What does 5/10 really mean?

[SunoffaBeach]

Most game magazines have a rating system with a range from 1-10 or 1-100.
According to their guidelines, 1 means something like "epic fail", 5 means "mediocre" and 10 means "legendary".

But from my personal experience, a 5/10 game is usually far less than mediocre.
I mean, would you ever consider buying a 5/10 game?

The real meaning of these numbers IMO is this:
1-6 = not worth my time
7 = mediocre
8 = good
9-10 = great

So I end up having a x/4 rating system,
which makes a lot more sense to me than having ratings of 56 or 72.

But maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm overly critical.

What does 5/10 or 50/100 mean for you?

 

[Unknower]

Yeah, 50 means baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

 

[COR 2000]

Well, here's mine:

1-3=Bad/horrible
4-5=Average
6-7=Decent
8=Good
9=Great
10=Excellent

And that's me.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Si, I agree. 7 is mediocre. 6s are bad, unless whoever did the rating fucked up, or maybe the game applies to some niche audience. Which is sort of interesting, that out of all those numbers, a game has to be in 3/10 of it to be decent. And you really only need 1 and 6 to rate bad games, 1 for obviously completely disgustingly horrible and 6 for more decent and maybe applicable for some people but mostly fail and could definetly be better. Any other low number, and you know what you're getting.

 

[Eiseman]

I see the 10-point scale as something akin to a schoolwork grading system. By those standards, a 7/10, or 70%, would be considered the "average," and a 5/10 would be a rather embarrassing F.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

This is a 5 on the handy chart my editor handed me to go by when reviewing stuff:

5 - Average. There are worse games on the market, but this definitely could have been better. Several flaws mar gameplay, but overall there's some enjoyment to be had.

 

[mintsauce]

I strongly disagree with the notion that 7/10 should reflect a mediocre game. It doesn't make sense. 5/10 is right in the middle of the 1-10 scale, so 5/10 should mean the game is very average indeed. If you bias towards the higher end of the scale, then both ends of it become meaningless. If 7/10 is average, what is a 4? Or a 3? How much worse is a 3 than a 4? And how much better is a 9 than an 8?

The thing is, you're not going to buy a game that is completely average unless you're a real fan of the subject matter, so I suppose some magazines are hesitant to hand out 5/10 ratings because it makes games look so bad.

 

[rossatdi]

For games very few people have the time and money to play lots (more than one a week is going to hit balance pretty hard for the gamer's typical demographic) so the odds of people picking a 5/10 to spend 10 hours and £40/$100 on is minimal compared to a small amount of money for 1.5 hours.

I'm quite happy to watch a 5/10 film in the genre I like when I've got nothing better to do. I am not happy spending a good night out's worth of cash on something that won't be as good as a clever purchase.

 

[Fanboy]

5/10 means nothing without a review behind it.

 

[SunoffaBeach]

I strongly disagree with the notion that 7/10 should reflect a mediocre game. It doesn't make sense. 5/10 is right in the middle of the 1-10 scale, so 5/10 should mean the game is very average indeed. If you bias towards the higher end of the scale, then both ends of it become meaningless. If 7/10 is average, what is a 4? Or a 3? How much worse is a 3 than a 4? And how much better is a 9 than an 8?

The thing is, you're not going to buy a game that is completely average unless you're a real fan of the subject matter, so I suppose some magazines are hesitant to hand out 5/10 ratings because it makes games look so bad.

That's more or less my point.

 

[tendo82]

Allow me to reveal to you the true interpretations of review scores.

9-10 = Decent.
But because the editor had to play it in a locked room with a bunch of the developers breathing down his neck he gave it a 10.

8 = Incredible to shitty.
An 8 can be a reflection of an incredibly innovative game that might have a couple of flaws, but because it was made by a smaller developer or the publisher risked less on the title, the editor feels entitled to give it a fair an accurate review.

An 8 can also be indicative of a crappy triple A title that the publisher has resigned to failure. That said, they still spent a large amount of money on development not to mention gaming press lap dances and early previews of the game. So yes, the editor must still give it an 8.

7 = mediocre
A truly crap game. It's the type of game that's so bad that even the gaming press must draw a line in the sand, less their publication lose all credibility.

1-6 = a game for your nephew
This is reserved for games the mainstream consumer buys. Mainstream consumers don't read enthusiast publications nor do they care about reviews. Clever editorial blurring PR is useless on them, therefore the gaming press can give these games any score they like. Pent up frustration caused by giving 7's to Kane and Lynch usually gets worked out on these titles.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

For games very few people have the time and money to play lots (more than one a week is going to hit balance pretty hard for the gamer's typical demographic) so the odds of people picking a 5/10 to spend 10 hours and £40/$100 on is minimal compared to a small amount of money for 1.5 hours.

I'm quite happy to watch a 5/10 film in the genre I like when I've got nothing better to do. I am not happy spending a good night out's worth of cash on something that won't be as good as a clever purchase.

Good point. Most people aren't willing to spend $60 (or however much), and invest quite a lot of time on something they've deemed 'average'. However, it's not really average when every game gets better than 5/10.

 

[Flour]

I strongly disagree with the notion that 7/10 should reflect a mediocre game. It doesn't make sense. 5/10 is right in the middle of the 1-10 scale, so 5/10 should mean the game is very average indeed. If you bias towards the higher end of the scale, then both ends of it become meaningless. If 7/10 is average, what is a 4? Or a 3? How much worse is a 3 than a 4? And how much better is a 9 than an 8?

The thing is, you're not going to buy a game that is completely average unless you're a real fan of the subject matter, so I suppose some magazines are hesitant to hand out 5/10 ratings because it makes games look so bad.

That's more or less my point.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourPointScale

I ignore 'professional' reviews and think for myself.

Heck, I use my own extremely strict rating system, and so far the highest scoring game has been Half Life 2(a 50/100, I'll explain if someone wants to know how I rate games)

 

[Grampy_bone]

I think it was X-Play which defended their five point rating system by pointing out that anything 5/10 or lower means the same thing: garbage.

It's popular to assume that reviews are bought and paid for by the publishers and the gaming press is little more than an arm of advertising. But the thing is, publishers don't determine review scores, readers do. Look at Halo 3. I doubt there is a single critic who will put that game on their top ten list of favorite games; hell they may not even put it on their favorite shooter list. But it did get universally high marks. Was this because Microsoft paid off every single review site across the entire internet and every print magazine in existence? No, of course not, they didn't have to. There was tremendous pressure from the fans for this game to receive a high score. You have the people who say stuff like "If this game doesn't get 11 out of 10 I'm going to kill ten puppies and burn down a church!" Stories of howling outrage from fans towards any site which 'dared' to give the game a 9.8. "IT DESERVES A TEN OH MY GOD HOW CAN THEY NOT GIVE IT A TEN LET'S KILL THEM ALL GARBALAFARBALAHAHAF!!!"

 

[Retoru]

I look at game ratings like grades you'd get in school. A 5/10 is 50%, that's an F in any school system in the US. 6/10 would be a D, meaning it didn't fail, but it sure didn't try hard. 7/10 being your C grade, an average game.

If you look at game ratings that way then it makes perfect sense for a 5/10 game to be a piece of shit, it got a failing grade.