Review Overhaul Community Contribution Thread (R.O.C.K. O.N.)

For those community members who like me would like to contribute to the review overhaul system, I see no reason why such discussion should be disallowed. There is no sticky topic forbidding such contributions nor is there any existing topic to post in. I am going to assume that previous threads where locked due to inappropriate wording and consistency.

In order to maintain a civilized discussion, this thread is intended for constructive and properly formulated responses. It does not exist for your approval or condemnation in single sentence wording.

*

There really needs to either be a sticky topic or something clearly marked as such in the first 3 pages of topics (I went through the first 3 pages and didn't find a subject that said anything that I would attribute to the new review changes.

a) I can tell the difference between 9.4 and a 9.6

b) I like being able to tell the difference between a 9.4 and a 9.6

b) I like the emblem idea.

c) I can read.

d) My alphabet, however is not so good.

the medals are fine, but i think the .5 incrementation sucks. and so does everyone else. i hope GS pays attention to all those negative commentskappareign

The medal system is definitely a good idea and will benefit the users quite a bit.

To get to my main point, the new point system is horrible and I can't even see how it is supposed to make sense and help reviews out. This should be thought through and considered to be changed because it will not work.

Who honestly cares about the way Gamespot is giving out the scores? What matters is that Gamespot is giving out good quality reviews.

Besides, the .1 increment system has its flaws. The 360 version of Oblivion got a 9.6 while the PS3 version got a 9.5, both of which had the same numeric values (9/9/10/10/10).

Here's some food for thought: what if Gamespot stopped giving out scores altogether? Would people be forced to, and this may shock you, read the reviews?

Besides, with the new system, you get neat looking medals, and everybody loves seeing medals! :D

Basically, kirbyfanatic sums up my comment.

Well, they locked my thread. Go figure. I guess it's harder to see negative feedback when you only allow one thread at a time. I think they're TRYING to ignore us. I've been angry at some of the things Gamespot has done in the past, but this one takes the cake. Here's a direct paste from my (now locked) thread:

I didn't find an official thread for this, so I'll make my own. First, I do actually have a few praises of the new system. I like the idea of eliminating the 5 categories and replacing them with (de)merits. However, that's about the only thing I like about it.

The 1/2 increments are, in my opinion, a half-baked idea and a vein attempt at being different, or "edgy", as you may want to call it. Before, we had 90 different numerical ratings that games could get. Now, we'll have 20. That means a game like Big Rigs will only be 19 ticks away from a game like Ocarina of Time. Uh-oh!

Nearly all other credible review sites are using scores in 1/10 increments. You claim the halves will "simply reviews", but I don't see dumbfounded people stumbling around numbers like "8.7" trying to figure out what that damn decimal is. I believe fractions are taught in grade 3 math - so this isn't going to simply anything.

In fact, it will literally destroy the credibility of Gamespot reviews, and therefore, the entire site.I can't help but think this site will become the laughing stock of the review industry with people using comments like "Oh those stupid Gamespotters.... can't even figure out a decimal point!"

And did anyone think of what will happen to the older games under the old review system? Will all the scores be rounded off, effectively changing the scores of thousands of games (something you promised never to do)? Or, will you leave two separate review systems on the site? You know, to simply things.

Don't take this as an insult, but I can't help but think this idea is the brainchild of a night of a tad too much drinking. Hell, I have a hard enough time dialing a phone when drunk. I've never even attempted to tackle a number with decimals in it.

In summary? Keep the emblems idea, lose the ".5's only" idea. It will simply confuse things - the exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve. I don't know if this post will change anything, but if it does - kudos to you, Gamespot. I think the community is unanimous in this thought.

In fact, it will literally destroy the credibility of Gamespot reviews, and therefore, the entire site.
Zeke129

That statement is entirely untrue. The only thing that's changing here is the score, not the quality of Gamespot's reviews, which is generally superb.

