After 11 years, video game website behemoth GameSpot is ditching their old review scale for a newly reconfigured one. They’re going to be using the same 10 point scale, but with .5 increments instead of the previous .1 increments. It’s no secret that I have issues with traditional review scoring methods, so this is certainly a step in the right direction.
“That’s 1.0 to 10.0 with half-step increments. Component scores, like graphics and sound, will no longer be a part of GameSpot’s score. With fewer scores to choose from, our review team will be able to speak more definitively about games. By eliminating scores like 7.9, we’re no longer able to say “this game is almost great, but not quite. Now our choices will be to say “yes, this is a great game” and give it an 8.0, or say “this game is good, but not great” and go with a 7.5. While I’ll personally miss the ability to give games a 6.8, I look forward to eliminating quibbles about the quality differences between games that are only a tenth of a point apart.”
It is also made clear that the numeric scores still mean the same thing, which means that a particular game must score at least 7 out of 10 to be considered of ‘average quality’. This is a flaw, but also makes it difficult to compare scores at a glance to other sites that consider a 5 to be average.
Since some of the granularity of the scale is going away, they are also going to give out ‘medals’ to each game for different reasons to highlight things that the game does particularly well instead of adding a tenth of a point here or there.
It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
Link! to full article (GameSpot)