Why the 5 star rating system shames this website

I really have to say that i think the 5 star rating system is not only flawed, but a serious cop-out for the reviews. It makes the reviews look like they are too afraid to come right out and give a game a serious rating. Let me explain; with the 5 star rating system you get inherent flaws that just destroy what ratings are all about. If something gets 2 stars out of 5 to the average user that is just as bad as 1 star, both a terrible games that should be overlooked. On the converse side a game that scores 4 stars does not differ too much from a game that scores 5 stars, both a fantastic and need to be played. Then you get the dreaded, overused, cop-out, comfortable 3 stars out of five; its so easy to just give up and not have to really give a game a score with the 3 stars out of 5. The reviewer is neither saying the game has any really shining qualities while it neither has anything particularly bad about it. Its the run of the mill score that doesn't offend the developers of the game and keeps the reviewer happy because he can just sort of slap on a 3 star and be done with it.

I really hope you guys listen to what I have to say because really it is keeping down the credibility of this site and I just cannot take the review scores seriously. Think about the differences between the ratings: 1-2.5/10 these "programs are worth a try (not even a play because saying you are playing them would imply you are having fun) because they are just SO bad its worth a laugh. 3/10 even looking at the box I don't see how see how someone could think this is fun 3.5/10 the box says its a video game, but after trying to play it I'd have to disagree 4/10 its a video game... i guess. 4.5/10 well its comes in a box and installs and plays through, but that is about it. 5/10 is the thin line between "don't even try this game and you might see something if you play this game through.... might.  5.5/10 its bad, but might be worth a little play time because it has something in it to be seen, 6/10 not terrible and maybe even worth a play through, but nothing out of the norm 6.5/10 worth a play through and you'll have a little fun while your at it but doesn't push anything. 7/10 they got down how to make a game right as the mechanics and graphics are good enough to warrant going through and you might see something new done, but just doesn't come together as it could 7.5/10 this game is worth a play through and the mechanics are done right nothing really b ad to say about the game as its completely worth a play through, but could have had just a few little things added to it to make shine a bit brighter. 8/10 these games are what drive the industry as they have solid mechanics and probably great graphics if needed. These games are what gamers are satisfied with over all the most because everything has come together so well yet nothing is pushed so it feels comfortable and is memorable which makes it worth every penny and minute spent. 8.5/10 takes an 8.0 game and pushes something whether it be game mechanics or something special in the story line or production values above and beyond what the average gamer would expect in a game; it is a treat and would spoiled if it came along too often. 9/10 was rarely seen and in this day and age is thrown around like the N word in rap which has destroyed it for many people. It used to be the best of the best and hardly ever attained so attaining it was the one of the utmost prestigious things a game developer could hope for its creation. If a site has more than a handful of 9/10 throughout all of its games reviewed over all of its systems you know something is wrong and the site is not reputable. 9.5/10 (and 10/10) is the highest attainable score for any game of all time as there has been and NEVER will be any game that is completely without flaw on launch or anything what so ever that could use a changed or improved or something added; if a site has 1 or 2 maybe even 3 games that get 9.5/10 they are most likely reputable and these games are a shining beacon of what can be created from intelligent, creative and motivated minds put together every so often in the history of gaming that amazes us all and leaves us feeling completely satisfied in our gaming pleasures. If a game is given a 10/10 is shows the reviewer has blinded himself of his own job and should not be review anymore; a reviewer that cannot find fault or suggest improvement is useless to the people who read the reviews and should promptly be fired or resign.

As you can see the 5 star system does not have even CLOSE to the representation the 10 point system has and if you read everything I had to say you would see why the 5/5 star rating which is used a lot at this website is not only unattainable, but shameful to the reviewer.

Seriously don't just pass something by because it a couple minute read. Take 3 minutes and read it so you can properly formulate your opinion on the subject matter at hand. Well at least you agree on my main point I guess...

EDIT: Why did the mods delete Solid Snakes post? He agreed with me on my over all point.....

I always need to remind myself on why the 5star is good, and it is good in some ways. But il always love that /10 or /100 rating. It  gives you much more detail about the game.

But whatever, Jeff FTW

The reason Giant Bomb went with the five star system as opposed to a percentile system is so people will pay more attention to the content of reviews instead of some meaningless number.

Am I the only one who would read the review if I was even considering buying a game instead of simply looking at the score?

Really i'm getting fed up with people over this. Quit looking at the score a game is given and read the damned reviews and make you're judgements and opinions from that, not from a score or rating.

