Game Reviews - Have we become too dependent on games scoring 9 or 10/ Should 6, 7 and 8 be accepted as a good score

So this has been my pet peeve with opinions of reviews on this site (and many others to be fair). When has it become the norm that games with 9 and 10 are the only ones considered good, and it becomes offensive for a game to be given an 8. I raise this now as many people see Forza 6 as a flop because it 'only' got 8 out of 10...

Now to me, 8/10 is a great score. I always use this in comparison to exams and university grading. 80% will get you the highest grade possible at university by some way, and if you got that in an exam, you know you have done very well (this is UK schooling and Uni Grading by the way)

If im honest I think we are all to blame. We put too much focus on what the score of the game gets. Remember poor Carolyn for daring to give GTA V a measly 9 out of 10, and everyone felt rage. I dont always agree with Carolyn (in fact more often than not, I didnt), but 9 is a fantastic score. However, she got a ton of abuse for this, despite giving it a high 90%, the second highest score Gamespot can give the game.

On the flipside, we have Destiny, which got 6/10. To me, that signifies the game is good, but has its flaws and limitations. Near enough spot on I think. However people think 6 means the game is unplayable, and god awful (which they might think when they play it, but a score of 6 should not give that impression).

So why do gamers put so much emphasis on this? When did it become acceptable for anything to get an 8 to be considered a disappointment? Is it too late for gamers to change their mindset for 6 7 and 8 to be considered good scores?

Or do you think that 1- 10 scoring is too tight for scoring, and that out of 100 (or decimal points) will allow games to be better distinquished?

TL:DR , games get 9 or 10 too much, and 6, 7 and 8 should be used for good games too. Maybe games should be out of 100/decimal point bought back?

What's the big difference between 8/10, 81.7, 79.6, 82.3?
I think the scoring system is fine. If anything, they could bring it back to the .5 system, but it's not a big deal. If you think 9s and 10s are given too much here, check elsewhere. Look at metacritic or gamerankings. If the average score there is similar to the one here, is it a conspiracy? There are just a lot of decent games being released. How is that a bad thing?

How about we get rid of scores entirely, so people actually have to read the review to know if the game is any good, instead of just glancing at the score and closing the tab?

I dont think you read my post properly.... or at all to be honest. I dunno, maybe i phrased everything wrong, Its not the fact they are given too much, its more the perception that 8 and below are not good games.

Using Forza 6 and the comments as an example:

Posted by FastRobby- 21 minutes ago

Great review, score doesn't really reflect the review, but who cares... You should read the review anyway to form an opinion...

Posted by BrazPrince - 1 hour ago

ill bite...

the replay not being at 60frames per secomd is the only negative worth listing yet it only gets an 8. im a bit confused.

Posted by azim5431 - 2 hours ago

LOL rewind is not 60fps 8/10. way to go gamespot

Posted by Immendorf - 2 hours ago

The usual unreasonable - points for the game not being Sony exclusive. Way to go GamePSot!

There are many more, but my main point I was trying to raise is, why is 8 generally perceived as a terrible score for a game by many?

It would definitely save a lot of moaning in the comments :)

I like the way Eurogamer went which is get rid of numerical scores altogether.

A Yea or Nay will do fine to me.

@getupandboogie: "TL:DR, games get 9 or 10 too much, and 6, 7 and 8 should be used for good games too. Maybe games should be out of 100/decimal point bought back?"

I brought up all those points.

And 8 isn't perceived as a terrible score. It's a great score. If a game is hyped to be a 10 and gets an 8 then you could call it a flop, but it doesn't mean it's a terrible game. People who say that are trolling.

ahh my bad. Yeah thats my fault. I summarised that completely wrong. My apologies. Its meant to read something like:

TL:DR, 'People rely on 9 or 10 too much, 6, 7 and 8 should be considered good games too. Maybe games should be out of 100/decimal point bought back?"

Balls, feel like a right idiot now. Thats what you get when you rush an ending.

Edit* - also cant edit it.... shit...

I think the definition of great beneath an 8 pretty much sums up the game, no game is flawless, but GS dont use that for a 10, they use the word, essential. Having said this, I do think that we put to much emphasis on the score, besides if we are interested in the game and were going to buy it anyway, no score is going to change our mind. These arbitrary numbers are opinions only which is why I dont get why people get so venomous, particularly in light of the poisonous bile spat at Carolyn during the GTA V review.

