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So I have been looking for a place that Reviews games without the influence of the industry to back them up, some where that is not afraid to get Call of Duty a bad review because it deserves it and I had all but given up hope until I found this place . Amazing site btw.
One problem... Why are all the review scores typed out in WHITE TEXT on a WHITE BACKROUND?? I did not even know this site had scores until I highlighted some text by accident.
Some people prefer to disregard review scores and concentrate on the text of the review. A mark out of ten can be far too broad to some individuals (myself included), so I guess that's the reason behind it. The score is still there for those that care.
The thing to remember is that the number itself has no meaning. There is no agreed upon absolute number scale that defines what games are... and it's unfair that this particular form of entertainment is subject to such a narrow form of identification. Can you imagine a college class where you would rate famous poems with number scores? Or songs?
You could see it happening with film tho... number scores for films, and I think the reason why is that the industry itself has to announce how much money a film made, and they also announce how much money a game made, too. This trend reflects a lack of interested news writing about the industries, and a celebration of profit, that speaks to our culture in ways I'm not going to get into here. So there is a vox populi thing happening. Well it made a lot of money, it should have a high score, is the unspoken reasoning. The public has spoken. By that reasoning, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen should have replaced Citizen Kane as the greatest American movie of all time, because more people went to see it when it opened. It's all a numbers game that the industry wants to throw over your head so you buy their stuff and don't ask questions. And it's become so pervasive that the people who buy are now defending the system that tells them what to buy, like Morpheus explained to Neo...
The antithesis of criticism is wanting everything to be the same and uniform. But opinion is not something that can be regulated, and especially on a site that's on a volunteer basis like Gamecritics.com.. none of these writers get PAID for their reviews, here. They write them because they love games and don't mind sacrificing their time and effort to support a site that's ABOUT speaking it's mind, and not focusing on the numbers and the money. It's about art.
I am frequently at GC because the number is hidden. I don't believe that a subjective, emotional thing like a game, movie or book can be adequately expressed in numbers.
__________________ Currently playing: Bioshock: Infinite
I think, actually, that scores are included in GC reviews just because it is the only way that a videogame site has to appear in Metacritic (that is something I heard somewhere... Maybe Chi said this in a podcast, I am not sure).
Anyway, I think it is great to talk less about scores and more about real gaming concepts. That is why I like this site so much, over many other famous videogames related websites.