Also, your thread was locked because this thread had already been established.

The general consensus seems to be;

Medals= good

.5 increments= bad

Too many sites and magazines utilize a simplified system in regards to their scoring. This was perhaps a unique aspect to GameSpot's reviews that caused them to stand out amongst most of the rest in terms of scoring.

[QUOTE="Zeke129"]

In fact, it will literally destroy the credibility of Gamespot reviews, and therefore, the entire site.
MysticDynamite

That statement is entirely untrue. The only thing that's changing here is the score, not the quality of Gamespot's reviews, which is generally superb.

Also, your thread was locked because this thread had already been established.

Did you read my whole post? It will destroy the credibility of their reviews because there will be old games with the .1 increments and new ones with the .5. They say it will simply things, but honestly - I have no clue what's going on. And I don't think newcomers to the site will either.

It's pretty much unanimous, Gamespot - we hate the .5 increments idea. Run with this.

I'm just curious, did gamespot ever consult the members of the site before just pressing on with this idea?hendrix29

[QUOTE="hendrix29"]I'm just curious, did gamespot ever consult the members of the site before just pressing on with this idea?robbristow

wow that's just ridiculous. Well, maybe someone could make a union just for the petition, where we could all sign if interested.

I never understood this. If a game gets a 9.5 or a 9.3, in my mind there is no difference its still a 9! Its still a great game. Gamespots reviews are not changing just the numbers if a game is a 9 it will get a 9, if its better than that it will get a 9.5 it just makes it easier to tell if the game is better. Someone needs to explain to me whats the difference between .2 in two different games. 99% of the time I agree with the review.

And as for the fact that Gamespot didn't consult you, boo freaking hoo. Jeff said on the spot on Thursday they have been working on this for months. Even if they would have told you, what exactly would you have done? Said "no don't go to the .5 system." they would have said "Sorry" and done it anyway. Its there site and they run it, if you don't like what they do, don't read the site and don't pay for it. I hate Ign so I cancelled my superscription and I barley use it anymore.

Just my two cents.

First the fact that one of the biggest changes lacks an official thread is preposterous. With all the time spent locking threads on a sunday a few seconds could be spent typing **OFFICIAL** and eliminate the problem. Furthermore locking every single thread about it with the reasoning "there are a lot of threads about this" is asinine. It is the equivalent of soldiers coming to a farmers door and saying, "you have plenty of corn, we will now take all of it."If you take all of the corn then you will no longer have plenty.

First the fact that one of the biggest changes lacks an official thread is preposterous. With all the time spent locking threads on a sunday a few seconds could be spent typing **OFFICIAL** and eliminate the problem. Furthermore locking every single thread about it with the reasoning "there are a lot of threads about this" is asinine. It is the equivalent of soldiers coming to a farmers door and saying, "you have plenty of corn, we will now take all of it."If you take all of the corn then you will no longer have plenty.

priestinacloset

They locked the other threads because this is the official one. And most of the other threads were, just Bashing the idea and not giving proper criticism.

And you corn thing......what?

Seriously. I'm actually pretty upset about this. The Gamespot community was never even consulted about this. I don't care if people say that "well, dude. It is their site, suck it up and deal with it." When you have a community of forumers and especially SUBSCRIBERS you shouldn't downgrade your services like this. People tend to feel ownership in something when you give them this much participation and feeling of community.

The reasoning is absolutely insulting. "To simplify our reviews"? Are you kidding? We understand them just fine. We can all understand the difference between 8.8 and 9.2. It is truly offensive that you are giving us this reasoning toward the change, because it is absolute nonsense.

I think the VAST (vast, vast) majority of gamespot members feel that the .5 incremental system is a terrible idea. We are asking you not to change it from the current system. However, most of us really like the idea of awards and demerits.

The unfortunate reality here is that we're going to have to cause quite the ruckus if we're going to stop this from getting changed. We should start linking people to the posts about this and get people angry about it. Almost no one who has read about it likes it, and we should let gamespot know.

