A Survey For the New Review System

well i'm pretty sure the findings will just be what is already pretty darn clear tbh...that we pretty much unanimously dislike the .5 increment idea, we like the medal idea, and have varying opinions on the general layout, removal of the review component parts, etc.robbristow

I think your right. But I think if they were to do some kind of survey, it would have to be about a month after the first review goes up.

The poll would reveal nothing surprising, unless you are blind, because so few people are actually accepting this new system.LTomlinson21

I'm pretty sure Gamespot IS blind - or just extremely conceited about their "new idea". I'm strongly leaning toward the latter, as there's no way in hell they could have missed the outrage.

[QUOTE="LTomlinson21"]The poll would reveal nothing surprising, unless you are blind, because so few people are actually accepting this new system.Zeke129

I'm pretty sure Gamespot IS blind - or just extremely conceited about their "new idea". I'm strongly leaning toward the latter, as there's no way in hell they could have missed the outrage.

It IS pretty shocking, given that this is a for-profit site. With any luck someone at Cnet will notice and put he kibosh on this little paternalistic misadventure. I realize that a certain flavour of academia is leaking through here, and I understand how that would come to be... but it's time to touch base with reality, the dollar, and your subscriber base gamespot: We are NOT HAPPY.

P.S. Gamespot has set up a feedback thread here: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_topics.php?board_id=314159277

Might as well post somewhere they might deign to read.

i hate the new review system. it sucks. my 2 cents

i hate the new review system. it sucks. my 2 cents

buffdaddy500

Can't give 2 cents anymore. Either 50 cents or a dollar. Remember, .5 increments only!

have u even seen the transformers review using the new rating system. "The Good" mentioned "Environments break apart and blow up real good," that isn't even gramatically correct. I really didnt expect to see this mistake. As a English major, please fix this. P.S. I dont edit my posts.

I give the new ratings system a 2.4. On the other hand, I rarely buy a game under a 9.0 unless I'm specifically interested in the content, at which point I could give two poops about a review score. Unless it's below a 7.9, then forget about it. killjoi

Rounded to a .5 incrament, you gave it a 2.5 XD

Well, my detest for the new system has been noted. And the emblem as "BE ALL" is horrendous. How can you eliminate a break down of graphics, sound, gameplay, etc? And honestly, it's more confusing and juvenile to hover over an icon to figure out a game's qualities and shortcomings, like a dwarf representing a short game, nevermind that it degrades short people. Nevertheless, the icons would have been fine by me if they left the precise rating system untouched, it undeniably complemented the reviews, now I don't even feel compelled to read the reviews, since I feel they're handing me a crayon and saying, "OK. Now color in-between the lines. BLUE is for SKY. GREEN is for GRASS. Good boy."

no new review system will change the fact that GS reviewers rarely write decent reviews.

do you see any other sites coming up with messed up reviews to overcompensate? any? what the hell is wrong with the classic system - why do we need visual aids to further lump games in to meaningless categories -- and what the hell is up with the .5 increments? sucks enough that you feel the need to round up and down reviews for Gamerankings.com instead of developing a more comprehensive system.

anyways - it sucks. my 2 cents.

[QUOTE="LTomlinson21"]The poll would reveal nothing surprising, unless you are blind, because so few people are actually accepting this new system.Zeke129

I'm pretty sure Gamespot IS blind - or just extremely conceited about their "new idea". I'm strongly leaning toward the latter, as there's no way in hell they could have missed the outrage.

no new review system will change the fact that GS reviewers rarely write decent reviews.

3picuri3

[QUOTE="3picuri3"]

no new review system will change the fact that GS reviewers rarely write decent reviews.

Shifty_Pete

well I have quite a few gripes with them - some of them more specific to certain reviewers but here are some of my major issues:

-often reviews lack real depth. it seems like the reviewer has only spent a short amount of time with the game, errors in describing key game mechanics reflect this, among other things.

-personal bias is an issue at GS much more than at other sites. quite a few GS reviewers are, i hate to use the term, fanboys. if something irks them with a game that is related to some fanboy preference you shouldn't let that impact your review. reviewers are meant to be somewhatneutral in their presentation of their reviews, as most journalists are expected to be (i know calling game reviewers journalists is a stretch, but what else would you call them?). i.e. Shadowrun review - J.G shouldn't have listed one of his major cons as 'the game not using it's licence properly'.. i'm a shadowrun fan too, that issue bothers me, but the game is great fun IMO. his review was just tainted with this sour taste he has in his mouth about something he held dear as a child (and possibly now) instead of focussing on the game if that makes sense.

