Not 5 stars - for the love of God - not 5 stars!
 

I will not send in reviews if the system is going to be 5 stars.

It has already been stated not to send in totally high scores, which can only be the 5 stars, so straight away I can see lots of 3 and 4 stars, and what the hell will that mean?

ESPECIALLY because we are talking about 20 year old games, we need the review scores to be out of 100.This allows nuance and allows for much precise scoring. In fact, you might be surprised to know that the 5 star system became popular via CONSOLE magazine and CONSOLE sites!

So score out of 100, for God's sake!

Well I don't find it so important. I would prefer 0-10, but actually I abhor 0-100 scores, precisely because there's no way anyone can tell a 85 from a 87, but mags use those scores as if they could. Come on. Any system can work, it's a matter of resolution, and it can be too much as well as too little.

I'm ok with 1-10 but I have never cared for 1-5. There have been too many time I have wanted 3.5 (7) and 4.5 (9).

I'm against scoring in general, since a score can't give you an impression of a game. For the Times, I would have thought that the idea is people read the magazine, so the scores are irrelevant.

I'm pretty sure scoring in increments of 0,5 point is possible. So the scale has 10 steps even though there are 5 stars.

The people's rating has even more possible points, for example one game has a score of 3.2
So there's a total of 40 different ratings, from 1.0 through 5.0

Yes, but how different people rate games... like was said above, what's the difference between 85% and 87%? Are two reviewers' 72% scores equivalent to each other? Etc.
So, a 10-point scale is fine. A 100-point one is far too vague.

Ditto. MobyGames can use 100 points for their ranks, but only because they're averaged from numerous press reviews. So unless you calculate an average from a split score (graphics, sound, playability, etc.), 10-point scale is detailed enough.

Hah. Those scores are gonna express one man's opinion each, so it doesn't matter at all. It's not like you need to have it as precise as possible so people will know what game really is better. Because frankly, like I've always said, there is no "good" or "bad" when it comes to something that's a matter of taste, anyway. Even the most professional reviewers have taste. Even the most professional reviewers wouldn't give a game of a genre they despise a perfect 100 because "it deserves it".


Come on. Read the reviews. Get some insight. Play the games. Form your own opinions.

Even if you average from split scores, the best thing you can do is rounding afterwards. Otherwise you'll be just sampling noise.