GameSetWatch writes:
While a game's Metacritic or Gameranking average score has often been used to dictate the size of a development staff's bonuses, EA's decision to use numerical scores as the criterion for has elevated the numbers issue a whole new level of consequence.
Some argue that scores represent different things to different publications, one title's 4/10 being another's 68%. Others question why, when scores rarely tally with a game's commercial success, we should use them to make commercial decisions? Always, the question behind the question is: do review scores actually matter and, if so what do they even mean?
At a glance, review scores seem to be the most harmless of things. While good critics will bemoan having to reduce a 1000-word piece of incisive criticism to a number on a 10 point scale (or, um, 19 point scale if you're GameSpot), to the average consumer they offer a useful shorthand reference point with which to compare different titles and inform buying decisions.
But to fully understand the confusing tangle review scores have landed both reviewers, consumers and the wider industry in, it's important to understand their origins. Review scores are a system imported from those publications that review and rate consumer products like televisions and toasters...
