Are numerical ratings really that bad?

[Aidy]

I might be imagining things but ISTR when Jeremy talked about this in a video he said that while the site will display one of three rating categories, there will be an actual weighted rating behind the scenes, so that will allow some form of relative comparison. That might be be misreading the intentions, but I think that's what he said.

[MadMummy76]

Actually the system in place is going to be "Pass - Pause - Play", but same thing anyway.

If you watched the live stream Jeremy did when he was discussing with everyone about the rating system, the subject you mention - about it be too simplistic - was addressed. He basically said that what is the difference really between giving the game a 7 or 8? Is that really going to influence whether you buy the game or not? Where do you set your own personal threshold? Everyone is going to have a different perspective on that.

So breaking it down into three absolutes makes it a simpler way to decided whether you should buy the game. Of course, even then it's still subjective - based on the reviewers opinion - but it does make for a nice clean rating system.

I've heard that argument and it doesn't address my concern. Which is that with a 3 way rating system really good games don't stand out.
here is no way to find the games that are the best, unless you read the entire review. Which is even more subjective than a number.

The difference between a 7 and 8 is that you can rank games. If everything that I'd consider 6-10 would just get a "play" badge, how would I know which game is the best?

I can come trough as completely negative about a game in the text then give it high score. So I think the score is necessary to frame the review.

[xadu]

Critics can be paid to mislead consumers, and they are clearly been paid

[RepentantSky]

As someone who has written a number of reviews over the years, I generally tend to prefer a number system, but I rate things out of 5 because for a lot of people, a 1/5 looks worse than a 2/10 if only because 1 is a lower number than two. In that sense, a number works, but out of 10, maybe not so much. You could also take the road of someone like Square Eyed Jack and make it a point that a game getting a 7/10 rating is a good thing, not a bad thing, and try to make that the norm again, espeically since the desire to keep in with industry buddies is less of a factor for most reviewers than it was back when this problem first arose. Point is, there are a lot of ways to go about doing what should be done to fix the ratings issues, which I agree are there.

[Irritablesquid]

I don't dislike them but I don't trust them either, critics are out of touch nowadays and will often give something a good rating for bizarre reasons.
just look at TV and movie reviews, if the critic agrees with the message then it gets a high score and anyone who doesn't is a bigot.

It's not so much the numbers but the people using them that's the problem.
A game given 10/10 is fine but what was it for and who by? If I disagree with them an I in the wrong?

In the end numbers don't sell the game to me, I'd quite happily buy a game with a low rating, it's the same for cars/motorbikes, every update they review tends to be far superior to the last even if there has been a minor change such as a different shaped headlight.

I've learned not to buy games until they become cheaper so if I do dislike them in not losing much.

[Saskia]

Here's a really quick and dirty screenshot from one of the vids. You can see there will also be a user score rating system which looks to be the normal 0-10 scoring.

[Saskia]

Actually the system in place is going to be "Pass - Pause - Play", but same thing anyway.

If you watched the live stream Jeremy did when he was discussing with everyone about the rating system, the subject you mention - about it be too simplistic - was addressed. He basically said that what is the difference really between giving the game a 7 or 8? Is that really going to influence whether you buy the game or not? Where do you set your own personal threshold? Everyone is going to have a different perspective on that.

So breaking it down into three absolutes makes it a simpler way to decided whether you should buy the game. Of course, even then it's still subjective - based on the reviewers opinion - but it does make for a nice clean rating system.

[LeonardDikema]

I personally prefer a numerical rating system, but I also understand that there's pretty much no distinction within certain ranges. I think simplifying it to a three-tier system is about as simple as you should go, and once you go back to four or five tiers, you might as well just go back to numerical ratings. I just 'WTF' when people do stuff like '7.6' instead of a '7' or an '8' - At that point you're giving yourself WAYYY too much credit at distinguishing where a game should be in a rating scale.

Regarding this site, I do like that the slider within the three-tier system is at least going to be analog, so you can have some sort of an indication how far in one direction or the other you think a game should be. But people are right that say ratings are largely subjective and arbitrary anyways, so the meat of a review is almost always in the words. Still, I like going to aggregate sites to see whether or not games are getting overwhelmingly positive or negative reviews.

[Aidy]

The "traffic light system" is fine when looking at a single review, but where number scores come into their own is if you are a publisher that generates numerous reviews as it gives you a good way of ranking them if you want to show many reviews in list form, so while a lot of games might be "good" you have a mechanism to ensure that GTA V always appears above Assassin's Creed, that Oblivion is always below Skyrim and so on.

[Hadley]

I like quite a few of your categories, but I am absolutely behind the 3 rank system. I mean, Steam only has 2 ratings: yes or no, which works great if you go by percentages. The only time this becomes a problem is when you don't have thousands of people submitting reviews at which point you need a middle ground. Looking at your list I really do think you could lump 1-3, 4-6, and 7-10 into 3 categories then explain in your review the why of it. In my eyes the purpose of a game review is to explain why someone should or should not play it, not judge a game on some sort of arbitrary scale that is honestly very subjective.

[Spect3r]

I dont read reviews so i normally dont know what ratings they give, but i remember that for some reason i saw that journalists/reviewers gave Horizon Zero Dawn a 9.
WTF? a 9?
Dont get me wrong, i did enjoyed the game, but 1/2 the story is very predictable, there are only 3 or 4 armors, a few potions and a horrible skills tree, in short: is a good game but very basic in many of its things.
That game is a 7.5 at most and dont get me wrong, 7.5 is pretty good, but since they review a game that is a 4 as a 7, then they had to rate a game that is a 7 as a 9.

Overall doesnt affect me as i dont care about reviews, but it is deceiful for sure.