During the early conceptualization meetings that would eventually lead to the birth of Four Player Co-Op, it was decided that we would do reviews. This brought up a question that, on the surface, seems quite easy to answer. How would the games be rated? What method of classification or scoring system would we use to let readers and listeners know we felt about a game? Would it be the traditional number scale? How about letter grades? Could we think of something new or unique that wouldn’t be bound to simple quantification? Since we are focusing on review systems on Pixelosophy this week, I thought I’d share with you some of the thoughts I had about each type of scoring system and how they influenced the decision to forego the more conventional review styles for something a little more us. I say they are my thoughts only because I don’t want to speak for every member of the crew, even though our ideologies on reviews do overlap more often than not. Let’s get started.
The Number Scale
We were generally opposed to this, mainly because math is hard, but it’s the old stand-by and deserved consideration. It usually seems like the most obvious way to go, but even then, it still brings up a lot of questions. Is the scale out of four? Five? Ten? Maybe we can go percentage style and make it out of a hundred. Do we allow decimals on the halves, quarters or tenths? The more we played with ideas for a number system; the more its flaws became apparent.
The biggest issue that sticks out is that many people associate the ten point number scale with a lettered grading system, like in school. This association has the power to drastically skew an audience’s perception of a game for the worse. For example, on a ten point scale, a score of a seven should be considered pretty good. It’s two points above average and is probably worth a look or maybe even a purchase. Now, think to yourself the last time you even considered buying a game that received a seven as a score. It probably doesn’t happen all that often, does it? This association with letter grades puts a seven at a C; which in the grading system lives in the dead center of Averagetown. On a number scale, an average game should get a score of a five, not a seven, but as you can see, that’s where this association can alter your viewpoint. A game with a score of seven is probably better than many people presume it to be. The same goes for a game with a score of five. Five is average. It should be close to the majority of games out there, yet we stay away from a game with a score that low like it has H1N1.
The problem with a number scale, from my perspective, was that once decimals start getting in the mix, there really isn’t a meaningful way to quantify a game. What makes a game that received 9.3 different than a game that got a 9.2? For me personally, that’s my problem with using numbers to represent any sort of entertainment media. I feel that numbers mean quantification of a thing, yet we don’t have any sort of rule that says graphics are worth this much and gameplay is worth that much. Physics don’t equal any predetermined amount of points so how much do you deduct if they are bad? That’s where the review starts to get a lot more subjective because each component of a game may hold different value to different reviewers so there is ultimately no real truth behind the numbers.
Letter Grades
Letter grades essentially have the same problem as the number system, only in reverse. I say this because when most of us see a letter grade, it’s a knee-jerk reaction to put a percentage on it. With letter grades, however, a game’s score could be skewed higher than the reviewer intended. Again, looking at a C average, most people assume 70-75% score. That’s how it was in school, but it’s wrong for a review scale. A C would again be average, since it’s the middle letter, and should therefore equal a 5/10, not 7/10.
Basically, numbers and letters are interchangeable because people are going to do the math in their head anyway. They are the same thing. Numbers have decimals. Letters have plus and minus modifiers. I don’t really see the advantage of using either, especially if people would potentially misinterpret our thoughts on a game.
The 4PC Way
There were two key ingredients to determining our review style. One was the way we scored them. The other is that they were going to be in podcast form. We figured, what better way to describe how we felt about a game than to just sit around and talk about it for an hour or so? Somewhere in those recordings are the gold nuggets of a review that gets put together for all of you. When you talk to your friends about a game for more than just a few minutes, you get a clear, general idea of what the game is like. We wanted to create that accessible experience, and hopefully we have done that. Now, at the time of this writing, we have begun to do some written reviews as well. That is simply in the interest of getting more coverage up there since we can’t all always play the same things.
Deciding to label the games in the manner that we do isn’t something entirely new. There are a few sites out there that employ a similar scoring system. It just made a lot of sense to us based on the idea of the podcast. At the end of a long conversation about a game, more than likely your friend is just going to tell you to try it out or urge you to buy it. If it sucks, they’ll let you know to stay away. Again, the idea of conversation-as-review is what really made me like the idea of having the scores sound more like advice than just numbers.
The one negative thing that I’ve heard about this system is that it results in a lot of recommendations to try a game. This is true. “Try It” probably is the label that gets used the most, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. There are a lot of games out there that will appeal to a variety of different people, and I dare say that the majority of them are at least worth giving a shot for one reason or another. If a reviewer’s job is to educate people about a specific game or at the very least give them a straight answer about a game, then I feel these blunt recommendations are the way to go. Otherwise, there is the risk of players drawing conclusions not intended by the reviewer based on a number or letter. Of course, there are other factors of reviews and a game’s value to the player to be explored. So, stay tuned as Pixelosophy’s review of reviews continues next week.