Thumbs down. (Gaming)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Monday, June 12, 2017, 01:07 (2731 days ago) @ Vortech
edited by Cody Miller, Monday, June 12, 2017, 01:11

Not to weigh in on HZD since I haven't played it, but video game reviewers for large publications are almost exclusively bad at their jobs. The very idea of a score is kind of silly to begin with. You either liked it, or didn't like it. Siskel and Ebert had it right all along.

No.

I'm so tired of this wave of art is consumed in binary black OR white thumbs up thumbs down narrative. People can and do have ranges of reactions to things.

The very next sentence, I go on to say that this is true, and that's why you read the review for the nuance of the opinion. I would give a thumbs up to both Gemini Rue and A Golden Wake, but one of these is a decent game and the other a masterpiece. Which is which and why? Ask me to explain, which is ostensibly what the review text is. Bioshock Infinite and Limbo both get a thumbs down from me, but one has at least some things of value, and fails in an interesting and teachable way. Want details? Read a review.

I mean, if the score is out of 100 and so detailed, why have text at all? Just post a score. Uncharted 2 and Goldeneye both have a 96 on metacritic. Does that mean they are equally good? Hell no. So if the score doesn't even tell you that, why have it? And so we see it's useless, and that a like / dislike plus review text does exactly the same job as a score with lots of delineation. It actually does it better.

Most people look at the first digit anyway and judge from there. Whereas with a thumbs up thumbs down, you'd have to read the review and after doing so you'd understand the nuance of the opinion.