I think the 5 star rating system is perfect. Much better than a 100 point rating system. In a 100 point rating system, too much is left up to personal taste on the reviewers part. And the difference between a 7.8 and a 8.0 is negligible. Review scales that accurate only exist to give fanboys ammo so they can start screaming "OMG GAME X GOT A 9.0 AND GAME Y GOT A 8.9!!!!!!!! GAME Y SUXORZZZZZZZZZ GAME X IS TEH PWNAGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

And aside form that, 100 point rating scales have become corrupted over the years. Now, a 5.0 means a game is absolutely terrible, 5.0 should be average, but average is around 7.5. Any game that gets below 5.0 is just the reviewer giving it a hard time for comic effect or because he has a personal reason to hate the game.

A 5 point rating scale gives you the key facts you expect from a score, either "this game is awesome", "this game is good", "this game is average", "this game is poor", or "this game is terrible". A rating isn't supposed to give you real detail, its supposed to be a rough guide, you read the review to get the detail. Infact, I don't think scores are really needed at all. I think the short summary, gives the same sort of brief guide, but in more detail.

"The reason Giant Bomb went with the five star system as opposed to a percentile system is so people will pay more attention to the content of reviews instead of some meaningless number."

I disagree - for several reasons:

If you mark a game out of 10 then why give it 0.5 point increments? Wouldn't it be more rational to score a game out of 20 instead?

Your ratings for every 0.5 increment are way out as all games are not the same. I disagree with your  "out of ten" points descriptions. I can't see how you can point to something definitive about a game when the range of reviewed games is so wide.

I feel the review words matter far more than the score. I think that is what the reviewers on this site are so much better at than reviewers on other games sites.

"Am I the only one who would read the review if I was even considering buying a game instead of simply looking at the score?"

Just to add something else to the topic i have always got the feeling the Staff would rather have not had a scoring system for their reviews on GiantBomb because they'd rather have users focus on the text in the review instead of the score attatched to it. But too many people would be up in arms and make so much drama out of it if GiantBomb game reviews didn't have scores to go along with their games because many people feel you MUST give something a score if you review it. I personally wish more people would stop thinking like this and pay more attention to the text in the review, but i guess thats the ADD society we live in today.

What I also think people do when they look at the score is begin to assume what that percentile means. Because clearly a 3/5 is not a 60 percent. I believe instead of 5 the star system, they probably would rather have something headline the title as like "Good", which would represent the 3 star of the 5 star system. They want you to look at the review, not what the score is and move on. They want you to actually read the reviews.

  Every magazine and website I've seen that has turned from a 10 to 5 rating scale has always gotten tremendous flak, but I find it more helpful. Going by what you said, you aren't asking for a 10 point system, you're asking for a 20 point rating scale due to half-points. You give out descriptions of what each 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, etc etc. score means, but holding games to such a standard seems overly critical and pointless. Is there really a difference between a game 8.0 and 8.5? Yes, but barely, so unless it's something drastic then it's somewhat absurd to knock a game's rating down for some easily forgivable flaw. Is there a difference between a 3.0 and 3.5? Probably not, and we really wouldn't care. All we think about when we see a score like that is "Don't play this game!" 
 
  Basically, picking at small details is definitely a preference that can certainly bring a tough-as-nails approach to rating a game, but when it comes down to it, do you really think about such details when you're playing a fun game? Do you think "Hmm, this is a great game, but because I don't like the way the inventory menues are set up I'm going to have to warn people about it and knock the rating down by a point."? I doubt it, which is why it seems unecessary to do so in the first place since it doesn't take away from the overall experience of the game.

  A 5 point rating system keeps things simple and to the point. One to two starts means it's not that good a game, and probably not worth you time and money. Three stars means it has its flaws, but can still be fun and enjoyable to people who are fans of that particular genre, or can overlook simple mistakes of somekind. Four to five stars are a green light.  You see? I just covered all bases in three sections of the overall rating system. The score a game receives shouldn't be what tells us exactly what kind of a game it is. It's the written review that should explain any details of note. The score should simply serve as a glimpse to the reader how awsome or mediocre the experience was.

-Evan

"Am I the only one who would read the review if I was even considering buying a game instead of simply looking at the score?"

The way I see it I only need to know three things about a given game should I buy it, rent it, or avoid it. I don't need a ten point scale to tell me how bad a game is, I only need to know that it is bad or not.
Does it really matter if a game gets a 4.5/10 instead of a 1/10? Of course not they mean the same thing, the game isn't worth buying or renting. Would you not buy a game that got a 9/10 and only buy games that scored 10/10? of course not. A 9.0 means you should buy the game a 10.0 means you should buy the game and if they mean the same thing they should share the same score.
Now before someone asks me "what about just three stars? if you only want to know one of three things," I'll say that a five star scale makes more sense because there should be a score difference if a game does what's expected or if it exceeds expectations. You don't need to split hairs.

 I like the 5 star system, I would like to see something more extreme though. I want a 1-1000 review scale, with scores that have decimal numbers.
Ex: Chicken Hunt - 2.2345/1000
Metal Gear Solid 4 - 979.87/1000...        and so on.
           I know it will never happen anywhere but I think it would be interesting (even though it's flawed).

