No Offence But: Why have we become so obsessed with review scores?

GamerGaia's Ryan Davies pens the fourth edition of No Offence But: It was during all the Uncharted 3/Battlefield 3 review hubbub that I realised what my next No Offence But column would be about. This is something that has become a horrific phenomenon in the gaming industry; I wouldn’t say it’s always been so strong, but with the huge number of great games out this year the weird obsession we have for review scores has only multiplied in ferocity. Read on for more on our fixation on a figure.

[fluffydelusions]

Probably since games became so expensive...I dunno. People just want value for their money these days.

[Nitrowolf2]

I can agree with this one. There are just to many games coming out and most of us just want to see the general score for a game before purchasing. It's not that we don't want to cause of a Review, it's just cause most of us don't have the money for all these games. Come on, this month alone I have already put over $240- $300 on games. (Uncharted 3, Skyrim, AC:R, SR: 3, MGS:collection) And that's not including last months budget.

Review scores on this site may be used as some stupid tool, but really most people just want to see the average. Yes we can judge ourselves, but does anyone really want to put +$60 on games without even being sure? Yeah AC:R and SR:3 havn't gotten reviews, but they are pre-ordered and reviews should be out soon. I doubt they would get low scores, but If say I see an average of 5 from tons of reviewers then I would most likely put off on that game and wait.

That doesn't mean that a game with bad scores is a bad game though. A good game might receive bad scores,but honestly sometimes they could be amazing games. People just like being cautious in what they buy now.

then again if each big game had a 2-3 month gap between each other, I bet it would still be an issue maybe.

[Joule]

Bragging rights

[ATi_Elite]

I can careless about review scores and reviewers but it is upsetting when they are totally bias and in the publishers pocket. Long gone are the days of independent reviewers that review games based on solid criteria not free gifts.

they will state the same exact faults about two games but give one game a low score and another a high score. Example both games have short, corridor SP campaigns with generic stories, and a ton of set pieces. One gets high scores while the other gets low scores.

Also reviewers will just blatantly give low scores to get web hits.

Reviews now a days SUCK and are stupid! If your unsure about a game go to You-Tube and watch actual game-play video to help your purchase decision.

[RGDfleet]

Very strongly disagree. As a consumer I still very much trust game reviews....put simply it's been a while since I've seen a badly judged one from a trusted site/mag. I think the world is a lot less corrupt than you seem to think xD sorry

[DonaldBeck]

people love review scores because it gives them this sort of flawed "insurance" that the game they buy they will love. be your own reviewer and you'll make the best choice everytime.

[RGDfleet]

very nice. I agree. Although, I would say critical views can have a decent swing at the quality of a game? no? And that can very easily factor in fairly.

[DonaldBeck]

yes, universal problems such as framerate issues, lack of decent story ect can be a healthy factor to mention to people.

[fluffydelusions]

Yes except the problem is most people don't have the money to review every game so they depend on others to do it.

[DonaldBeck]

i think then the best option would be to have a gamefly account or something to try the game out.

[Rgoodwin11]

I avoid mainstream reviewers and try to find small independent ones :)

[fluffydelusions]

Why? You should off reviewers you trust. Indi/mainstream doesn't matter.

[Rgoodwin11]

I don't tend to trust mainstream lol. Personal taste mate that is all =]

[VerbalKint27]

Great article, over at This Is My Joystick we do not give review scores.

The reason we have taken this route is because there seems to be a growing subculture of people who either judge a game, or the quality of a review on its score without delving into the text to see the logic of how the reviewer arrived at their conclusion. It seems almost as if people are ‘reviewing the review’, rather than taking it for what it is; one persons account of their experience with a game.

[WhiteLightning]

It's not about being obsessed it's about when the review dosen't make sense and dosen't have anything to back up the low score....for example that 4/10 Uncharted review, it was pathetic.

Same goes for Eurogamers 8/10 score, even though 8/10 is still a good score people couldn't see the logic behind the given number when all they did was praise the game, yet another game they priased all away through the review, for example Zelda get it's perfect 10/10 score which was obvious when reading the review.

I wouldn't call it obsessed...just trying to make sense of the given score.

[Nitrowolf2]

good point. I guess there are many reasons that can be summed up.

[patrielm]

For the people that reported this for spelling:
http://www.thefreedictionar...

Cheers!

[RGDfleet]

Thanks for that :) bloomin' yanks! (best cockney accent) xD

[patrielm]

Any time. The reporting nazis in this place are ridiculous sometimes...

[shenglongg]

review scores have became a factor before we buy games... that's the thing.

[okelfo]

I couldn't believe some people went as far as to call a review that got an 8 (Uncharted 3) controversial. Dudes, that's a fantastic score.

[MasterCornholio]

Because they seem to be used as bragging rights more than anything.

XperiaRay