Understanding Review Scores - Quit the Console Review War Crap

[Jumpin]

Doctor_MG said:

Reviewers are professionals (typically) who are aiming to provide an objective measurement of a subjective experience. IMO, a professional reviewers opinion matters to me more than most other random people's opinions. However, they are still having a subjective experience so we may not see eye to eye on things. What my preference is, I find a reviewer I generally agree with (my views line up with Dunkey's in just about everything but RPG's) and I look to their reviews as a better barometer for whether or not I'll like the game.

With regards to things like Metacritic, I think when you have an average of 89, or 92, or whatever...at that point, if you don't agree, I think it's wise to admit that you're probably in the minority or biased to some extent. I don't believe in games being overrated on a universal level, at least for the time. The reverse is true as well. A game that scores a 51 metacritic is more likely a bad game and your enjoyment is either an outlier difference or bias (such as an old game you grew up with).

Basically, I don't think that game ratings are completely subjective. However, experiences still vary and a review or multitude of reviews doesn't invalidate your personal and individual feelings about the game. Just don't take that personal feeling and try to make it universal (i.e. underrated, overrated, objectively awful, etc).

You also have to admit that, in their quest for objectivity, reviewers as a whole tend to flock toward metrics that are often irrelevant for the vast majority of players. That’s why review scores are often inconsistently low with some of the most heavily loved games of all time.

Pokémon Go is a great example of a game that became a cultural phenomenon and is one of the highest grossing games of all time, generating money on what really amounts to a whole lot of good will since the game is free and isn’t pinchy at all. Sure, some reviewers scored it high, but the meta score is low.