PixlBit

Well said! I never understood all the controversy over game scores, either. While there are certainly plenty of objective aspects to judge a title's merit upon, we can't forget that games are art, and art is very subjective in terms of an individual's preference and what speaks to them.

My favorite game of all time is Kirby's Dream Course, and that generally gets around a 7.5 - 8 in reviews - it would be stupid for me to get angry at that, all that tells me is that this game reached me artistically and in terms of mechanics and gameplay in a way that it might not affect other gamers. In a way, it makes it all the more special.

Gamers love to whine about uniform reviews, crying out for differentiation from reviewers, and then someone actually has an opinion and the gamers turn into the infected from 28 Days Later. If we as a community want to be taken seriously, we need to act like rational, logical adults, not the bigots and morons whom the vast majority of us would seek to differentiate ourselves from.

I'm rather lenient on game design. Aka,sexy characters don't offend me. However, there is a problem in gaming and I think the hate and vitriol directed at real reviewers who are female or alternative lifestylers is a pretty common issue that needs to be addressed.

Anyway, I'm much like you. I've adored games in the "8,7, or below" range as well. I was a tad disappointed said games didn't get the credit that they were due but I did not let it change me into a raging psychopath.

It definitely needs to be addressed. When I see people spewing bigoted, hateful shit like that I can't help but think "What century are we in? Shouldn't we be past this kind of stupid crap by now?"

Yeah,it's truly unfortunate. I think we all want to see gaming as being progressive but it still has a nasty under-belly. We should at least be beyond the "Gurl gamer?! Make me a sandwich,hurrrrr!" stage. And a gamer being gay or transgendered shouldn't be a big deal either.

I hate the pedestal that review scores have been put on in gaming.

What kills me about it is...she gave the game a 9/10. People are being bigoted assholes about a 90; they're calling for her to get fired over a 4.5/5. A near perfect score. It amazes me that these morons expect anyone to take them seriously when they're willing to fling shit at anyone who dares to question majority opinon. 

And for what? A game that, at the time the review came out, wasn't even out yet. Nobody had ANY solid evidence to even criticize the review to begin with. And again, she LIKED the game overall.

Just...ugh.

"Editor's choice,Gig. People are raging over a review that was "Editor's choice". I'm close to giving up,man. lol. Also,let's be honest. GTA is a great series but one of its' longest running gags is doing hookers than running them over to get money back. I realize GTA is violent against men too but I think it's safe to say there is a certain amount of "virtual misogyny" going on in many of Rockstar's games. (And even some misandry too) Though Red Dead Redemption itself seemed to have some rather awesome portrayals of women.

And it would be perfectly fine to have that debate...like rational, civil human beings, rather than the shit flinging monkey nonsense we've seen surrounding the review.

This is why we can't have nice things.

I'd understand the rage if Carolyn was snarky and venomous throughout the review and gave the game a 5 out of 10. But instead it seemed like she still loved the game despite it having some content that offended her. Aka, she didn't let her personal preferences completely ruin the experience. At least to me, that's keeping things "professional".

I'm usually on the side of gamers but when many of them pull the dumb-ass card all I can do is this.

People who bitch about scores that don't validate/confirm their own opinions about a game (whether or not they've played it) are juvenile and unimaginative. We act like there's an ultimate truth when it comes to the value of art or entertainment; that's a bullshit line of logic. Everything you like or hate comes from your perspective and experiences in life (what other criteria can you use?). Its in our nature to disagree or see things differently in all aspects of life. It's okay to like/dislike something while others don't.

I agree. As much as we try to be objective I think a little bit of personal subjectivity always creeps into whatever we're analyzing. It's human nature.

I thought all of GTA was a satire on pop culture, it's sexist attitudes and everything. It makes you laugh at it in the game and then question it when you see it in real life.

Although, I guess part of it is just pure guilty pleasure escapism like a Grindhouse film, or a Tarantino or Rodriguez film. Gratuity for gratuity's sake.

