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Review Scores

RedEyedAbyssRedEyedAbyss
edited 2011-05-08 19:12:09 in Media

They barely tell you anything about how good something is. Numerical scoring assumes that the quality of a film, game, etc., is uniform, or at least close enough that an average is a suitable judgement. In reality, quality is not always that consistent. Many things tend to have a mix of good elements and bad elements, and whether somebody likes it or not is a reflection of how much they can forgive the bad and savour the good. Some people try to compensate by breaking it down, but it still has the inherent problem of trying to quantify a qualitative assessment. Not all elements are emphasized equally and not in the same way in every piece of media. And really, it's ridiculous that people have to treat review scoring like grading a paper, where some technical flaw that one otherwise wouldn't care about ends up taking a fair chunk off the score. I reckon that the only thing that matters is how it made you feel in the end.

Related: don't just tell me something is awesome or that something sucks balls. The former is the easiest path towards Hype Aversion. Instead, tell me what you like or dislike about it, and then I can assess whether I'd feel the same way.

Comments

  • TheMightyAnonymTheMightyAnonym
    ~♥YES♥~! I *AM* a ~♥cupcake♥~! ^_^
    The primary weaknesses are that entertainment is subjective and it is difficult to escape the 4 point scale.
  • DYREDYRE
    Except... most reviews actually do tell you why they gave it the score they did.  The score is just a quick measure of the reviewer's opinion on it, but you're kind of supposed to actually read the review, too...
  • GLORIOUSLeaderGLORIOUSLeader
    When in Turkey, ROCK THE FUCK OUT
    I read the reviews, since even a vitriolic review may grant a score as high as a 5. 
  • DonZabuDonZabu
    If I reviewed music professionally, I'd do albums like this: the number of tracks worth listening to divided by the total number of tracks on the album. Some albums might be 9/12, others might be 6/14.
  • TheMightyAnonymTheMightyAnonym
    ~♥YES♥~! I *AM* a ~♥cupcake♥~! ^_^
    I like giving a thumbs up, thumbs down, or no opinion type review. Such communicates much more than using a scale, if a system of rating is all you have offer.

    That said, giving one's detailed opinion on the movie is best.
  • inkblotinkblot
    000
    "The primary weaknesses are that entertainment is subjective and it is difficult to escape the 4 point scale."

    That scale only applies to video games. In fact, it only applies to certain high-profile games and certain websites.
  • LongfellowLongfellow
    La vie en rose
    It applies to wine too. Good luck finding any scores below 85.
  • snowbullsnowbull
    Cue-bey
    I've seen cases of reviewers not using a 4 point scale, giving a good game a 70% and people assuming this means "complete shit".
  • Wicked223Wicked223
    We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced, For the Earth Had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year
    One of the weirdest things, for a while, about reading Pitchfork was seeing albums with 6-to-7 point ratings making it onto best-of-the-year lists.
  • DonZabuDonZabu

    Exhibit A:

    http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/184-i-get-wet/

    Exhibit B:

    http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7707-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-150-101/

  • inkblotinkblot
    000
    ^^^ it's worst with the Wii, since people almost never use The Scale for Wii games.
  • ChagenChagen
    [tɕagɛn]
    What is the four-point scale?
  • Wicked223Wicked223
    We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced, For the Earth Had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year
    A derisive term for the (supposed) inability of professional game reviewers to give any game a score under 6.0, even if they're nominally using a ten-point scale. Commonly called the 7-9 scale among game industry insiders, and generally an accusation of a lack of site's integrity (often toward mainstream outlets).
  • snowbullsnowbull
    edited 2011-05-08 20:38:18
    Cue-bey
    ^^Nothing gets below 7, which is the absolute worst score possible, and anything below 9 is total shit.
  • ChagenChagen
    [tɕagɛn]
    Oh.

    That's because game companies pull ads when their games get low scores.

    No ads=dead magazine.
  • snowbullsnowbull
    Cue-bey
    >implying dead trees
  • Wicked223Wicked223
    We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced, For the Earth Had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year
    Websites need ad revenue too.
  • inkblotinkblot
    edited 2011-05-08 20:45:32
    000
    Weirdly, the companies that are known for certain to have paid off or pressured reviewers, like Topware and Two Worlds II, High Voltage and The Conduit and Squeenix and Kane And Lynch 2, got low Metacritic scores anyways.
  • LongfellowLongfellow
    La vie en rose
    I suspect that's the tip of the iceberg though.
  • DonZabuDonZabu
    This takes me back to when I was doing movie reviews for my school paper.
  • TheMightyAnonymTheMightyAnonym
    ~♥YES♥~! I *AM* a ~♥cupcake♥~! ^_^
    I consider the worst possible rating that anything can get to be "So OK It's Average". That way I can go on all day about how badly a movie sucked.
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