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[fermcr]

"Hey again, Tom here. I'm really excited to announce today that Eurogamer reviews are changing. Here's a bit about how, and the thinking behind why.
In short, Eurogamer is moving to a five-star review rating system, beginning this week.
For years now, I've felt our existing review badges weren't working hard enough for us, or for you. We ended up recommending a lot of games, or not giving a badge at all to many others - which meant readers not acquainted with our odd four-point scale had nothing to go on. We rarely used Avoid, because it always felt a bit mean.
It's been eight years since Eurogamer ditched the 10-point review scale and we're not going back to that - the argument then that it felt broken through overuse of its upper half still stands. At the same time, I strongly believe we need to convey how we feel about games in a more straightforward manner..."

https://www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-reviews-are-changing

 

[RoboFu]

Nice so Zelda will be 10 out of 5 stars.

 

[LakeOf9]

Now give Zelda a 4/5 and watch the world melt

 

[Crayon]

Best rating system.

 

[justiceiro]

Yeah, 5 Star work best because 2 and 3 stars are not that rare compared with 4 and 6.

 

[LakeOf9]

Yeah, 5 Star work best because 2 and 3 stars are not that rare compared with 4 and 6.

thats exactly why it will work lol it makes you use the whole scale

 

[Schmendrick]

K

 

[Tsaki]

Not giving scores is probably detrimental to site engagement.

 

[LakeOf9]

Not giving scores is probably detrimental to site engagement.

thats what they said in their explain of why they switch to scores again

 

[Imtjnotu]

Only years left till reviews just say "YES" or "NO"

 

[bender]

Buy, Wait, Skip is the best.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

I am not a fan of most review systems, but I would say the 5-point system is the best of a bad bunch.

The only bad thing is that we just know that the majority of the games will fall into that 4-star envelope. Not warranted to get 5 stars, don't have the guts to give it 3 stars. And a lot of the games that are 3 stars should probably be 2 stars.

 

[diffusionx]

Well, they chased away about 90% of their old audience by going full SJW, and without scores they're not listed prominently on Metacritic and the like, so yea.

Only years left till reviews just say "YES" or "NO"

Siskel and Ebert became famous movie critics for literally this.

 

[Humdinger]

Oh, that's so exciting!

 

[Varteras]

 

[Quixz]

You know for sure Zelda will be getting that 5 rating to kick things off.

Wonder why they didn't launch this rating system last week..

 

[01011001]

that's great, I'm looking forward to ignoring that review system just like I do with all the other ones

 

[schaft0620]

Hate it

5/5 = 100
4/5 = 80
3/5 = 60
2/5 = 40
1/5 = 20

There's no 75, 90, etc etc

Not an effective way to score a game.

Is a 3/5 a 60 or a 75? Huge difference.

 

[Goalus]

Hate it

5/5 = 100
4/5 = 80
3/5 = 60
2/5 = 40
1/5 = 20

There's no 75, 90, etc etc

Not an effective way to score a game.

Is a 3/5 a 60 or a 75? Huge difference.

It's a more inclusive grading system though.

 

[.Pennywise]

For what is worth, I made a poll on what system do people prefer the most

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/which-review-scoring-system-do-you-think-is-the-best.1654629/

And most people prefer 1/10 scale (even with .5 decimals) or 'Recommend/Not recommend' over 5 Stars rating.

 

[Fake]

They are probably doing that because they're losing viewers and sub.

 

[Lasha]

Hate it

5/5 = 100
4/5 = 80
3/5 = 60
2/5 = 40
1/5 = 20

There's no 75, 90, etc etc

Not an effective way to score a game.

Is a 3/5 a 60 or a 75? Huge difference.

A 100 point system is equally arbitrary. The difference between a 60 and a 75 is meaningless unless you know what the bell curve of that publications reviews looks like.

A 5 point system used rationally would be based on an average score of 3. 4/2 would be for above/below average games. 5/1 would be for truly outstanding games or absolute clusterfucks.

 

[schaft0620]

A 100 point system is equally arbitrary. The difference between a 60 and a 75 is meaningless unless you know what the bell curve of that publications reviews looks like.

A 5 point system used rationally would be based on an average score of 3. 4/2 would be for above/below average games. 5/1 would be for truly outstanding games or absolute clusterfucks.

On a 100 point scale the difference between a 60 and 75 is 15 points or 15%.

 

[TransTrender]

Now give Zelda a 4/5 and watch the world melt

100% this is happening

 

[L*][*N*K]

Maybe they hated Zelda so much they decided to change their review system just give it a 1/5

 

[Lasha]

On a 100 point scale the difference between a 60 and 75 is 15 points or 15%.

15% is arbitrary since a review score is subjective to being with. The granularity is meaningless without knowing the distribution of scores. Reviewers don't use the full 10 anyways so both a 65 and 75 would probably be a 2 or 3 when normalized on a bell curve.