It's a good system. I don't need all this extra shit in the score, just an indication as to whether I should buy it or not.

" I like the 5 star system, I would like to see something more extreme though. I want a 1-1000 review scale, with scores that have decimal numbers.
Ex: Chicken Hunt - 2.2345/1000
Metal Gear Solid 4 - 979.87/1000...        and so on.
           I know it will never happen anywhere but I think it would be interesting (even though it's flawed)."

wow your being ridiculous. 

The 5 star system does not shame this site. It actually makes it a better site because it makes scores less important and the actual written content, the part of the review that actually took time to create, the important part of the review. I wish people could get over having to see some fancy number (not just in games), but I doubt that will ever happen.

i like how at the end he says

"Just to add something else to the topic i have always got the feeling the Staff would rather have not had a scoring system for their reviews on GiantBomb because they'd rather have users focus on the text in the review instead of the score attatched to it. But too many people would be up in arms and make so much drama out of it if GiantBomb game reviews didn't have scores to go along with their games because many people feel you MUST give something a score if you review it. I personally wish more people would stop thinking like this and pay more attention to the text in the review, but i guess thats the ADD society we live in today."

"The reason Giant Bomb went with the five star system as opposed to a percentile system is so people will pay more attention to the content of reviews instead of some meaningless number."

The five star rating system is fine.

they should have a letter grade system

I read reviews not for the score, although that can be helpful.  What I read the reviews for is the things that matter - the negative things.  If a camera doesn't work, I want to know.  If the controller is broken, I want to know.  If the game plays okay and I like the genre or characters, then I can make my own mind up.

not only do I think the 5-star system is better, but I think your descriptions are rather redundant on your 20-point scale (half points means you have 20 different ways to judge a game)...

reasons why I like the 5-star system better:
1) It's simple and helps you focus on the review more.
2) It's a natural progression of thought... do you really think about something so much that you have 20 separate sections that mean 20 different things
3) on a 10 point scale, people tend to stick to the upper 5 because they're hesitant to give it anything less than a 5...

and how can you say that it's lazy to say that a game is middling, and average? that's just an opinion, and maybe the game IS JUST AVERAGE.
Also, how can you judge a site by how many 9's or 10's it gives? maybe it just reviews a lot of good games?
and HEY! look at that, you said 9's or 10's... why did you need to say both? BECAUSE THEY'RE BASICALLY THE SAME THING!
On Giant Bomb, they just call 9's or 10's one number... A FIVE!
and a five doesn't necessarily mean you'll like the game, either. It just means THEY liked it.
you'll have to read the review to see if YOU'LL like it...
not everybody likes the same genre of everything, Giant Bomb gave Geometry Wars 2 a 5/5 and Battlefield: Bad Company a 5/5.
I'm sure there's some people out there that will play both, but I'm sure there's some people who hate one, but love the other...
it'd be the same if they gave both games a 10/10 or a 9/10.
Maybe you need to stop caring so much about the score, and start looking at the review itself...

Overall, 5-star is clean cut, simple, and I don't think you need any other levels to illustrate your general feelings towards a game:
1 - Complete garbage
2 - Not very good, but not a total waste of time.
3 - Average, not that good, not that bad
4 - A good game, worth checking out
5 - Fucking excellent!

Why is that everyone who uses the TC's icon is an idiot? Am I the only one to notice this?

"Why is that everyone who uses the TC's icon is an idiot? Am I the only one to notice this?"

Ah! Wall of text, run!!!

Nothing shames this website, aside from retards who occasionally post shit like this.

I find your logic to be immensely flawed. That being said, you don't have to be here if you don't like it.

"BiggerBomb said:

"Why is that everyone who uses the TC's icon is an idiot? Am I the only one to notice this?"

While it has nothing to do with the topic, I suppose Doom is a very popular game to use as an avatar."

No, it's true. Most of the default trolls and idiots always seem to have that icon. It's not a fabrication.

"Really i'm getting fed up with people over this. Quit looking at the score a game is given and read the damned reviews and make you're judgements and opinions from that, not from a score or rating."

I really like how the opening argument is hidden. These forums seem to work really well!

Easy navigation too!

That aside I'd like to bring up one of my points in my original post that is now hidden. A perfect rating objectively does not exist and GianBomb is throwing around 5/5 ratings like its no big deal. Shame on this website. SHAME.

I'm sorry? How many 5 out of 5 ratings do you currently see on the front page? ...Oh wait, none.

SHAME on you for not reading reviews and caring only about the scores or grade of a review.

