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On 10 February, without warning, the English site Eurogamer has abandoned its traditional zero-rating system to ten points, replaced by three badges: “recommended”, “essential” and “to avoid “. What could have noted that a formula change was noted by many specialized sites, ArsTechnica United States Gameblog in France, just ask a recurring question: should note video games? Seemingly benign, it questions the essence of this media, torn between his legacy juvenile object, its first existence as an object of consumption, and its repeated requests to artistic recognition.
- What is a note in a “test” video game?
It is simply a numerical assessment of the quality of play, often affixed endnotes to sum up the spirit. It is usually 10 US, 20 in France and 100 in Germany, but many variations exist within the same country. The site Gameblog evaluates games 5, Gamekult 10 Gaming Magazine and J euxVideo.com on 20 and fire the magazine Console + has long been the last heir of a decade, the 1990s, when the note in percentages was the norm.
- How old notes
They are almost as old as the trade press?: from the first golden age of the arcade, between 1979 and 1982, American magazines for professionals like Replay and Play Meter adjoin a score out of ten for terminals arcade they are trying to better advise their clients, mostly managers of gaming machines halls. In the process, Electronic Games in 1981 introduced a similar system. In a more rudimentary, the first French video game magazine, Tilt , embraces notes in five asterisks to its launch in 1982. Its competitor number Gen 4 popularize the Formula 100.
- What are the most popular rating systems?
In England, the prestigious magazine Edge evaluates ten games without comma, often atypical criteria, focusing on mechanical and originality to the technical aspect. In twenty-one years of existence, the magazine awarded seventeen 10/10. Super Mario 64 was the first in 1996. In Japan, the magazine Famitsu four aggregates individual opinions in ten in a collective note on 40. Again, 40 / 40 have long been an event. Only The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time , Bayonetta and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword have received the maximum score in both journals.
In France, no media has this reputation abroad, but nationally, the site Gamekult has become known for his harsh judgments at the point of giving birth to a meme, “It’s 7″, in reference to regularly score awarded to big-budget games, such as Halo . In ten years, the site has never granted maximum score
.
- These notes they really consequences ?
Commercially, there is nothing to say for sure. However, the emergence in the mid-2000s aggregators notes like Metacritic led game publishers to adjust premiums paid to development studios in the average score on these aggregators. For example, a detail of Activision binding contract leaked to the developers of shooter Destiny , Bungie, evokes a bonus of $ 2.5 million if it reaches 90 100 – which will not the case.
In addition to the financial consequences can be fatal for a studio, the calculation involves numerous means, starting with the cultural differences between countries (French sites are often more severe) and calculation – any note being reported in 100 4/5 enthusiastic becomes a 80/100 on Metacritic, corresponding to a correct play without
- Are t-. there alternative scoring systems?
At the margin, yes. This is for example what the topic Pixels of Monde.fr , offering each time a different scale parody. But the idea is not new, and from 2004 in Game Fan, a former specialist journalist, Chazumaru, had amused note Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater in radio frequencies, how to pervert the interior usual frames of critical video game while paying tribute to the many set abyss and actual effects of the series, which itself uses radio frequencies to communicate with certain characters.
Further from us, in the 1990s, Nintendo Player editor had long refused to record the games, before giving in to pressure from players, and adopt a parody system, evaluation six fungi.
- Is there a video game critics without notes?
Yes and that since at least the early 2000s in the English-speaking world, a current quickly dubbed “New Game Journalism” (the “new journalism video game”) opposes an encrypted consumerist approach long narrative and experimental texts, turning the focus on the player experience more than on alleged objective technical qualities of the product tested. There have been attempts to import in France, particularly through the articles Tristan Ducluzeau in Joypad and Chronicart , or without notes magazine project Select Game in 2005 ultimately failed.
However, impressionist critics Olivier Séguret in release to the deconstructive approach to Martin Lefebvre on the independent website Merlanfrit , a parallel literature has since grown, and if it differs in many points of style, approach and sensibilities, she joined in the willingness to adapt the language to the game video, to say the charm and uniqueness, rather than reduce it to school marks out of 20. At least that’s the theory. After all, oenological criticism does well to reconcile the two.
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