 

[CGNoire]

So intead of being mature enough to mention that the previous change was a failure and go back to the 10 point system you would rather make excuses and give us an inferior 5 point system?

 

[Robb]

They probably waited for Zelda so that they’d get to show off all 5 stars at once from the get-go.

 

[semiconscious]

Yeah, 5 Star work best because 2 and 3 stars are not that rare compared with 4 and 6.

yeah, the 'math' they're using to explain this preference is just a little bit questionable...

 

[Cyberpunkd]

We rarely used Avoid, because it always felt a bit mean.

God forbid helping your readers make an informed decision.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

If I've said it once I've said it 1,000x. Color scale rating system is the only rating system with any merit.

 

[three_muffins]

Hate it

5/5 = 100
4/5 = 80
3/5 = 60
2/5 = 40
1/5 = 20

There's no 75, 90, etc etc

Not an effective way to score a game.

Is a 3/5 a 60 or a 75? Huge difference.

What is the huge difference between 60 and 75?

 

[BritBloke916]

I seem to recall an old gaming magazine called ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment, if memory serves?) that awarded a score out of a hundred to ten different elements of the game - graphics, gameplay, music, story, etc - and then combined them together to give a final score out a thousand. Even as a kid I thought it was bananas.

 

[Tams]

Incoming shitstorm.

Not giving scores is probably detrimental to site engagement.

There's far more detrimental to site engagement going over at Eurogamer than the lack of review scores...

 

[buenoblue]

I give Eurogamer 2 stars.

 

[Nicktendo86]

Eurogamer has become unbearable lately, what’s with all the woke shit? Oh and a 5 point system is shit.

Edit: case in point, Eurogamer raising funds for Mermaids, a charity under investigation by the charity commission. Why a videogame site is associated with a charity whose aim is to mutilate kids I will never know.

Team's Team Eurogamer getting Magical for Mermaids!

Help Team Eurogamer raise money to support Mermaids

www.justgiving.com

 

[Duchess]

Predictions:

Zelda: 5/5
Starfield: 5/5
Spider-Man 2: 3/5

 

[TheGreatMusashi]

The Legend of Zelda: Five Fivers!
Cracking!
Brill!

 

[Dick Jones]

Predictions:

Zelda: 5/5
Starfield: 5/5
Spider-Man 2: 3/5

That's a Stevivor list if I ever saw it

 

[MidGenRefresh]

Rating system is stupid just tell me if you recommend the game or not. If yes, for what type of gamers. If not, why not. That’s it.

 

[realcool]

We rarely used Avoid, because it always felt a bit mean.

embarrassing

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Now give Zelda a 4/5 and watch the world melt

It shouldn't be too hard. You just need to find one Nintendo employee who said something problematic on the Internet within the past 23 years and they'll shit all over the game, or even refuse to cover it.

 

[Lasha]

I dug up an old reddit post to explain why a 5 star system makes sense. A reddit user mapped the distribution of all review scores on metacritic around 4 years ago. The graph is below.

If you ditch the outliers(a game below 50 is considered bad in game reviews), games are roughly scored on a 5 point scale centered somewhere in the 70s. A 5 point scale where three is average is much more intuitive than arbitrary point increments.

 

[YOU PC BRO?!]

The problem with review scores is lack of transparency and consistency in how scores are given.

In my view, the 100 pt scale is the best. It’s granular enough to comparatively measure scores in a meaningful manner and simple enough for people to follow. Heck even a 10 pt scale with some additional weighting I.e. gold, silver, bronze could work as well. For example a bronze 8 means a low 8 and a gold eight means a high 8.

Eurogamer is a woke joke anyways. Without Digital Foundry they wouldn’t be half as relevant as they are.

 

[Dick Jones]

It shouldn't be too hard. You just need to find one Nintendo employee who said something problematic on the Internet within the past 23 years and they'll shit all over the game, or even refuse to cover it.

The head of Nintendo of America has been accused in the past of several kidnapping and false imprisoning the same woman. Its common knowledge he'd done it for close to 30 years.

 

[Spaceman292]

Only years left till reviews just say "YES" or "NO"

ACG is basically already doing that

 

[Rykan]

Good. Glad this ridiculous and pretentious war on numerical ratings has come to an end. Obviously, a ten point rating system is still the best system (The argument that it mostly uses the top half is an issue with video game journalism itself, not the system) but this is a step in the right direction.

 

[BbMajor7th]

Could also be that Metacritic, one of the single biggest drivers of traffic for that kind of content, buries unscored reviews at the bottom of their aggregate listings and greys them out. On any game with more than fifty reviews, you'll have to scroll for an age to find the Eurogamer article. That's bad for business.

 

[Tsaki]

thats what they said in their explain of why they switch to scores again

They did? I just read the OP, didn't bother with the article.

There's far more detrimental to site engagement going over at Eurogamer than the lack of review scores...

Yeah you're right.

 

[Aenima]

After Zelda 5 stars they can now finally review Hogwats to show how a 1 star looks like.