The main point of my video game writing is focused on features rather than reviews of videogames, but I have done a good number of reviews on my website. With that in mind, I have been wondering about something that is one of the most indispensable things about videogame reviewing; should I use a scoring system?
I have always wondered about the idea of videogame scoring. In other websites, the act of assigning a number at the end of a review is met with controversy. There’s even a whole meme about the score 7.8 out of 10. In this era of gaming where the whole quality of a piece of work is boiled ultimately down to a number on Metacritic, I have stood outside the norm by doing away with the scores.
Why have I not added a score to the bottom of my reviews in the past? Because that wasn’t the purpose of my writing. When I write about video games, my ultimate goal is to make you think differently about them and consider ideas you may not have had before about the medium. When I write about the different aspects of a game that I found effective, I am not usually doing so with the goal in mind of deciding whether a game is bad or good.
However, I have also been made to consider biting the bullet and adding scores to my reviews. While it is a controversial practice, there is a reasoning behind it. When you add a score to the end of a review you are saying something definitive about the product. If someone is reading a review, are they looking just for buying advice? I’d like to think they are looking for something more, but the original purpose of reviewing a game is to come to a buying decision. This line of thought lends itself to the idea of adding a score to the end of the review. There is an ultimate ‘verdict’ on whether the game is truly worth the money.
I think that opinions on games are subjective, and my own opinion will be also, so how can I ethically add a score to my games, knowing that someone could use the practice to try and suggest an objective measure of a game’s ‘goodness’? On the other hand, it is up to gamers themselves to understand that any opinion about games is subjective, and that to be offended by a subjective measure that you disagree with is an exercise in futility. The idea is that when you read a review you are looking at that person’s opinion and their own conclusion about the game. So with that in mind, if they give a 5/10 to a game that you think deserves a 7/10, how does this make your own opinion any less valid?
We need to think of review scores in a new way. The onus needs to be on using reviews to inform our opinions but not treating them as objective. Part of this is down to the writers themselves, but responsibility also falls onto the gamers. Instead of getting angry at a score, try to accept that this person had a different opinion from you that you disagree with. Comment and tell them that you disagree, by all means, but let’s not get into flame wars over something like a score on a subjective interpretation of a game.
Video game reviews are subjective. They always will be. Any written piece that attempts to talk about a form of art is highly dependent on the perceiver of the art and how they would appreciate it. With that in mind, I feel more comfortable about adding a score to the end of a review. I am trying to write about a passion of mine in a way that may make someone think differently. I hope that some people enjoy my writings but I also want to be able to come to conclusions about the games I play, and understand them better using my own review scores as a tool. It is always an interesting exercise to compare and contrast between games, and scores are an easy metric by which to look at the differences between one game and the next.
With that all said, what do you think? Do you think I should start considering review scores? Do you think that it would help my own views about gaming become more ‘concrete’? Do you think it would be annoying to you as a gamer if you disagreed with me on a score that I give a game? Or that you could respectfully disagree and engage in mature conversation on what score you would give it? Please comment or reach me on Twitter. I am eager to hear your opinion.
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