-writing errors, poor editing. many reviews have misspellings, factual errors, misrepresentations. this kind of ties in with my first point, it often seems like the staff at GS do this as a 2nd or 3rd job... spend 2 hours playing, 1 hour writing, done.

i could probably go on, but i'd rather not. just do yourself a personal favor and explore the world of internet game reviews - i'm sure you'll find that there's a lot of higher quality content out there ;) but to each their own.

GameSpot is an ever evolving beast and things are going to change. Like everything else, you'll get used to the new system. Sounds to me like people are just trying to find things to complain about.Disclaim3r

hehe, if that was true why wouldn't the 'Site Enhancements & Feedback' forum always be this active?

[QUOTE="Shifty_Pete"]

Interesting... I've always found GameSpot's reviews to be quite good overall. What problems do you have (with the text portions) with them that makes you dislike them?
3picuri3

well I have quite a few gripes with them - some of them more specific to certain reviewers but here are some of my major issues:

-often reviews lack real depth. it seems like the reviewer has only spent a short amount of time with the game, errors in describing key game mechanics reflect this, among other things.

-personal bias is an issue at GS much more than at other sites. quite a few GS reviewers are, i hate to use the term, fanboys. if something irks them with a game that is related to some fanboy preference you shouldn't let that impact your review. reviewers are meant to be somewhatneutral in their presentation of their reviews, as most journalists are expected to be (i know calling game reviewers journalists is a stretch, but what else would you call them?). i.e. Shadowrun review - J.G shouldn't have listed one of his major cons as 'the game not using it's licence properly'.. i'm a shadowrun fan too, that issue bothers me, but the game is great fun IMO. his review was just tainted with this sour taste he has in his mouth about something he held dear as a child (and possibly now) instead of focussing on the game if that makes sense.

-writing errors, poor editing. many reviews have misspellings, factual errors, misrepresentations. this kind of ties in with my first point, it often seems like the staff at GS do this as a 2nd or 3rd job... spend 2 hours playing, 1 hour writing, done.

i could probably go on, but i'd rather not. just do yourself a personal favor and explore the world of internet game reviews - i'm sure you'll find that there's a lot of higher quality content out there ;) but to each their own.

Am I right in guessing that you found the review to be poor because you think the game should have scored higher? I can't comment myself--I only played the demo.

You see, I just read the Shadowrun review, and it sounds like he points out that the license is not used (as did the Shadowrun rights-holders) as a warning to those who might go "a shadowrun game? I love Shadowrun--I'm getting it!"

Shifty_Pete

That is exactly what I did when I first learned they were making it. I thought it was gonna be like the SNES classic.

GameSpot is an ever evolving beast and things are going to change. Like everything else, you'll get used to the new system. Sounds to me like people are just trying to find things to complain about.Disclaim3r

No, not really. You know that there is a real problem when the complaining is at a near maximum of users who are actually commenting on this new system. It's not the usual handful of people criticizing something. This system is getting a disapproval rating of near the redesign of GameSpot in 2005, which was horrible.

This new review system looks ridiculous. The look of the pages is horrible with the large font and lack of a good color. The emblems are just a waste and don't add anything. Then the rating system itself is horrible.

I'm tired of ranting about this new system. Read my last blog entry if you want to know my take on things.

I can say that the GameSpot editors are among the greatest reviewers on the planet. I for one have never seen one of the editors take a bias approach in a review, nor have I ever witnessed a grammatical error. Not in-depth enough? That's a bigger joke than this new system.

I have to say that when it was announced I had mixed feelings about the direction it was going but now that I have seen a couple of reviews in the new form, yeah don't like it so much. The full text review is pretty much the same as it was before so I'm not going to complain about that but the emblems do seem like a waste of space really, maybe that'll change when I don't actually need to highlight each emblem to actually see what each one of them means but I doubt it. Also the score breakdown of graphics, sound etc. was actually really good, that combined with the intro of the pros and cons and obviously the score would pretty much tell you enough about the game if you only were just glancing at it. And yes the 0.5 increment thing just isn't good enough, yes I can understand the argument that what is the difference between a game that is an 8.8 with an 8.9 but there is a difference when it comes to similar games that would have scored something like 8.6, 8.8 or 9.0, under the new system you just don't see that as well.

All in all I think there were some interesting ideas that were there but interesting doesn't always mean good.

