Should Game Reviewers Be Reviewed?
See Full ImageIt's a well-designed April Fool's joke, but it brings up an interesting question.
With so many so-called journalists and video game critics tossing their opinions and analysis into the Metacritic and GameRankings charts, it can be difficult to pinpoint the good reviewers. Would it be easier to have a site like "MetaMetaCritic" for people to locate the best writers and those who serve the public's interests well on a frequent basis?
These days, most people just stick to a favorite source or two, but critics tend to move about, and gamers may want to know where they go. After all, some people just tend to identify with a critic's tastes and style; they say to themselves, "Well, every game this guy has recommended I've liked, so I'm going to keep going by his reviews." And besides, wouldn't a rating system of some kind add some much-needed legitimacy to the industry? Or would it have the opposite effect, in that it actually seems childish on the surface? After all, there's no site that quantifies the quality of movie or music reviewers, is there?
Still, with the vast majority of game reviews online and not in print, and the fact that just about anyone can write a review for any given site, some sort of qualifying process might not be a bad idea. It might be especially helpful for newcomers to the world of video games, and such a site could even evaluate entire websites in terms of review quality, which would make things even easier. What do you think?
Tags: game critics, game reviewers, video game journalists, gamers
4/1/2012 8:54:00 PM Ben Dutka
Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter
Comments (34 posts)
ZettaiSeigi
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 9:57:42 PM
Reply
I am mostly impressed by the reviews here (which is why I am here in the first place) so the ones getting good feedback here usually gets to my shopping cart. It's not a matter of which review had the most hits. What counts is the review is fair and is actually something that you find yourself agreeing on.
0 up, 0 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 10:08:39 PM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
ZenChichiri
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 12:30:23 AM
6 up, 1 down
maxpontiac
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 10:20:57 PM
Reply
A governing body of professional reviewers would bring instant credibility to a game review and be far more acceptable to a game developer/publisher.
Start the ball rolling Ben!
8 up, 0 down
Neo_Aeon666
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 11:06:29 AM
They need to choose the members of the association based on previous reviews. If unbiased and legitimate, they would qualify.
Then they could *label* reviews from F- to A+.
Really like your idea.
1 up, 0 down
Coffeya
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 9:42:30 PM
2 up, 0 down
PC_Max
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 10:57:10 PM
Reply
I am sure there was a time I would have just gone out and bought a game based on hype, but that was a long time ago and now weigh all the reviews in. :)
Critics are individuals each having their own tastes and biases. You see it movie reviews as well.
In the end you make your opinion, don't shut yourself out based on a single or 2 reviews. Get out there and see what a multitude of people are saying.:)
Keep Playing!
2 up, 0 down
maxpontiac
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 11:26:06 PM
5 up, 1 down
packersfan66
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 7:27:18 AM
1 up, 2 down
Underdog15
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 8:56:05 AM
While there are definitely other PS3 exclusives that this site can be found near the bottom. There are also a few in between.
And since any sane person would rate many PS3 exclusives as the cream of the crop, it shouldn't be a surprise that a PS3-centric site would be found near the top when it comes to a AAA title.
2 up, 0 down
Temjin001
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 11:24:13 PM
Reply
Typically, if I know a game is coming from a respected studio or director I don't even need a review to validate my purchase. Anymore it's the more obscure or lesser known productions which receive rave critical response, like Journey, where I'm attentive to a game's identity. Critics being the guinea pig to have played something lesser known and uncertain. And outside of frequenting here, I usually don't really pay too much attention to specific editors outside of metacritic averages.
I don't need a review to read for AC3, ME3 etc, or even NG3. Heck, despite NG3's poor critical response I've still played and enjoyed it much, validating the value of my time and money, contrary to what IGN would try to have me believe. My next money is on DOA5, and the demo easily confirmed it as D1P. So too will I get TTT2 based on the fact that Harada is still the man at the helm and I always love Tekken.
Really, anymore, I actually have a hard time even taking goty awards or any sort of heirarchy of eliteness with much more than a generalized level of knowing how much production has gone into the highest marked games. It seems if any game received tons of budget funding, it's probably going to get high reviews. If it hasn't, we'll, presentational elements suffer but the game may still be great and valuable. Except for download titles, those seem to be much more innovation-centric.
But I still prefer Vanquish to Gears, even though Gears probably cost more.
I still prefer NG to GoW, even though GoW cost more.
All are worth playing of course. So seeing that I would take Infamous 2 over Uncharted 3, even though U3 was probably way more expensive and earned way higher ratings. All I really need from a critic is a thumb up or thumb down and I'll decide for myself how much I enjoy it at home. Because that's really how it seems to happen anyway for me anymore.
Sorry, this went sort of off topic some =p
Last edited by Temjin001 on 4/1/2012 11:28:05 PM
2 up, 0 down
Palpatations911
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 1:40:06 AM
0 up, 0 down
Veitsknight
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 1:18:26 AM
Reply
decent.
0 up, 0 down
killerbee12
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 1:30:24 AM
Reply
And edge magazine..
0 up, 4 down
ZenChichiri
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 1:39:39 AM
Reply
If people didn't take reviews as gospel, then we wouldn't have a problem with some bad reviews in the mix because we can think for ourselves. Unfortunately there are many people that will take a look at review scores instead of their own personal preferences. Objective analysis of games is all good for looking at the quantitative side of things, but we all have individual preferences about specific genres.