And as for the fact that Gamespot didn't consult you, boo freaking hoo. Razma

When they do something like this without consulting PAYING subscribers, it most definitely IS boo-freaking-hoo. Actually, it's boo-freaking-chargeback.

EDIT: I've linked to this thread in my signature. I strongly urge the rest of you to do the same. Catchy phrases encouraged.

Gamespot must think we're pretty stupid if we can't figure out the difference between an 8.6 and an 8.9. :roll:

And I know I'm not the first person to say this but... if it ain't broke - don't fix it. The review process worked great the way it was. If I'm not liking the new format after the first couple days, I'm going to IGN for my reviews.

Just look at all the threads being locked on the board, I don't think it's just that there is one thread up here, gamespot knows they're in a mess, and they aren't going to do anything about it.

What I don't understand is Gamespot is telling us this review system will "simplify things" but its already simple enough. If you don't want to read the entire review just look at The Good and The Bad part at the beginning of the review and the whole review is "simplified" for you in 1 or 2 sentances.

I just don't see why Gamespot would change their review system, in my mind it was one of the best and really the only review I followed. The medals are good, but these .5 increments? Absolutely not. And what baffels me is they didn't even ask us what we thought before they began production for this. At least ask the subscribers, the ones that put money into this site so it can functionally run everyday. Would it have really hurt to ask us? You gave us an opportunity to voice our opinions on the unions for a long time and we've been giving you some great feedback there, why couldn't you have given us the same opportunity here?

Didnt people get angry when OXM moved to .5 increments? Didnt people stop caring about their reviews after that? I am however kind of split on the subject. Yes, Jeff makes a good point when saying some aspects of a game or more important in different genres. If they were to take away thefive differentscoring categories (gameplay, graphics, etc.), but leave the .1 increments,then the reviewer would literally be pulling a score out of their *** .

But on the other side, I always liked reading the individual catergories. I always liked looking at the value to see if the game was worth $60, or seeing if the the new innovative gameplay was worthy of a 10 in the gameplay category. But I suppose Gamespot knows what theyre doing. Its just a shame, because the system seemed almost perfect.

But the reviewers are still the same. The only thing that has changed is how WE read them. And I guess it is easier for us in some ways. I guess we'll find out tonight if we like it.

THANKS GAMESPOT FOR NOT GIVING US A VOTE TO LET THE PEOPLE AND FANS DECIDE! :evil:

It's funny if you go back to the news post and see that all the positive comments "dont meet the display criteria". Thats says alot of the hatred towards this issue. Gamespot has yet to came forth to discuss this with us -.-

[QUOTE="Razma"]

And as for the fact that Gamespot didn't consult you, boo freaking hoo. Zeke129

When they do something like this without consulting PAYING subscribers, it most definitely IS boo-freaking-hoo. Actually, it's boo-freaking-chargeback.

EDIT: I've linked to this thread in my signature. I strongly urge the rest of you to do the same. Catchy phrases encouraged.

Then cancel your account and stop complaining, things not even out yet and everyone is acting like its the end of the world.

[QUOTE="Zeke129"][QUOTE="Razma"]

And as for the fact that Gamespot didn't consult you, boo freaking hoo. Razma

When they do something like this without consulting PAYING subscribers, it most definitely IS boo-freaking-hoo. Actually, it's boo-freaking-chargeback.

EDIT: I've linked to this thread in my signature. I strongly urge the rest of you to do the same. Catchy phrases encouraged.

Then cancel your account and stop complaining, things not even out yet and everyone is acting like its the end of the world.

I just might. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how the .5 scoring system will work. (Or not work, for that matter)

The fact remains that Gamespot completely ignored the community on this one. Just like the redesign and the Plus/Total Access split.

