There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can’t tell the truth without lying.
-Josh Billings
The statement that we live in an age of hyperbole ought to come as no surprise to anyone. Our modern life of conveniences and leisure, at least in the industrialized world, is one which can afford the luxury of exaggeration. This has come to dominate nearly every aspect of the human experience.
Finding love is equivocal to the Holy Grail. Sex is the ultimate euphoria to live for. Entertainment is caught in an endless crusade of trying to top itself again and again, getting louder and more viscerally visual each year. Organized religion has widely turned into charismatic extravagance and showmanship. Society has taken to calling nearly everyone racist, one of the worst possible things you could call somebody in the US, even if its just someone else saying something you don’t like. Politics, infamously, seems totally invaded by hyperbole. Even the way that we speak, using phrases like “It was the absolute best” take the most extreme statements and apply them to everything. Read some of the headlining reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and tell me they aren’t hyperbole meant to grab attention among a sea of information. It’s fluff for the civilization of the short attention span.
Is this progress? I don’t know. By which I mean I’m actually not sure. One way at least in which I’m sure it doesn’t represent progress is in the area of critical thinking, specifically critique of art, books, movies, games, and so on. Shock value and click-baiting has become more significant than balanced thoughts. People either say they loved it and it was perfect, or they hated it and it was just okay.
To cut short this monologue, let’s talk about the 10-point grading system. Let me explain that I’m not saying this is the best grading system there is. Not my point. It is simply one which many reviewers, such as our own, employ. On a scale of 1 to 10, the lowest number is of course the worst and the highest is the one indicating perfection. That would mean that a score of 5 is totally average. Read that in modern language as “totally crap”.
I recently observed about four comments that were exactly the same on several other sites which reviewed Breath of Fire. I’ve just finished reviewing the game myself and I often like to read other people’s thoughts on a game after I complete my own take on it. A few critics placed it around 7/10 which I thought wasn’t accurate for reasons I laid out in my review, and 6/10 which I thought was better. My own score was exactly 5.0/10. On the sites that bore a similar 5/10 score, I read four separate comments which said: “A score of 5/10 is harsh.”
Is it? If 5/10 is average, when did “average” become an insult? It just means it’s standard, typical, normal, normative, ordinary, regular. Sure unremarkable isn’t the same thing as great or wonderful or flawless or exceptional, but average is not the same as below average, which I’d consider to actually be a little harsh. The thing is, it seems like nearly every game in the world gets more than a fair share of scores between 8 and 10. Are we just going to grade on a three-point scale between 8 and 10 from now on? Is 8, or God forbid 7, really the worst there is? NPCs, 7 is gooder than good. 8 is grander than grand. 6 itself is above average. Above average, my friends. That’s essentially the same thing as exceptional, the exception to standard.
With gaming, a few things like nostalgia and hype get in the way of sound and reasonable scoring. Maybe that explains why every new big name AAA title is the next perfect thing, when it’s first released, and then forgotten about after a short time. Not the best example since it’s actually amazing, but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is being hailed as this perfect game, when in fact it has a few very minor issues with it. Reminder: perfection cannot have flaws, by definition, no matter how minor they are. I’ll leave you in suspense as to where I think Breath of the Wild actually falls on the 10-point scale, for now, but I consider “perfection” to be just a buzz word for “very good”. You may think Breath of the Wild is perfect, but I’m less convinced that your opinion is precise based on how many games you consider to be perfect as well.
Comments like the ones I mentioned above calling out average scores as “harsh” are something I haven’t been confronted with too often here. In over a year of blogging, I can only think of a handful of times where a commenter and I have expressed prolonged disagreement over a score I gave to something. Every time that this was the case, though, it was for a piece of entertainment that was released several or many years ago, risking the coloring of nostalgia.