I don't think it's the reviewers we need to worry about, but instead the ability of people to interpret them with regards to their own personal gaming tastes.
Last edited by ZenChichiri on 4/2/2012 1:40:39 AM
3 up, 0 down
Lawless SXE
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 2:12:37 AM
Reply
I think that it could be a good idea if it was implemented and utilised correctly. A select group of reviewers of a high calibre of quality selected by a third party to go over each individual critic/site and giving them a score based on the quality of their work could go a long way towards the legitimisation of many reviewers, as well as weeding out those that are unbalanced, unfair or just plain biassed. It's not necessary for films because not everyone thinks that they're entitled to review them on a professional basis, but games are an entirely different field for some bizarre reason.
Peace.
2 up, 0 down
___________
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 4:45:50 AM
Reply
problem is every man and his dog can setup a website these days and post BS reviews!
i mean im sorry but how the f*ck does ninja gaiden 3 deserve a 8.5/10?
i mean come on!
if that deserves a 8.5 then every other game this gen deserves a perfect score!
thats exactly why theres so many fluctuating reviews these days, you honestly have a better chance of picking the lottery then telling if a games decent or not!
i stopped holding any weight in reviews when GTAIV got perfect scores.
a taxi driver game with a GTA name on it deserves a perfect score?
really?
wow, R*s bribes are THAT good are they!?
1 up, 2 down
Lawless SXE
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 6:01:42 AM
0 up, 0 down
___________
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 8:43:08 AM
tbh i cant think of anything more boring then just carefully driving passengers around the city!
0 up, 0 down
nogoat23
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 6:17:01 AM
Reply
No, we should just use our own judgement to decide for ourselves who is a credible reviewer and who isn't, just like we judge for ourselves who is a credible news source and who isn't.
0 up, 0 down
Ishkur
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 6:59:38 AM
Reply
0 up, 2 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 9:51:44 AM
3 up, 0 down
Ishkur
Thursday, April 05, 2012 @ 3:24:33 AM
People would look for the highest rated reviewers for their games through this metametacritic, thus creating an interest for publishers/developers to funnel money to said reviewers for higher scores, that's all. The score the reviewers will go for, is the one for themselves is what I mean as well. Think we mistook each other there :)
0 up, 0 down
Dante399
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 8:30:48 AM
Reply
1 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 8:53:34 AM
Reply
However, allowing users to rate reviewers would more likely just batter down hard-working reviewers than help. People would be more likely to bash a reviewer than write a good review. You wouldn't have any reviewer scoring higher than a 5/10! lol
MetaCritic is nice because MOST reviewers are professional, so you can get an accurate average of games. But a meta-metaCritic would serve as little more than a "complaints department".
Something far more structured would be necessary to take something like that seriously.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 4/2/2012 8:54:03 AM
2 up, 1 down
Highlander
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 11:10:13 AM
Metacritic's problem is that the source of some of the reviews that are included in their scoring are not particularly professional sources. I think that they include too many review sites without really vetting the quality or qualification of the site. That and their algorithm for generating the metascore seems overly sensitive to outliers on the lower end of the scores.
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 10:41:24 AM
Reply
Of course the problem is that if gamers are reviewing reviewers, there is always the possibility of a popularity contest or a witch hunt. So, I'm not sure how that would work out, but it might be interesting if a panel of a dozen or so different game news sites could review each other.
0 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 10:48:03 AM
0 up, 0 down
Highlander
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 11:08:16 AM
Of course I have wished that Metacritic would re-evaluate their algorithm for some time for the same reason. Low score outliers seem to have a disproportionate effect on the metascores.
0 up, 0 down
Twistedfloyd
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 12:38:50 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Nynja
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 2:48:21 PM
Reply
Does this mean you have plans on reviewing the critics?
You know, that would be one hell of a read! And project!
You'd have to rate them on:
"Gaming Wisdom" - Knowledge of the industry and gaming as a whole
"Thoroughness" - Game completion prior to review
"Spoilers" - Ability to review without spoiling
"Favoritism" - Amount of favoritism shown to competition / console
"Presentation" - Ease of reading, grammar, relative descriptions of game play, etc
Then average out their scores.
1 up, 0 down
Rogueagent01
Monday, April 02, 2012 @ 9:14:01 PM
Reply
I would think that the reviewers of the reviewers would need to write up a huge Bio of themselves. So that the people that chose to read the reviews would know how and why they are grading the way they are. So long as they have their Bio and a boss reads their reviews and ensures consistency then this could easily manage itself. I don't see how it could become a witch hunt as the reviews would be calling out bad journalism/favoritism/bias, all of which should be called out in the first place.
I already wish that game critics would do this themselves as the things they look for in a game might not be what I look for in a game, hence the reason I can't stand the majority of critics. Ben that is why I have read as many reviews as I have from you as you seem to look for a lot of the things that matter to me. And rather then throwing a game under the bus like most critics do, you will actually use similar games to reference why someone like me might still want to buy it, I love that about you.
0 up, 0 down
trumpetmon65
Tuesday, April 03, 2012 @ 4:18:05 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
bebestorm
Reply
Sunday, April 01, 2012 @ 9:41:20 PM