| 'Is it essential?' is the new 'Does 10/10 mean the game is perfect?' |
Bye bye review scores
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nickthegun 87,712 posts
Seen 3 hours ago
Registered 16 years ago -
Frankly whatever they stick on the end, whether it's a number, award, rosette, one of those star stickers your teacher used to put on your work when you'd done well (peeled straight off the holiday planner so poor Mavis the cleaner didn't actually get June 19 off at all), or a burning efigy of Peter Molyneaux, doesn't make up for paragraph after paragraph of guff that often fails in any way to describe the game they're reviewing.
It's all very well saying 'we're going to make more of an effort to review games from the players experience' but that goes more than just reviewing it in it's full conditions. Actually describing what it's like to play, on an emotional level, fun level, any level, would be bloody helpful. As it would actually describing a bit about the game in question, instead of assuming that the reader has been following it's progress from concept to finished product, and having watched countless videos of it on Youtube. A little about any technical failings would also be useful, and, oh, I don't know, playing it for long enough to spot bugs and pointing them out.
It also won't dress up anything Dan writes as anything other than an ill-researched ramblings of someone who couldn't give enough of a fuck about the game he's critiquing to even look in an option menu to see if he could change the camera/controls/AI setting that he's just ripped to pieces in his review.
The TL;DR version is, quite like the new approach, but it won't make me sit through and read the reviews any more than the scoring system currently does until they actually become relevant. -
MrSensible 26,517 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 16 years agoI actually have no problem with review scores myself and wasn't really for the change, but what they've gone with is kind of in the middle so I think I might end up preferring it, overall. -
killersrquiet 3,192 posts
Seen 4 weeks ago
Registered 9 years agoDropping scores is certainly a bold move. I'd probably prefer another choice between avoid and recommended, leaves a large grey area otherwise -
cov 2,524 posts
Seen 5 days ago
Registered 18 years agoSubjective indicators replace subjective scores which some people insisted on treating as objective scores despite the fact they couldn't be.
and what do some people do - try and turn the subjective indicators into objective scores again
/shakes head -
neilka 24,026 posts
Seen 27 minutes ago
Registered 16 years agoYou'll always be a 10/10 to us bob. -
What the hell? Do they expect me to read the reviews now or something? -
mothercruncher 19,478 posts
Seen 32 minutes ago
Registered 15 years agoKotaku with a small mention of Eurogamers new policy.
Unfortunately they totally blot their copy book by giving their paragraphs little scores as they go. -
superbob85 wrote:
It's sort of the same here. I usually skip most reviews, as I've discovered I deem the novelty of the unknown one of the things I enjoy the most in games, so I often read them after I've completed a game, not before. Still, scores are useful for homing in sometimes. But there's not like there aren't a million websites with scoring, so who cares?
Doesn't matter to me as i make my own decisons when picking up games. Getting rid of scored seems the way its going everywhere at the moment. -
Armoured_Bear 31,234 posts
Seen 3 hours ago
Registered 10 years agoErrol wrote:
High sales doesn't equal "essential"
Pinky_Floyd wrote:
That's what 'essential' has always been. 90%+.
@Errol That category doesnt exist anymore Errol. Come, let us grieve together.
GTA V is 'essential' by any definition (as the sales tend to suggest!). Bascially EVERYONE thinks it is essential and has therefore purchased a copy. -
Divinitylost 3 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 15 years agoNot happy at all, some reviews I read based on the final score. If it's really bad i.e. < 4 I read the review just for fun, even if I have no interest in the game. Conversely if the review is really high > 8 I might read the review for a game I have no interest in and on occasions I have actually purchased the game. Sadly I will have frequent other websites for my review, best of luck EG -
Armoured_Bear wrote:
Said like a true U owner
Errol wrote:
High sales doesn't equal "essential"
Pinky_Floyd wrote:
That's what 'essential' has always been. 90%+.
@Errol That category doesnt exist anymore Errol. Come, let us grieve together.
GTA V is 'essential' by any definition (as the sales tend to suggest!). Bascially EVERYONE thinks it is essential and has therefore purchased a copy..gif)
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Armoured_Bear 31,234 posts
Seen 3 hours ago
Registered 10 years agoprawnking1980 wrote:
That hurts you know..
