210°

Do We Pay Too Much Attention to Review Scores?

Push Square: "The review embargo for God of War: Ascension lifted yesterday, prompting a cavalcade of forum posts regarding the status of Sony Santa Monica’s savage Spartan series. The title scored lower than previous entries, resulting in a Metacritic rating of 79 at the time of writing. According to the aggregate’s scale, that number suggests that the game received “generally favourable reviews” across the board. So, why are people acting like it’s the worst game of the year?"

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PopRocks3594060d ago

Some people do. I always make a point to play a game or its demo before I judge it. Once a games reception becomes word of mouth, people just seem to take it as fact.

ABizzel14060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

I think review scores matter, but not nearly as much as they did say 5 or 10+ years ago. Thanks to youtube and other sites, people can actually see a large enough portion of the game to know whether or not it's a game they'd like, but 10 years ago review scores were all you really have to go by, because no one wanted to buy a bad game.

I think today review scores affect about 50% of the overall outcome of a game rather than nearly 100% 10 years ago. And I'd say that 50% is dropping, as you can see with some major gaming websites closing. Reviews are now more for bragging rights for fanboys so they can have a high score battle. But for sane gamers reviews are for that extra bit of confirmation on whether to buy a game Day 1, wait for a price cut, rent it, or in an extreme case pass all together.

admiralvic4059d ago

Sites are closing because of the ease / popularity of other venues. It's hard to compete with 50 (though there are probably 100+ easy) little sites beating you to the punch and slapping it on N4G. Also a lot of people here are less trusting of bigger sites...

Destructoid.
Kotaku.
Eurogamer.
IGN.

These are all sites we constantly see people saying are discreditable / ignore them or are surprised when they actually "do the right" thing. Needless to say, thats why larger sites are going under.

Scumbag-Steve4060d ago ShowReplies(1)
showtimefolks4060d ago

i like watching the reviews and seeing pros and cons but a numbered score doesn't affect me in any way

if i am interested in a game than i want to play it myself to see how good or bad it is.

miyamoto4059d ago (Edited 4059d ago )

Do We Pay Too Much Attention to Review Scores?

Its not the review or the scores....

...its the misinformation campaigns I am concerned about.

Even reviews and review scores have price tags because at the end of the day its all about money,clicks, hits and business.

We need critics not reviewers.

Just in YouTube alone anyone can be a reviewer.

There are tons of ways to go around this problem.

If seeing is believing and if you are personally skeptical, at least, go to You Tube and see for yourself.

Hence the PS4 Share button was made.

Apollosupreme4060d ago

Reviews sometimes are accurate to me, sometimes not. It sometimes depends on how your taste lines up with the critic, other times it doesn't matter because the game is either outstanding or horrible.

Also there are a bunch of poor reviewers out there.

I find youtube helps a lot.

Hellsvacancy4059d ago

Only games ive bought based on reviews are Demon Souls and Ni No Kuni

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 4059d ago
BigStef714060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

Good article. The way reviews are handled is pretty flawed because people focus on the number too much instead of what that score means from that particular site. Honestly the problem is sites like Metacritic which emphasizes the total averaged score

WarThunder4060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

Reviews at least should be without useless scores....

I never bought a game based on reviews and never will.

Thatguy-3104060d ago

I pay attention to them to an extent. If it's a franchise I like then it's a no Brainer I'm going to get it regardless of the score. But if a game is getting good reviews across the board I actually take my time to evaluate that said game more leading me to purchase it. It happened when I purchased Journey and Ni no Kuni both fantastic games that I would have ignored if it weren't for the good reviews.

smashcrashbash4060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

Because that is how people behave these days. Any slightly lower scores means it is the 'worst game ever'. People were just waiting to see if it was going to do badly and even if it doesn't do as badly as they thought it would they still have to harp on about it not doing as good as they thought it would.There are games that do much worse then certain games but people still treat them as if they have the plague.

