Recently, I reviewed a game from a code given to me by the game’s publisher. When this happens, the media outlet or publisher who supplied the review code always asks for a link to the review. Usually so that they can read it and get an idea of what people think of their product and partly just to check that the review code is being used for a review and not just an excuse to get a free game.

Anyway, I emailed my review to the publisher who supplied the code and the next day, I received a reply asking me to give my review a score. Quite often the publisher will have certain requests when you do a review, they will even sometimes send a ‘review guide’ with outlines of what they would like to see in the review. Usually, these requests are things that I do as standard, like providing a link in the review to the developer’s and publisher’s website/Twitter, etc. Sometimes they may ask for a link to an online store where you can buy the game and so on. These are requests that, as I said, I usually do as standard anyway. But, I’ve never been asked to provide a score for any of my reviews, until recently.

I replied to the email asking me to score the review saying that scoring reviews is something that I just don’t do, and they then replied asking me why? Do you know what? It’s a damn good question too because pretty much every outlet that reviews anything, be it a game, film, TV show, or whatever, they seem to always have a bit at the end where they sum up whatever has been reviewed, maybe they have a pros and cons list and then there is a score. Something out of 100%, X/10, X/5 stars or similar. I don’t though and it wasn’t until I was asked why I don’t score my reviews by this publisher that I began to ask myself why I don’t?

Aggregate sites such as Metacritic or OpenCritic, etc only use sites that have review scores so that they can present an aggregate score. I can’t apply to be on such sites because, I don’t do scores. I could start doing scores and get my reviews on such sites and more people would see them, but I won’t.

So, the reason why I don’t score my reviews is basically because I can’t find a review scoring method that I agree with. For instance, when people score out of 100%, I always question how? Let’s say a site gives something an 88% for one review and an 89% for another. How can they define that 1% difference? I’m willing to bet that they can’t. Yeah sure, you can like something more or less than something else, but there is no way that anyone can accurately define a 1% difference. Nobody on this planet has ever said “Yeah, I liked that film, but I liked this film 1% more.” So the 100% scale just does not work for me and it feels disingenuous, unless the reviewer can explain how something is 1% better or worse… which they can’t.

The 10/10 thing does make some kind of sense as a 1-point difference here is not as precise. If a reviewer gives something a 7 and another review gets an 8, you get the idea that one is better the the other without it being too marginal. But even so, the 10/10 thing brings the issue that when you do score something a 10, people will assume that you mean the thing you are reviewing is perfect. No, it just means that it is really damn good. Then there is the issue of giving something a 5. This is seen as a very poor score instead of it being the median score… which it is. 5 is in the middle so a 5/10 would mean average. But people don’t read that, they read a 5 as being bad. I’ve even seen people argue over a 7/10 as being a bad score when it’s not.  Ultimately, it’s really not worth the headache.

The 5/5 scale is one that I have used in the past when writing for a site that forced scores onto me. In my mind, 1 = really bad. 2= bad. 3 average. 4 = good and a 5 = really good. However, you still fall into the same pitfalls as you do with the 10/10 method. Give something a 5/5 and the assumption of it being ‘perfect’ is back. Give a score of 3 meaning average and people call you out for giving it a ‘bad’ score when it’s not. It’s average, okay, fine.

I have also seen people say that scores are good because you can just skip to the end of the review and get an idea of what the reviewer thinks. Hell no. I’ve not just spent hours playing a game or watching a film, to then spend even longer writing, editing and sourcing images, for you to just skip to the end and ignore all I have written. In a way, I see scores as catering for lazy people who can’t be bothered to read and that just feels a bit disrespectful to the person who put the effort into doing the review in the first place.

So yeah, I just can’t find a scoring system that I agree with or one that doesn’t feel fake and starts petty arguments. So, I just don’t score my reviews because it feels more genuine to me. I’ll give this explanation an 86%.