1, 2, 3, 4, Review Scores Are Out The Door

Today, on my commute to work, I was listening to The Reformed Gamers Podcast – Episode 197. The host of the podcast, Logan, had on Colin Moriarty. Now you may now Colin from his work at IGN or from his podcast Sacred Symbols: A PlayStation Podcast. Anywho, Colin was talking about how for years he had passionately argued against review scores. How ultimately a review score of 8.5 or even a 9.0 doesn’t tell you a lot about the game in question. This got me thinking about review scores in general.

Here at JohnnyBGamer, I used to score games on a 1-5 system (1 being awful; 5 being the absolute best thing ever). For example, Josh and I rated Firewatch a 4/5:

4/5 – Plot holes mare what could have been a revelatory narrative experience.

We talk, in the review, about the game. What we liked, disliked, and what resonated with us. It is a fine review (wow, wrote that in 2016!). I even stand by the review score. But, sometime within the last year, I have decided to let the review scores go. I want to present what we like, dislike, and what resonates or doesn’t resonate. I ultimately want to be able to review a game without attaching a review score to it (see Biomutant review).

I realize, by listening the Colin today, that I do not have any sort of weight on Metacritic (nor do I want to). I want to:

• Experience the games I play
• Write about them
• Post pictures
• Share how they feel / play

I won’t be attaching a review score any longer. I realized that this is a decision I had already made but felt it was important to share.

Happy gaming.