{"id":1155,"date":"2006-07-16T21:53:12","date_gmt":"2006-07-17T00:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2006-07-18T23:18:53","modified_gmt":"2006-07-19T02:18:53","slug":"55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hoogervorst.ca\/arthur\/?p=1155","title":{"rendered":"5.5"},"content":{"rendered":"

R<\/span>eading games reviews on \"Frustrated\"<\/a>the Internet reminds me of the days (way back) when I literally ate car reviews for breakfast. Numbers, average ratings, I was obsessed with averages. However, reviews based on average (numerical) ratings<\/em> don’t work: take for example this review over at Gamespot<\/a> for a game called ‘Prey’. Gamespot uses several components that (at the end) result in an ‘average’ rating in a scale from 1 to 10, uh, wait<\/a>, there’s a ‘catch’:\n<\/p>\n

Our ratings are generated from the component scores that our reviewers assign. That means the overall rating is not a pure average of five component scores–some components are weighted more heavily than others. GameSpot has consistently applied this same rating formula since we started.
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So, going back to the ratings of that game, over 5 different components the review assigned 3 7s and 2 8s (on a scale of 10), which according most math should end up with an average rating of 7.4. The question is of course, where exactly did the article’s 7.5 score come from? It must be the graphics!\n<\/p>\n

The catch-all with these kind of ratings is that averages don’t really tell anything. Think of it this way: 10 years ago graphics were a lot less better than today. If 10 years ago, games reviewers gave a game like Pac Man a 10 for graphics, imagine what that number (according a specific scale) would be now. Most likely not 10<\/em>. I bet that it’s probably a lot more fun playing Pac Man over and over than, lets say, the very game now known as ‘Prey’.\n<\/p>\n

I have a better and alternative rating system: it’s called the ‘Frustration Level’. It’s on a scale of 10 too and for clarity, I decided to use sailing as a metaphor:\n<\/p>\n