Paul Wedgwood to Discuss Metacritic at Develop Tomorrow

(badman) #1

A new blog post has been added:

Paul Wedgwood to Discuss Metacritic at Develop Tomorrow

If you’re attending Develop Evolve in Brighton tomorrow, keep an eye out for Splash Damage CEO Paul Wedgwood, who’ll be discussing Metacritic’s impact on gaming and gamers at a special panel there. Titled ‘Metacritic Killed the Video Game Score’, the session also features journalists Simon Parkin, James Binns (Network-N), and Jon Jordan (PocketGamer), and the chairman of UKIE, Andy Payne. Here’s a clip from the session description:

Metacritic scores are now cited in publishing contracts - yet ironically the declining punch of any one magazine or website’s opinion is weakening the case for creating quality reviews. At the same time, social media and user-review sites are gaining ground. Where does it leave publishers, developers, retailers - and consumers - who will always want to know if a game is any good?

The 45 minute panel is set to kick off at 14:50 tomorrow, 10 July 2012. You’ll need to buy a pass to attend, which’ll also give you access to all of other other sessions at Evolve. For more information, visit Develop Evolve’s website.

(Exedore) #2

Ooh! I get to say “taste the Metacritic” somewhat unironically! :smiley:

(Joe999) #3

I stopped looking at metacritic scores for pre-release games because publishers are using them to trick their customers into buying their merchandise. Allowing to publish pre-release game reviews only if the score is at least 90% is piracy, theft, lying to the customer.

(Seiniyta) #4

On the other side, user reviews aren’t particulary reliable at times as well. A good example is Diablo III or Mass Effect 3. Both fine games but because of something people didn’t like (the ending, always online connection) they bombared metacritic by very low scores. In that sense, user reviews are just reliable as professional reviews.

(Ruben0s) #5

meaningless shizzle on your own website. The only award brink deserved was : biggest disappointment.

It was also a pain in the ass when you created a latest news topic, that showed all the latest reviews of brink. And of course only reviews with an 8 or higher were included.

so

Where does it leave publishers, developers, retailers - and consumers - who will always want to know if a game is any good?

not at splashdamage, because they will only show you the good side of the coin.

(tangoliber) #6

Reviews are generally for people who play a game 10-20 hours. The aren’t many reviews written for fans of a niche genre…those are usually found in forum posts.

And the major reviewers heavily favor single-player experiences. They also seem to think that they can make claims about multiplayer balance with just a few hours of playtime.

(tokamak) #7

One development of the emphasis on Metacritic is that it diminish the value developers attach to post-release support. Journalists don’t value the improvement of games after their release so why should developers?

(SockDog) #8

That is why you have user scores and reviews. Personally I’d like to see Steam expand their recommendation system.

(Humate) #9

Meta-critic user reviews read as - “I hate the game, dont know why but allow me to make up a reason”

(SockDog) #10

But if a score is accompanied but a bunch of drivel or ranting you get a fair picture that the person can probably be ignored totally. Helps at bit if reviews are validated like in Steam to an actual user that you have a connection too. Honestly right now I’d have to say I’d probably be going to Youtube and watching some Let’s Play videos over reading a website.

(Humate) #11

:slight_smile:
Ive found most of them, to be only slightly better than the average youtube comment… which is why I felt compelled to post a proper user review for Brink.

Sorry SD, I gave you a 2 out of 10.

(tokamak) #12

Their comment, sure, but the weight of their score counts towards the overal user score.

And yeah agreed Humate, the reviews are just angry one-liners.