I'm pretty sure Gamespot IS blind - or just extremely conceited about their "new idea". I'm strongly leaning toward the latter, as there's no way in hell they could have missed the outrage.

Zeke129

I am pretty sure Gamespot wants to be blind about this. There is one thread done by staff to post your comments about the changes and you are not allowed to comment on the new review system (just got my message deleted and a warning) and just about every thread talking about this gets closed, because there are oh so many you can discuss this in. I wonder where they are... I actually wonder that this has been allowed to stay open.

Whoever wanted these changes is sure conceited enough to not acknowledge that his wonderful idea is rejected by the community. To whoever you are: This is not about not liking changes, this is about not liking bad changes.

In my many years on the net I have not seen a major site's staff that is so blatantly disregarding and ignoring their readership and just forcing on them what they feel should be done. As far as I can see after all this outrage there is not even a single word in defense of the new ratings uttered, beside what was originally posted. Kinda makes me feel that they just want anyone not happy with the changes to go away.

This behavior in itself is a big "just forget about Gamespot" to me.

In case a moderator feels I should again be warned for posting my opinion in a clear and non-insulting manner: Please, go ahead, I may not have future use for my account anyway.

i hiiiiiiiiiighly dislike the new review system, ive been using gamespot for years now and im really sad to see the new reviews. they dont provide enough information and i miss the old gameplay, graphics, sound, value, and tilt scores. it sucks : (. i guess ill just have to go ign now even tho ive been w/ gs for like 6 years

Personally, ive come to like it. I still dont fancy the new ratings, but it DOES remove any kind of "genre bias", and besides, the "Good, Bad, Review" parts were always the most important to me.

All in all, i'll live wiht it. It would be nice to get rid of the .5 rating system though. Although I can see why they would want to remove arbitrary things like "Graphics get a 9... erm k!"

Gamespot was just tired of every PS3 game scoring .1 to .2 lower than every 360 game, so they changed the rating system so the PS3 games looks as good as the 360 counterparts .... just kidding, seriously though it is much more difficult to make cross platform comparisons. I hated the old Tilt score, and felt the old system needed changes, just not these changes. Do those emblems affect the scores or are they just pretty pictures? I think IGN has the right system, but their reviews are always to generous. Bottom line, I'll still look to this site & multiple others for a balanced take on the game, just gamespot just won't be the first site I turn to anymore.

Gamespot was just tired of every PS3 game scoring .1 to .2 lower than every 360 game, so they changed the rating system so the PS3 games looks as good as the 360 counterparts .... just kidding, seriously though it is much more difficult to make cross platform comparisons. I hated the old Tilt score, and felt the old system needed changes, just not these changes.

mylsd

Really? I appreciated the Tilt contribution because #1. it actually let us see the biases inherent in each review and how they affected the overall score; and #2. some games really can be great in sound, graphics, gameplay etc but yet still somehow find a way to suck. Equally games that are mediocre in all fields can still somehow find a way to be entertaining. GS used Tilt as a way to attempt and address these issues/possibilities while also realizing that a review is still very much so a subjective thing.

They screwed up on the emblems already. Trackmania United got the "in-game advertising" demerit when you can TURN OFF THE ADVERTISING IN THE NETWORK OPTIONS!

(IP blurred)

I guess their new "simplified system" is so simple, it removes the ability to operate a toggle button.

They screwed up on the emblems already. Trackmania United got the "in-game advertising" demerit when you can TURN OFF THE ADVERTISING IN THE NETWORK OPTIONS!

(IP blurred)

I guess their new "simplified system" is so simple, it removes the ability to operate a toggle button.

Zeke129

yet another example of GS reviewers inability to fact check, or dig deeper than personal experience when writing their reviews. all it would've taken them is a trip to their own forums for the game, or the official forums.

it's awful

the award idea is alright, but everything else is just terrible

I'll be so pissed if they don't change it back

i agree. ever since the new rating system came out u can't really know if the game is good or bad, easily. the icons r nice but only as a bonus to the old out of ten

i agree. ever since the new rating system came out u can't really know if the game is good or bad, easily. the icons r nice but only as a bonus to the old out of ten

syncroshadow

Honestly, people started screaming about this new review method before it even came out... how can you generate so much hate so quickly? I'm not entirely sure about it, but I figure I'll give it some time to see how it does. I think this whole thing would go smoother if everybody calmed the heck down, gave the new system an honest chance, and then offered constructive criticism on it.