Be Excellent To Each Other

When we build 'the site', we need our reviews to all use the same scoring system. Which is best?

I really couldn't add a total "score" to my reviews. I'm weird.

I voted for a 5 letters option (ABCDE), but with the optional S rank idea that was floated before.

I vote for nothing at all -- but then, poll the readers on what the score should be based on the review.

So maybe closer to 'something else'...

Surely someform of fruit (say bannanas) based system is the only way to go?

Keep it simple I say. Mark out of ten.

BUT

An additional info panel would be great, with stuff like best place to buy, multiplayer options etc

Hmm, green bananas for rushed releases, black bananas for generic shooters... that sort of thing?

Yeah my idea was:
A
B
C
D

With super special S rank for the really special stuff (like SM:Galaxy) and then Dr A added F as an additional super special rank for stuff that is fundamentally broken, like the Capcom DS card game that didn't let you past level 3.

This is the bestest idea ever. And that's a fact. There's no evidence for it, but it's still scientific fact.*

*Oh Dr Fox.

I picked cash value, as it most represents what I believe a review should be like:
<Review of game, mentioning good bits, bad bits, bits that were fun, bits that sucked etc>
<Possibly mention it in relation to its contemporaries>
<Few Word Summary of the game>
<"Score". As in...

"Buy this game if you like x, y, z" or "Buy this only if you don't have x, y, or z, because it's nowhere near as good. But if you don't have those, have never played them, but would like to in the future, then it wouldn't be that bad of you to get this" or eve perhaps "Buy this and you're a fucking idiot".
>

I really like that "BIG LIST OF GAMES YOU SHOULD BUY, IN THE ORDER YOU SHOULD BUY THEM (adjusted for age)" idea that came up on WOS a few months back, even if it was unthinkable. The site should definatley have a "Big GAme Hunt" as PC Gamer did (basically the 3 best examples of 6 different genres) that they kept at the back of the mag. I think Amiga Action and Power had very similiar things.




that or bananas.

I like the idea of lots of different review scores, let the reviewer choose. It would achieve two things.

It would mean that the actual review is the most important thing and it will differentiate the website from all the other websites as well as stopping direct comparisons between games based just on the scores. So three things then.

I agree!

The big list was my idea. I still think it's great.

I once reviewed some local bands for a local-music-scene-local-band-mag-localness-zine. My reviews were basically abstract percent. Ie "6 partridges in 12 pear trees" ... which is like 50%. I only did that to be funny. I believe percentages to be misleading. Not only do they try to encapsulate far to many factors in a single number, but they've gotten a "bad name" over the years, i.e., 73% and all that mush.

I like big lists, especially when buying a new console.

For instance, I recently got a Wii, but know nothing about it. I have seen tons of games in the sales, but are any good? I need the BeeX Massive to let me know without posting a series of threads about it.

I also used to love the list type affairs in the back of the old mags.

I would approve and assist with such an endeavour.

I vote bananas

You only gave your idea 3 out of 5 bananas. That's hardly a convincing argument, now is it?!

Ok, I VOTE BANANAS

I've voted five letters, but I actually want S(ABCD)F fact fans!

I like the cash value idea - I'm sure this has been used on a website somewhere and I've just not noticed as I'm such a web recluse, but it sounds like a great idea to me.

How about putting all the games reviewed into database and allow each user to change the order they rate them in. Then have an aggregate list that combines all the personal lists into one overall average order? also you could view each list individually (perhaps linked from the forum profile page)

Possibly a bit too much work, and it may only really work if you get enough people to bother sorting their own list.

The A-D plus S (and F) was and is genius.

The Big List is a great idea, though.

i like S-A-B-C-D, with b being adequate...it's super excite truck!

I like this idea. Being able to give an F would be great, though I don't know if I'd ever use it.

The question I have about the letter system is, are we going to muddy it up with pluses and minuses as well? I'm all for a nice simple scoring system, but every "out of five" mechanism I've ever seen isn't actually out of five at all, because people always put halves and extra bits in, at which point you might as well just have a percentage or an "out of ten".

Oh, and I voted for percentages, because I'm traditional like that.

I have added SABCDF to the list. You can change your votes if you wish.

Or re-vote, seeing as the poll reset.

Oh. Whoops. Soz!

Woohoo! Go Team ASCII.

% R TEH SUCXS

/10 is my favorite. That way i know exactly what each number means, unlike /100 which means i dont' know why that game got 71 and not 72.

