Get rid of REVIEW SCORES?

[Sportsmaster5 353]

This is just a short video talking about the problems I think their are with giving video games and reviews in general numbered scores. Hope you enjoy and let me know what you all think!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evLy8Y4C7CA

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

I think it's kind of arbitrary how games are reviewed. It's purely up to a reviewer how they rate whatever they are critiquing, be it a movie, book, series, anything. So I don't think it's a matter of whether scored reviews should be "gotten rid of", I think it should be left up to the reviewer. It's not like it's some kind of rule that video games must be reviewed with scores everywhere, it's just because some of those reviewers just prefer that as their scoring method. Some don't do that at all, it's their choice. I don't think we really have a right to tell reviewers how to do their job unless they're doing it in a really biased and unprofessional manner and are passing it off as professional. But again, it really depends on the person who reviews it. Some people just can't go with a "yes or no" assessment, they feel like it's just too general. That's why classes give you the option to either be graded under letter grades or pass/fail, it depends on how you want to be assessed. I say don't fret over reviewers using this scoring method and just try to find reviewers that use the methods you prefer that you feel content with. There's no need to force a change or limit on how people do things.

[Sportsmaster5 353]

  On 5/20/2016 at 11:58 PM, Hero of Light XIV said:

I think it's kind of arbitrary how games are reviewed. It's purely up to a reviewer how they rate whatever they are critiquing, be it a movie, book, series, anything. So I don't think it's a matter of whether scored reviews should be "gotten rid of", I think it should be left up to the reviewer. It's not like it's some kind of rule that video games must be reviewed with scores everywhere, it's just because some of those reviewers just prefer that as their scoring method. Some don't do that at all, it's their choice. I don't think we really have a right to tell reviewers how to do their job unless they're doing it in a really biased and unprofessional manner and are passing it off as professional. But again, it really depends on the person who reviews it. Some people just can't go with a "yes or no" assessment, they feel like it's just too general. That's why classes give you the option to either be graded under letter grades or pass/fail, it depends on how you want to be assessed. I say don't fret over reviewers using this scoring method and just try to find reviewers that use the methods you prefer that you feel content with. There's no need to force a change or limit on how people do things. 

I know it's the reviewers opinion and choice on how they review things, I'm not saying that they are wrong I'm going at the point that giving scores to different games or shows is probably a lesser productive way of sharing someones opinion, because instead of scores giving you an idea of what a someone's thoughts are on a product, people are twisting it to a point where they get offended by a review because it's rated lower than another game or that it's higher than another game and it becomes less about whether it's a quality product and more a competition among similar products, also the fact that you must know someones personal rating scale is another issue, because we all have different scales and this again causes confusion and at times anger too. The point is that rather than people listening and reading the review, rather people just look at the number and then base their entire opinion on what the person says just on that number and then you see people complain and just compare it to other reviews that they've had. So people can judge and review things the way they want, I just feel like numbered reviews are causing people to more care about the number rather than the actual review.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

This does pose a problem sometimes, but in the end, its up to us, the customers, to make the choice whether we want said game or not, ya know?  I mean, I've got a few games in my library that don't necessarily have the best scores, but I love them because I enjoyed playing through them, ya know? So in the end, numbered scores are merely meant for gauging how good or bad a game is to that reviewer's respective taste, ya know?  It's like you said, we all have different scoring methods! While one person may think of this game as a 10/10, I might think of it as a 9/10, ya know?  As long as there are numbered reviews, or reviews upon anything, there's always going to be some kind of debate, ya know?

 

But yeah, awesome video as always, Arcane!

[Caity 3,946]

I feel you don't have to get rid of them because they give a generalized view of how a number of people perceived the game (I wouldn't bother with actual critic's reviews cause in in video games a scale of 1-10 is really a scale of 7-10 with lower scores only if it's completely broken half the time), however I personally have never actually looked at the score rating when buying any game, whether for myself or someone else.  In the past with games I knew nothing about I would watch a gameplay trailer instead because I can tell from the look of it if I would enjoy it.  Actually first time I saw a critical score of a game was sometime last year when someone brought up that Undertale had a 100 score on Metacritic since it only had a few reviews at the time that were all positive.  Otherwise they personally don't do anything for me, but I see no reason to scrap them completely, least not at this moment in time.  

 

Note: Went on a wee rant below about game genres rather than rating.  Feel free to skip.

