Game ratings are overrated

The first time I noticed how much gamers cared about ratings was when Twilight Princess came out for the Wii. Jeff Gerstmann gave the game an 8.8(great), the lowest rating given to a major Zelda game on Gamespot, and a pretty low rating for any hyped-up game. But Jeff backed up his opinion with valid arguments, stating that despite all the things TP did right, many elements of the game were dated and not up to current-gen(or last-gen) standards for graphics and sound.

Zelda fanboys balked. I'm sure some of them were in tears as they wrote angry comments about how Gamespot was the only site not to give the game at least a 9, and how Jeff was an Xbox loving fanboy. The sad thing was, none of them seemed to have any problem with the written review. It was just the rating. If Jeff gave the game a 10, but kept the written review exactly the same, all of those fanboys would have been happy.

Then came Metal Gear Solid 4. Anything less than 9.5 was a crime, and meant that the reviewer had lost his credibility. I'm sure i don't need to remind you people.

By the way, I'm a fan of both games. Love them dearly. But I respect opposing opinions that are backed up with valid arguments. Personally, I think the 10 point system needs to go. The five point system is way better, because it's more general and it forces the reader to actually read the review. Movies use the five point system(sometimes even a four point system). A couple game sites do as well (Gamespy, Giant Bomb).

Heck, maybe they should do away with point systems, period. If you read the written review, you'll know EXACTLY what the reviewer thinks of the game. The only purpose of point systems is competition and laziness. "Oh, my game got better ratings than yours." "I'm too lazy to read the review so I'll just look at the rating." And so on.

I agree completely with your opinion on rating system, topraman.

"I'm sure some of them were in tears as they wrote angry comments..."

-Exactly. If you change the ratings system, you might just remove an outlet for the fanboys to exorcise their ridiculous, hateful, teary-eyed rage. We can't exactly have them taking to the streets, gnashing their teeth, dressing in sack cloth and ashes and accosting innocent civilians now, can we?

Don't be so selfish. Think of the poor fanboys...

*ducks head and runs back under bridge*

The first time I noticed how much gamers cared about ratings was when Twilight Princess came out for the Wii. Jeff Gerstmann gave the game an 8.8(great), the lowest rating given to a major Zelda game on Gamespot, and a pretty low rating for any hyped-up game. But Jeff backed up his opinion with valid arguments, stating that despite all the things TP did right, many elements of the game were dated and not up to current-gen(or last-gen) standards for graphics and sound.

Zelda fanboys balked. I'm sure some of them were in tears as they wrote angry comments about how Gamespot was the only site not to give the game at least a 9, and how Jeff was an Xbox loving fanboy. The sad thing was, none of them seemed to have any problem with the written review. It was just the rating. If Jeff gave the game a 10, but kept the written review exactly the same, all of those fanboys would have been happy.

Then came Metal Gear Solid 4. Anything less than 9.5 was a crime, and meant that the reviewer had lost his credibility. I'm sure i don't need to remind you people.

By the way, I'm a fan of both games. Love them dearly. But I respect opposing opinions that are backed up with valid arguments. Personally, I think the 10 point system needs to go. The five point system is way better, because it's more general and it forces the reader to actually read the review. Movies use the five point system(sometimes even a four point system). A couple game sites do as well (Gamespy, Giant Bomb).

Heck, maybe they should do away with point systems, period. If you read the written review, you'll know EXACTLY what the reviewer thinks of the game. The only purpose of point systems is competition and laziness. "Oh, my game got better ratings than yours." "I'm too lazy to read the review so I'll just look at the rating." And so on.

topraman517

Your right to a certain extint, majority of people just look at the scores for games as you said up above, reviews don't mean anything is overstated, because imo they do, gamers are spending money on games, who wants to buy a poor quality game for 60 hard earn dollars? when you can rent it for 5-10 bucks, beat it and trade it in? I do agree that fanboys whin about scores too much, but overall I just let them cry and move on.

I think a five point rating system would be great! The difference between a 3/5 and a 4/5 is a lot bigger than the difference between a 7.0 and a 7.5.

I also think that a lot of the people who thought GTAIV and MGS4 didn't deserve 10s wouldn't have a problem if they got 5/5s.

On an interesting side-note, guess who gave Zelda: Ocarina of Time a perfect 10? Jeff Gerstmann, that's who. Wind Waker? Jeff Gerstmann. Plus, he lovingly references the 2D Zelda games in his Ocarina review. I think it's safe to say that he knew what he was dealing with when he played Twilight Princess.
topraman517

Actually, a lot of Gerstmann's criticisms were nitpicky. That said, I prefer a rating system that only recommends games based on enjoyment, not inherent quality, since there is no way to objectively quantify how much one person might enjoy a certain element of a game.foxhound_fox

Nitpicky about what Zelda TTP? He was right on imo, the game hasn't changed since it came out in late 90's, Nintendo is just rehashing the same game over and over and over again and reviewers feel compeled to give a 9.0 score over and over again, if it wasn't Zelda I don't think you would have seen this happen.

TC, the title is redundant. But, however, the last time I actually paid attention to a review number was the time i bought R6V instead of R6V2. Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!qwertyoip

Sequels usually get lower scores from gamespot. I guess they feel like since it's a sequel, then it should be a lot better and have a lot more than the previous game.