Armoured_Bear wrote:
Said like a true U owner
Errol wrote:
High sales doesn't equal "essential"
Pinky_Floyd wrote:
That's what 'essential' has always been. 90%+.
@Errol That category doesnt exist anymore Errol. Come, let us grieve together.
GTA V is 'essential' by any definition (as the sales tend to suggest!). Bascially EVERYONE thinks it is essential and has therefore purchased a copy. -
I know -
The12thMonkey 598 posts
Seen 9 hours ago
Registered 17 years ago@mothercruncher That's links to in-article comments - USGamer has the same setup whereby you can attach a comment to the paragraph you are referencing.
Edit: I probably just got wooshed
Edited by The12thMonkey at 22:28:47 10-02-2015 -
Armoured_Bear wrote:
Totally. A 4/10 game can be essential, as I learned with Wrecked.
High sales doesn't equal "essential" -
GiarcYekrub 4,760 posts
Seen 3 months ago
Registered 15 years agoRaiko101 wrote:
That's pretty much what I was saying earlier, an Essential is not higher than a recommended, they're just ones that are of a certain type/appeal to the reviewer
@Pinky_Floyd It's 4 ratings, but they hold no numerical value. They're not evenly spread apart on a scale and they do no necessarily group together games of a similar quality. It's not a rating, just an incredibly simplified opinion. -
spamdangled 31,803 posts
Seen 1 hour ago
Registered 13 years agoDidn't take long for gamergate to claim credit for this, did it? -
I really like GTAV but wouldn't call it essential.
Even the "essential" games have to be taken with the caveat that "if you dislike this type of game, you'll still think it's shit".
Like I'm not convinced I'd really enjoy Sunless Sea. But I respect that it's doing something different, and doing it well, so I've no problem that it's received the "gold" badge.
Edited by drhickman1983 at 01:06:58 11-02-2015 -
spamdangled 31,803 posts
Seen 1 hour ago
Registered 13 years agoAnyway, re: scores
EG is showing balls by being the first "major" site to ditch grading.
That said, the badge system feels something like a compromise. Scores, or no scores. Choose. A gold and silver badge, however way you spin it, is a badge. It's a mark of distinction. The colors alone are symbolic. I get the sentiment, I just think it's been climsuily applied. But hey that's me, and as Oli said, this by no means is a declaration of war against scoring scales. It just feels a little off-message.
Either way, it will be interesting to see how it plays out as a kind of litmus test. No scores are nothing new, but EG is in a unique position to make waves here and I'm glad to see it.
For those arguing pro/con lists - why do we need any kind of of better/worse gradient? Why not just say "here are some possibly alternatives you might want to consider". That way you're not saying this is better than that, you're just saying "hey! You liked some of the ideas in this game? Why not check this out?"
That's not only bypasses the pressure to compare quality, but it acknowledges there are different ways of approaching similar trains of thought. Monster hunter and dark soul both rely on gear, tactics, punctuated by tactical boss battles in an environment designed to be atmospheric. That's similar enough in theme, to my mind, to say to my mate "if you like this, try this.
Unrelated: I like how GamerGate is trying to spin this as a win for them when they had nothing to do with it.nseen some hilarious tweets.
Edited by spamdangled at 01:13:00 11-02-2015 -
spamdangled 31,803 posts
Seen 1 hour ago
Registered 13 years agosuper-s1 wrote:
Poor you?
What the hell? Do they expect me to read the reviews now or something? -
Mola_Ram 26,196 posts
Seen 9 hours ago
Registered 9 years agoThey lacked credibility before? -
yegon 6,511 posts
Seen 6 months ago
Registered 18 years agoCareful, Joystiq ditched review scores then shut down about a week later 0_o -
GiarcYekrub wrote:
Stop talking shite, Mario Kart is essential as its pretentious enough for the reviewer?
Raiko101 wrote:
That's pretty much what I was saying earlier, an Essential is not higher than a recommended, they're just ones that are of a certain type/appeal to the reviewer
@Pinky_Floyd It's 4 ratings, but they hold no numerical value. They're not evenly spread apart on a scale and they do no necessarily group together games of a similar quality. It's not a rating, just an incredibly simplified opinion.
.gif)
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