| Shadow1980 said: I think the real problem with the 10-point scale is that, seemingly uniquely for video games, it's treated like school grades: 10/10 is an A+, 9/10 is a B+ or A-, 8/10 is a C or B-, 7/10 is a D+ or C-, and anything 6/10 or below is a big fat "F." TV Tropes calls is the "Four-point Scale." Gamers have perpetuated this for years, slamming anything below a 9/10 as average or worse, most notably the "Eight Point Eight" debacle surrounding GameSpot's Twilight Princess review way back then. Even Metacritic themselves are guilty of perpetuating this review score compression:
The thing is, most game review sites that describe their review system clearly are, at least in principle, supposed to regard the 10-point scale as an even spectrum, with a 5/10 being "average." By most standards, a 7/10 should be considered "pretty-good-but-not-great" but a lot of people consider that a horrible score for a game. Gamers and Metacritic both hold games to a higher standard for review scores, to the point where to be considered "good" it has to be where movies would have to be to be considered "cream of the crop." |
Nah, the Four-Point Scale still works. There is a very large difference between a 6.5 poor like MGSV, a 4 bad like Metroid Other M, and a 2 abysmal, like Sonic Adventure 2.
Conversely, they gap in quality between a 7 solid like SMT4 and a perfect 10 like Super Metroid isn't even remotely as wide. Games have way more room to be bad than good, and way less room in the middle to be average, so this "school-grade" scale captures that perfectly.
old skool