Wait, does the rounding off thing only apply to staff reviews. I wrote a test review and I gave the game EW a 9.8, but it didn't round off to a 10. Either way, I assume that Gamespot would be getting pretty annoyed by our complaining. This just got implemented. It's not the end of the World.TAMKFan

I assume it hasn't been since based off of your experience and no review has been posted with the new review format.

However, there is no problem in those who are complaining because of a change that doesn't improve the review system.

The first review using the new system is up.

argh, they limited our standard rating to .5 increments as well, which just makes me hate this even more >___> i seriously don't want to have to write a review just to be able to give a game the score i want to :evil: ffs how hard can it be to not change things for the worse...robbristow

That's just pathetic. I don't care if Gamespot wants to stupefy their reviews, but there's no reason to force the community to do so.

The first review using the new system is up.

I only have one request. Can we get the difficulty ratings back? Even if it is tucked away into the Game Details section?SavoyPrime

wait a minute - we not gonna have THIS anymore?????

i loved this!!!!! why did they take away that :cry: ?????????????????

[QUOTE="SavoyPrime"]

The first review using the new system is up.

I only have one request. Can we get the difficulty ratings back? Even if it is tucked away into the Game Details section?Davidhye

wait a minute - we not gonna have THIS anymore?????

i loved this!!!!! why did they take away that :cry: ?????????????????

Only those who worked on the new review system know why the Difficulty and Learning Curve aspects were tossed out. I would have loved to see those aspects stay. Maybe GS will bring them back if enough people have suggested/requested it. I don't know.

[QUOTE="Davidhye"][QUOTE="SavoyPrime"]

The first review using the new system is up.

I only have one request. Can we get the difficulty ratings back? Even if it is tucked away into the Game Details section?SavoyPrime

wait a minute - we not gonna have THIS anymore?????

i loved this!!!!! why did they take away that :cry: ?????????????????

Only those who worked on the new review system know why the Difficulty and Learning Curve aspects were tossed out. I would have loved to see those aspects stay. Maybe GS will bring them back if enough people have suggested/requested it. I don't know.

well, i meant gameplay,graphics, sound scores - is it gone?

[QUOTE="SavoyPrime"][QUOTE="Davidhye"][QUOTE="SavoyPrime"]

The first review using the new system is up.

I only have one request. Can we get the difficulty ratings back? Even if it is tucked away into the Game Details section?Davidhye

wait a minute - we not gonna have THIS anymore?????

i loved this!!!!! why did they take away that :cry: ?????????????????

Only those who worked on the new review system know why the Difficulty and Learning Curve aspects were tossed out. I would have loved to see those aspects stay. Maybe GS will bring them back if enough people have suggested/requested it. I don't know.

well, i meant gameplay,graphics, sound scores - is it gone?

Yeah, that's gone.

Yeah, that's gone.SavoyPrime

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i LOVED this feature!! it was so useful!! now i have to go to freaking IGN to see it :cry:

Good/Bad and this scores were the best GS features in reviews!!!

i am fine with .5 - hell, it can be 1 - i don't care

just bring this feature back - PLEASEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :cry:

I hate the new review system. No gameplay, graphics, sound, learning curve sections etc. Also, how can you justify giving a game 8.0 on the new system but it would actually score a 7.6, 7.7 etc on the old system because I believe they are rounding it off. A 7.6 to a 8 is absolutely a huge leap because games that score a 8 or higher are usually casted off as a must buy. Also, what about the games that would have scored a 8.6, 8.7 etc on the old system but on the new system they are rounding it toa 9 on and as we all know, anything that scores a 9 is considered a AAA title.

I just looked at the Transformer game review and man, the whole thing looks like a bloody mess.

After overhauling their news sections last year which made it worse IMO, I hardly ever read the news and now this, I think I'll start skipping reviews all together. I use to like seeing what that reviewer thought of the gameplay, graphics, sound etc. There's going to be too many games with the same score now.

If I was a subscriber, I would have cancelled my subscription because of this.