Game Writer's Symposium Discusses Review Scores

[outfromoutwhere]

Former GFW editor (and current Associate Producer at 2k Boston) Shawn Elliott has posted the first part (http://shawnelliott.blogspot.com/2008/12/symposium-part-one-review-scores.html) in a series of planned email conversations between game writers, including N'Gai Croal, Jeff Gerstmann, Dan Hsu, Stephen Totilo, and many others, about the state of game writing.

Review scores are for the lazy, the unengaged, and the inarticulate. They're for stickers on boxes and press releases. They're understood differently by different people, and they're applied differently by different publications. They're an attempt to inject some sort of science into someplace it doesn't belong and the sad irony is that they mean nothing. I don't know if games are art, but so long as we're branding numbers into their flanks, they're certainly consumer products.

Incredibly insightful, well written responses here, although you'll probably need to set aside a good chunk of time to read it all.

[LostToys]

I should print out Tom Chick's reply onto a business card and hand it out to everyone who bothers asking my opinion on anything.

Spot. Fucking.On

[Returner]

I love Tom Chick.

[Syl]

I've been slowly reading through this. It's certainly a LOT of information to digest.

[modeps]

Weren't people just the other day (http://evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69397) saying that Tom Chick has no business in the industry? :)

[PopoWRX]

Weren't people just the other day (http://evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69397) saying that Tom Chick has no business in the industry? :)

To each his own I guess. I never played the game in question so I can't comment but everyone has an opinion. I'm just as likely to weigh violentp's reaction to Res2 as Chick's except I can have immediate discourse with one, which is what makes these types of forums so convenient and useful.

That being said, I half agree with what Chick said as I find review scores a useful short-hand option from game reviewers I trust if I don't have the time to delve into a review.

[addik]

I've been slowly reading through this. It's certainly a LOT of information to digest.

ditto. so much of it well written, and the opinions and views are all worth considering.

[lost]

As somebody who gives arbitrary scores to games on a weekly basis I'll say I'd be happy to remove them all together if that was the consensus of the forums. I believe that my reviews are well-written and that without seeing a score you could make a sensible decision on a title.

The thing is, if not here then most places, people seem to want that score.

[Bugsplatter]

Game Dev's don't like scores for two reasons. A) on the artistic side, words can be manipulated and massaged.. you can look through for the good, but numbers are cold, heartless things that tell you that the game you did your best on and scored a 7? Yup, your best was mediocre. B) It keeps people like us from buying lousy games. Sifting through a 3 page written review for useful info is time consuming.. looking at the box in the corner with a 6.5 in it is easy and quick.

Grow a thicker skin, get over it and make a game I want to buy.

[Flatpicker]

As somebody who gives arbitrary scores to games on a weekly basis I'll say I'd be happy to remove them all together if that was the consensus of the forums. I believe that my reviews are well-written and that without seeing a score you could make a sensible decision on a title.

The thing is, if not here then most places, people seem to want that score.


Removing the scores would be fine, but, then as a reader I'd like to see an expanded version of the good/bad/ugly area.

No bullet points. Make it an actual paragraph if possible?

As an old reader of CGW they were at their best when the reviews were longer, they talked about the game as an experience, then had the technical part as a sep paragraph. No scores at all.

Personally, I still think the bigger issue with game reviews are that they are done by people who want to get into the game making industry. I think it colors the review. See for example Shawn Elliot in this article, Former GFW reviewer and current 2k assoc producer.

See what I mean? You tend to not get that interplay with movie reviewers.