Post by SnakeYukin on Mar 16, 2009 12:49:23 GMT -5
Now, I was planning on putting this in the general, everything else section, but as it relates to all creativity, in a sense, I decided it best to put it here. So with that out of the way, let's get this started. 
Alright, so this idea has been flowing back and forth in my mind in awhile since I had to watch an episode of Sessler's Soapbox. He brought up that he disliked the idea of numerically scoring games because instead of reading the actual written review, they just look at the number and that determines if it's good or bad. He continued to go on for awhile and saying that the reason this is done is because it is just simpler for this to be done because we don't have the time to just sit down and read the review. That's when I began to think of all the reviews I have looked at over the years and realized that I was one of those drones that look at the number, determine how I feel about the game, and if I play the game and disagree, I argue to myself against the score not the points brought up. However, when he brought that up and everything clicked in my mind, I tried to read the reviews instead of simply just looking at the score given to it to make a more informed opinion relating to what I plan to buy or rent.
Now, you may be asking, why have I randomly decided to bring this up. You might already know the reason for this if you watch X-Play or if you've been on the Resident Evil 5 forum on probably any site. Now for you who don't or haven't, what happened was X-Play gave the game a 3/5: meaning it's about average or good but not great or excellent. Now, this game is one of those high profile games that has an already set in crowd from previous installments and, most likely from the hype, those who are behind it from the trailers, demos, and such. Since it's high profile, those people are going to most likely disagree with this review because of it's low score; which they have and, from what I've seen, quite juvenile as well.
Now, as this controversy, shall we say, is going on, along with other low scoring reviews for other popular recent release, like Street Fight 4, it's made me come back to that thought again. What helps with this idea of no longer having this numerical system is the fact that I see nearly all the people who are complaining, complaining about the score and not the points of the review. In fact, even certain people agree with all of the points given by the reviewer; however, they disagree on the actual score and go on a tantrum because of that. Then on the other hand, I've seen a positve review that I would question it's merit and would call it out because it wasn't a review. It just told me mainly what the plot was and didn't tell me anything that was either positive or negative about the game. That's a summary, not a review, but guess what: no one said anything about that.
So as this is going on, I keep thinking to myself: if there was no numerical score and it was only a written review with the points, good and bad, in it, would all of this have been a problem? Part of me thinks that people may not have as much of a problem if that happened, as they don't have this number to tell them if it's good or bad. Then again, I know there will be points brought up in the review that people will complain about; however, I hope that if someone complains about a particular point it will be a intellectual argument as compared to juvenile arguments that appear frequently on forums.
Now, though I did complain about people whining about reviews and all of that, I think people have the right to argue their points and I don't have a problem with that. As I stated above, these arguments should be somewhat intellectual instead of, what I like to consider it as, bickering and whining. If all of those forum posts had them explaining their side eloquently without calling the person names or his/her review names, I wouldn't have a problem with it.
However, it seems I've kinda went off topic. Getting back on topic and to end this, what do you think of these numerical/alphabetical scores given to some form of entertainment that determines if it is good or bad?
Alright, so this idea has been flowing back and forth in my mind in awhile since I had to watch an episode of Sessler's Soapbox. He brought up that he disliked the idea of numerically scoring games because instead of reading the actual written review, they just look at the number and that determines if it's good or bad. He continued to go on for awhile and saying that the reason this is done is because it is just simpler for this to be done because we don't have the time to just sit down and read the review. That's when I began to think of all the reviews I have looked at over the years and realized that I was one of those drones that look at the number, determine how I feel about the game, and if I play the game and disagree, I argue to myself against the score not the points brought up. However, when he brought that up and everything clicked in my mind, I tried to read the reviews instead of simply just looking at the score given to it to make a more informed opinion relating to what I plan to buy or rent.
Now, you may be asking, why have I randomly decided to bring this up. You might already know the reason for this if you watch X-Play or if you've been on the Resident Evil 5 forum on probably any site. Now for you who don't or haven't, what happened was X-Play gave the game a 3/5: meaning it's about average or good but not great or excellent. Now, this game is one of those high profile games that has an already set in crowd from previous installments and, most likely from the hype, those who are behind it from the trailers, demos, and such. Since it's high profile, those people are going to most likely disagree with this review because of it's low score; which they have and, from what I've seen, quite juvenile as well.
Now, as this controversy, shall we say, is going on, along with other low scoring reviews for other popular recent release, like Street Fight 4, it's made me come back to that thought again. What helps with this idea of no longer having this numerical system is the fact that I see nearly all the people who are complaining, complaining about the score and not the points of the review. In fact, even certain people agree with all of the points given by the reviewer; however, they disagree on the actual score and go on a tantrum because of that. Then on the other hand, I've seen a positve review that I would question it's merit and would call it out because it wasn't a review. It just told me mainly what the plot was and didn't tell me anything that was either positive or negative about the game. That's a summary, not a review, but guess what: no one said anything about that.
So as this is going on, I keep thinking to myself: if there was no numerical score and it was only a written review with the points, good and bad, in it, would all of this have been a problem? Part of me thinks that people may not have as much of a problem if that happened, as they don't have this number to tell them if it's good or bad. Then again, I know there will be points brought up in the review that people will complain about; however, I hope that if someone complains about a particular point it will be a intellectual argument as compared to juvenile arguments that appear frequently on forums.
Now, though I did complain about people whining about reviews and all of that, I think people have the right to argue their points and I don't have a problem with that. As I stated above, these arguments should be somewhat intellectual instead of, what I like to consider it as, bickering and whining. If all of those forum posts had them explaining their side eloquently without calling the person names or his/her review names, I wouldn't have a problem with it.
However, it seems I've kinda went off topic. Getting back on topic and to end this, what do you think of these numerical/alphabetical scores given to some form of entertainment that determines if it is good or bad?
