1UP Changes Scoring Policy, Letters To Replace Numbers

Scoring games using numbers? Sucks. It's a total mess. So it's probably with great pleasure that the 1UP team (including EGM and Games For Windows) have today announced that they're done with numbers. For good. In their place will be a school-like grading system, with titles ranked between A+ and F. The changes will take place during March on 1UP, in the April issue of EGM and the April/May issue of GFW. Best part? 1UP will be trawling through their reviews archives and updating the scores for every game they've ever reviewed, replacing the numerical value with a letter. 1UP's newly-promoted Editor-in-chief, James Mielke, says:

"..it'll more accurately convey how we feel about a game. I mean, we knew a 5 out of 10 meant 'average' to us, but no one else seemed to get the clue. So we're changing things around so that anyone who's gone to school will instantly know how we feel when they see our letter grade on a game review."

[Rattles]

we can finaly judge games one the good stuff and the bad not just a stupid number at the end.

[mikeslemonade]

This sucks for the people who were in the know that 5 was an average score on 1up. For the people who could not grasp a 5 was average then then the "School" grades should be better, but most people gets As and Bs so they're still going to think Cs are bad. And the number scale was the best because there was a possibility of 20 scores 0, 0.5, 1 etc. compared to 15 scores F-, F, F+, etc.

[Brian5247]

Thank you for changing it!!

[Genki]

This is fundamentally the same as a numerical system. Just like in grade school, EVERYONE and their mom has their own interpretation of an A, B, or C.

There's folks who are happy with a C, and others who can't stand to get an A-. This will be no different. Elitist fanboys will still shun any game that's an A- or less, just wait and see. This is a strictly psychological difference.

Once again...rating games is not an exact science. Until the day reviewers quit being so ambiguous, gamers everywhere will continue to bicker about their personal interpretation of scores and grades without actually reading the content of the reviews.

They need to just quit trying to pass off critiquing a game as something official, scientific, or somehow more complicated than any layman can comprehend. It's as simple as whether or not it's fun, worth owning, worth playing, worth a rental, a classic, a piece of junk, or whatever.

Numerical and arbitrary ratings have been obsolete for entirely too long now, but it's the fault of us and the reviewers themselves.

[DrPirate]

There only needs to be three ratings.

Buy, Rent, Dodge.

In the review content itself, it should pay attention to what is done well, and what has technical or design flaws.

That way the review material itself sticks to hard facts and minimizes subjectivity.

[mistertwoturbo]

Actually no, even if a game got an A-, it is generally perceived especially if you ever went to an american high school, as having a good grade. It's only the small minority of "goodie two shoes" that cant have nothing but an A+.

But I think we'll find that this new grading system is a lot better than numerical. For example a game like Halo 3, only deserves a C+ at best, not a B, and definitely not an A.

[Genki]

Words like Buy, Rent, and dodge/pass/avoid have clear cut meanings. Granted, that means that more games will inherently fall into less categories, therefore casting doubt upon the reader, but that's the point.

Not enough people READ reviews anymore. Everyone takes reviews for granted as some pseudo-scientific method for rating games..they're not. A rating or score strictly reflects the opinion of the reviewer(or their agenda, either or).

The content within the review is what gamers are SUPPOSED to pay attention to,because that tells us about the story, that tells us about the sound, the gameplay, controls, aesthetics, and any other things that we just love to ignore these days.

Reviews aren't a tool with which to hand a game some arbitrary verdict, they're for our info. I don't exactly know when it happened, but they've been perverted by the entire gaming community, the publishers, media outlets, and gamers alike. Publishers for handing out gifts and whoring out ads to reviewers, media for succumbing to this stuff, folding under hype, playing to/against the crowd, or dangling scores over a publishers head, and most importantly gamers for putting these meaningless numbers on a pedestal. Once again, reviews should be there to inform us about a game, not shoehorn a stigma onto it and call it a day.

IMO, anyone who would complain about such a system being too ambiguous is probably part of the problem. Most likely the same folks who make their judgments on a game based upon numbers and aggregates. Not descriptions, not gameplay mechanics, not unique features, story, or anything of that nature...just numbers.

It's high time we started using reviews for what they're supposed to be used for, a point of reference. We don't read dictionaries as if they were novels, so why have we contributed to the perversion of game reviews?

[ravinash]

Mr DrPirate, I would one more to that list...

Dodge, Rent, Buy or make a new religion around.

[Statix]

I like this idea. People are too stupid to recognize what the numbers actually mean in a numerical scoring system, and subsequently dumb fanboys will complain about scores being too low when in truth every other score is overinflated.

[DrPirate]

Exactly, this falls into Clinton's point about people not reading reviews anymore. They just focus on the numbers, and some shortend summary of the pros and cons. You never get the jist of what this game was trying to bring to the table.

[Genki]

Literally, the only difference between this and numbers are the fact that one is a digit and the other is text. Literally. A letter or a number has no MEANING. Why?

Ask 30 people what an 85 means to them. Guarantee you'll get 30 different answers.

Ask 30 people what a B means to them. Again, you'll get 30 different answers. It's no different.

On the other hand...ask 30 people what the word buy means...you'll get the same answer from every one, same with rent and avoid.

This is the problem inherent with numbers, scales, letters, and scores. They're ambiguous, not specific, unclear, not defined.

What does A mean? There's no amount of problems and questions to get wrong in any ten different games that will equate to a particular grade. This isn't a test, there are no specific multiple choice answers here. The reason an A is an A in school is because it's based upon how many problems one can answer correctly. Once again, critiquing a game isn't a science, it's subjective, so no matter how you cut it, an A+, B-, C, or D will mean different things to everyone.

