Author Topic: New idea for NWR Reviews...  (Read 10779 times)

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Offline UncleBob

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New idea for NWR Reviews...
« on: April 11, 2007, 11:05:23 AM »
I'm tired of the griping about the reviews on NWR.  So I'd like to suggest a crazy idea... How about posting reviews without "scores"?  Then people will actually have to read the reviews and form an opinion based on that, instead of reading the score first and automatically thinking the worst.
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Offline NWR_pap64

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2007, 11:39:19 AM »
Better yet, why not ban ALL review discussion from the site? Just post the review and forbid anyone to discuss it.

In all seriousness, I know some have jumped into conclusions, but many of us actually read the review and form a serious opinion about it.

I know you guys have the right to post opinions, but this sounds like you want us to "deal" with the reviews and not even form an opinion of them.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2007, 11:45:18 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
Better yet, why not ban ALL review discussion from the site? Just post the review and forbid anyone to discuss it.

In all seriousness, I know some have jumped into conclusions, but many of us actually read the review and form a serious opinion about it.

I know you guys have the right to post opinions, but this sounds like you want us to "deal" with the reviews and not even form an opinion of them.


No, I think we should just ban Pap from posting replies to reviews. That would solve everything!
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Offline NWR_pap64

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2007, 11:49:29 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
Better yet, why not ban ALL review discussion from the site? Just post the review and forbid anyone to discuss it.

In all seriousness, I know some have jumped into conclusions, but many of us actually read the review and form a serious opinion about it.

I know you guys have the right to post opinions, but this sounds like you want us to "deal" with the reviews and not even form an opinion of them.


No, I think we should just ban Pap from posting replies to reviews. That would solve everything!


Golden, I know you have the tendency to "mess" around with me, but I would appreciate if you stopped doing it.

Seriously, I am trying to be serious and bring an argument to the table. I would GREATLY appreciate if you left the sarcastic wit for some other time.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2007, 11:52:15 AM »
I do think Uncle Bob has a point though, there are many of us (yes including me) that tend to jump all over a review without even considering what was stated, and instead focusing on the score. Heck there are even times when some of NWR's reviews have been harpooned from people who haven't even played the game (Reminds me alot of Evan's Sonic review).
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Offline NWR_pap64

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2007, 11:58:35 AM »
Quote

Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
I do think Uncle Bob has a point though, there are many of us (yes including me) that tend to jump all over a review without even considering what was stated, and instead focusing on the score. Heck there are even times when some of NWR's reviews have been harpooned from people who haven't even played the game (Reminds me alot of Evan's Sonic review).


I know that we have disagreed on this issue many a time. Still, this doesn't give you the right to throw sarcastic jokes and comments about my person.

That's what annoys me the most. We disagree on this issue, fine. But I think I don't deserve to have it shoved in my face every chance you get.
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Offline mottsc

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2007, 11:59:08 AM »

I think scores are still necessary so it can be included in gamerankings.com which could potentially drive more traffic to the site.

I don't think you can reasonably ban all discussion of reviews, but not making it have a talkback would reduce discussion.

How about more promotion of the Reader Reviews forum so people are more likely to post their own reviews? An automatic to a reader review thread for that game. It would create one if it didn't already exist. Or maybe a way for NWR users to have a quick ranking of what they felt of the game akin to the easily selectable stars in youtube to rank videos.  

Offline GoldenPhoenix

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #7 on: April 11, 2007, 12:11:34 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
Quote

Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
I do think Uncle Bob has a point though, there are many of us (yes including me) that tend to jump all over a review without even considering what was stated, and instead focusing on the score. Heck there are even times when some of NWR's reviews have been harpooned from people who haven't even played the game (Reminds me alot of Evan's Sonic review).


I know that we have disagreed on this issue many a time. Still, this doesn't give you the right to throw sarcastic jokes and comments about my person.

That's what annoys me the most. We disagree on this issue, fine. But I think I don't deserve to have it shoved in my face every chance you get.


Considering I was just playing around and joking (Do you honestly believe I want you banned from the NWR review topics?), but you feel the need to turn this into something more I'll be much obliged to face you on it. To put it bluntly I think it is STUPID to defend a game you haven't played based on your friends, it is stupid when I do it, and it is stupid when others do it. The opinion is 2nd hand and nothing more, the only impact your friends should have when it comes to entertainment should be in order to recommend or not recommend something, not to harpoon reviewers for fearing criticism, when you yourself have no hands on experience with what you are attacking them on.

