Reviewers, Ratings and the love-hate relationship between them.
Hey everyone, welcome to yet another edition of Rant-Blog.
This is how it's going to go.
It's late, and I'm a bit tired, wired, yet inspired...and for some reason I'm rhyming.
*facepalm*
This is going to be a plain, kinda ranty blogpost and I'm just going to say what's on my mind.
So I've been reading this local IT/Gaming magazine,
and I found myself just slightly annoyed by the fact that a reviewer rated the new PC port of Metal Gear Rising with a 76/100.
Let's just get this out of the way by saying that I'm slightly partial, and that I love this game.
Now, I know ratings are kinda stupid, and everyone has their own opinion, but this irked me verily.
The thing is, the person reviewing it for a magazine, or an open, known, public website, whilst using the word "We" instead of "Me" when writing the review, should review the game objectively, not SUBjectively.
What I mean to say is, if you're going to express yourself in a way that is supposed to indicate that an entity (a magazine, a website, a community) as a whole comes to the same conclusion, don't subjectively rate and review something that you personally come to dislike.
This person, while giving MGR a rating of 76 proceeded to rate "Steamworld Dig", a game that I've personally reviewed (a link can be found here, you should check it out) with a rating of 84.
Now, as far as ratings go, that's just a tiny bit high for what that game actually is.
If I had to say myself, I'd give it a flat 80 on that scale.
If we were to rate ALL games on the same basis and on the same scale, there's just no fucking way a game like Metal Gear Rising gets a rating lower than fuckin' Steamworld Dig.
There just isn't. Let's be clear about that.
We're not talking about Bastion here, or a Braid, of the likes of Limbo.
We're talking about a glorified version of MOTHERLOAD for fuck's sake.
The game is not better than Metal Gear Rising.
On it's own rating scale, for indie games, fuck yes, it's worth the buy, and the playthrough.
Revengeance, on the other hand, is a spectacle fighter, it's meant for you to enjoy the game and go "WOW, I CAN DO THAT?!" every five minutes, and feel like a badass while doing it.
And it's the best goddamn game of that sort on the PC as of now.
I'm going off topic here.
So this guy (I'm going to start referring to him as the "guy" from now on) obviously has a boner for VS Fighting games, because he's been into them, and he's played them competitively and whatnot.
Every VS Fighter gets at least an 85+ from him, and he always reviews that particular sort of games.
Whether it was Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat, or Skullgirls, or any version of GuiltyGear/BlazBlue, the rating was always high.
All of this guy's reviews are subjectified, and rated as how he perceives the game.
You should not be doing reviews if you're going to give every fucking spin-off of Super Turbo Street Fighter 16 Mega Ultra Arcade Special Capcom Edition the rating of through-the-roof, and crap on everything else because it's not your cup of tea.
To conclude this.
If you're going to use the word "We" while doing a review for a magazine, do not SUBJECTIFY your reviews.
People want to read about how the MAJORITY feels about this game,
not how it wasn't good enough for you alone, because you don't like the genre.
Thank you for reading this, I appreciate you guys taking time to stumble onto this humble blog and read my reviews, thoughts or rants.
I really do.
See you next time !
EDIT: I made a boo-boo. The guy actually reviewed KickBeat Steam Edition, which is even worse. Apparently, a rhythm game where you push keys in the corresponding color to the keys on your gamepad for some reason deserves a higher rating than 80 ?
This is how it's going to go.
It's late, and I'm a bit tired, wired, yet inspired...and for some reason I'm rhyming.
*facepalm*
This is going to be a plain, kinda ranty blogpost and I'm just going to say what's on my mind.
So I've been reading this local IT/Gaming magazine,
and I found myself just slightly annoyed by the fact that a reviewer rated the new PC port of Metal Gear Rising with a 76/100.
Let's just get this out of the way by saying that I'm slightly partial, and that I love this game.
Now, I know ratings are kinda stupid, and everyone has their own opinion, but this irked me verily.
The thing is, the person reviewing it for a magazine, or an open, known, public website, whilst using the word "We" instead of "Me" when writing the review, should review the game objectively, not SUBjectively.
What I mean to say is, if you're going to express yourself in a way that is supposed to indicate that an entity (a magazine, a website, a community) as a whole comes to the same conclusion, don't subjectively rate and review something that you personally come to dislike.
This person, while giving MGR a rating of 76 proceeded to rate "Steamworld Dig", a game that I've personally reviewed (a link can be found here, you should check it out) with a rating of 84.
Now, as far as ratings go, that's just a tiny bit high for what that game actually is.
If I had to say myself, I'd give it a flat 80 on that scale.
If we were to rate ALL games on the same basis and on the same scale, there's just no fucking way a game like Metal Gear Rising gets a rating lower than fuckin' Steamworld Dig.
There just isn't. Let's be clear about that.
We're not talking about Bastion here, or a Braid, of the likes of Limbo.
We're talking about a glorified version of MOTHERLOAD for fuck's sake.
The game is not better than Metal Gear Rising.
On it's own rating scale, for indie games, fuck yes, it's worth the buy, and the playthrough.
Revengeance, on the other hand, is a spectacle fighter, it's meant for you to enjoy the game and go "WOW, I CAN DO THAT?!" every five minutes, and feel like a badass while doing it.
And it's the best goddamn game of that sort on the PC as of now.
I'm going off topic here.
So this guy (I'm going to start referring to him as the "guy" from now on) obviously has a boner for VS Fighting games, because he's been into them, and he's played them competitively and whatnot.
Every VS Fighter gets at least an 85+ from him, and he always reviews that particular sort of games.
Whether it was Street Fighter, or Mortal Kombat, or Skullgirls, or any version of GuiltyGear/BlazBlue, the rating was always high.
All of this guy's reviews are subjectified, and rated as how he perceives the game.
You should not be doing reviews if you're going to give every fucking spin-off of Super Turbo Street Fighter 16 Mega Ultra Arcade Special Capcom Edition the rating of through-the-roof, and crap on everything else because it's not your cup of tea.
To conclude this.
If you're going to use the word "We" while doing a review for a magazine, do not SUBJECTIFY your reviews.
People want to read about how the MAJORITY feels about this game,
not how it wasn't good enough for you alone, because you don't like the genre.
Thank you for reading this, I appreciate you guys taking time to stumble onto this humble blog and read my reviews, thoughts or rants.
I really do.
See you next time !
EDIT: I made a boo-boo. The guy actually reviewed KickBeat Steam Edition, which is even worse. Apparently, a rhythm game where you push keys in the corresponding color to the keys on your gamepad for some reason deserves a higher rating than 80 ?
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