Let it be said, I’m never bothered by disagreement since it often creates greater and richer discussion rather than agreement. It’s the dismissive statements like “that’s harsh” which I find unhelpful and in some cases disrespectful. If someone wrote over a thousand words explaining their case and then someone comes along to tear that down with a statement as curt as “you’re wrong”, then going even further to allege personal attacks to invalidate the writer’s opinion, “Most people think this…” for commonality or “If you’d played the first game you’d know…” for lack of knowledge, then I think that’s actually wrong.
Disagreement is also unfounded if the person cannot express why they disagree with the score at all. A person is free to disagree in a free society but without reasons to back up their opinion then no one ought to take that person seriously. It’s the equivalent of a boo or hiss from an audience without reasonable basis. If they can give reasoning for their disagreement, more respect to them. If they can’t, then I merely wonder if it’s the result of hyperbolic infection warping the perception of the 10-point scale, where a 5 is a “low and terrible” score.
Now, I’m not writing this out of some kind of vindictive anger because someone left me a nasty comment! Haha! Please don’t think that! Ultimately, I hope this encourages some thought on the value of grading scales and the value of discussion in disagreement. I don’t care if you don’t use a scoring system but we do to place an easily identifiable number that sums up our thoughts on the piece of entertainment being reviewed. It is in the end just a number. It’s valuable for summary but not if scoring ceases to be meaningful because of hype.
Let it be said that this isn’t an apologetic for the 10-point grading system. It’s the one I use but I’m not prepared to die defending it. I don’t want to defend it at all. It’s the interpretation of it which has become skewed that concerns me, not the fact that everyone has opinions they’re entitled to.
So please, if you disagree with someone, leave a detailed and reasonable comment for them like a decent human being in a civilized society. That’s all.
Honestly,
-The Well-Red Mage
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Hey, that’s the score I awarded Breath of Fire! It’s one of those games I don’t think really excelled in any one field, but still manages to be entirely passable.
Anyway, I totally sympathize with your viewpoints; my own rating scale is meant to be a rebuttal to the Metacritic model wherein scores are akin to grades on a test. To me, a five is average, so if I give a game a six, it still means that despite the issues I had with it, it’s still technically above average. Conversely, if I give a game a three or a four, it doesn’t mean I think it’s the worst thing ever created (that’s what the “one” grade is for). Basically, I have it set up so that when a game gets a seven or higher, it’s a cause for celebration.
Even if it can be construed as harsh, I think some degree of that is necessary. After all, if you hand out nines and tens all the time, they become devalued. At the end of the day, I feel the best critics are tough, but fair. They’re to the point where even if you disagree with them, you can at least see where they’re coming from.
I can tell that we’d be best friends if we knew each other outside of the internet hahaha! It seems you and I think in a lot of the same ways, only you’re better at getting our mutually shared opinion across. I do think that 9’s and 10’s are devalued. It’s not that impressive to me when I see that certain games (ahem, TLoU) get flawless scores from all the big name critics because they’re handing those out like candy. Unless it’s an underdog project (like Breath of the Wild from Nintendo) then I don’t really get too excited for their numbers.
Something I’ve tried to express outside of blogging: If there are no games really deserving of scores below 4 (for example), then we should be able to agree that the gaming industry is generally full of good experiences. But even if that were the case, which it clearly is not, then even the least good of the great titles comprising the total games in existence would still be comparatively scored as 4 or below, simply by virtue of the sample pool being smaller. Ugh people… anyway, now I’m curious to check out your scoring methodology. Thanks for pursuing that link and reading!
I’m sure others have made this connection before me, but I think a big part of the problem is a mental block where we link scores with school grades. Whether it’s 5 out of 10 or 50 out of 100, we think “F” instead of Average. That’s why I personally like 5-point systems. I feel it’s easier to make clear distinctions. Still, people should focus more on the reason behind the score than the score itself. There have been plenty of instances where a reviewer didn’t like something but it was right up my alley.