I think the 1-10 system gives it a more meaningful score, It gives the reviewer more range for there scores, and I see that if someone expresses there opinion on this site they are given a -7 rating well fuck that. I think the topic creator is right and I read the review fully while paying attention to the score, just because some people don`t read the review and only pay attention to the score doesn`t meen you have to tone the system down to 1-5, thats like saying because a few kids in the school yard are being assholes on the jungle gym there taking it away from the 700 other kids.

"A perfect rating objectively does not exist and GianBomb is throwing around 5/5 ratings like its no big deal. Shame on this website. SHAME."

"Really i'm getting fed up with people over this. Quit looking at the score a game is given and read the damned reviews and make you're judgements and opinions from that, not from a score or rating."

I think it's fine to express your opinion, but you are just asking for a negative rating on your post when you say, "shame on this website." That's just asking to have a flamebait thread. He could have put his opinion in a much better statement, "I don't think the 5 star rating is good because..." But he is trashing the website's scoring system instead. 

In my opinion, scores should go away from all game reviews. If you read the whole review, you don't need a score to sum up the review.

"just because some people don`t read the review and only pay attention to the score doesn`t meen you have to tone the system down to 1-5"

"I really like how the opening argument is hidden. These forums seem to work really well!

Easy navigation too!

That aside I'd like to bring up one of my points in my original post that is now hidden. A perfect rating objectively does not exist and GianBomb is throwing around 5/5 ratings like its no big deal. Shame on this website. SHAME."

"EDIT: Why did the mods delete Solid Snakes post? He agreed with me on my over all point....."

"I think it's fine to express your opinion, but you are just asking for a negative rating on your post when you say, "shame on this website." That's just asking to have a flamebait thread. He could have put his opinion in a much better statement, "I don't think the 5 star rating is good because..." But he is trashing the website's scoring system instead. 

In my opinion, scores should go away from all game reviews. If you read the whole review, you don't need a score to sum up the review.

"just because some people don`t read the review and only pay attention to the score doesn`t meen you have to tone the system down to 1-5"

In that regard then they shouldn't have to use a 1-10 scale just because people don't want to read the reviews.
"

People are complaining that users must read the review and stop whining about the 5 star rating system. Well I can tell you there are a lot of people out there that seek out the rating a reputable game review site gives and decides to play the game on that alone because reading the review gives too much away and makes it so you have assumptions of how things should play out. I for one hate reading reviews because I feel it ruins the game for me as I am expecting everything that I read int he review. I like to see the score it got on a website I trust and go off that so the game is completely new in my mind without all the information given in the review. I am saying saying that this site does not provide that aspect for its readers and I think it should be changed. A 5 star rating system cannot and will not be able to represent the true feelings of the reviewer to the readers AT A GLANCE.

"People are complaining that users must read the review and stop whining about the 5 star rating system. Well I can tell you there are a lot of people out there that seek out the rating a reputable game review site gives and decides to play the game on that alone because reading the review gives too much away and makes it so you have assumptions of how things should play out. I for one hate reading reviews because I feel it ruins the game for me as I am expecting everything that I read int he review. I like to see the score it got on a website I trust and go off that so the game is completely new in my mind without all the information given in the review. I am saying saying that this site does not provide that aspect for its readers and I think it should be changed. A 5 star rating system cannot and will not be able to represent the true feelings of the reviewer to the readers AT A GLANCE."

"Karmum said:

"BiggerBomb said:

"Why is that everyone who uses the TC's icon is an idiot? Am I the only one to notice this?"

While it has nothing to do with the topic, I suppose Doom is a very popular game to use as an avatar."

LOL You thought that was Doom? That's so obviously Wolfenstein 3D. And its the default icon for PC alligned posters, so if you have some against us BiggerBomb, you can deal with me.
"

"xruntime said:

"Karmum said:

"BiggerBomb said:

"Why is that everyone who uses the TC's icon is an idiot? Am I the only one to notice this?"

While it has nothing to do with the topic, I suppose Doom is a very popular game to use as an avatar."

LOL You thought that was Doom? That's so obviously Wolfenstein 3D. And its the default icon for PC alligned posters, so if you have some against us BiggerBomb, you can deal with me.
"

Haha, I didn't realize that. I wasn't leveling that against PC gamers. I was just saying that I've only seen that icon three times on these boards and all three of them are idiots."

"People are complaining that users must read the review and stop whining about the 5 star rating system. Well I can tell you there are a lot of people out there that seek out the rating a reputable game review site gives and decides to play the game on that alone because reading the review gives too much away and makes it so you have assumptions of how things should play out. I for one hate reading reviews because I feel it ruins the game for me as I am expecting everything that I read int he review. I like to see the score it got on a website I trust and go off that so the game is completely new in my mind without all the information given in the review. I am saying saying that this site does not provide that aspect for its readers and I think it should be changed. A 5 star rating system cannot and will not be able to represent the true feelings of the reviewer to the readers AT A GLANCE."