Marc Doyle, co-founder of Metacritic, was given an opportunity to actively defend his site’s methodology and its role in the industry onthe latest A Jumps B Shoots Podcastand he thinks he’s got the answer to our review score woes.
How do we achieve review score balance? “Review all the sh*t.” Doyle states that reviewers need to be more aware of the fact that every score serves a purpose. We all know the differences between an eight game and a nine, but who can really differentiate between a three and a four? Critics need to review everything (not just AAA titles) so that we can, as Doyle puts it, “get that precision on the low end to reflect the precision on the high end.”
In order to truly understand how scores should work, we need to review every game and build a better concept of “average.”
Head over to A Jumps B Shoots and give the full audio a listen for more of Doyle’s insight on game scores, weighted metascores, and how exactly publications are picked for and dropped from Metacritic. It’s really a great interview and a welcomed look at their side of these ongoing issues.