One thing I think would be better to change would be the categorizing of video games.   I.e. we've lumped out games together based on the mechanics of a game (first person shooters, puzzle games, strategy games), when if you look at movies or books (romance films/novels, comedy films/novels, chick lit/chick flick, sad film/novels, thrillers) we've based them on how we desire to feel from consuming said entertainment, which is what I (and many other Game Designers least based on my Game Design course when I learnt this way of thinking) think should be done with games.  The best example is that CoD and Portal are both First Person Shooters, but everyone who knows of Portal knows it's played for the puzzle solving element/or story rather than the first person shooting mechanic.  I enjoyed playing First Light because I could free roam and had a visual chek list on the map of things to do without having to think too hard about it after finishing a day of work.  I enjoy a math game on my phone for the challenge.  etc

[Sportsmaster5 353]

  On 5/21/2016 at 12:58 AM, The Transcendent Key said:

This does pose a problem sometimes, but in the end, its up to us, the customers, to make the choice whether we want said game or not, ya know?  I mean, I've got a few games in my library that don't necessarily have the best scores, but I love them because I enjoyed playing through them, ya know? So in the end, numbered scores are merely meant for gauging how good or bad a game is to that reviewer's respective taste, ya know?  It's like you said, we all have different scoring methods! While one person may think of this game as a 10/10, I might think of it as a 9/10, ya know?  As long as there are numbered reviews, or reviews upon anything, there's always going to be some kind of debate, ya know?

 

But yeah, awesome video as always, Arcane!

Thanks and that is very true, sadly though their are many that turn it into a competition rather than whether you should buy the product. I fine it perfectly fine if you have your own personal rating, I think the biggest problem is when bigger reviewing sites and even youtubers give numbers and then people look past the actual review and go onto the number then get highly offended if that number isn't up to their own personal score then flame the comments. but i'm done talking . And I'm glad you enjoyed!

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

  On 5/21/2016 at 1:22 AM, Sportsmaster5 said:

Thanks and that is very true, sadly though their are many that turn it into a competition rather than whether you should buy the product. I fine it perfectly fine if you have your own personal rating, I think the biggest problem is when bigger reviewing sites and even youtubers give numbers and then people look past the actual review and go onto the number then get highly offended if that number isn't up to their own personal score then flame the comments. but i'm done talking . And I'm glad you enjoyed!

 

Yeah, people should pay attention to the review, not the numbered score, ya know?

[Sportsmaster5 353]

  On 5/21/2016 at 1:21 AM, Caity said:

I feel you don't have to get rid of them because they give a generalized view of how a number of people perceived the game (I wouldn't bother with actual critic's reviews cause in in video games a scale of 1-10 is really a scale of 7-10 with lower scores only if it's completely broken half the time), however I personally have never actually looked at the score rating when buying any game, whether for myself or someone else.  In the past with games I knew nothing about I would watch a gameplay trailer instead because I can tell from the look of it if I would enjoy it.  Actually first time I saw a critical score of a game was sometime last year when someone brought up that Undertale had a 100 score on Metacritic since it only had a few reviews at the time that were all positive.  Otherwise they personally don't do anything for me, but I see no reason to scrap them completely, least not at this moment in time.  

 

Note: Went on a wee rant below about game genres rather than rating.  Feel free to skip.

One thing I think would be better to change would be the categorizing of video games.   I.e. we've lumped out games together based on the mechanics of a game (first person shooters, puzzle games, strategy games), when if you look at movies or books (romance films/novels, comedy films/novels, chick lit/chick flick, sad film/novels, thrillers) we've based them on how we desire to feel from consuming said entertainment, which is what I (and many other Game Designers least based on my Game Design course when I learnt this way of thinking) think should be done with games.  The best example is that CoD and Portal are both First Person Shooters, but everyone who knows of Portal knows it's played for the puzzle solving element/or story rather than the first person shooting mechanic.  I enjoyed playing First Light because I could free roam and had a visual chek list on the map of things to do without having to think too hard about it after finishing a day of work.  I enjoy a math game on my phone for the challenge.  etc

Yea since you don't care for numbers that reviewers give things, a lot of the things for numbered reviews don't effect you but you make some very good points especially about most scores being between 7-10. For people that do care for the numbered rating system I feel that the system is a little off, something I said to Hero of Light on here is a quicker summary of what I was saying in the video " instead of scores giving you an idea of what a someone's thoughts are on a product, people are twisting it to a point where they get offended by a review because it's rated lower than another game or that it's higher than another game and it becomes less about whether it's a quality product and more a competition among similar products, also the fact that you must know someones personal rating scale is another issue, because we all have different scales and this again causes confusion and at times anger too. I just feel like numbered reviews are causing people to more care about the number rather than the actual review." Thanks for the post!

