I was reading some reviews of games the other day and realized that it’s really difficult to completely agree with one reviewer’s opinion… and even if you agree with the score, it can be for different reasons. So… is there any solution for this disconnect?

A couple of ideas come to mind. I’d like to see the scores the reviewers gave for other games in the same genre. Maybe, show the last ten games (in that genre) reviewed by that particular person. And better yet, quickly see their scores for any game they have reviewed… and maybe have all their games reviewed in a list in descending score.

What this would allow is… for me to associate with a reviewer based on past agreeances of particular titles.

For example, I really liked Halo when it first came out on the Xbox… and for some reason, I don’t like Half-Life 2 all that much. Well, if I were to contemplate buying Doom 3… would I trust a reviewer that praised Half-Life 2 and despised Halo? Probably not, unless I somehow could agree with his/her point of view of a game that I have no experience with to base an opinion on myself. Therefore, a need exists to connect with the reviewer by past examples.

The same benefit could be said for movie and music reviews. I mean honestly, I don’t have time to follow multiple critics’ careers and try and figure out if my tastes match any of theirs. And again, I don’t think it’s necessary for each critic to write a review for everything out there; maybe just a paragraph… or at the very least, a score.

Could you imagine entering in your own scores for titles and a list of reviews from critics who have reviewed the title you’re interested in and match your taste in gaming comes up? Wow!

In fact, who says you need professional critics to accurately score something that is, by nature, subjective. I could get an average of the scores from only user reviews that closely matched my scores. You could also adjust it by a tolerance of percentage… 10% accuracy or greater. You could also set the percentage of reviews allowed by a user that don’t come close to your own, but generally say 90% or 80% of their scores match your scores within the desired tolerance (because nobody has the exact same tastes in all games… which unfortunately could be a simple argument to destroy this whole idea, but I think that there has to be someone out there with similar tastes to mine and yours).

I don’t have any paid subscriptions to other media websites. Does IGN or Gamespot already have a system like this? If they do, it might be worth the money.

Also, this sort of idea could solve the problem of gamers trying out different genres… I’m not an action fan, but if enough people who agree with my adventure gaming tastes like a certain action title… there’s a really good chance I’ll like that action title too; which I would have otherwise not bothered at all with. I’ve played a few action titles that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed, but they were through the recommendations of like-minded friends… so why not recommendations from like-minded strangers?

Of course, this could be a pipedream and not be worth the effort. Any thoughts, negative or positive, are more than welcome.

well, the whole point of the site is that it's an average of reviewers's opinions so it's supposed to be a little less "biased" than just looking at two reviews, however:

A. what's the point of only looking at reviews of games and reviewers you like? I think it's important to be as receptive to all viewpoints as possible, because like you said,

1. Everything is subjective. Everything. there is no proof (philosophical or mathematic) that other people aren't simply a figment of your imagination, because you can never transcend your physical body (at least not yet)which means:

2. your previous experiences determine how you react to the present, therefore giving you a perception of the world which is colored by random accidents and opinions which is a metastructure for your thought process, conscious ones being depending on this structure , or, changes the way you think, not just your thoughts. meaning:

3. everyone is biased meaning:

2. this site tries to quantify on a scale of 1-100 totally subjective opinions based on a loose form of criticism of things that can't possibly be put into words... I often find reviews I think should get a 50 or 60 in the 30 to 40 range and vice versa. how do you talk about chord changes in a meaningful way? we have genres and technical merit to loosely gauge these things (i.e music) but it's all just a crapshoot unless it's unilaterally "good" or "bad," which almost nothing is.

D. software of the kind you're talking about is ok, (picture something like amazon's recommendations) but so far not great

IIV. something like metacritic is a long way from perfect, as the more reviews there are the more "accurate" it will be but it's hardly scientific. not that it's trying to be, but I think as it stands there just aren't enough critics to see something from everyone's perspective. why not just go to the store and look at action games if you don't want to hear negative reviews... al the good ones are on the boxes.

half life 2 is probably the best game I've ever played.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hattoori_Hanzo,

Well, the whole point of using reviews is to find games you're going to like. So you would look to reviewers you know you agree with because they're most likely to turn you on to a game you like.