Personally, what I find even more hilarious (in a losing hope in humanity kind of way) is when I see people complaining about reviewers not being “objective” or that their opinions aren’t valid. Yes, reviews are completely subjective because it’s THAT person’s experience. Sure, you can disagree with someone’s evaluation of a feature. For example, the same features that made some gamers praise Dear Esther as a brilliant piece of art bored others to tears. Sadly, these comments usually come across as “my ego is so fragile that anyone saying something negative about a thing I like/believe is a direct attack on me as a person.”
Thank you for leaving a unique and thoughtful comment! I always appreciate when people mull over these things and give them their own spin. I personally dislike school grades for this reason. Grading a paper or report card is not the same thing as grading a piece of entertainment. I had a friend who simply could not move past this and insisted that sticking with letter grading was best anyway. My feelings on the differences between 5- and 10-point grading systems is much less strong, as I think they are more easily translatable.
You’re of course absolutely right that the number is less significant than the reason for assigning that number. I think that the hyperbole ruins the system and assigns only numbers between 6 and 10, so that’s basically my point although I may have to reread my own article to get a better response/defense of that.
I don’t get that mindset either. There is no unbiased reporter or reviewer and reviews are in essence opinions. As much as I try to show why things don’t objectively work, there’s a large body of things that remain subjective to the end. Graphics is a big one of those that I can think of and difficulty is another since I tend to disagree with or even find that others disagree with reviewers opinions on how hard a game is. A lot of egotism involved in people trying to assert that there opinion is somehow better than another, accuracy aside. Thanks for commenting!
You make some excellent points! Since my opinions are always just that- my opinions- I hesitate to tack on a number to it. I prefer to just say why I like or didn’t like something, and leave it at that. I also never want anyone to feel bad for liking something I didn’t, or vice versa. Everyone’s thoughts and opinions are valid 🙂
You are of course absolutely correct! This post is less an apologetic for my own way of choosing to write reviews and include a rating system or not, as it is a denouncement of the general language of hyperbole. I believe that everyone’s opinions are valid as well but I don’t think that they mean “perfect” when they say “perfect”, mirrored in the way that “average” has no become equivalent to crap. As long as you can express why you like or didn’t like something then you’re on the right side of history in my estimation! Thanks for commenting.
You are right! I think people don’t choose their words as carefully as they should sometimes. 🙁
This is absolutely the best comment ever!
9001/10!!!!!!!!!!
∞/0!!
I will be the first to admit that I am definitely part of the problem, because the first thing that sprang to mind when clicking in the box to leave a comment was, “This is absolute perfection!” D’oh. And therein lies the problem – it is so utterly ingrained in us as a society to speak hyperbolically that anything less than “perfect” is deemed insulting.
Your post here has reminded me of a similar affliction of today’s times: the mandatory standing ovation at all live performances. Here’s my beef with it: I grew up in the ballet and theatre worlds, as my mom was a professional ballerina, and I did community theatre growing up. Back then (and I’m not THAT old), we didn’t get standing ovations at every performance. Similarly, my parents took me to every Broadway show that they could. As I recall, we (the collective audience, not just me and my parents) never once gave a standing ovation. Why not? Because the performances were just great, not perfect. I’m trying to even think of what would have garnered a standing ovation back then … maybe a swan song from a theatrical legend? I don’t know.
Regardless, my point is, these days (for maybe the last 5-10 years, I’ve noticed), standing ovations are essentially mandatory. And it drives me nuts, because giving an ovation for every.single.performance really cheapens the whole thing to the point that actors these days probably regard them as de rigueur.
I’ll step off my soap box for now and thank you again for a refreshing article.
