RolStoppable said: 5 should be the average. 1. Your argument ignores that a large number of bad games are skipped altogether. Due to the large number of game releases nowadays, only the more interesting games get reviewed. The exclusion of obvious stinkers pushes the average score of reviewed games above what the average score would be if all games got reviewed without exceptions. 2. If you put fitting in with Metacritic above being of service to your readers, then you have already fundamentally failed as a reviewer. 3. That's just stupid. A scale of 0-10 has a clearly defined floor and ceiling as opposed to the weight of humans. The big flaw of using 7/10 as an average on a 10-point-scale is that it becomes hard to make distinctions between just above average games, good games, great games and all-time greats. Additionally, a large portion of the scale remains unused. The thinking that 7/10 should be used as the average is why it's hard to trust scores of 8/10; it might just be an average game that the reviewer liked something about, but now it has been elevated in the range where only good games should score. Conversely, you can have an anticipated game from an established IP that the reviewer was slightly disappointed with and it gets an 8/10 all the same. |
1. What should count as a game though? Fan works? Flash games? Only games on the official e-shops of their respective consoles? Should there be a different average number per platform? Steam has way more shovelware than PSN, XBL, or the E-Shop.
2. What if most of your readers wind up finding you through metacritic? I'm not a fan of the site anymore, but there's no denying their effect on the industry. I sure wouldn't want a potential reader to glance at my metacritic blurb, and go "Wow, what a stupid site! He gave Fallout 4 a 6/10! He must have hated it!"
3. Yeah, using humans as my example doesn't work. I need to find something with a clearly defined floor and ceiling. Maybe vehicles allowed on U.S. highways would work? I mean regulators have probably put a set limit on both ends of the weight spectrum, for safety reasons.