Poll: So I was looking through the latest Game Informer reviews....

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So I was looking through the latest reviews in Game Informer and I noticed something I never noticed before.

In every issue, before the reviews is a table showing what each score means. 10 is Outstanding, 9 is superb, 8 is very good, and 7 is average. This reminded me of the of the whole scoring debate going on about Metacritic and score inflation and yada-yada-yada.

The way I see it, there are two camps in this whole argument (excluding the majority who don't give a shit). There's the people who say reviewers inflate scores too high, and Metacritic isn't the problem; and there's the people who say each reviewer can score things differently, and Metacritic is stupid for trying to combine the scores. I'm personally in the second camp. [small]Although 80% of the time I'm in the "don't give a shit" crowd.[/small]

So to people who insist that five needs to be the average for scores: If Game Informer clearly states that a seven is an average score, what's wrong with them scoring things higher than they "should"?

[small]And since someone will inevitably say it, obviously it's "okay" for them to score things this way. You know, free country and all that. I'm just asking if you have a problem with it at all.[/small]

 

[Sleepy Sol]

The only problem I have with Game Informer is that they seem to have trouble saying anything that's positive at all when a game receives a score lower than 7 in a review. Even if it's what they consider below average like 6.5, why are you doing nothing but blasting the game? Other than that, their reviews are alright, I guess. I don't really care what scores they give games though, and I'm sure most people feel the same way.

 

[Handbag1992]

Yep, learned this back in 2008. Behold the power of anonymity and pissed off employees!


There are 3 more parts but I'm lazy.

 

[Compatriot Block]

The problem isn't with 7 being "average". Even though it doesn't make a lick of sense, it's been that way for ages and not many people really minded.

The problem is with people using numbers as a way to prove their game is better than another and then getting pissed when their game gets something less than a 9.5. And some people even complain about a 9.5! Can you believe that? Some people complain about a near perfect score! Nevermind the fact that opinion and bias are obviously going to creep into a games' score.

And of course certain developers (Nintendo, Valve, Bioware) cannot create bad games. Surely it's impossible for these otherwise excellent developers to make something along the lines of, oh, say, Mario Kart 7 (mediocre and pointless, if Jim Sterling is to be believed), Ricochet (horrible game period), or Dragon Age 2 (rushed and stretched)?

Anyway, the problem isn't with scoring systems, it's with the fact that humans are dicks in the first place. The only way to fix it is to get rid of it.

And related to that, the people who complain when a game gets a 10/10 that they don't agree with.

If 10/10 is too high a score to ever give, why have it at all?

 

[Kopikatsu]

The problem isn't with 7 being "average". Even though it doesn't make a lick of sense, it's been that way for ages and not many people really minded.

The problem is with people using numbers as a way to prove their game is better than another and then getting pissed when their game gets something less than a 9.5. And some people even complain about a 9.5! Can you believe that? Some people complain about a near perfect score! Nevermind the fact that opinion and bias are obviously going to creep into a games' score.

And of course certain developers (Nintendo, Valve, Bioware) cannot create bad games. Surely it's impossible for these otherwise excellent developers to make something along the lines of, oh, say, Mario Kart 7 (mediocre and pointless, if Jim Sterling is to be believed), Ricochet (horrible game period), or Dragon Age 2 (rushed and stretched)?

Anyway, the problem isn't with scoring systems, it's with the fact that humans are dicks in the first place. The only way to fix it is to get rid of it.

=x...

To be fair, a 7/10 (70%) is just barely passing in the US educational system. (Not sure how it's handled elsewhere)

70% is called...well...'average'. It seems like Gameinformer does their grading system based off the US education system! Woo!

I guess maybe it's because that's what most people in the US are used to? 5/10 is...failing. Badly.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Yep, learned this back in 2008. Behold the power of anonymity and pissed off employees!


There are 3 more parts but I'm lazy.

Um, I watched that whole video, and he never mentioned Game Informer or scores. Are you sure you're in the right topic?

 

[Vault101]

just devaluing the systm, you might as well replace it with a 3 star systm since there only 3 scores you can have before its "shit"

for me 7 isnt bad at all...but then again Im not the "game reveiw" mentality

 

[mstieler]

=x...

To be fair, a 7/10 (70%) is just barely passing in the US educational system. (Not sure how it's handled elsewhere)

70% is called...well...'average'. It seems like Gameinformer does their grading system based off the US education system! Woo!

I guess maybe it's because that's what most people in the US are used to? 5/10 is...failing. Badly.

The thing is, this isn't education. Average here should be like a Bell curve: a few standouts in the top percentages, a few horrifyingly bad in the lower percentages, and everything in between is "average". I don't understand 7/10 being average... that should be 5 or 6/10, as that's the middle of the pack, quite literally, unless you go to 0/10.

 

[FaceFaceFace]

I love Game Informer and their staff, but their review system is wonky as heck. Hyped-up games in a bug hyped-up series always get 9 or above, games that work but aren't actually good get 6-7, and games that are broken or just plain terrible get a random score from 1-5. That said I voted the first choice, because they DO give the rubric of what their scores mean. That makes it more or less impossible to argue that they are misrepresenting what is average.

This all goes to support the idea that a 5 star system, with no halfsies, is the best.

 

[dagens24]

I use 7 as my average.

 

[Handbag1992]

Yep, learned this back in 2008. Behold the power of anonymity and pissed off employees!


There are 3 more parts but I'm lazy.

Um, I watched that whole video, and he never mentioned Game Informer or scores. Are you sure you're in the right topic?

My apologies, the rant comes in 4 parts and lasts slightly over an hour in total. The part about game informer/the edge card and how bad they are must be in one of the other parts.

I've tried to look for the other 3 parts but every time they're uploaded Gamestop claims the video violates... something, and it gets taken down. They tend to get mirrored a lot though, so I'm sure they'll emerge somewhere eventually.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wx7h_zero-originality-episode-2_news#rel-page-1
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wy69_zero-originality-episode-3-part-1_videogames#rel-page-2
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6xoh0_zero-originality-episode-3-part-2_videogames#rel-page-3
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6xozb_zero-originality-episode-3-part-3_news

Voila! (More parts than I remembered apparently)

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Yep, learned this back in 2008. Behold the power of anonymity and pissed off employees!


There are 3 more parts but I'm lazy.

Um, I watched that whole video, and he never mentioned Game Informer or scores. Are you sure you're in the right topic?

My apologies, the rant comes in 4 parts and lasts slightly over an hour in total. The part about game informer/the edge card and how bad they are must be in one of the other parts.

I've tried to look for the other 3 parts but every time they're uploaded Gamestop claims the video violates... something, and it gets taken down. They tend to get mirrored a lot though, so I'm sure they'll emerge somewhere eventually.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wx7h_zero-originality-episode-2_news#rel-page-1
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wy69_zero-originality-episode-3-part-1_videogames#rel-page-2
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6xoh0_zero-originality-episode-3-part-2_videogames#rel-page-3
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6xozb_zero-originality-episode-3-part-3_news

Voila! (More parts than I remembered apparently)

Oh, coolio. I was trying to find it since the first one was pretty good. Always fun to hear about all the shit Gamestop does.

Gracias