Poll: 0-10 The rating Sytem!

[boyitsme95]

I usualy like the 5 point system or the 10 point system. As long as they avoid or don't use point anything. There are ten points to pick from and you pick 7.5? Why not 7? Or 8? It can't be a gigantic difference betwwen the two!

I usualy use the "My friends buy it and I ask them whether to buy it or not, or mabye rent" method.

 

[Apone]

Definatly 'Other'

I've invented my own scale to determine how good a good a game is:

-Two chickens = Don't buy. Terrible.
-One chicken and two eggs = Poor but not rentworthy
-A barmaid = Adverage. Rent it if curious.
-Six gooses and an elephant calf = Better then most. Rent it.
-Wage civil war on the nearest country = Buy it
-Spill the blood of the impure and weak = It's Half Life

I love you Rain.

Id go with the out of 10/100 (since their basically the same with the tenths).

 

[number2301]

I like percentages cause it gives you a bit of definition between the 8 - great game buy it and 7 - averagely good game. But you've got to accept both a level of inaccuracy in whatever measuring system you use and the bias of the reviewer.

If you tried to write a review with no opinion you'd end up with something very boring and very short as the pure facts of a game don't go very far. Oh and as a review it'd be useless, a review is an opinion on something!

Interesting point that you never get scores below 5 (or often below 7) as the same happens in interviewing for jobs. I was told if you use a 10 point scale you may as well disregard 1-4 as no one will score in that area but its the same for a 5 point scale where no one will score 1 or 2.

 

[Jumplion]

23,047 out of 59,962 purple leopards.

That is a bit harsh really, i was thinking around 49.029

Well, I gave Portal 19 out of 23 bloodied pigeons.

Hey, words hurt. Thank you ManThatIFear for being oh so generous.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Not that generous, that's a decimal point, not a comma!

When I write reviews, I omit scores entirely. I try to make my opinion on the game fairly explicit in the review itself, so I suppose I fall into the 'other' category.

 

[Jumplion]

Not that generous, that's a decimal point, not a comma!

When I write reviews, I omit scores entirely. I try to make my opinion on the game fairly explicit in the review itself, so I suppose I fall into the 'other' category.

Quite you, let me have my moment of acomplishment!

 

[josh797]

ratings systems suck. they are way to quantify the quality of a game. oh so guns sex and drugs got a 9.8? oh but i saw that portal only got a fable only got a 9.5 that must mean that objectively guns, sex and drugs is a better game than fable. it must be cause the points are higher. ignore the fact that the reviewer of gsd is a crack whore and the reviewer of fable is walt mossman. it must be right.

therein lies the problem. reviewers are different, what i like might be vastly different from what they like, and i might be willing to overlook some flaws that they, as reviewers would not.

for instance sequels always get docked for being sequels. now this is because reviewer X has already played the first game so the second is just the first one, reiterated. now i come along and have never played the first, so i see the second and it has better graphics, cooler characters, more plot, and better mechanics. i would much rather play it, but the reviewer has docked it points for being a sequel. i should never listen to those points cause id buy the first when the second is clearly better polished.

points suck, and i never look at them. its all about the text of the article and the points dont even need to be there.

 

[Saskwach]

I like the 5 stars because they don't fret on small things- like 9.X- while implying, to me at least, a certain subjectivity. They're stars for crying out loud, not numbers; even 5 stars screams out "Don't trust us: we're only a manifestation of the reviewers own taste!" much better than a 10 or, even worse, a 9.8.

 

[ImperialPyromancer]

Buy, rent and don't buy is the best in my opinion. Surely thats what all reviews boil down to? >80% = Buy, 70%-80% = Rent, <70% = Don't buy. Anything else ventures into the realms of personal preference. There's no way to finely 'grade' games for other people, aside from on general criteria such as controls etc... Different people will have different expriences.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

On a scale of 1-12, with 7 being the highest, I give this game a B+!

But honestly, I tend to use a scale of 0.00 to 5.00 measured in .25 increments. I will break down my opinion based on tangibles (Graphics: I could count every pore on the hero's face- 4.75; sound: Nothing but a looping 25-second cut of "Love Shack" by the B-52s- 0.50), and then give an overall score based on nothing more than my own impression and the "intangibles" (the game raped my houseplants and spit in my eye, but there was something about that worm-eating section that made me happy in my pants- 3.25 total score).

And honestly, isn't EVERY review simply a manifestation of the reviewer's (or reviewers') own taste(s)? Unless they finally released that Review-O-Matic 3000 machine they keep talking about.

 

[FranicalFrazical]

1 - 100 I like to vote in percentages so I can have clear view of whats better than others Assassins could be 2/5 so could Kane and Lynch but what is better?

