It's Time To End Numeric Game Review Scores

Game reviews have become an extremely important aspect of marketing, promoting, and buying video games. Many major gaming outlets provide reviews for new and upcoming games. The purpose is usually to give an informed opinion on the quality of the game. For the most part game reviews are a helpful and informative. However there is one aspect of game reviews that really need to change. In my opinion that aspect is numeric scoring. I'll explain.

Games have grown in development, scope, and complexity over the years. There are several aspects to a game that must be considered. I believe numeric scores often do games and gamers an injustice. Even the good ones. Relying on a simple numeric score doesn't often take into account the nuance and intricacies of a particular game. It doesn't help to highlight the highs and lows of a game. It doesn't accent the best and worst parts of a game. Numeric scores hurt games sometimes because the game is often pushed into a very small box.

Not only that but the value of the number largely depends on the outlet. On one site or show a 3 out of 5 might be considered great. On another it might be considered mediocre. Some sites complicate this even further. What's the difference between a game with a rating of 7.0 and one with a rating of 7.5? How are these numbers chosen? Numeric reviews even hurt sites and reviewers. I've seen and read game reviews whet the reviewers go into depth about a game's strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately people will either scroll to the bottom off the article or skip to the end of the video looking for a number score. Also how many good games get overlooked because someone didn't read or watch a review and just saw 7 or 8 out of 10 or 3 or 3 1/2 out of five?

Gaming is an expensive hobby. It's also a painstaking process for developers. I think reviews should evolve past numeric scoring. Gamers are also not a monolith. What might be off putting to one gamer might be appealing to another. I think it's time that we as gaming outlets move away from simple numeric scoring. I think it will benefit everyone in the long run.