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Is there a reason why some people have an obsession with a Metacritic score?

Derktron

Banned
Looking at the Medium reviews I’ve noticed a lot of toxic gamers taking about how important a stupid score is for a game and how it reflects on their lives, I’m sorry for being dramatic but if you on Twitter and YouTube (where 90% of toxic gamers are) you’ll see tweets like this. I don’t know if I’m the only one but I find this to be obnoxious and want to know why people find this obsession with some fucking score on a website? Can anyone give me an explanation. Because damn I’ve never seen so much cringe.
 
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Yoshichan

And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Because grown up men are insecure as fuck and want to warant that their video game purchase was a good investment.
 
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Fake

Member
Sigh. Those Metacritic fanatics are pathetic. They use the meta score when they want, they use the user score when they want. Sometimes ignore the meta, sometimes ignore the user score.

I never pick up a game based on metacritic score. Imagine ignoring plenty of good games because the media don't like. You need to be a idiot to do that.

BTW, Metacritic is a part of the problem. Using this score war for clicks, like creating that stupid 'must play' badge.
 
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Jethalal

Banned
If you like it. Don't give a damn about reviews.

Coming on topic, I would say that Metacritic is the best review aggregator for movies and music too. The user and critic reviews are separate and the critic score is average of all unlike something like Rotten Tomatoes (for movies and shows) which checks how many critics liked it, not how much they liked it.
 

Mmnow

Member
It's the Digital Foundry effect. Games critics are talentless losers who are always wrong...

...Until they give a good score to a game I like. Then it's like Jesus came back to praise Game X, and it's our duty to spread his message to the four corners of the world...

Until the next game comes along that they 'only' give an 80, and then they're assholes again.

The truth is Metacritic is a fine tool, it's just the average hardcore gamer is so fucked up on what a good game is that it gets twisted out of all proportion. The Medium probably is a 7ish game, with way higher potential if you love the genre and developer. That shouldn't be a bad thing.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
The same reason people make threads and bash people that use metacritic?

In all fairness, average review scores are good for identifying great games (>85) and crap games (<60) . Everything in the middle is less obvious. It could be a good game with bugs, which are fixed later, think Cyberpunk. It could be a boring game that runs flawless, and everything in between.
 
They're numbers, just like Teraflops and SSD transfer speeds. People love numbers. They have this air of objectivity and sometimes let you sidestep actual arguments when you're arguing with someone. People ragging on Xbox for having no games? It's got more Teraflops! Someone's shitting on Sony exclusives because they all follow the same formula? God of War and TLOU2 got 90+ averages on Metacritic.
 
It's easy to be misled by a single review score. But, if you take 50 reviewers and average them out, you have a good measure of the quality of a game.

Unless you're a conspiracy theorist or are only going to believe what you want to believe anyway.
 
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The reason is simple: They don't play videogames, they do a forced job.

If he don't like the game, but has 90+ on metacritic, those people feel obliged to play!
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
You know, for the same reason why people say "WE won" when their favorite sport team wins something... Many just need to feel part of something and "get" the right to be superior.

Also media puts "metacritic" on everything these days, I'm feeling like it's even more than never before...
 

OrtizTwelve

Member
It's an easy way to gauge overall consensus and reception on a particular game from various review outlets, but I never take it as 100% truth or base MY guidance on it. Scores for games are subjective and relative.
 

GHG

Gold Member
The trend goes like this.

If you like the game and it has a good meta critic then you use it to defend said game.
If you like a game but it gets an average or poor score. Then meta critic means nothing.

Yep and these types of threads popping up always follow a platform exclusive underperforming in reviews. It's a stealth "meta critic doesn't matter guys" thread.

If you don't care about it then don't let the comments surrounding it have any impact on you or your decision to get a game you're interested in.
 

TBiddy

Member
Yep and these types of threads popping up always follow a platform exclusive underperforming in reviews. It's a stealth "meta critic doesn't matter guys" thread.

If you don't care about it then don't let the comments surrounding it have any impact on you or your decision to get a game you're interested in.

The Medium isn't an exclusive, though.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
What if Days Gone just wasn't a great game to everyone?
It had some bugs at release and it seems many didn't even get halfway into it. That being said if you don't like open world games or bikers or zombies, then sure. But the fact remains, it is a great game ;)
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
Metacritic can be misleading in fairness. People need to read/watch a variety of reviews and see who matches up with their interests. After a while you can narrow down and trust those that align with you.