[thedude17655]

would they think 5 out of 10 is average in the first place, everyone who has made it past kintergarten knows that means you did bad. 7 out of 10 is average, to me anyway.

[Big Jim]

It doesn't matter if they use a scale of 1 to 10 or a scale from A to F, they'll still inflate the score of almost every game they review to appease the publishers who advertise in their magazines. Games that deserve a C, like Halo 3, will still be given an A, and games that deserve a D-, like Turok, will be given a C. The problem isn't with the scale they use its with their rampant score inflation and their money hats from Microsoft.

[Iamback]

I like this

[titntin]

This is utterly pointless and represents the usual 'I've just taken over a power job so I'm going to make some sweeping changes' philosophy.
Change is only of any value if it achieves anything.
In this case, it clearly does not. To claim that people have a problem interpretting a scale of 1 to 10, but understand A to F better, is ludicrous. Its actually the other way around, with people being far more framiliar with a score out of 10. People wary of a score of '5' will be just as wary with a rating of 'C'.
All they have achieved is confusion, a vast waste of time, and probably removal from metacritics.
Nice start James - good job your site and reviews suck anyway, or I might actually care... :)

[wageslave]

I agree totally. But, for another reason...

Using a number scale, tells you exactly what you need to know. The score is relative to the scale -- ie, the numerator is relative to the denominator. Without the "bottom" part of the scale, the scale has no meaning.

This is a terrible policy. Every school system uses different letter grading.

In ontario, Canada, they dont give "F"s, they give E. There is no "+" or "-" either. A, B, C, D, E -- E being failed.

Why arbitrarily skip the "E"? to get to the letter "F" just because it corresponds to "Fail"?

Further;

Will 1up be giving these grades:

+A, A, A-,
+B, B, B-,
+C, C, C-,
+D, D, D-,
+F, F, F-

Or these grades:

A,B,C,D,F(/E?)?

So, X/15 now? Or X/5? When someone (who isnt directly familiar with 1up's _DENOMINATOR_ he wont know what a B means. If it is B in a scale of 15, it means something totally different if the game is B in a scale of 5.

A "B" can mean 5/15 or it can mean 2/5. And 1/3 (33%, .33) means a different score than 2/5 (40%, .4)

So, by changing to letters, everyone will have either A) Know what scale they use or B) not know what they were intending.

This is a fundementally stupid idea. 2/5 tells you all you need to know. Saying "B" is irrelevant if you do not have the denominator.

Are they going to say "B/15"?

This is nonsense.

[Lord_Ash]

I don't think having a "Buy, Rent, and Dodge" is efficient, because it depends on the reader, for me and most of my friends a 7.5 is good enough for a "Buy” score , while others see 7.5 as a "Rent", and allot of people see less than 9 as a "Rent" (which is a shame really).

So I think it would be better to leave the readers decides if they want to "Buy, Rent or Dodge".

Just my opinion.

[Genki]

They see a score and automatically assume any of several things about the game, when another persons opinions will never match up with theirs.

That's why if you saw buy, rent, or avoid, you'd probably want to read the review to find out what it would mean for you.

No matter which way you cut it, numbers mean zilch, and someone else's subjective verdict, be it a word, letter, or number can't tell YOU what to buy. Reviews scores are opinions, but they've somehow fooled a lot of us into believing that they are somehow akin to legal judgments.

[Lord_Ash]

Good point.

Yes I agree for people who are too lazy to read a review the "Buy, Rent, Dodge" scores may help, there is a site like this but I can't remember the name, they take a few reviews from all over the web and then give their verdict as "Buy, Rent or Pass".

[nix]

that's what 1UP should be concentrating on.

[TheHater]

It doesn't matter than 1UP is changing their scoring system. what they should change it to score a game for what it is, and not compare it to a game it have nothing to do with.

[bootsielon]

The industry norm is numeric, why change it? At least GameSpot had something right... grades AND numbers. ANd I thought the ones that only allowed "half points" increments were tards...

Anyway, 1up/EGM is desperate because once EGM goes down the toilet, their whole business model will collapse, and since they can't come up with good ideas anymore, they come up with this. Why not simply scrap the score system? That'll make people read the reviews instead of making a judgement on subjective numbers.

[WoodyWood09]

Written reviews is the way to go because gamers are way too hung up on scores in general. That way people can actually judge for themselves if a game worth buying by actually reading the review top to bottom.

[OC Shock Value]

9 - 10
-A - +A
5 / 5

Those are the only scores you need to worry about..

Everything else is a waste of your money, and pure human energy.

[JosefTor]

I don't like it. If I don't get an 'A' it is the end of the world. A 'B' means lack of effort or a bad teacher and a 'C' I believe is failing.

On the number scale.... 90-100 is "go pick this up right now"
80-90 is... "great game... maybe a couple problems but still worth it"
70-80 is usually a don't buy unless I love the type of game

Either way you put it I still get about the same reaction.

[Jesso2k]

What EGM is doing is making games more attractive for purchase. Games they would give 5/10 will now receive C's or D's and not be so quickly overlooked by the average reader.

If any of you think any company would risk their readership and ad revenue completely dropping review scores need not to come off it.
Review scores are a tool of interpretation usually at the end of the review to help the reader grasp everything they just read, if they skip the review fine, they probably weren't interested in the game in the first place.

[zonetrooper5]

Meh, in the UK are grades are:

A
B
C
D
E
F
U

Stupid tbh. I'm now in college so anything from an E to an A is a pass but Uni's etc will see 'C's', 'B's' and 'A's' as a bad and everything else as pretty much crap. A 'D' is one of the worst grades to get though, its a pass but a bad pass if you know what I mean.