Changes to Gamespot (Page Layout, Scoring, etc.)

I really like the idea of the "tags" for each review. It'll help distinguish between games of the same genre which get the same score, and seperate the same game split over different consoles. I have a strong feeling a lot of the portsforthePC are going to get a nasty tag, as will Quake Wars (if the ads are really bad).

And I prefer the new .5 scale over the .1 scale, not because it's "dumbed down", but because it adds alot of uniformity to the reviews.

And the new layout of the site is good too, seems more Opera friendly. Except the videos.

[QUOTE="duxup"]

I can't say I'm fond of the .5 point increments myself. Sure you can say it is a 20 point scale but really most games only score in the upper reaches of that scale, and Gamespot is very careful about giving away the highest scores right (something I hope doesn't change). So in most cases how many possible scores are there? Not many.

In the end it won't matter much to me as the quality reviews are the real treasures. Maybe I'll like the scoring system better after I see it for a while but as it stands I'm a bit skeptical.

Doomshine

Well, if it will lead to people actually reading the reviews instead of staring at the numbers, I'm all for it.

Based on what I saw in the presentation encouraging folks to read the reviews doesn't seem to be the intent. In fact it seems more opportunities to not read the review are being provided. That's not to say I think people should be forced to read the review. Frankly I don't read every review and I don't think there's a lot that can be done to make people do so.

[QUOTE="Doomshine"][QUOTE="duxup"]

I can't say I'm fond of the .5 point increments myself. Sure you can say it is a 20 point scale but really most games only score in the upper reaches of that scale, and Gamespot is very careful about giving away the highest scores right (something I hope doesn't change). So in most cases how many possible scores are there? Not many.

In the end it won't matter much to me as the quality reviews are the real treasures. Maybe I'll like the scoring system better after I see it for a while but as it stands I'm a bit skeptical.

duxup

Well, if it will lead to people actually reading the reviews instead of staring at the numbers, I'm all for it.

Based on what I saw in the presentation encouraging folks to read the reviews doesn't seem to be the intent. In fact it seems more opportunities to not read the review are being provided. That's not to say I think people should be forced to read the review. Frankly I don't read every review and I don't think there's a lot that can be done to make people do so.

I'm not suggesting they force people to read the reviews, but it seems like some people can't look past the numbers and think anything below 8 is not worth getting.

And yes, they can still get a good idea of how good the game is just by looking at the gamespace, they have a number, a summary of what is good and bad as well as the medals now.

You know what I just thought of, if they really wanted to make the review system less objective and more subjective (which is a stupid idea in the 1st place). all they really had to do was up the weight of the tilt score. HiResDes

Based on what I saw in the presentation encouraging folks to read the reviews doesn't seem to be the intent. In fact it seems more opportunities to not read the review are being provided. That's not to say I think people should be forced to read the review. Frankly I don't read every review and I don't think there's a lot that can be done to make people do so.

duxup

Indeed, the badges themselves seem to be ways ofexposing strong points in the review content.