Ah you got my point! I always say that realizing what the problem is is part of solving it. Please do not step off your soap box! Those are welcome here in honest discussion! I appreciate you sharing your childhood memories concerning the theatre. I’ve never been involved with those productions myself but I have seen a fair share of plays and musicals in my lifetime, and come to think of it, the last handful of them concluded with a standing ovation from the audience. In these terms, I thought of Handel’s Messiah which I’ve now seen three times. Traditionally, the audience stands during the Hallelujah chorus, which marks out that segment as the climax of the oratory. Imagine if the audience stood for every song, though. That would make the Hallelujah chorus less significant rather than more so. There’s no way to regulate this kind of mindset and speech (which is nowhere near what I’d propose anyway), but we can attempt to change our own communication to be more balanced and therefore sound, in my opinion, so that “perfection” doesn’t become the new “average”. Again, I appreciate your honesty and thanks so much for your comment.
For a while I used to do a “Whose Line is it Anyway” approach when scoring my reviews, where I just assigned totally random numbers for the score and encouraged readers to focus on the actual text. The thought process behind doing reviews that way was this very idea that no one can really agree on what a particular score represents. Reviews are by nature a matter of one person’s opinion, so it’s tough to make something so subjective and define it within objective terms. I agree with your system, though, where a 5 is not “lousy” but rather “average” and where scores beneath the number 7 are actually within the realm of possibility.
That’s interesting and experimental in approach! I can’t make other people agree with me on what the numbers represent, but I’ll make it clear that I’m using them in this defined way. I’m glad we can see eye to eye on this.
I really like this idea, Ian! I used to do a 5-point scale for all of the book and game reviews on my blog, but I since stopped, mostly because as you say, I wanted people to focus on the text itself.
The problem is we all go 5/10 = 50% = F = fail. And then on the other hand you get things like, “Graphics glitchy, character design terrible, ugly backgrounds, Graphics: 7/10”. Like, what? How does that make sense. That’s why I prefer qualitative versus quantitative reviews. It’s easier to hide a 5/10 behind words like “familiar” to avoid people thinking that 5/10 should be garbage.
A friend and I used to go back and forth on letter grades a lot and that’s why I dislike letter grades probably the most out of all grading systems. By which I only mean it’s the one I choose not to use. F is nowhere near equivalent to 5/10 in my mind. If there’s no body of text explaining the numerical value then the value is worthless, but if there’s no numerical value and just a body of text than the text is enough. Grading doesn’t seem like a necessity so much as a luxury for those looking for quick information. That’s why we decided to use the scoring system but our emphasis is on the several thousand words attached to the system which validates the system at all.
Your point about disagreement is dead on. I abhor when people say, “This sucks,” without giving any reason WHY said thing is so terrible. It’s an empty assessment (technically so is, “This is great!” but I like positive assessments over negative). Sometimes I don’t like something, but I can’t put my finger on it. Until such times as I can express the reasons for my dislike, I keep quiet until and unless I come across someone who’s put my feeling into words. I can’t tell you the arguments I’ve gotten into where some FFVII hater says, “It sucks” or “It’s overrated,” but they have absolutely no reason or backing to these statements, and it’s really just a “I’m going to hate on this because it’s popular” and/or “I didn’t get it, so I’m going to say it sucks rather than admit this.” It’s one of the main reasons I say that just because something isn’t for you, it doesn’t mean it’s not valid e.g. me and FPS games or more recently fLOw (which I sucked at because I’m directionally challenged. That’s not the games fault though I have heard more people express that it’s their least favorite of Thatgamecompany’s most well known trio). I can’t state that “Destiny sucks” because it’s not my type of game; therefore such a shallow opinion means nothing, and adds nothing to the discourse but dissension. I can give an assessment of the things I’ve observed outside of that, but rendering a harsh assessment would be akin to me hating cats because I’m allergic (not a perfect analogy, but hopefully you get my point).
I’m finding a lot of people are abandoning the 10 point scoring system (Cheap Boss Attack being the premier example as he directly states he doesn’t do it), and while I still use it, I usually explain why I’m giving such a rate, but it’s interesting how average is seen as so bad. Think of the example of attractiveness. Most people give themselves a 7 or higher, which means they’re rating themselves two points above the average, but we all can’t be 7s since that would skew it. Since attractiveness is so highly prized by society, though, we want to see ourselves as more attractive, though many of those self-proclaimed 7s, 8s, and even 9s and 10s are probably 2 or 3 points lower, though seriously attractiveness is so subjective who knows?
