Do review scores affect your enjoyment of games?

[rob_simple]

It might affect how likely I am to buy it, but not how likely I am to enjoy it. You'd have to be very suggestible for that to work.

Usually when I watch a Zero Punctuation of a game I love I still agree with the negative points Yahtzee raises and then repeatedly flogs. Just because I enjoy a game doesn't mean I think it's perfect, so being aware of those faults isn't likely to suddenly make me stop having fun.

Although, that being said, I do occasionally feel like I'm missing something when I play a game that everyone else loves (Skyrim) and have a lousy time, but I usually work out further down the line why that is, assuming it's not just entirely down to hype.

 

[Don't taze me bro]

The thing about review scores, is that the reviewer can be biased towards, or against certain games and genres. I recently picked up Sacred Citadel. It hasn't been receiving great scores (around 6 out of 10), but I picked it up and am enjoying the game immensely so far. BUT, I grew up on those old side scrolling beat-em-ups. Perhaps the reviewers didn't?

 

[Zeh Don]

In some small way, I think perhaps it does, but I can't think of any cases where I've been enjoying a purchased game, and then negative reviews have come out, and I've enjoyed it less from then on.

However, I feel... vindicated when reviews match my own positive or negative opinion - as if, somehow, it makes me enjoy it more, or that my lack of enjoyment was entirely justified.

The best example I have to offer for that is Diablo III, which I consider to be one of the worst games of all time. Yet, reviewers were falling over themselves to give it praise - save for a few reviewers from smaller publications.
However, now that the backlash of nearly unmatched fan hate has been going on for nearly a year and is still going (seriously, check out the offical forums), I feel vindicated because I'm not the only person who believes that those reviews, and reviewers, were full of shit. Que conspiracy theories here about why they loved it and no one else did.

I adored Halo 4, before I read all of the reviews, and thought that - despite the continuity errors - it was the best of the entire series. Then I read the reviews, and virtually everyone agreed. Somehow, this made me appreciate it even more.

Perhaps I'm just strange?

 

[Glaice]

I normally wait for some reviews from player and critics to see if it's worth buying. If a demo is available I'll try it and see if I like it.

 

[Fijiman]

Generally speaking, no. However, if several well respected reviewers give a game really low scores then the game probably is trash. Not that I keep up with any reviewers in the first place.

 

[Gone Rampant]

I'm more influenced by Let's Plays, as they actually show me the game being played. The Length of the game's TVTropes page also influences it, as I use it more then The Other Wiki.

 

[lunavixen]

Doesn't really affect me that much if at all, I tend to ignore reviews until i have played the game for myself, and then decide whether the reviewer was justiified in giving that score and the reasons for the score. Besides, scores like that really aren't reliable because enjoyment is subjective and everyone will have differing opinions for the same things, for example; personally, i loved Future Cop: LAPD but it got utterly slammed and failed to sell.

 

[axlryder]

Scores aren't important, reviews are. Also, reviews are only as important as how well the reviewer's opinions and viewpoints align with my own.

What's interesting is that I find myself agreeing with game reviewers far less than with movie reviewers, especially when taking into account metascores. I can usually guess the eventual metascore of a movie just by seeing the trailer, and usually I agree that it deserves that general score after seeing the movie. Not so of games. A lot of games that I think are shit get great scores and often times games I like get pretty middling and occasionally outright bad scores.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

It depends on what I think of the demo. I knew Dragon's Dogma was pure win, and I didn't really need to see the reviews after playing the demo. Demos kinda ruin reviews for me. I enjoy reading someone else's opinions, or watching them on YouTube, but if I want the game bad enough, I'm getting it.
It pays to be into gameplay b/c no matter what people gripe about, if you like the way the game plays, you'll enjoy it.

 

[Lady Larunai]

I have no idea what score 99% of the games i purchase get, the only game reviews I really watch are by Yahtzee and Susan, and maybe MovieBob for movies, if Bioshock had gotten a 2/10 it would make no difference as I wouldn't know.

 

[everythingbeeps]

Of course not. I'm probably echoing stuff that's already been said here thus far, but:

It's impossible for review scores to affect my enjoyment of games. I'll either enjoy them or not.

However, and maybe this is what you were getting at, review scores CAN affect how interested I am in a game. Obviously I don't let them determine whether I'll get a game, but a score that's much higher or much lower than I may have been expecting will grab my notice, but they'll rarely change my decision about whether to play a game or not. When Dead Space 3 was getting obliterated in reviews, that caught my attention. I still played the game, and I still wound up hating it.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

No.

Long answer, I see review scores as "Other people's opinions" on a game unless those scores are connected to statements as to how broken the gameplay is, I generally pay them no heed, and just play what I wanna play.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Generally no, I'm one of those rare Muppets who enjoys Too Human and Final Fantasy 13.

I pay much more attention to the wording of the review to find out if a game is 'for me'. I appreciate scores as a reference point, but do not consider them to be the 'be all and end all' of a games quality. Plus, I don't believe you can truly quantify such a complex experience down to a single digit.

Just wondering, but do you follow Adam Sessler? Or are you secretly him?! Dun dun duuun!

How did you know??? Are you stalking me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, I had no idea who Adam Sessler was, but now I do after a little googling. I need to know, what made you ask if I followed him (on twitter etc)? I'm assuming you get the idea my tastes are similar? Now I'm off to youtube to watch some of his video reviews.

Cheers!

It was because, at the time I had just read your post, Adam had just released his newest Sessler's...Something video about game review scores. And he said exactly what you said about quantifying the experience and whatnot. Your wording and his were eerily similar (I think he's even used the word 'quantify' when discussing this) to the point that I was wondering if you had just watched the episode.