Be Excellent To Each Other

Tsk, because it was one worse, obv.

what if you don't have anything to compare to? It seems that rating system just works because you can compare it to every game of the same genre reviewed before and decide on the rating then. Everything is dependant on the first game, and it couldn't even have been fairly reviewed.

Actually, I was just joking. I certainly don't believe that the percentage system necessitates comparing every single game in a genre. You give something a percentage because that's how much you feel it's worth, just like in any other scoring system. It's just a trifle more detailed. I gave 48% to Nanostray 2 because I felt it was just a little bit below average - not worthy of the "honour" of 5/10 but certainly not deserving of the embarrassment of a 4 either. *shrugs* Each to his own, I guess.

Yes, it's important to make it clear if we use this system that S and F are only to be given for the REALLY special and the utterly kick off 96'd.

I love it because it's so uniquely tied to gaming as a hobby and yet no-one has done it before.



Hell no.

This.

Nothing at all.

A well-written review doesn’t require a review score.

Can we plagarise ranking badges from a game with these letter-scores?

The banana system is of course king, but can cause lesser mortals brains to explode.

I therefore propose the ACE out of 1000 rating as it is a simplified version of the banana system.

OR

You could mark out of 1000 and just put the word 'bananas' at the end.

Let me ask Monkey if this world work.




...Monkey concurs.

I voted for a numerical rating out of 5. It's the system used by nearly every film or music reviewer, and I reckon with good reason.

In crazy nonsense Videogame Land, the nerds dream of a perfect system that lets them look at a score and instantly see where it stands in the Geek's Hall of Fame. That's completely unachievable for a number of reasons, and I'm sure I don't need to insult your intelligence by listing them all. The key thing is that relative to your own opinion, the margin of error for even the most talented and wise reviewer is going to be pretty large. The 'out of five' system, whilst still allowing for comparisons, doesn't try to overstate the accuracy or legitimacy of the reviewer's opinion to whoever is reading the review.

However, I see that 'S-F' is currently way out in front. That's certainly much better than ridiculous percentages or decimals, but still seems a bit 'different for different's sake' to me. (Some) music and film critics have managed to turn themselves into reputable professionals over the past half century, and that might be in part by not creating a ridiculous quandary for themselves over the rating system they use.

Sure it's nice to quantify things, but it is, after all, the words that count.

Totally with you on both counts.

Might it be worth folks who are contributing reviews semi-regularly to decide on (say) three games from all of history, ever that they would give an S-rank to? This would give them a reference point to work with (a game must be at least this good to score an S). It might even be worth posting each reviewer's choices to help the reader put their scores for other games into some sort of context.

Just a thought.

I think anything more detailed than out of 10 is silly.

However, I voted for 100%, because otherwise you can't have 73%.

I feel the scullery maid-based scoring system is not getting the adulation it deserves.

Total votes : 42.
We only have 151 members. Of which 39 have more than 1 post. That's a pretty good turn out, I'd say!
(The highest poster is Grim... with 340. FYI)

If its any consolation, it did make me laugh a lot. I'd be happy to go along with it if there were little faces next to each score with a slightly sinister duo of a happy gentleman and scullery maid, who become placid and then increasingly scowling as you go down the scale.

Sold!

Where is the explaination of this idea? I'm intrigued.

I voted for nothing at all. But if I there nneds to be a scoring system I suppose it should be the letters one with S & F.

Pod - ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

OH right, I see. Apologies. I skim read and just saw that a wordy version of A-F. I was thinking there'd be multiple sets of faces, the number and attitude of them indicating how many plus/flaws a game has. Or something.

A combination of the two.

I like the SABCDF idea, but I'd like the implementation to be a bit more engaging than just letters. So - descriptions, or happy to sad faces, or stick men grading down from a big group hug to chopping each other's heads off. Something like that.

I vote scullery maid, and I'll vote with my feet if I have to*.




like, for instance, if I was wearing mittens or had my hands tied behind my back.