Do I agree with NWR's reviews all the time? No I don't, in fact there is usually a big disconnect, but I RESPECT them and their opinion and feel each one has legitimate beefs regarding games, and like anything, some flaws in games will irk one person more than another. That is how people are, some people may be able to overlook or "learn" poor controls in a game, but for another it may be the turning point when it comes to creating a negative opinion. This is why reviews should be read for their content not their review score, and judged based on that. Maybe you can ask for them to clarify something if you are thinking of renting or buying the game, but for blatantly DEFENDING the game without playing it is silly.
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Offline Karl Castaneda #2

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2007, 12:25:21 PM »
John Davison from Ziff Davis mentioned taking away scores from Computer Gaming World once, and that people were really unhappy about it. The reasoning for that is, people don't like to have things taken away from them. It's alright to augment the experience, but to remove from it does a disservice to the readerbase.

Review discussion in talkback is totally welcome and in no way frowned upon. When we argue with you guys (and we do, as you all know), we're not doing so because we don't respect your opinions. We do so because we disagree with what you're saying, just like you disagree with what we're saying. The only time when we have to take an administrative action is when it stops being about the game and becomes about the person.
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Offline NWR_pap64

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2007, 12:28:03 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
Quote

Originally posted by: pap64
Quote

Originally posted by: GoldenPhoenix
I do think Uncle Bob has a point though, there are many of us (yes including me) that tend to jump all over a review without even considering what was stated, and instead focusing on the score. Heck there are even times when some of NWR's reviews have been harpooned from people who haven't even played the game (Reminds me alot of Evan's Sonic review).


I know that we have disagreed on this issue many a time. Still, this doesn't give you the right to throw sarcastic jokes and comments about my person.

That's what annoys me the most. We disagree on this issue, fine. But I think I don't deserve to have it shoved in my face every chance you get.


Considering I was just playing around and joking (Do you honestly believe I want you banned from the NWR review topics?), but you feel the need to turn this into something more I'll be much obliged to face you on it. To put it bluntly I think it is STUPID to defend a game you haven't played based on your friends, it is stupid when I do it, and it is stupid when others do it. The opinion is 2nd hand and nothing more, the only impact your friends should have when it comes to entertainment should be in order to recommend or not recommend something, not to harpoon reviewers for fearing criticism, when you yourself have no hands on experience with what you are attacking them on.

Do I agree with NWR's reviews all the time? No I don't, in fact there is usually a big disconnect, but I RESPECT them and their opinion and feel each one has legitimate beefs regarding games, and like anything, some flaws in games will irk one person more than another. That is how people are, some people may be able to overlook or "learn" poor controls in a game, but for another it may be the turning point when it comes to creating a negative opinion. This is why reviews should be read for their content not their review score, and judged based on that. Maybe you can ask for them to clarify something if you are thinking of renting or buying the game, but for blatantly DEFENDING the game without playing it is silly.


First of all, I NEVER bashed the reviewers. I simply questioned their intentions and opinions. It is my belief that NWR reviews scores and reviews have been awfully negative in the past few months, which I find weird. I understand that its their opinion and their job, but that doesn't mean I can't raise an eyebrow if I see something weird or call it out.

Second, I KNOW that in the end the opinions that matter in ANY subject are mine. That doesn't mean that I can't trust some opinions better than others.

Like I explained in the other thread, I tend to respect my friends' opinions better because in the past they have been spot on with mine. That also includes movies, anime series and TV series.

Hell, even when I enjoyed a game better than they did I still find myself agreeing with what they thought about it (for example, I enjoyed Rocket Slime far more than SB did, but I agreed with him that once the game was over it was over).

Also, I tend to respect gamers' opinion better than some other reviews. So if the general agreement is that a certain game is at the very least decent and worth a try, then I'm inclined to believe that the game might not be so bad.

And no, I honestly didn't believe that you wanted me banned from reviews discussion. However, the constant jokes and sarcasm you use whenever I bring an opinion on something (generally something you disagree with) shows that part of you is annoyed by it. After all, I know that sometimes anger disguises itself as annoyance or anger.
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Offline UncleBob

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2007, 01:17:23 PM »
I never meant to imply that anyone did not read the review and come up with counterpoints.  It is my opinion, however, that the majority of people who go out of their way to read a review already have an idea in their mind about what they expect from the game.  If it is a game they like (or want to like) and there's a low score posted, their initial reaction is to look for things in the review that, for whatever reason, they believe are wrong.  The opposite is true as well - if it is a game someone isn't expecting to like (or already knows that they don't) and the review has a high score, then, again, they'll go out of their way to find things they think are "wrong".