That's exactly what GTA is. lol. But not everyone likes raunchy grindhouse satire. Regardless, I got the feeling Carolyn liked the game despite being slightly offended at certain parts. I mean it still got "editor's choice" and a 9 out of 10.

There's a good discussion of this on this week's IGN Podcast Unlocked here: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/19/podcast-unlocked-episode-113-gta-5-vs-call-of-duty-and-assassins-creed

Thanks,knight. Appreciate it!

People attacking Carolyn over being transgender is sickening. Seriously, fo you have done that, find a knife and ram into your skull because you are a fucking monstr.

Well, being mean to the people that are mean doesnt exactly solve the problem lol. We as the gaming community should learn to phrase our opinions better.

I was mad at that too,Blake. There was no excuse for that kind of behavior.

People are idiots. That is all.

Wiser words have never been typed.

I'm glad I write for a site where I don't have to provide a review score.

Why don't people talk about MY reviews? :)

Numbers are a tricky thing. I don't blame you for avoiding them,Cary. They seem to cause a lot of unnecessary controversy.

Gamers sometimes come across as juvenile, entitled and just damn right stupid. I just have to keep reminding myself "They're probably 12" or "They have ADD" and my faith in humanity isn't quite depleted.

It isn't just gaming, bud. Read any Wall Street Journal article about Apple or Google. The discourse in the comments there makes gamers look like Abraham Lincoln debating Stephen A. Douglas.

Moderator: Please disregard my accidental clicking of "reporting." Wasn't paying attention, sorry. :(

yeah that's true there are moronic comments in every corner of the internet.

Andrew's right I think. It's just "people" at large,Townz. You got good ones and bad ones. Sadly the stupid jerk-holes tend to be the most outspoken. lol.

Yeah that's true. I was speaking purely on the topic. Which would of course be gamers. I can say the same of many demographics and core groups. Passion for a subject can often breed narrow mindedness and stupidity. 

One thing I hate about game scores is Metacritic. Metacritic is a beast that needs to die in a fire, and then the fire needs to be thrown into the sun, and the sun then needs to be flung into a black hole. :) Hyperbole, yes, but it's sad that some shitty hole in the wall website in the Czech Republic can tank an otherwise solid game's MC scores. That kills sales and studios. Obsidian, for instance, missed out on a huge bonus payment promised to them if Fallout: New Vegas merited an 85 or greater on Metacritic. It got an 84. And I thought that gameplaywise, it was far superior to Fallout 3 (Metacritic 91). Obsidian lost their bonus in spite of the fact that New Vegas went on to sell millions.

I do think that ad hominem attacks, like the cheap shots at Ms. Petit over her transgenderism, are out of line.

The New Vegas incident pissed me off too. For all intents and purposes Obsidian's Fallout sequel still did extremely well. Denying their bonus over a 1 point difference on a meta-critic score was petty bullshit,Andrew.

 In Carolyn's case though she still gave GTA 5 an "editor's choice award" and a 9 out of 10. I doubt that's going to tank GTA 5's meta-rating.

Yesterday, I went over to Gametrailers to check out the Wind Waker HD review.  In the comment area, people were bitching about the review.  GT gave it a score of 7.8.  In my opinion it's not a bad score, though I'm not a big fan of Wind Waker.  There were people in the comments complaining that the score was too low and the reviewer was complaining about little stuff.  Funny thing is, some of the complaining commentors hadn't even played Wind Waker on the GC.  They're going off of what other people told them about the game. 

That happens a lot. Aka,people getting outraged by a game they haven't played yet. I imagine sometimes it's because they're buying it for the first time and want it confirmed in their minds "it's that good". Then again, I loved Nier and considered it one of my personal games of the year without needing the top game review outlets to back up my opinion. People rage over the silliest crap,James. lol.

This kind of bullshit has even inspired a feature in Gamespot called Feedbackula, in which the discuss this stupid kind of backlash.