What about a graded description, instead?

So instead of SABCDF, something like:

Superbly Splendid - buy this and guard it jealously. Not even the promise of unspeakable sexual favours from the scullery maid should be enough to prise this out of your sticky grasp.
Jolly Good - this would be worth spending your own money on. Failing that, do feel free to break open your children's piggy banks.
Quite Passably Good - a potential present for the scullery staff if they have been very well behaved.
Fair to Middling - if you already own every other game currently on sale and the scullery maid is away visiting family and you therefore have literally nothing to do, this would be a good investment.
Poor Show - it would have been better for all concerned if the developers had taken the same route as the scullery maid did when I accidentally impregnated her, and strangled this one at birth.
Unspeakably Dire - anyone who buys this for you is a bounder of the first order. It would not be unreasonable to call them out for pistols at dawn, even if it were your favourite scullery maid.

Tsk, because it was one worse, obv.

what if you don't have anything to compare to? It seems that rating system just works because you can compare it to every game of the same genre reviewed before and decide on the rating then. Everything is dependant on the first game, and it couldn't even have been fairly reviewed.

Actually, I was just joking. I certainly don't believe that the percentage system necessitates comparing every single game in a genre. You give something a percentage because that's how much you feel it's worth, just like in any other scoring system. It's just a trifle more detailed. I gave 48% to Nanostray 2 because I felt it was just a little bit below average - not worthy of the "honour" of 5/10 but certainly not deserving of the embarrassment of a 4 either. *shrugs* Each to his own, I guess.

Yes, it's important to make it clear if we use this system that S and F are only to be given for the REALLY special and the utterly kick off 96'd.

I love it because it's so uniquely tied to gaming as a hobby and yet no-one has done it before.



Hell no.

This.

Nothing at all.

A well-written review doesn’t require a review score.

Can we plagarise ranking badges from a game with these letter-scores?

The banana system is of course king, but can cause lesser mortals brains to explode.

I therefore propose the ACE out of 1000 rating as it is a simplified version of the banana system.

OR

You could mark out of 1000 and just put the word 'bananas' at the end.

Let me ask Monkey if this world work.




...Monkey concurs.

I voted for a numerical rating out of 5. It's the system used by nearly every film or music reviewer, and I reckon with good reason.

In crazy nonsense Videogame Land, the nerds dream of a perfect system that lets them look at a score and instantly see where it stands in the Geek's Hall of Fame. That's completely unachievable for a number of reasons, and I'm sure I don't need to insult your intelligence by listing them all. The key thing is that relative to your own opinion, the margin of error for even the most talented and wise reviewer is going to be pretty large. The 'out of five' system, whilst still allowing for comparisons, doesn't try to overstate the accuracy or legitimacy of the reviewer's opinion to whoever is reading the review.

However, I see that 'S-F' is currently way out in front. That's certainly much better than ridiculous percentages or decimals, but still seems a bit 'different for different's sake' to me. (Some) music and film critics have managed to turn themselves into reputable professionals over the past half century, and that might be in part by not creating a ridiculous quandary for themselves over the rating system they use.

Sure it's nice to quantify things, but it is, after all, the words that count.

Totally with you on both counts.

Might it be worth folks who are contributing reviews semi-regularly to decide on (say) three games from all of history, ever that they would give an S-rank to? This would give them a reference point to work with (a game must be at least this good to score an S). It might even be worth posting each reviewer's choices to help the reader put their scores for other games into some sort of context.

Just a thought.

I think anything more detailed than out of 10 is silly.

However, I voted for 100%, because otherwise you can't have 73%.

I feel the scullery maid-based scoring system is not getting the adulation it deserves.

Total votes : 42.
We only have 151 members. Of which 39 have more than 1 post. That's a pretty good turn out, I'd say!
(The highest poster is Grim... with 340. FYI)

If its any consolation, it did make me laugh a lot. I'd be happy to go along with it if there were little faces next to each score with a slightly sinister duo of a happy gentleman and scullery maid, who become placid and then increasingly scowling as you go down the scale.

Sold!

Where is the explaination of this idea? I'm intrigued.

I voted for nothing at all. But if I there nneds to be a scoring system I suppose it should be the letters one with S & F.

Pod - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OH right, I see. Apologies. I skim read and just saw that a wordy version of A-F. I was thinking there'd be multiple sets of faces, the number and attitude of them indicating how many plus/flaws a game has. Or something.