It's to late to edit my post, as you've replied, but I was thinkng of this, really:
http://www.spaaace.com/cope/?p=46


Except top-hatted gentlemen and scaggy maids, natch.

Yes! Exactly. I was after something like that, plus something in the vein of the daft descriptions I posted earlier.

Hear hear!

I'll even draw them if I have to! Can we pwease have sinister tarty scullery maid and rakish gentleman? Pwease?

SABCDF it is!

Now we need rating guidelines

I AM WINNAR! GO TEAM ME!

I think the main consideration is that S and F are super duper rare. They're 'hold the front page important'. A famistu 40 or an Edge 10 for comparison.

At the end of the generation you would expect their to be only a handful of S ranked games across all platforms. A hall of fame kinda stuff.

Any current examples? Guitar Hero II, perhaps?

There should be an "M" for Marmite as well. Where in theory it could qualify as both S and F, depending on your point of view / level of antipathy against the author.

Personally I would have gone with % but with 1 decimal place, and a smell.

That's a good example, I think.

I'd probably give an S to, let's think...

OutRun 2006.
Resident Evil 4.
San Andreas.
Oblivion.
Dragon Quest VIII.
Halo.
Portal.
Disgaea.
Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Mario Galaxy.

To name some from the last couple of generations.

Oblivion???

BOLLOCKS!


ah, ok, its just an opinion

Does anyone ever read Top Gear magazine?

In their monthly update of the long term car reviews (I think they call them lifers) the show a little 'lifeline' stlye graph with peaks and troughs annotated with their views on the pros and cons of the cars. Could something like this ever be used for games? A short, brilliant game would be a massive peak. A long game with terrible end section would have steep drop off. A love-hate game would be a jagged mountain range. A slow grower could be like a nice upwards curve.

Actually, this seemed like a great idea when I thought of it a few minutes ago, but after writing it down seems more than a bit daft. Ah well.

As for 'S ranked' games, the two that instantly spring to my mind are the (very) often seen mario 64 and Zelda OoT. But I think nostalgia may play abig part in my decision. But but, at the time the were fucking immense (for me). But but but do they seem dated now? I haven't even played them in a long time. Does that even matter?

Ocarina of Time: B
Super Mario 64: C (Would have been B, but it has that annoying little cunt Mario in it)

Hmm, it's always going to be subjective but I think it helps make it clear if I compare *all* the titles I would give an S rank too, to *examples of those I would give an A or B too.
DS
S rank: None to date.
A rank: Kirby Canvas Curse
A rank: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorny
A rank: New Super Mario Bros
A rank: 42 All Time Classics
A rank: Elite Beat Agents
B rank: Advance Wars DS

Xbox
S rank: Outrun 2006
B rank: Psychonauts

360
S rank: None to date.
A rank: Omega 5
B rank: Dead Rising

Gamecube
S rank: Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
S rank: LoZ: Wind Waker
A rank: Resident Evil 4
A rank: Donkey Konga: Jungle Beat

Wii
S rank: Super Mario Galaxy
S rank: Wii Sports
B rank: LoZ:Twilight Princess
A rank: Excite Truck
A rank: Endless Ocean
A rank: Sin and Punishment

GBA
S rank: Rhythm Tengoku
S rank: Advance Wars
S rank: Wario Ware
A rank: Metroid Fusion
A rank: Wario Ware Twisted
A rank: The Legend of Zelda Minish Cap.
B rank: Advance Wars 2

Clearly subjective, but that's idea anyway. What do people think? I was pleasantly surprised to see that the GBA wins out.

Ello. Sorry to be a cock, but before folks start arguing about whether or not Mario Kart DS is an 'S' game or not (which it obviously is Lave, you dribbling simpleton from hell*) how about doing so in another thread, away from the topic of er, us reviewing games and shit, ja?

* I like Mario Kart DS

Not your words, the words of Top Gear Magazine.

360 Magazine already does such a thing, it's not terribly useful.

Is it too late to suggest a predicted interest curve be included in each review, along with a mark out of 1000?