I wonder how someone I think it's okay to post such hateful comments, "defending" a game with a stupid "you suck" quip instead of saying something constructive, or just saying "I disagree". 

At first I really didn't like Feedbackula. Aka, it seemed like a snarky way of trolling Gamespot's very own user base. But after being at gamespot for a bit I realized a lot of these same people deserved to be trolled back.

Indeed, I kinda felt the same way about it, and I am still unsure if the feature helps in some way or it just adds to the problem. But in some level, the Gamespot staff does have the right to strike back.

I think one of the reasons gamers get so upset over review scores is because for some reason they can't realize that these reviews are subjective, not objective. Just because a game has amazing graphics, a good story, well-balanced and deep gameplay does not automatically make it a great game in the eyes of everyone. Then there's the fact that most are just knee-jerk reactions who haven't even played more than a few hours of the game. It is the internet though so maybe I can't expect anymore!

Heck, it would nice to see Dynasty warriors get a 9 or 10 once in awhile. I'm a big fan of the franchise and on average it gets 7's and 8's. (Which is actually pretty good considering western game journalism went through a long period of time totally hating on Koei. lol. At least now a warriors title is given a fair shot and people will actually play them before judging them.)

You're dead on about people being subjective though. Like it or not our viewpoint does color our perception of things. Thus a good reviewer to me is simply someone who can dial back their subjectivity a bit and still be fair. This is why Carolyn seems okay to me in her GTA 5 review. Yeah,certain things offended her but she didn't let that ruin the whole game for her. Giving someone hell for scoring a game "9 out of 10" is beyond juvenile. How can that even begin to be misconstrued as "hate"??

I was thinking of trying a Dynasty Warriors game about a year ago, but the reviews make it hard to determine which game to start with. Many reviews I have read will say the newest title is marginally improved from the last one, but they will give it a lower score than the previous game. Does that mean the last one is better or just better if I already played that one? Beats me!

If you confront  these people, they have no cogent arguments to make. They speak in buzzwords about how "revolutionary" the game they haven't played is and is deserving of 10/10 on principle, or how the reviewer is a fanboy of some sort or another and shouldn't have a job. It's like talking to children.  You're better off ignoring comments sections competely, at least at mainstream sites. There is nothing of value to be gleaned from that miserable soup of degenerate grey matter...besides lowered expectations for the intelligence of the average human.

GTA is one of those franchises people will defend to the death,Chris. I can understand why. Rockstar's games are always vast in scope and they almost always push the envelope. Still, these people are having a stroke over a reviewer not giving GTA 5 a "perfect 10". I mean it still got 9 out of 10 and editor's choice. Aka, it will still be a nominee on gamespot for game of the year.

Funny enough, a similar incident happened here (which I think you also know), when Julian gave The Last of Us four starts out five, which is almost the same as Carolyn's GTA V score, but it didn't stop an anonymous user doing the very same thing of Reviewers Are The Gospel. And that my friend is the reason why we deleted the anonymous comment option....... God, sometimes I hate gamers for doing those things.

I liked Julian's review and likewise was baffled giving Last Of Us a 4 out of 5 caused so much vitriol. I've played many awesome games but a perfect one? I dunno,maybe once in a blue moon. For me the content of the review is more important than a number anyway.

I was browsing comments on the IGN reviews, and it seemed the big complaint most people had with Carolyn giving it a 9 out of 10 was her saying it was "profoundly misogynistic" while she is a transgender. What many were saying was it was Carolyn trying to "fit a mold" by throwing around the misogyny term to try and "fit in" more with other women video game journalists. At least, that's how it was over on IGN. Don't know how it is on other sites. But i do think that men and transgenders both should have no right to throw around the term misogynistic just to try and "be cool" with women. Look for actual misogyny instead of spouting off about random crap, folks! That's my thought on it, haha

It's moments like these that knock gamers down a peg when they wish to be considered "legitimized" in the eyes of other genres. Over reacting to things like this does not help the cause any.