Accuracy of Opinion

Opinion from Matt - Wednesday, 16 November 2011 @ 5:54pm

Australian Gamer is in a fortunate position: we don't actually matter.

You see, larger websites, more prestigious websites, websites of character, distinction and professionalism, they matter. What they do matters. Most importantly, what they score matters.

Better websites also have the unfortunate position of being given games before they come out. This means that they get a first run on reviews, yes, but when you are reviewing a game before other reviews go up how are you supposed to know what your opinion is supposed to be? Thankfully we are in the fortunate position that we can read about what the internet thinks first, and form our opinion correctly.

There have been a few recent high profile games that have tripped up reviewers. Eurogamer's Simon Parkin was rightly condemned for the temerity to score Uncharted 3 only 8/10 when the entire internet, even without ever playing it, clearly knew it deserved a better score. Let this be a lesson to people like Eurogamer that they should check Metacritic BEFORE they go ahead making fools of themselves. I assume that in response to wide criticism of those who had not yet played the game, Eurogamer has adjusted their score upwards to more accurately reflect Uncharted 3's flawless brilliance, but I haven't actually checked. If people who haven't even gotten the game yet can tell how good it is, Eurogamer's foolish score is frankly an embarrassment to us all.

That's not alone, though. Tom McShea of Gamespot, who should honestly know better, recently scored Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword only a 7.5/10. As any Nintendo fan will tell you this is the biggest and best game of the year, and deserves at least a 9.5/10, and when they all get a chance to actually play it they'll make damn sure Gamespot's user review score better matches up with the metacritic score of 90%, a number itself brought down by this irresponsible and unprofessionally incorrect score.

The words of a Gamespot commentor correctly sum up this travesty.

Well said dat1337vet. Well said. Word cannot express indeed.

And with the end of the year rolling around soon things are only going to get worse. It's entirely possible some journalists will actually proclaim the wrong game as Game of the Year!

After all, a few months before release, massive numbers of the readers of a number of online forums and communities such as NeoGaf and Reddit were already well aware that Skyrim is the clear winner of Game of the Year, and the only way Skyrim's experience could possibly get better is if they actually played the game. Or most of its competition.

If there's a conclusion to this it's simple. Gaming journalists need to understand that the arbitrary numbers they give video games do actually matter, and should at least put some effort into making sure the number they provide is actually correct. And if you need help to know what the correct score in as an early reviewer, just check the internet. There will be plenty of informed and well presented opinions there, to help make sure you're spot on.