I am of the opinion that taking out the "score" will force individuals to read through the review and actually make their own determination as to what the reviewer thought of the game - instead of going into the review with a pre-formed opinion of the review.
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Offline mottsc

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2007, 02:20:25 PM »
So I went back to look at the early Gamecube reviews and do a few stats. By the way, King of Fighters EX: Neoblood is listed as a GC review but it should be in the GBA section.

For the time the Wii has been out, there have been 35 total reviews, and in that same time period, 35 for the Gamecube. Good job on keeping that up!

The average Wii score has been 6.6 while the average Gamecube score for that period was 7.9.

So let's say you take out hardware reviews, that leaves 33 Wii games and 27 for the Gamecube and the scores are 6.5 and 7.9 respectively.

Now the Wii has been subject to more licensed crap and ports in this time than the Gamecube might have been so if for argument we assume that the bottom 6 are made of these and remove those to make the number of games match between the two systems match the Wii average rises to 7.1. That's not necessarily a very fair comparison though.

How about how they break down into score ranges?

Gamecube - 27 total

  1. 0
  2. 0
  3. 1
  4. 1
  5. 0
  6. 1
  7. 6
  8. 10
  9. 9
  10. 0


Wii - 33 total

  1. 0
  2. 0
  3. 2
  4. 4
  5. 2
  6. 12
  7. 5
  8. 5
  9. 2
  10. 1


Now looking at this the Wii reviews seem to better represent the average kind of bell curve you would expect from a pool of reviews. My guess is that PCG, now NWR, reviews evolved to this over time. Looking at the Gamecube review clustering I think it's biased a little high. I think the Gamecube had a strong launch but I don't believe that over 2/3 of the launch games deserved a 8 or higher, or 90% deserved a 7 or higher.

Going into this mini-analysis I figured both would turn out about the same or at least have a similar distribution pattern. Color me surprised.

Offline oohhboy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2007, 09:14:06 PM »
A pretty good work there mottsc. I am not suprised that it worked out that way. I do agree somewhat that the launch scores for GC was judged abit too optimisticly. But the games released for the GC at the time were better than whatever else out there at the time. Alot of them would not holdup today, but given the context of the time, it was perfectly justified.

I have no beef with the review system then or now. As long as the reviewers hold themselfs up to a standard and justify what they write, they should keep doing what they are doing now.

As for joke reviews, it only social justice that we receive form of repartation for companies unleashing pain and suffering upon the world. If it stop someone from buying a bad game or provide the stimulus to turn one in to a good game, then you guys have done your job.
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Offline TheYoungerPlumber

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #13 on: April 14, 2007, 11:20:02 PM »
Back to the original topic, PGC/NWR has considered removing scores on multiple ocaissions, actually.  I think Jonny and others on staff feel that scores are a necessary evil expected of reviews such as ours--each reviewer, each reader, and each site/magazine has a different idea of what a 8/10 or 4/5 or B+ or whatever really means.  The text is the meat of the review, and a good review should justify (directly or indirectly) the numbers given.

I think it is perfectly common to agree with a review but not its score.  For example, back when I reviewed Mario Golf on GBA I gave it a 7.5.  A week or so later a reader emailed me saying my score seemed somewhat harsh, and you know what?  I agreed.  I did not disagree with anything I had written, but felt I had weighed those complaints too heavily into my scores.  
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Offline Bloodworth

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2007, 09:51:14 AM »
I think you should just use a random number generator to determine review scores.   That way when someone complains you can say, "I didn't agree with that score either, but that's how it came out."
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Offline Plugabugz

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #15 on: April 15, 2007, 10:00:09 AM »
I suggested a dual-review setup. two people review the game (one an expert in that field, one not) and the overall scores are averaged out.

Offline UncleBob

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #16 on: April 15, 2007, 01:29:51 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: Bloodworth
I think you should just use a random number generator to determine review scores.   That way when someone complains you can say, "I didn't agree with that score either, but that's how it came out."


