does every game get dropped down in average by unknown sites?

[HappySqurriel]

From Gamerankings : http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/help.asp

Site Inclusion Policy
Q. What does it take to get a site included in the composite score of Game Rankings?
A. This is the most commonly asked question. The things we look for when adding a new site are:

At Least 300 archived reviews if they review multiple systems or 100 reviews if they concentrate on only one system or genre.

The site does at least 15 reviews a month.

The site is visually appealing and looks professional.

The site reviews a variety of titles.

The site has it's own domain name and is not hosted on GeoCities or another free server.

The reviews need to be well written.

The site conducts itself in a professional manner.

Although these sites are not well known but they have been around for quite awhile.

There are several reasons why smaller sites tend to lower review scores:

1. They buy their own games, don't get any swag, and do not get marketing money directly from publishers. In other words they have nothing to lose by giving their completely honest opinion.
2. They are often started by people who are 'fed-up' with the standard approach to videogame reviews and want to give a different view on the same games
3. They like the attention being overly harsh on games gets them.