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Good Chocobo |
Best review scale?
My site staff has been wondering lately, what's the better review score scale? x/10 or x/5?
Right now, we use /10, but not in the same way other site use it. We've seen it as a waste to throw away half of the scale (most places, anything below a 6 is pure garbage, and there's no difference between a 5 and a 1), so used the mathematical average of 5 for our "average" game. It seems like it works well enough for us and the readers who actually try to understand it, but sadly, this is the internet, and not everyone reads the "Verdict" underneath where it says the final word like "Great" or "Average" or "Classic" or what have you. And I'd assume even less people actually click "See our review criteria" before bitching about what seems like a low score. Would an 0-5 score scale, sticking to (presumably sticking to 2.5 as the average) lessen the misunderstandings and decrease the complaints, do you think? What do you see as the pros and cons of each scale? Feel free to also express other ideas and why you think they'd possibly be good. Jam it back in, in the dark. |
I used to wonder all the time why movies were on a 4 star system, but when you make it concise, I guess it helps some people draw a hard line between the cream and the curd.
Of course, if you don't have a long-running understanding with your readers, they might balk at a 4 or 5 star system. I.E. "Who is this guy, and what's an 'average' game for him?" 10 star systems help to do away with some of that, and I personally prefer a more detailed score. It's not going to be objective, by any means, but I feel that the more specific the score, the more specific the reviewer has to get to justify it. There's nowhere I can't reach. |
I prefer a percentage scale myself. I feel that it is more precise that a /10 or /5 rating system, that is unless the /10 system allows for marks such as 8.2, then it is just as good as the percentage system.
I also feel that the reviewer should break down each element of the game (graphics, gameplay, sound, etc) and mark these each with a score of it's own, something like Gamespot do. I also like the way that Gamepot sums up it's reviews with a information box at the start of the review that covers the best and worst points in a nutshell. Most amazing jew boots ![]() |
Good Chocobo |
Thanks for the 2 posts so far.
Domino: we break ours down in a way you suggested, I think. Here's one of our reviews. Tell me if it's what you had in mind: http://www.rpgland.com/games/marvelalliance/review.html Side: our 1-10 scale goes in .5 incriments. When we just barely started doing reviews, we'd do all decimals, but it got tedius trying to figure what separated a 7.3 from a 7.4, so just simplified it a tid bit. How ya doing, buddy? |
Yeah that's the sort of thing that I was on about. The review seems to cover all the important elements of a game, and has the summary points nicely laid out in a system that is clear and easy to understand. I like it.
Just a suggestion though. How about having the overall score at the top of the page next to the game title, or at least on the same row as the title, while keeping the summary of points down the bottom of the page. The score at the top of the page will then give visitors to your site a quick indication of what you thought of the game, rather than having to scroll down to the bottom of the page just to see what score the game got. I was speaking idiomatically. ![]() |
What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?
"We are all the sum of our tears. Too little, and the ground is not fertile and nothing can grow there. Too much – the best of us is washed away…" - G'Kar
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I write reviews and I use a system which has a rating x/5 where x is a positive integer.
I've never liked percentage systems. Rating a 98% seems odd that it be 2% away from supposed perfection, but take a game call it A which scores 90%, I tend to find I in comparison to others, it's hard to put a finger on why it should score 40% more than that or 7% less than that one. Personally I can't use it. Five suits me fine. FELIPE NO |
As long as it isn't 5 star bullshit or anything with letters, it's good. I prefer percentage scale myself.
What, you don't want my bikini-clad body? |
Good Chocobo |
Jam it back in, in the dark. |
I use the 10 star scale doing reviews... It just gives you a little more to say as opposed to the 5 star scale.