How about a random number generator that pulls out a different number every time you load it?
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Offline UltimatePartyBear

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #17 on: April 16, 2007, 04:10:42 AM »
As much as I'd like to think that the review text should be enough by itself, I don't think it would work.  I've seen quite a few reviews that sounded very positive about a game but gave it a middling score.  I've also seen reviews with high scores that are full of nitpicks that make the reviewer sound down on the game.  Without the scores to color the reviews, it can be hard to figure out what the reviewer really thinks.  The score is a map of how to read the review, whether that's intentional or not.

On the other hand, maybe that problem would disappear if reviewers didn't think they had to justify or qualify their scores.

Offline oohhboy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #18 on: April 16, 2007, 07:14:15 AM »
They have to justify/quanitfy thier opinions. Scores are needed since gives at a minimim, a baseline for the reader to interperate a review. With out this "hard' number, all you get is a bunch words like great, excellent, good, ledgendary, amazing, crap, horrible, rubbish and other nice words that would make up an unoffical and highly speculative rating system. Atleast with numbers, it is impossible to argue which one is higher since everyone knows the right answer to that question.

The actual number that a game deserves maybe in question for any game, but it is far better than thing at all.
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Offline UncleBob

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #19 on: April 16, 2007, 01:02:35 PM »
"Scores are needed since gives at a minimim, a baseline for the reader to interperate a review"

The problem with that idea though, is that every individual (both reviewer and reader) is going to have their own idea of what the "baseline" for a particular score is.  There are those who think anything above a 5 is "average" while there are those who don't think anything below a "7" is average.

So if you think "5" means average, but I rate a game a "7" thinking that it's average, then you're going to disagree with my review because I rated it higher than you thought it deserved.  And if you rate a game at "6" (slightly above your average) and I think it was an 8 (slightly above my average), then I'll think you cheated the game out of a good review.

Meanwhile, if I write a review that says "This game is average because..." and you write a a review "This game is slightly above average because..."

Maybe that's what needs to be done!  Similar to the VC reccomendation system, instead of raking reviews 1-10, we need a "Poor"-"Excellent" rating system.  Instead of giving games meaningless numbers that everyone reads differently, how about summing up the game in one word?
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Offline Athrun Zala

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #20 on: April 16, 2007, 05:01:25 PM »
Quote

Originally posted by: UncleBob
I'm tired of the griping about the reviews on NWR.  So I'd like to suggest a crazy idea... How about posting reviews without "scores"?  Then people will actually have to read the reviews and form an opinion based on that, instead of reading the score first and automatically thinking the worst.
I agree... somewhat

I think it'd better if scores are removed, the Pros/Cons are not, and add the "Recommended for..." from the VC reviews (obviously a bit changed, and adding others like "Recommended for RPG purists/Anime fans/etc"). That way, there are guidelines, and no score-generated ambiguousness (as the score itself is pretty open to interpretation)
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Offline oohhboy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #21 on: April 16, 2007, 05:56:41 PM »
The reason why most people see "7" as average is that is the point where people feel that they are getting their minimim bang per buck if they paid full price or near it. That 7 is not the average score at all. That is the mid point on the scale of good.

Anything below 5 is already considered rubbish and degrees of rubbish. Anything above 5 is a scale of increasing good. If price is removed, then most people would be happy to play something that is 5 or above. Whether they finish the game or not is another matter all togeather. Since they got it at zero cost they can discard it at zero cost.

It is supply and demand boiled down to a single number.
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Offline UncleBob

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #22 on: April 16, 2007, 06:02:16 PM »
...to a single number that has different meanings to different people.  Which is where the majority of the problems lie.

Don't get me wrong, I still think some individuals would have the initial knee-jerk reaction if they saw a "score" they disagreed with, no matter if it were an ambigious number of 5.5 or an clearly worded "average" ranking... but at least it would get the point across that just because the title is scred some various vauge number, it doesn't mean the person reviewing it though it was horribly bad or greatly good...
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Offline that Baby guy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #23 on: April 16, 2007, 06:30:43 PM »
You should rate things by different popcorn brands.

This game had a little too much salt, so I give it an Act II out of V.

Offline oohhboy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #24 on: April 17, 2007, 04:50:47 AM »
Writing or doing anything for ithe insane or the extreamists isn't going to help anybody. Any review should be able to fit around 90% of it's target audience. If this site were to give 10's to every Nintendo game just because of the fanboys, then any meaning in the score would obviously be lost. It would be the same if a crap game was given a 6 just because people think 7 is the real average.

