Review Scores: Problem with Gaming Media (by Carl B.)

October 20, 2011, by Carl B. - I recently wrote a review for id Software's RAGE for our friends over at RoboAwesome. RAGE isn't a bad game by any means – it's just incredibly mediocre. It is the poster child for a game that has a few good ideas in it, but is mostly a bland, generic shooter that has been done many times over. Naturally, I gave it a mediocre score that mediocre games get: a 55%, which translates to a 5.5 out of 10 or a 55 out of 100. On que, I was blasted in comments on N4G saying how 55% is such a bad score, when in fact, a 55% is a mediocre score.

Should you buy a mediocre game? That's up for you to decide. It's your money, after all. But a mediocre game should not get a good score (ie, a 7 or above) and it should not get a bad score (anything below a 5).

The problem with the gaming media is that there's way too much hyperbole going around.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is universaly praised.

Case in point: Yahoo Games gave Batman: Arkham City a 6 out of 5. If they use the archaic five point scale, which they do, how can a game surpass their own scale?

One factor to the hyperbole in the gaming media is that some publications are just too afraid to give a game a low score. They fear that publishers will cease giving them review copies of games. This has definitely happened before, but as we saw with all the low scores given to Duke Nukem: Forever, if a PR group threatens to blacklist sites, they can get fired.

The bigger issue stems not only from the media but from fans themselves. Most gamers and reviewers don't understand the ten point scale that has become common in the gaming industry. They fully expect an AAA game to get a 9 or above. If it doesn't, then the game is crap, and the reviewer is full of crap.

For example, Destructoid gave Gears of War 3 a 8 out of 10. The game's developer sent out some angry tweets about the "low" score, when an 8 out of 10 isn't a low score at all.

If it's a big budget title, apparently 8/10 becomes a bad score.

8/10 is the equivalent to 80% of 100%. Half of 100% is 50% -- making that the medium or average range. 80% is more than half more than the average or mediocre score, so how can that possibly be a low score?

The counter argument would be to cite how schools grade assignments, and that's an extremely flawed method in itself. Students have to do good work to get an average grade – if you get a 75% on a test you're awarded with a C grade, which is average on the school's scale, even though 75% is 25% higher than the median. Schools in the United States use a 100 point scale but only assign five grades. If a student gets half of the questions on a test correct, they still fail – even though they reached what is technically the average score.

In the end, what matters most is what the reviewer says in the body of the review. The final score is subjective – even though the ten point scale itself is incredibly objective – and it's up to the consumer to decide if the game is their cup of tea. But when the majority (or very loud minority) of gamers think that an 8.5 for Batman: Arkham City is a low score, despite tons and tons of praise in the body of the review, there's a problem.

Scores will one day be replaced by an image of Reggie Fils-Aime.

The movie industry, in comparison, doesn't have these same issues.