For example, I played the PS4 Terminator game and it's fairly decent and no way deserves a 47 on metacritic. Should I only trust metacritic scores I'd have missed the game. Word of mouth got me to buy it on sale and I'm delighted I did.
 

harmny

Banned
the reason is it directly affect the success of your game. visibilty. sales. awards. and finally public opinion online. also some companies actually have bonuses tied to metacritic scores.
 
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Review scores should only reflect if a game is polished or buggy as no one in this world can tell you what you may find good or not.

Subjective things like how someone may enjoy a story or controls or gameplay loops or the objectification of woman (yeah, I like hot chicks in games) can’t be judged by anyone else but yourself.

Review scores are meaningless, especially when they’re coming from an aggregate site.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
The Medium isn't an exclusive, though.

What is it then?

Are Xbox wrong?:

The Medium, a psychological horror game developed by Polish developer Bloober Team, coming exclusively to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Game Pass.


Are eurogamer wrong?:

 

scalman

Member
reason just to look at no brain people ... just make up your mind alone and for yourself , dont care what others think.
 

TBiddy

Member
What is it then?

Are Xbox wrong?:




Are eurogamer wrong?:


Check the wording. It's coming exclusively to X/S (as in, not the XB1).

Even Bloober Team hasn't ruled out other platforms:

"At the time of writing, The Medium is only confirmed for Xbox Series X and PC. However, Bloober Team recently spoke with VG247 and said that “For now we are just focusing on Xbox and PC.”"

Before buying and deciding to spend their time with a product? Yes, that's the point.

If we all played every single game, there would be no reason for reviews or Metacritic.

It's usually better to find someone who's taste usually aligns with yours and then follow their lead, instead of blindly looking at an average rating on Metacritic.
 
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Check the wording. It's coming exclusively to X/S (as in, not the XB1).

Even Bloober Team hasn't ruled out other platforms:

"At the time of writing, The Medium is only confirmed for Xbox Series X and PC. However, Bloober Team recently spoke with VG247 and said that “For now we are just focusing on Xbox and PC.”"

They said the same thing for Blair Witch. It translates to "Xbox is paying us to not tell you the PS5 version is already up and running and it will release the day we are contractually allowed to do so".
 

GHG

Gold Member
Check the wording. It's coming exclusively to X/S (as in, not the XB1).

Even Bloober Team hasn't ruled out other platforms:

"At the time of writing, The Medium is only confirmed for Xbox Series X and PC. However, Bloober Team recently spoke with VG247 and said that “For now we are just focusing on Xbox and PC.”"



It's usually better to find someone who's taste usually aligns with yours and then follow their lead, instead of blindly looking at an average rating on Metacritic.

Ok so it's a timed exclusive. My point still stands because these games still get the special treatment from their respective fanbases (and console manufacturers) for the period of time they are exclusive.

Case in point, have a read through this thread and see how some people were fighting tooth and nail to try and say The Medium is a fully fledged exclusive game:

 
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TBiddy

Member
They said the same thing for Blair Witch. It translates to "Xbox is paying us to not tell you the PS5 version is already up and running and it will release the day we are contractually allowed to do so".

Exactly.

GHG GHG - You're right. Exclusives are handled differently, since it'll hurt peoples pride, if the exclusives on their platforms performs a little worse than on the competition.
 

Batiman

Banned
Check the wording. It's coming exclusively to X/S (as in, not the XB1).

Even Bloober Team hasn't ruled out other platforms:

"At the time of writing, The Medium is only confirmed for Xbox Series X and PC. However, Bloober Team recently spoke with VG247 and said that “For now we are just focusing on Xbox and PC.”"



It's usually better to find someone who's taste usually aligns with yours and then follow their lead, instead of blindly looking at an average rating on Metacritic.
Ok great so now no one needs to defend it!
 

johntown

Banned
I think it used to be a pretty reasonable tool for getting a good idea about a game. Now with toxic user reviews and critic reviews that are paid it is hard to tell what games are good. I don't take the risk anymore with unknown devs or games. I scour the Internet and YouTube to find information and try to make an informed choice that way.

Being a PC gamer I have found over time steam user scores are fairly accurate for most games. Of course there can also be times when they are not but that is usually pretty obvious.
 

01011001

Banned
A: "Game Critics BAD! They are virtuesignaling soy boys that are only there to push their politics on us!!! THEY DON'T EVEN PLAY GAMES!"
B: "LOOK! THIS GAME IS THE BEST! IT GOT A 95% ON METACRITIC! AND THAT ONE SUCKS! IT'S ONLY A 75!!!!"

somehow a lot of these people can say both of these things and think they're not colossal hypocrites
 
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