There are times where I do question the score. Anybody can and will fall out of that 90% - 95% from time to time. Everytime that happens, I reread, then I place myself in the reviewers view point in order to understand why they scored and written the review as they did. 99% of the time, unless there is some sort of hidden motive behind the review, all is well.

The problem is most people don't think anymore. Worse than sheep. Atleast sheep learn to stay the hell away from electric fences, but people have stop doing even that. Never learn, never listen, never learn from their own and others mistakes.

Without the score, nobody is going to read the review. For the masses there is nothing to hang on to and with that you might as well type the entire thing in pure 42 53.
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Offline ShyGuy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #25 on: April 17, 2007, 06:10:15 AM »
thatguy is on to something....

People were mad that Super Swing Golf was rated a Jiffy Pop.

I know it's no Orville Redenbacher like Twilight Princess, but there weren't that many unpopped kernels at the bottom of the bag

Offline UncleBob

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #26 on: April 17, 2007, 08:20:27 AM »
As this topic goes on, I'm moving away from the idea of getting rid of the score completely and floating more toward the idea of scoring games with something that actually *means* something.  And numbers just don't do that...  The meaning of "5" varies.  Greatly.  (Hell, if I tell you I'd rank a game at "5", what does that mean to you?) The meaning of "average" doesn't so much.
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Offline Ceric

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #27 on: April 17, 2007, 09:00:12 AM »
I rank it a specialty Popcorn like Cheddar Cheese. lol Maybe we should do popcorn ranking.
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Offline wandering

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #28 on: April 17, 2007, 11:55:35 AM »
If I ran a video games website, I'd have games scored with the following:



I suppose it's basically a more colorful and less awesome Mr. Face.

 
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Offline UncleBob

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #29 on: April 17, 2007, 12:46:56 PM »
I like!
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Offline Caliban

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #30 on: April 17, 2007, 03:42:00 PM »
I don't think the problem lies on the scores.
I think that the NWR staff should acquire more reviewers.
The current reviewers are still really good at what they do, but what has been messing around with them is that there are alot more games to review for the Wii (and DS) than there was for the GC, and some of them might be feeling forced to review certain games just because they are on the "to review list", and then there's staff that have really busy lives, there's staff that has recently left NWR, podcasts, why in all of common sense would a launch title be reviewed 5 months later.

ACQUIRE MORE STAFF!

Offline ShyGuy

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #31 on: April 17, 2007, 07:32:58 PM »
Was that you putting in a job application Caliban?

Offline that Baby guy

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #32 on: April 17, 2007, 07:36:42 PM »
I couldn't find a copy of this game anywhere, so I am forced to rate it Secret Pop.

Offline Bloodworth

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #33 on: April 17, 2007, 08:13:13 PM »
Quote

why in all of common sense would a launch title be reviewed 5 months later.


Not that it should happen, but there have always been reviews that fall through the cracks.  I reviewed Zoids VS III six months late because the first sight of it paralyzed me with fear.  
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Offline S-U-P-E-R

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #34 on: April 17, 2007, 10:12:33 PM »
I remember, when the site was brand new, there already a bit of debate on whether or not to include number scores. I could go either way, I guess. I don't really like doing the the breakdown of graphics/controls/lastability/etc scores individually, since certain categories are completely irrelevant to some games, and I have my doubts that people care that much about them. I love having a little summary at the bottom, though. tl;dr

I'd also like to rate games with a series of unlabeled green bars, and the final grade in the form of a fruit.

Offline Shift Key

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #35 on: April 17, 2007, 10:52:42 PM »
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Originally posted by: S-U-P-E-R
I'd also like to rate games with a series of unlabeled green bars, and the final grade in the form of a fruit.


So mango = best, right? Hell, lets get an NWR fruit review going.

Offline mottsc

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #36 on: April 18, 2007, 06:10:35 AM »
On catching up with this thread and reading elsewhere, it seems like the main problem with numbers in reviews is context. NWR has many reviewers and they can't be consistent with one another. I would like to see more than one reviewer review a given game but that's not practical in general. I think context would be greatly aided if in a side box, maybe near the review score it listed other games (with links to the reviews) that the reviewer gave similar scores to (+/- 0.5 for a 1 point range).

That way the reader can quickly determine whether the reviewer's scale is in line with their own and investigate what causes the differences.