An 8 for instance for GOW in certain people's eyes makes it an average game but for Tomb Raider an 8 means it is just fine. It all depends on if you want the game to succeed or not is what lets people let scores slide. The new DMC for instance scores were way above average but people preferred to harp on about every score that was 8 or slightly lower claiming that makes it a bad game.It all depends on the person's perspective.People right now attack you if even mention that Tomb Raider is only an 86 on metacritic as compared to Uncharted 2 and 3 but if Tomb Raider had a higher score then Uncharted on metacritic people would be quoting it constantly.People just use scores to belittle or one up a game for their convenience.An 7 or 8 for example can be bad or good depending on how much you want the game to succeed or fail. If you want it to fail anything below a 9 is bad. If you want it to succeed anything above a 6 is good

Outside_ofthe_Box4060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

You hit the nail on the head yet again.

It's all about perception when it comes to review scores. People with the good/bad agenda do exactly what you described.

It also depends on how people tolerate "average." Some people only want to play top notch games meaning nothing below great. So scores in the 7s or lower would be seen as bad to them because they don't want to settle for mediocrity. Others that don't mind playing an "OK" game will see games scoring in the 7s and high 6s as not a bad score at all.

So it all depends on whether or not a particular person doesn't mind settling for mediocrity and also like you described if a particular person has a personal agenda he/she wants to push.

Hingle_Mcringleberry4060d ago

Here's the thing chief. Playstation fans around here create alot of hype around certain games (mostly all their exclusives) which isn't necessarily a bad thing, in fact it's a great thing.
Problem comes when in when they start flaunting their upcoming games in the faces of other console owners, coming into articles unrelated to playstation and taunting other gamers with lists and kinect/wii jokes.
You see, you create alot of bad will amongst your fellow gamers and in turn make yourselves and the brands you love targets for retribution. And so when a much hyped game, created by a 1st party sony studio, like Ascension gets less than stellar reviews then of course people are going to make a big deal out of it. I mean come on, did you really think they'd let it go after all the smack talk you people do around here?
Why do you think Vita sales articles are so popular around here? People actually like to see Sony fail because they know it eats you guys up! That's the ill will you've created up in here and your tears about GoW are so tasty right now.
That is all

smashcrashbash4060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

That is complete BS. That is what you all do. Every game that comes up for Xbox 360 or Nintendo have fanboys dancing around and taunting us about how good it will be.You guys create ill will as well which is why people feel that they have to strike back. Look how people stirred up the hornets nest trying to claim that Tomb Raider is better then Uncharted. So people are ready to point out it's flaws to show you otherwise.And many of us were all set to allow Tomb Raider to pass unharmed without a single reference to how it look and plays like Uncharted.

Don't tell me about ill will. People had ill will towards Uncharted 2 the moment it was revealed calling it a Gears and Tomb Raider clone and even when it got awards and GOTY people still tried at every turn to bring it down.And let's not even talk about the Infamous and Prototype and Halo and Killzone comparisons that others created that we didn't even care about.And how soon we forget the Alan Wake will sell better then Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2 combined (which it didn't)So don't tell me any nonsense about what we cause.You guys give as much as you get and you don't even have to be goaded to do it.

You think it is funny when games we claim will do great don't do as great as we say. We think it is equally hilarious when it happens to you too when you make baseless claims and they are wrong like the claim that GT5 wouldn't sell much because people like FPS now and it sold millions? That was hilarious to hear every making excuses especially the shipped/sold garbage fanboys tried to use to spin units sold.We also thought was funny that people thought Conduit was equal in quality to Killzone and Gears

Outside_ofthe_Box4060d ago

The console wars are serious business huh?

Riderz13374060d ago

Here's the thing chief. Xbox fans do the same.

/fin

Godchild10204060d ago (Edited 4060d ago )

The general public doesn't. If they purchased a game in the same series or franchise, they will mostly likely purchase the next game if they liked and enjoyed the one before it. It also comes down to the developer and the games they made in the past.

People tend to worry more about reviews and the score when its a new IP. At least that is what I have gathered. Look at COD and AC on the Vita. And Sleeping Dogs and Dishonored. Both sold well, but the Vita games got low reviews and the ones on home consoles sold better with higher reviews.

wishingW3L4060d ago

I gave you a disagree by accident but as of now your comment is the best one here. ;)

Tornadobounce4060d ago

No, we just can't be bothered reading the whole review.

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Friendlygamer36m ago

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