I feel I can't trust video game reviews much at all because I think they put way too much weight on graphics and other peripherals, and I think they're way too impressed by just about every part of the game except for 'playability'.

I still find NES games much more fun on average than PS2 games, so I'd like to find PS2 games with gameplay similar to NES games. Contra: Shattered Soldier comes to mind, but reviewers didn't like it so much because they see having simple gameplay as 'retro' in and of itself and because reviewers grade down games for difficulty.

So, I look for reviewers who like simple playability more than graphics or how manly the main character's mannerisms are (Or how big the character's 'assets' are). And who don't see difficulty as a negative. Because they're more likely to point me to games I'm going to like.

First off, thank you for the well constructed reply, Hattoori_Hanzo. It is very much appreciated. Secondly, though I may have misinterpreted some of your response, my idea is not an attack on Metacritic’s rating system. I really like Metacritic the way it is. This is something different.

quote:

Originally posted by Hattoori_Hanzo:
what's the point of only looking at reviews of games and reviewers you like?
…
why not just go to the store and look at action games if you don't want to hear negative reviews... al the good ones are on the boxes.

It’s not about liking a reviewer… it’s just about easily finding one with a similar preference in gaming. It’s also not about hearing only positive reviews. However, I can respect a review, positive or negative, more so from a person that has (in this case, mathematically) proven similar tastes.

Anyway, I was mostly thinking out loud. I’m not completely sold on the idea that my user recommendation concept is solid, but I do think it has some merit. I like your argument about the complexity of a subjective review; given our innate unpredictability. I mean, I’ve disliked quite a few music CDs initially… only to praise them 6 months later. Sometimes timing is everything… and a score doesn’t reflect what is going on in someone’s life at that moment. Good point, Hattoori_Hanzo. Thank you.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobthespirit:
I feel I can't trust video game reviews much at all because I think they put way too much weight on graphics and other peripherals, and I think they're way too impressed by just about every part of the game except for 'playability'.

That’s the way I feel about game reviews, but for slightly different reasons… I’m just very eclectic in my taste in videogaming. Bionic Commando is one of my all-time favorite games, oddly enough, even though I’m more of an adventure/RPG geek.

quote:

Originally posted by Cody K.:
Anyway, I was mostly thinking out loud. I’m not completely sold on the idea that my user recommendation concept is solid, but I do think it has some merit. I like your argument about the complexity of a subjective review; given our innate unpredictability.

I think that user reveiws are great. Personally I find myself scanning them to try to find the lowest ratings and reading them through so I can find out what the bad aspects of the game are and then trying to see if I can cope with/justify buying the game after that. I also usually read through some of the more wordy and detailed positive reviews to see what these people, who are usually clearly experienced and opinionated gamers, have to say. I very rarely impulse buy and I usually do some research before getting a game. For me, first hand is always better, I love playing it at a friends house or renting it/demo-ing it if possible. This is the ultimate weeding out process that I use, but reviews will certainly enlighten me to the more arcane aspects of the game that I might not find after only a quick play.

User reviews are good on paper, but in practice, I dunno... way too many people give lower reviews than they would otherwise because they feel the need to compensate for praise the game has gotten. Or they're just totally biased and wouldn't have liked the type of game no matter what.

This doesn't apply to *all* user reviews obviously, but if every review is either a 10 or less than a 3, and 75% of them are all in caps with poor spelling, they don't really do me much good.

Heck, what you get from user reviews, I get from these boards. Cause they're just as elucidating about the high and low points of the games, but they're grammatically coherent.

quote:

Originally posted by Bobthespirit:
User reviews are good on paper, but in practice, I dunno... way too many people give lower reviews than they would otherwise because they feel the need to compensate for praise the game has gotten. Or they're just totally biased and wouldn't have liked the type of game no matter what.

This doesn't apply to *all* user reviews obviously, but if every review is either a 10 or less than a 3, and 75% of them are all in caps with poor spelling, they don't really do me much good.

Heck, what you get from user reviews, I get from these boards. Cause they're just as elucidating about the high and low points of the games, but they're grammatically coherent.

Well, fanboys and bashers aside, obviously, I try to look for coherency before I read one. I try to look for a good title. Not something that's "total shit" or "best game ever"