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

  On 5/21/2016 at 12:46 AM, Sportsmaster5 said:

I know it's the reviewers opinion and choice on how they review things, I'm not saying that they are wrong I'm going at the point that giving scores to different games or shows is probably a lesser productive way of sharing someones opinion, because instead of scores giving you an idea of what a someone's thoughts are on a product, people are twisting it to a point where they get offended by a review because it's rated lower than another game or that it's higher than another game and it becomes less about whether it's a quality product and more a competition among similar products, also the fact that you must know someones personal rating scale is another issue, because we all have different scales and this again causes confusion and at times anger too. The point is that rather than people listening and reading the review, rather people just look at the number and then base their entire opinion on what the person says just on that number and then you see people complain and just compare it to other reviews that they've had. So people can judge and review things the way they want, I just feel like numbered reviews are causing people to more care about the number rather than the actual review.

Well that's mostly on the fault of the reader then. Those reviews are placed there for a reason, I hardly ever see any magazine, website, or other news reporting service post just a number without attaching a review to it to spark emotions. The number is meant to gauge the reader's attention and give a brief numerical sum up of their overall analysis and the review itself is supposed to elaborate more on the reasoning that went behind assigning that number. I realize that this is an era where people are getting less and less of an attention span for even the most simple things, but I would think that reading 3 paragraphs wouldn't be that much of a hassle, otherwise why would you have picked up the magazine in the first place, those things aren't meant to be picture books you know? If you have interest in someone's opinion, you should have enough time to sit and learn the reasons behind their opinion before just judging whether you should "waste your time" or not after seeing the number. If people just took the time to read the reviews this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

[Sportsmaster5 353]

  On 5/21/2016 at 8:01 AM, Hero of Light XIV said:

Well that's mostly on the fault of the reader then. Those reviews are placed there for a reason, I hardly ever see any magazine, website, or other news reporting service post just a number without attaching a review to it to spark emotions. The number is meant to gauge the reader's attention and give a brief numerical sum up of their overall analysis and the review itself is supposed to elaborate more on the reasoning that went behind assigning that number. I realize that this is an era where people are getting less and less of an attention span for even the most simple things, but I would think that reading 3 paragraphs wouldn't be that much of a hassle, otherwise why would you have picked up the magazine in the first place, those things aren't meant to be picture books you know? If you have interest in someone's opinion, you should have enough time to sit and learn the reasons behind their opinion before just judging whether you should "waste your time" or not after seeing the number. If people just took the time to read the reviews this wouldn't be as much of an issue.

Yep, this topic I feel is more about the readers being the ones that are a big part of the problem rather than the reviewers, and in general I think saying something like a "Give it a play" or a "Pass" then listing Pros and Cons for it, would give a better gauge for those readers who don't want to read the whole thing and it could general stop people from causing riots over some number they give a game, but again it's up to the reviewer just to me this non-numbered way I feel would be better for this day and age.

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

  On 5/21/2016 at 3:37 PM, Sportsmaster5 said:

Yep, this topic I feel is more about the readers being the ones that are a big part of the problem rather than the reviewers, and in general I think saying something like a "Give it a play" or a "Pass" then listing Pros and Cons for it, would give a better gauge for those readers who don't want to read the whole thing and it could general stop people from causing riots over some number they give a game, but again it's up to the reviewer just to me this non-numbered way I feel would be better for this day and age.

I'm not so sure a non-numbered way would really make a difference, if anything people should just be more observant and more interested in learning more. We're getting way too used to instant gratification these days.

[Sportsmaster5 353]

  On 5/21/2016 at 6:14 PM, Hero of Light XIV said:

I'm not so sure a non-numbered way would really make a difference, if anything people should just be more observant and more interested in learning more. We're getting way too used to instant gratification these days.

If someone says hey you should give this game a shot then I would more wonder why they say give it a shot and then read the review or watch it if I hadn't already, rather than if someone says it's a 9/10 then rather than thinking wow that's a pretty good score they would think wow, but you only gave *Insert their favorite game here* an 8/10 and so I must complain in the comments about it, not saying this is everyone I think it's a more consistent way of making people care for what they are actually saying rather than the number. And yea now a days people just want to look at something really fast such as a number and assume that's their whole opinion, even though it's wrong it's how alot of people are now.

Edited May 21, 2016 by Sportsmaster5