GameSpot revamps review rankings - Is it good for Wii & DS games?
Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 11:07am by David
Starting on Monday, GameSpot will change their review system. They’re cutting their review scores down to whole points and half points. Games can no longer get scores like 8.7 or 7.3, just 7.5, 8.0, 8.5, etc. This basically cuts their scoring range down to a 20 point system. While it tends to force the reviewers to make a firm decision (this game is truly a 10.0, not a 9.7), I say whittle it down even more. Cut out the half-points and the final scores are even firmer. Or just use a five point system like most movie reviewers.
Something interesting they’re adding are medals and demerits for games. A couple examples of demerits they give include “Slideshow” for poor frame rate and the self-explanatory “Blatant In-Game Advertising.” These denotations could be a lot of fun, as long as they stick to a set list of awards and make it a big deal when they invent new ones.
When Wii hit the market, there was a brief period where angry villagers started to take up their pitchforks and demand revamped ratings systems that fit the vast variety of games coming out. So I ask, is GameSpot reacting to the demands of the people? Are they leading the way by revamping their ratings system? Will they just rank everything 8.0 now?
June 24th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Screw 5 points, let’s just make it thumbs up or thumbs down.
June 24th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Meh. GameSpot is the last place I’d look for an unbiased review.
June 24th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Nothing to do with the Wii.
There should be a review site that has casual gamers review these games to really get a different perspective, it’s obvious the jaded people at sites like Gamespot aren’t going to enjoy most Wii games because they don’t get it.
June 24th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
I agree with Sharp, we really need to do away with points altogether. Everytime someone looks at a 7 or 8, they move onto the next game, not really understanding why it got that score. 7’s and 8’s don’t mean they’re necessarily bad in any real sense. Even 5’s and 6’s are good in some respect. Points, to me, is just for the lazy guy who doesn’t want to read the actual review. It’s like sites are working with the least common denominator, but it brings about so many problems that the system is damn near broken. On the site I work for, videolamer, when I do reviews, I do the thumbs up/down system, but I only say that in the actual review. This makes it so people have to actually read the review, and not brush off to the sidebar and move to the next game.
The awards thing sounds pretty cool though. That will be enjoyable to see.
June 24th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Unbiased review? There’s no such thing. All reviews have some sort of bias to them.
Or maybe you were trying to say ‘unbias’ as a bias toward Nintendo reviews? If so, go to a Nintendo-centric site for that. I’m pretty sure you can plenty of those.
June 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I’m excited about this change. While I agree with 1 poster that a 5 point scale would be ideal, that’s just too big a change to happen all at once. Maybe someday. For now, 20 points will do. The emblems sound cool too. It will be interesting to sort games based on the emblems they get, like “brutal” to see all the gory games or “funny” to see all the humorous games. I would also like to say that any scoring system where they don’t use all the scores is broken from the outset. If they have a scoring system that includes the numbers, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, etc, then they need to use them, otherwise, get rid of them. If every game gets between a 4 and a 10, then really a 4 is the lowest score, the 1-3 should not exist. Thats a big problem we have today. I mean in most cases, people consider a 5 game to be a horrible game, or anything below an 8 to be sub-par. That’s rediculous. hopefullly this change, fixes this.
June 24th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
for me, on a five point scale, i consider anything 3 and above to be worth looking at, on a 10 point scale, i consider anything a 7 to be worth looking at, unless i found something very interesting about the game before the reviews, in which case a 5 is good enough, but it would have to be some unique concept that i would play the game just to see how it works.
of course for low scores i do tend to read the reviews to see what got it that score.
in the end though, i do tend to have my mind made up before the reviews come in since i have a good sense for what i like. like when a person says this rpg or dungeon crawler isnt that good, i still will probably enjoy the experience because i just love those types of games and dont compare a game to others when playing it as most reviewers do.
June 24th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Only 5 stars? But then they’d actually have to give some games only 1 or 2 stars, and they might stop getting free games to review!
I’ll be the first to predict that they’ll continue to simply not review games rather than give them 1.0-3.0 scores.
June 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Thumbs up/down is enough, but I kinda like the 5 point systems.
June 24th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Its better if they just come down to it …either is a good game or a bad game .. not in between.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
“I’ll be the first to predict that they’ll continue to simply not review games rather than give them 1.0-3.0 scores.”
You’re probably right. I still wish they would create a scale that they actually use though.
I’ve also seen some sites go with a 3 point scale. “Buy it”, “Rent it”, “Avoid it”. That seems to work pretty well. It’s vague enough that you pretty much HAVE to read the review.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I… I was kidding about the thumbs up/down thing. I like to have an idea on whether a game could be good, or how enjoyable someone else found it.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Whatever, I still want the thumbs up/down thing.
June 25th, 2007 at 1:23 am
The 10-point numerical rating system game reviewers have been using is based on the grading scales in American public schools. It typically seems that 9 is the “A,” 8 is the “B,” 7 is the “C,” and anything below 6 is the “F.” This is why the lower half of the scale isn’t used for anything at all. 10, or 100, is the elusive “A+,” which is why you never see it used, either–these writers remember the Herculean effort it took to earn one of those.
June 25th, 2007 at 2:18 am
This is a horrible idea. Now basically a 8.7 will be rated the same as a 8.3 due to the rounding of ratings since they have to be forced into a .5 increment. And now a 8.8 game will look far better than an 8.7 game, since a 9.0 looks far better than a 8.5.
Either go all the way down to “Yes” or “No”, or even Buy, Rent, or Avoid, OR stick with the 100-point scale.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:04 am
As long as the demerits are separate from the score I’m fine with it. I’d prefer a 5 point scale consisting of; terrible, not so bad, mediocre, pretty good, and great.
June 25th, 2007 at 3:34 am
@Josh
But what exactly is the difference in quality between an 8.7 and 8.3? For something as vague as a score, with is a broad generalization to begin with, 5 points is enough. 20 points is splitting hairs, and arbitrarily at that.
June 25th, 2007 at 4:58 am
Indeed, make it a 5 star rating system. Then remove a star for all Wii games, because the grahpics are not as good as the PS3 and/or XBOX 360. Then remove another for no online play. Next we will remove one for poorly Wiimote control. At last we remove the remaing 2 stars because they’re Gamespot and let them tell us if they felt like they wasted time of their lifespan or enjoyed playing it, that’s all.
June 25th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Josh is right. I see no difference between an 8.3 and an 8.7. I view them as the same anyway. Am I going to avoid an 8.3 and rush out and buy an 8.7? No. I’m going to read the reviews, even in so doing I doubt I’ll be able to see WHY one got an 8.3 or 8.7.
June 25th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Sorry, I meant Soup is right, when referring to josh. I’m not awake yet.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:44 am
great = 5 , good = 4 , average = 3 and bad = 2 .
I think the 5 star rating system its the best way.
June 25th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
@blockSS
I totally agree. I can’t understand why people think they need varying degrees of good and great. 5 stars. Perfect System.
I really do like the idea of medals though.
July 1st, 2007 at 4:55 am
who cares gamespot sux