[General Discussion] Best review scale?

Originally Posted by TheKnightOfNee

But even with percentages, you get people who review things with 50% as average, and other people who review things with 70% as average. Obviously, every source for reviews is going to have a different scale, and the best way to go about thing would be to learn the scale of the source you are viewing before trying to follow their advice.

Instead of putting a numerical rating, why don't game review sites just use a descriptor for the rating and avoid the confusion of deciding on what number represents an average? Seems like that's the easiest solution that allows for the greatest amount of clarity.

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.