I’m definitely guilty of using “perfection,” because the hyperbole of the zeitgeist is infectious, but even if I give something a 10 (and this may very well be happening with Journey), nothing is without its flaws.
I once watched a kid review my favorite film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and he said “I just don’t understand things that don’t make sense.” Boom. That’s what we’re talking about and you see right to that.
This post is less about the virtues of using any particular scale. I think most of the comments have taken up that point but I wouldn’t die on that hill, defending the 10-point scale that I happen to use. I almost wish I wasn’t writing reviews so I could say this from outside of the realm of discussion. My point is exactly as you illustrated, that if everything is a 7 or more, then you’ve rendered the scale itself meaningless. That’s it. I personally associate 10 with perfection, so Journey for me was a 9.8. Pretty dang close. The only game I’ve ever reviewed that’s a 10 is Super Mario Bros. 3. Of course I think there’s PLENTY of room for your and my interpretation of whichever scale we choose, I just find it silly if it’s dramatically scaled down because all one’s reviews occupy a small margin. Like I mentioned to another commenter, reviews are opinion and therefore inherently subjective but that’s not my point. The real value of a post lies in the body of text, not the numerical value, though there are those simply looking for that number for a variety of reasons: not enough time to read a full article being an example. This is where I sometimes fall myself.
If I could some this all up in one pop culture quote: “And once everyone is super, no one will be.”
Phrases like that make me want to strangle someone, and I pride myself on keeping my violent tendencies in check. If something doesn’t make sense to you, maybe that means you should seek out an explanation, but everyone almost needs to have an opinion. It’s too much to say, “I don’t have an opinion” or “I really haven’t thought about it enough to make a point.” I think if this was a kid they may have been tying to sound cool and pithy, but honestly, they just sound ignorant. This really could be an age thing.
I think that’s what it is. A lot of times if I’m in a hurry, I’ll scan for a number or star rating to see if it’s worthy my time to come back. This also has to do with how much you trust the reviewer, which means you’d have to have read their reviews in the past. Some I follow have the rating either at the top or in the title, which is really convenient. If I see they’ve given a 4 or 5 star rating, my interest will be piqued, but this stems from the history of trust. Conversely there’s the quantitative effect. If I see a bunch of low ratings, that’ll give me an idea, as well, though I honestly find the qualitative reviews to be better.
Haha! Yes every decent human being should be able to check their violent tendencies. Actually one of my favorite catchphrases (which I most often use with my wife) is “I don’t know and have no opinion”, a deliberate cop out. YES! I think finding reviewers you trust is important. In a year, I’ve found many who are people I enjoy but who I now know I fundamentally disagree with. Sometimes that’s valuable if I need a counter-point specifically. That’s not something I thought of while writing this so I appreciate you sharing that thought.
I just remembered you gave FFXIII a 4.5… RAGE!!! //sarcasm 🙂
Well said Mr. Mage! I’ve seen so many silly flame wars ignite over numbered review systems. It all goes back to the reality that everyone sees things differently. In my humble views, no respectful opinion, or thoughtful score, is right or wrong. Reviews just show me how someone else feels about something, and I may or may not agree with their views.
Hey, you’re definitely correct on the subjective nature of reviews. In light of that, the thing which bothers me is the redefinition of the 10-point scale to grade only between 7 and 10. I mean, a reviewer is totally entitled to their opinion that every video game ever is great, but that means I’m a little extra skeptical about the accuracy of their opinions. And oh no FFXIII…! I would actually consider that to be harsh in retrospect, but then again, we’ve had some great discussion on this already. In fact, our discussion was at least above average: 6/10.