 

[Zombie Badger]

I like a 10-point system that works like this:

10 - Perfect in every way. This means literally perfect, not just my favourite game (Portal)
9 - Almost perfect. Incredibly fun and interesting, but with one of two very slight flaws.
(Perfect Dark).
8 - A very good game that I would recommend to everyone (Midnight Club 3).
7 - A good game but with some flaws (Kane and Lynch).
6 - An average game but with a few good extras (Halo 3)
5 - A purely average game (Civilisation: Call to Power).
4 - A fairly bad game (Harry Potter).
3 - A crap game (Two Worlds).
2 - A piece of shite that I would not wish upon my worst enemy.
1 - Not even EA has made something this bad yet.

 

[Jumplion]

I like a 10-point system that works like this:

10 - Perfect in every way. This means literally perfect, not just my favourite game (Portal)
9 - Almost perfect. Incredibly fun and interesting, but with one of two very slight flaws.
(Perfect Dark).
8 - A very good game that I would recommend to everyone (Midnight Club 3).
7 - A good game but with some flaws (Kane and Lynch).
6 - An average game but with a few good extras (Halo 3)
5 - A purely average game (Civilisation: Call to Power).
4 - A fairly bad game (Harry Potter).
3 - A crap game (Two Worlds).
2 - A piece of shite that I would not wish upon my worst enemy.
1 - Not even EA has made something this bad yet.

That scale is nearly perfect. Seriously. The current scale now has too many versions of "bad" games than "good" ones.

 

[Remnant]

Or we could be like Yahtzee and have a proportional ranking.

You know, like...

Call of Duty 4










Portal
Jesus

 

[cleverlymadeup]

x-play used to have a kick ass 5 point system that worked like this

5 - perfect in every way and no matter the genre of the game, everyone would like it
4 - almost perfect but had one or two things wrong with it
3 - average
2 - only a fanboy would like this
1 - demand your money back from the publisher for making this game and for the money spent on it
0 - big mother truckers

most games would get a 3 or a 4. as far as i could tell it was an average score from all their reviewers, not just one person.

tho personally i like how gamespot has the meta rating, the reviewers ratings and then everyone else. you can see how well the pros rate the game but also see how eveyone else does so you can pick out the truly horrid games that they claim are the 9/10 ones

 

[ccayton18]

I like Yahtzee's rating system

This game sucks

or

This game sucks but still play it

 

[Omnidum]

I would make a picture system, ranging from a cock and up to jesus.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I would make a picture system, ranging from a cock and up to jesus.

but wouldn't that be more subjective depending on a few factors including certain preferences? and what would happen if you're a female christian or a gay christian? would the rating be good no matter what?

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I like a movie-style 4 star system with the following distinctions, usually these are what SHOULD classify a drop, or raise in numbers. Now very little would fit ALL of these categories in any one rating, but I think these are good classifiers overall, and they should encourage people to read the review to see where the game hits within this criteria, I found MANY reviews make a lot more sense if you actually read the text as opposed to simply looking at the score.

4 - Universal Appeal, Plenty of Artistic and Mainstream merit, High Fun Factor, Long Playtime or Lots of Replayability.
3 - Wide Appeal, Either Artistic or Mainstream Merit, Good Fun Factor, Worth Playing at least Once.
2 - Narrow Appeal, Merits are very selective, its fun but can be either taxing/frustrating, short/no replay value/too long.
1 - For Fans Only, Merits based on dropping your standards, fun is limited, short with no replay value.
0 - Postal Series.

or to make it easier...

4 - Buy It unless you KNOW you will hate it.
3 - Think about it, read the review, then buy it.
2 - Rent it first, you may have misgivings.
1 - Think about it, read the review, rent it, then, if you still love it, buy it.
0 - Games like this are bad for you, me and the games industry.

 

[PhoenixFlame]

A few people have touched on this, but I don't like numerical systems for the fact that they have too much subjectivity. What's the real difference between a 9.0 and a 9.3 anyway other than statistics? It's just not a good way to really rate games.

Further up on the scale is any kind of letter system - at least with the kind of scale you are used to with school there is a clear siloing of ratings - A is obviously excellent, B is good, and so forth with a plus or minus serving to fix the whole "tweener" problem for some games. But it's still a bit too subjective.

In my opinion, the simpler the scale, the better. That's why try it, buy it, screw it is probably best. It forces reviewers to think about what they are playing and put it in a bucket that best fits it. It leaves little if any confusion on the part of the reader as to what the ultimate outcome of the review is. And it's dependent solely on the reviewer's opinion rather than some vague agreed-upon idea about what constitutes one grade vs. another. I find that these are the best reviews to read - although honestly, the only one who can make a decision about a game's worth is the reader.