My Rating System

If you’ve read any of my reviews, you’ll have noticed that I don’t use a numerical rating system like many other gaming sites.  You may be asking yourself why that is.  The biggest names in gaming all use a numerical rating.  Most will break a review down into the individual aspects, graphics, sounds, control, etc.  Each of these categories will get an individual score, usually from 1 to 10.  These scores will be averaged together at the end of the review, thus giving the game its final score.  It’s a bland, unoriginal rating system that is far too popular.

I believe that a game can’t be confined to a numerical value.  Playing a game is a unique experience that ends up being something different for everyone.  A review should be a recollection of that experience.  It should be fair and unbiased of course, but in the end, a game isn’t a number.  A game is a work of art and should be treated as such.

Once a reviewer strips away what is special about that game and puts it in the format that 90% of the world uses, how is that game special or unique any longer?  At that point, it becomes just another number.  With only a title and number, most people won’t even take the time to read the generic review.  They will judge a game solely on that number and if that number isn’t high enough, most won’t even bother playing the game itself.  And who is to say a game is deserving of one score or another?  A reviewer may say that a game is a nine and a player may think that nine is in fact a four.  So how can a number sum up an experience for everyone?  Put simply, it can’t.

So when I write a review, I’m not only covering the technical points and writing about those.  I’d like to think that I write about the heart and soul of a game.  Whether it is a beautiful and moving experience or a bug-riddled nightmare, it’s my job to convey what the game is.  A game may be comprised of 1’s and 0’s, but it is not a number.  Thus, you will never see a number based review from me.