Good point. It’s almost like reviewers are scared to get attacked by the angry troll mob if they give anything a score below 7…
Well, personally I would have given our great chat a 6.5, but everyone has different opinions:)
Ehh… our conversation was more a 4/10 if you ask me 😉
But yeah, the troll infection is real. I think it takes some bravery now in the internet era to say what you want to say. Well even there’s the extremity of “hate speech” labels getting involved. I don’t know how long it’ll be until that reaches gaming, but let’s hope that’s many years off! Imagine that dystopia where low grades are considered hate speech (on the suspicion that a low score is given because say the game was developed by an ethnic minority). Eh maybe that’s somewhat paranoid. I say let’s just be brave and say what we want to say about games. Bring it on, troll hordes! *whips out Ultima Blade*
Dude, I got your back on this! Just lemme grab my gunblade and pink wig before we aggro the evil troll empire. 🙂
Wonderful article! 11/10!
I agree that the content of the article is most important. I also like to think of scores as more of a summary, the final oomph that numerically explains what you’ve been saying. It’s when readers only see the score or get too personal about it that gets sticky. I think it’s great that you explained why you use scores and the value they give. It’s very fair, considering how easy it is to be on one end of the spectrum – either depending on or hating scores.
I like the 10-point grading system in theory. I just think we’ve overinflated what each individual number means. For me, 10 doesn’t mean perfect, but it does something special within its genre and medium that not only stuck out to me, but will likely appeal to a wide audience. And a 7 doesn’t mean bad, but that it was a flawed game that left an overall good impression, particularly for its genre. I feel like sometimes, we live in a world where games are rated from 7-10, where 7 is the worst and 10 is flawless. I think if we look at things from that perspective, that’s when we start to lose sight of the review and can become fixated on the review score.
That said, I still like and appreciate scores as a way to cap off the review, as long as the review is written with the attention of giving opinions about the product as opposed to strictly assigning a number.
As always, you’ve given a balanced response, Mr P. I personally do consider 10 to be equivalent to perfection, so that’s why we only have one game rated a 10 here. Of course that philosophy is proving difficult to adhere to with BotW. When 7 starts to mean bad then I think there’s a mindset that skews the grading inaccurately. I would still play and enjoy an average game at a 5 but it seems a lot of people now consider a 5 to be trash. We share the same thoughts on capping off a review with a simple value, though I think we’d agree that the real meaning of the post is in the body of text itself. What’s your opinion of a five star scale or the 100 point scale?
I’m fine with either, as long as there is some sensibility to where the scores are coming from. There’s a danger with more numbers simply because of the technicality of deciding what’s a 77 vs. 78. With a five-star scale, I think it’s actually easier to make the rating seem less important. There are less choices so most games get very similar scores, making the review more dependent on the content itself. That’s why I like the middle option of having a 10 point scale, because for me, it’s a good balance between the relevance of the content and the summary of the score. Though any scale can work as long as it’s consistent and reasonable. Personally, I think Homer Simpson had the best rating system. He rated foods seven thumbs up. I can’t argue with that.
I give this article a 10/10 😛
Nooooooooooooooooooooo! lol I’ll have to use that quote as a testimonial some day. XD
Haha wait until I crack out the DadJokes 😀
Well played, haha!
This is the reason why I decided recently not to score my game reviews anymore and let my reviews themselves speak for the reader. I always wonder if people just skip the entire review to look at the score and judge the critic based on the score and nothing else (in which case, you lose due to lack of evidence).
But I can understand some people. In a world where games cost £50, you want something that’s going to be worth the money, so giving a game an 8 and over is all the more reason to purchase it.
Hey thanks for your comment! I am absolutely certain that there are people who skip the entire review to look for the score at the bottom. That’s all they want sometimes. That’s all I want sometimes. I know this because I personally know more than a handful of people who do reviews in this way. In light of that, I decided to include the scores to cater to that audience but then again our reviews have ranged between 1.5k words and 8k words, so there’s plenty of meat for those who want that instead of just a number.
