount. So I fear that they will perhaps simplify things for the sake of the scoring system. That's all I'm saying.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I really didn't mind not having review scores, but I'm a bit worried about the knock-on effect of introducing them.

People may simply skip to the end of the review to see the score, rather than reading it.

 

[Eldarion]

I do agree with the part about the people who read reviews only for a score are not likely to be reading reviews now anyway, so saying you might gain people is not far off the mark, actually.

So its a cash in. Sacrifice artistic integrity for higher traffic numbers. Thats how this is looking right now.

Just my opinion anyway. You guys review any way you want.

This isn't a "cash in". If you'd read about the part where Russ says that this might encourage people who only look at review scores to actually read the entire review, I'd say that that's looking more on the positive side of this change. Maybe people will actually realize that there's maybe something worth reading above those stars. And, as pointed out in the article, The Escapist (hopefully this is the right code to use!) is merely trying to keep up with trends, like online sites have to in order to maintain a presence in the online world.

I did read it, twice.

That part of the argument doesn't fly with me. I simply don't buy it as a viable reason for doing this. It just implies the possibility of some small positive side affect.

Get ready for whole bunch of "How can you give such and such game 3 stars??? What is the matter with you???" posts by the people who haven't read the review. Thus we see another kind of forum spam aside from the "FIRST!!!!111!!!!!11!1!1" posts. Do the possible positive outweigh the definite negative effects?

 

[Simalacrum]

hmmmm...

Well, I have no substantial objections to scoring, but I have to admit, I'm not so keen on the idea of The Escapist using it.

As a website as a whole, I've found that this place is always so very different than its competitors, which is exactly what makes it appealing.

Surely trying to keep against competition isn't the right thing to do, when your so far off the set trend anyway?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

I don't like scores but a lot of internet reviews of games are too long in my opinion. A short paragraph or two is enough for many games.

 

[squid5580]

So the reason you changed is why exactly? Because everyone else is doing it? Because you can? Because you just got sick of the debating it over and over? It is a shame to see something like this happen. It will be even a bigger shame to watch the posts in the reviews degrade to "well you gave game X 2 stars and gave game Y 3 stars when game X is a better game." Or the classic "This game deserved X stars"

And where Bobcat may not have concerns about the integrity I do. Your reviews used to read like a user review. A fellow gamer reviewing a game and giving thier thoughts and opinions of it. This put your reviews miles ahead of Gamespot or IGN's since it sounded like you were playing games for the love of the game. Not for the love of a paycheck. It looks like now you will have to play the games you review. Not want to play them. And that will effect the integrity of the reviews. Afterall it is hard to give a game a fair chance when you really want to be playing another.

 

[PlasticTree]

Hmm. Can't say I'm happy about this, nor do your arguments convince me. But I suppose the quality of The Escapist's reviews will be able to say more than this column.

What can I say? If you guys just keep making it worth our while, even the harshest critic will shut his mouth.

 

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Well everybody else pretty much said what I was going to regarding this. You don't seem to have anticipated the possibility that you will actually lose some of the people who appreciated the fact that you never pandered to the lazy asshats who can't be bothered to actually read the review and want a simple distillation of a complex opinion. None of your arguments convince me that this is a good thing, and frankly, I'd rather you indirectly tell anybody too goddamn lazy to actually read to just fuck off. It was one of the reasons I actually appreciated the content on this site over the big sites like IGN and Gamespot.

 

[Delock]

Just as I would always wait to see the recommendation at the end of the review, I still don't skim the review for the score. I rather like the escapist's reviews, since they actually do go into some good detail that I have a hard time finding on other reviews. In other words, they feel like the really are written by a gamer, not just someone who reviews because they have to that week (I've seen some reviews that it was obvious the person didn't want to do even though it was a good game).

That being said, I'm not too sure if new visitors will just skim to the score or not (if they do, they're missing out).

 

[Jared]

I suppose if anything will give people a quick glance at what is thought at the very least