Gamespot Wii Reviews Would you honestly play some of those games at that rating? How ya doing, buddy? |
5 is average because it's halfway to 10. Or at least it should be, but for whatever reason, a lot of places now use 7 as average, like Gamespot. If 7 is average, then anything 5 and below is crap and interchangeable, and essentially your scale just goes from 5-10. And in that case, a /5 system is what it pretty much is. This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it. ![]() |
![]() I modeled my ratings from a PC games mag can't remember which: 5 - Classic, rare, near-perfect 4 - High quality, succeeds in most areas 3 - Flawed but successful development 2 - Suffering from problems 1 - All wrong I find this seriously makes it easier for me. I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body? |
I really like the /10 scale, especially when decimals are involved, but the point about 7 being average makes me think about that. Any game that is less than 7, I probably would not buy, or even try. However, I don't like the /5 scale since 3/5 is average, but you can't really tell if it's slightly above average (since 4 makes me think it's a good game, and 3.5 still gives the impression of average), or on the lower end of it. Breaking down by components is definitely a great way to go and do it, but overall I think I would go with the 10 scale still. Most games should never have to deviate from 7 much, and you can really justify the bad ones, however low their score maybe. In addition. good games don't seem to need as much explanation with descriptions as bad ones do.
I was speaking idiomatically. |
What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?
"We are all the sum of our tears. Too little, and the ground is not fertile and nothing can grow there. Too much – the best of us is washed away…" - G'Kar
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I can see what you mean. Games that score 5 I think I would keep and usually I would love to play it again. For 4 it's good that I would finish the game at least once. Three is where I enjoy it but maybe I get bored, consider it for trade-in, 2 is bad, 1 a disaster. FELIPE NO |
How ya doing, buddy? |
I'd go with the x/10 feature because there's a clear low point (1), middle point (5), and high point (10). It's also akin to a x/100 system, which is what I'd use, if your x/10 uses the tenth place. But it hardly matters as long as you have a convincing text body to back up your rating.
As scores go, it's all about first impression. The problem with the x/5 scale is that there's not as much room for differentiation, IMO. I'm not that picky when it comes to games, but a 4/5 and a 5/5 are more or less the same to me. They both represent great games. Hell, even a 3/5 would stand as a decent game. Personally though, a rating of a 2 or lower registers as awful in my opinion. With a x/10 system, I see anything above 8 as a damn good game. Anything from 5 up to 8 seems pretty decent at first glance. Anything below 4 would register as a bad game when I first see it. Most amazing jew boots |
I say do away with numbers completely and use language to convey the score. Numbers are far too ambiguous and easily misinterpreted. It's too difficult to understand how 7.8 is superior to 7.3 or an 85% over a 79% because numbers themselves just don't carry enough information.
Let good argumentation be the decider. There's nowhere I can't reach. ![]() You're staring at me like I just asked you what the fucking square root of something. |
Over the past while I've been finding that I usually only play games that receive good reviews or are made by developers I like. Once I got my PS2 modded, I tried out a lot of games that I'd normally ignore, but found a few that I was genuinely impressed with, despite their flaws.
Since everyone values aspects of games differently, I figure the simplest review score would be out of three: Buy it Try it Avoid it I'm thinking of avoiding reviews entirely these days, and making my opinions on games based on previews and developer logs. It makes things more interesting. This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it. |
I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?
Last edited by electric_eye; Feb 17, 2007 at 05:24 AM.
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The problem with using 5 (out of 10) as an average is that most sites don't. I like the gamerankings.com links on some sites, that give you the average score from all of the review sites. If one site gives it a 5 and another gives it a 7.5, and in spirit they mean the same thing, it's going to drag down the overall score for a game. Personally, I prefer a percentage.
I was speaking idiomatically. |
Good Chocobo |
Giving it an 8.5/10 is one thing, but telling someone to straight up spend their money on it is a somewhat different territory. ![]() What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now? |
FELIPE NO ![]() |
So instead of rating something X/5, and declaring some arbitrary number to be "average" they can use a scale that says something like: Masterpiece, Excellent, Good, So-so, Bad, Awful, Complete Garbage. I'm aware that rpgland uses that in their verdict section, but more people will notice the numerical value and ignore the verdict altogether, which makes me in favor of removing numerical scores altogether. People put too much of their decisions into the raw number as opposed to figuring out what the number actually means. What, you don't want my bikini-clad body? My spheres of activity:
Anime Instrumentality Blog - Latest Music Reviews: Gundam Unicorn Soundtrack | Kampfer Soundtrack Eminence Online (anime music reviewer) - Latest review: Noir Original Soundtrack The Nihon Review - Latest review: Taisho Yakyuu Musume |
I am particularly fond of the 1-5 scale, with .5 numbers also being used. I don't like anything that has to do with partial numbers unless it's half, such as 9.2 or 3.8.
Jam it back in, in the dark. |