I also realized now that we write most of our reviews from the perspective of discussion and analysis rather than from the perspective of recommendation. I assume that based on what someone reads in our reviews that they can interpret whether we recommend something or not, though it’s not a temptation we purposefully avoid to include a final word on whether it’s recommended or not. I guess the whole point with The Well-Red Mage has been to be a jack-of-all-trades in terms of reviews, to review as much as possible and to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. I’m always interested to see how other blogs do it.
Essentially, even without the scores, we’d still have an overabundance of professional critics calling just about every game perfect or near perfect. What are your thoughts on that?
I mostly review in a very simple manner whilst still sometimes talking in depth depending on the game itself, and what I describe will be simple enough for people to understand. I do a final word because I’m used to it and tell you if you should play it or not though this can differ if it’s a specific game.
For many years I’ve been reviewing games in the hopes that I might get advice on how to improve and I’ve never gotten feedback for it. So when I score a review, I assume that people just skim through it and just see the score, I want my work to be seen in full (which I know is an impossible feat), which is why I removed the scoring system.
But I guess everyone does critiquing in many different ways.
It’s a subjective thing being objective! I think you’re on the money when you said people construct reviews in different ways. I think regardless of how anyone does so, there’s a risk of hyperbole which is all this post is about.
The 10 point scale is flawed, for reasons you touched upon, the most seemingly obvious being that perfection cannot have any flaws, and everything inherently has flaws with the exception of Beyonce’s face.
The 100 point scale makes more sense. The less numbers on a scale, the more meaningless each higher number becomes. 8+ = the game is worth playing, anything less = don’t waste your time. At least with an extra digit it becomes somewhat possible to knock points off without calling the game ‘unplayable’ in so many words.
Of course, what makes more sense than that is either a recommend/do not recommend. How about words on a page! Or are we so desperate to blaze through a clickbait title’d article to get to a magic number that tells us how to spend our money? I miss the days of rating things like sound, graphics, gameplay, controls, etc, all separately, with a final score of ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Hahaha, thanks for commenting! I stopped reading at “Beyonce’s face”. Just kidding, my friend! I think I would prefer the 100 point scale except that I personally dislike getting down into minutiae to the point of 78/100 or 75/100, but we round to 7.8 or 7.5 out of 10 anyways. I think that anything is worth playing down to a 5 or in some cases even a 4, so I’m baffled why a 6 is worthless to some folks. I would therefore argue that the flaw is with mindset of readers, as you indicate in your second to last sentence, rather than with the grading system.
I decided to include the number for those looking for an immediate value, but I’d definitely consider the text and body of the article to be more significant and meaningful, ending with a personal “I recommend” or “do not recommend”. I’d hope that those not looking for an immediate number alone can find some in-depth thoughts here or elsewhere to advise them on how to spend their cash!
I wasn’t aware of a ‘yes’/’no’ rating. Is that the one you use? Do you use the 100 point scale? Or do you avoid using a numerical scale at all?
THANK YOU. The world is turning into a society of extremes, in-which anything less than the best is the worst. I’ll have to do a longer response to this in the future.
My ratings system considers a 10 to be so sacred that I only ever allow one film to hold a 10 at once, with the current 10 having relegated the 10 before it to a 9. This means that my 10 film definitely is the best film I’ve ever seen. Although the next 10 will also do the same for my current 10, that next 10 would be even better than my current 10. I never know how far away my next 10 is…
YOU ARE WELCOME. I think we have the power as writers and speakers to change popular thought. It’s almost as if it’s our job. This kind of hyperextremism is going to leave us in a new kind of relativistic meaninglessness worse than anyone ever dreamed. Not to be too apocalyptic, since that all sounds like hyperbole in and of itself, I’d definitely interested in talking with you about this at length. I admire your integrity with 10-point perfection!