@getupandboogie: 7 and 8 are good scores

^

Makes it a lot harder to take a variety of reviews into account. Which is handy to help smooth idiosyncrasies.

The score like 9 or 6 are just the reviewer's opinion and the least important part of the review.

Agreed! GS gave Mad Max a 6, but I don't care because I'm getting it anyway.

I never read reviews. Don't care to. There's plenty of enjoyable stuff to be found in the lower scoring area (NieR is proof of that).

Going the other way, me and my friends deliberately look for low scoring co-op games, as they generally are the most fun to mess around with (exception being lost planet 3)

I just think most people are too stupid to figure out if they like something themselves and rely on others to tell them what to do and what to like. I've always thought and always will think a "critic" is a fucking joke of a job. They go around and see something or eat something and post their personal thoughts and then others take it as fact that what they say is absolute.

Go out, make your own opinion and stop relying on others to do it for you.

Don't listen to fanboys and trolls. 8 is a great score. TBH, there are some games that got 6 or 7 and I loved them. Those games were underrated by critics but had better user reviews (Shadow Warrior, Broken Sword 5 etc). D*ck measuring is for casuals. One more thing,,, Better score =/= better game.

Honestly, I've played games with 6's across the board that I've thoroughly enjoyed despite their flaws. And I think that something like a 7 should be considered a solid score. For instance, Evil Within got a 7/ 10. It had quite a few problems, not least of which was the near incomprehensible story, complete lack of scariness and occasional pacing issue, but I liked it enough to play through it three times and I'll likely play through it again. I'd say 7 is a fair score for the game, but it's still worth playing.

There's nothing wrong with reviews or their scores, it's just some people's perceived notion of them. 8 out of 10 is a great score, just ignore anyone who calls it a 'flop'. Also 6 is good and 7 is very good.

@jun_aka_pekto: People will complain no matter what. Your question, along with your example comments, seem like a separate complaint than why people think 7 or 8 is a bad score. That is to say, people complain about a "10" game getting a 9, or a "9" game getting a 10 despite both being superb scores.

It's unrelated to the other topic of people thinking 7-8 is "bad." I think you're misrepresenting people's general thoughts on that, though. I don't think people believe 7-8 is bad... just not good enough for their individual needs. I can only speak for myself at this point, but I play on limited free time. My bar is set pretty high for AAA games because of the time investment required to play them.

I'll likely not buy a game that averages a score below 8, not because I think it isn't good, but because it isn't good enough for me. But as I said, I'll "likely" not buy it. Sometimes I will buy even a low-scoring game below 5-ish if it's a game I've been looking forward to, or if it's a genre/IP I love, or if written reviews/ video reviews/ let's plays convince me to buy it despite the lower score.

This system works the other way around too. I'll often NOT buy games that get a 9 because they're not my type of game. For me to buy a racing sim, for example, it needs to get a perfect 10.

I loved games that got 6s. I hated games that got 9s. Got to read the reviews to understand why the scores were given. Scores are useful, but worthless if you don't at least read a review or two.

If you miss out on a good game because you're too lazy to skim a few paragraphs, or because you think a number can encapsulate the spectrum of emotions that one might feel while engaged in a given activity, that's on you. Not gonna waste my time worrying about how to idiot-proof convenience.

Scores are very inflated and everyone should be aware of that. A 7/10 should be a fairly good score, but to gamers it's a flop. A 5 or a 6 is an inexcusable shit-game to the gaming community.

I dont know why scores even go below 5 when a 6 is panned as terrible.

I get so sick of how people cling to the review numbers, as if the review itself is meaningless. Unless it hits a (4) you shouldn't even care. Over that is average/ followed with good/ and etc.

Don't plan to play every (10) reviwed game ever. Because some given lower scores I think are better games anyway.

7s and 8s are good. I can only speak for myself, but I haven't become "dependent" on high-scoring games, rather... I have become used tot he quality of higher-scoring games. But I'm not going to berate a game for scoring a 7, lol.

I think they should come back to a grid like scoring system and then the review to say whatever s/he has to say about the game, why it is fun etc.

In the grid we could have : graphics, frame rate, glitch, controls, music which will give to overall score and the review would talk about stuff that you can't give a score to like if it is fun, did he was into the story etc