Why are Metacritic and GameRankings that important for some Gamers?

[Jordahn]

Rpruett said:

Jordahn said:

numonex said:
Metacritic are better than Gamerankings. Metacritic has more reviews listed for each game and is just a summary. More reviews the more credible the end score. Gears of War 2 for example 94% on Metacritic based on 88 reviews is better than Gamerankings 93% based on only 72 reviews.

 

More reviews doesn't equate to being better.  Never had, never will.  More only means more.  More trash or more treasure.  Both high and low ratings could be trash or treasure.  Careful because your ill-conculsive logic is a sign of mob, sheepish mentaility.  Just looking out for you.

 

Maybe not.  But more reviews does equate to a larger sample size,  a broader based look at even more people's opinions and can provide you a much clearer picture of the general reception and opinions of a game.   It certainly isn't the end all, be all.  But it usually provides a solid metric or form of measurement for reviewing games.

The only major issues I have with these sites is they incorporate the fluff departments (IE: Xbox Magazine/Playstation Magazine).  These sources are on the said consoles payroll and therefore hardly ever give completely accurate, unbiased reviews,  and some of these only review games for certain systems (360 only or PS3 only,etc) which is a one-sided way of looking at things.

It's still the best metric available for gathering widespread opinions about a certain game.  It doesn't guarantee that you will like a game,  but I would say almost any 90+ rated meta critic game you can certainly see WHY it achieved what it did (Even if you didn't enjoy it).   (For example,  me and GTA IV)

 

Still doesn't matter.  Larger sample groups do not determine which game I would like and for anyone else for that matter.  You did say "opinion" which is a contradiction to a "solid metric or form of measurement for reviewing games."  And if I understand your later point correctly, I will agree that gamers will acknowledge a quality game regardless of their personal preferences.  But one game with more reviews from one group than another still doesn't not equate to being more accurate.  Just the one with a more popular opinion.