Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to take a moment to talk about my scoring system.  You may have noticed by now that I don’t use numbers, stars, letter grades, or erect digits.  I use a word or phrase to score each game.  A lot of thought goes into my scoring system.  At first I wasn’t going to have one, but then I realized that people read reviews not just to be entertained (even if I am entertaining) but to be informed.  A score is a quick way to know if the game was good or not – and honestly, most people don’t read past it anyway.  Furthermore, tone can be lost in the written word.  A score helps set the context in which a review should be read. It’s a natural conclusion.

There are many genres of game and many degrees of success to achieve in making them.  Numbers, stars, etc. are linear.  I wanted my score to have more depth.  Each game’s score receives a lot of thought.  Objective criterion are measured versus the enjoyment of the game.  I think about each word, how to phrase it, and sometimes add a bit of humor.  Most critics’ scores are comparing apples to oranges with a number.  Distinguishing one 9.0 in one genre from another can be obtuse, especially when many reviews are simply bought and paid for by the video game’s publisher.  My scores will never be bought.  Until an offer exceeds a certain price-point, but in such a case I will always clearly mark the review as such.

1 Comment

  1. I want to take another moment to comment on my critic system. It’s more fun to make up stupid catch phrases. Though contrary to what I say above, only some thought goes into the score of each game. Not “a lot” I mostly just write something and if I laugh to myself it stays. Numbers are still way more lame.

    Fun isn’t a 1 to 10 scale. It’s three dimensional.

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