Offline Caliban

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #37 on: April 18, 2007, 07:48:24 AM »
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Originally posted by: ShyGuy
Was that you putting in a job application Caliban?


Hell no. I've got the time, but I lack the writing skills that equal of the NWR staff.

Quote

Originally posted by: Bloodworth
Not that it should happen, but there have always been reviews that fall through the cracks.


It shouldn't, but then again this is an amateur site, so I guess we are lucky to get reviews.

Offline oohhboy

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #38 on: April 18, 2007, 03:33:27 PM »
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Originally posted by: mottsc
On catching up with this thread and reading elsewhere, it seems like the main problem with numbers in reviews is context. NWR has many reviewers and they can't be consistent with one another. I would like to see more than one reviewer review a given game but that's not practical in general. I think context would be greatly aided if in a side box, maybe near the review score it listed other games (with links to the reviews) that the reviewer gave similar scores to (+/- 0.5 for a 1 point range).

That way the reader can quickly determine whether the reviewer's scale is in line with their own and investigate what causes the differences.


The second page usually gives all the context needed for the score. Besides, The score should only be taken at face value to point where the review is going or is at. Analyising inidividual review scores that closely is a bad idea. It the same as trying to determind a trend from a single point of data.
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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #39 on: April 18, 2007, 06:12:32 PM »
I just mean it as a way to quickly figure out whether this reviewer is right for you or how to take them relative to your own experience based on the other games reviewed.

Offline Hostile Creation

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #40 on: April 22, 2007, 12:23:15 PM »
My review of this thread:

The discussion is subpar, and there's a little bit of unnecessary whining going on between GP and Pap.  The jokes aren't frequent or funny enough; SUPER's snippet about fruit was alright, but we're not seeing top-notch AAA NWR quality here.  Obviously a rushed project.

Graphics: 7
The avatars and text are on par with the rest of the NWR forums, and I really liked wandering's colorful scale.  A nice touch.  However, I'm not seeing enough humorous screenshot macros or Infernal Monkey comics.  No sexy True ads, either.

Sound: 4
There's no sound obviously, but the usual character banter we hear at NWR just isn't at its best in this thread.  It has its moments, but for the most part the sound is below average.

Control: 8
Using the Firefox controller, I had no difficulty scrolling up and down, clicking on links, or typing this review.  There are some flaws, and it doesn't compare to what might be possible with the freeform movement of the Wii, but the controls are perfectly acceptable.

Gameplay: 5
I don't feel like much is getting accomplished, but unlike /b/ and other more interesting threads on NWR, it lacks the humor or banter components to make up for it.  The thread mostly felt like a drawn out collectathon with a rushed development.

Lastability: 2
I don't think I'll be revisiting this thread.  One play-through was enough for me.
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Offline Jonnyboy117

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RE: New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #41 on: April 28, 2007, 06:58:32 AM »
When we first planned out the review format in early 2001 (before GBA came out in Japan, which provided our first opportunity for reviews), I said in staff meetings that I preferred to write reviews without scores.  That's how I did it on my old site, the Nformant.  But I was a new guy and didn't hold much clout, so other people outvoted me.  Over time, I have learned to deal with scores.  I still don't like them, but they are a necessary evil.  My goal is to handle them in the fairest possible way and to do my best to make sure that they seem logical and sensible when compared to the text portion of the review.  I personally don't write any scores until the rest of the review is complete, and I generally spend less than 1% of the overall review time/effort on formulating scores.  I spend a little more checking to make sure they make sense given what I've said about the game, and then I'm finished.  So basically, if all you read from my reviews are the scores, you're getting a tiny fraction of the effort I put into that review, which I take as an insult.  I'd rather you didn't click on the review in the first place if you're not going to give it anymore attention than that.  Scores are just data to be entered into a database.  A review should be a work of art unto itself.
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Offline ShyGuy

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RE:New idea for NWR Reviews...
« Reply #42 on: April 28, 2007, 09:32:42 AM »
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Originally posted by: Jonnyboy117So basically, if all you read from my reviews are the scores, you're getting a tiny fraction of the effort I put into that review, which I take as an insult.  I'd rather you didn't click on the review in the first place if you're not going to give it anymore attention than that.  Scores are just data to be entered into a database.  A review should be a work of art unto itself.


Well, that settles it. NWR is not my place to come for game reviews.