NBrid

Sessler: "We give it a 5... out of 10?" (X-Play)

Everyone loves G4techTV's X-Play, except for the fact they rate games out of 5. Is it really that big of a deal? Is a 10-point scale fundamentally better? Is an 8.0 game really better than a 4 game? Is this a rhetorical question?

Even though I was ridiculed and shunned the last time I posted a chat log, I figured what the heck. It's a step-up from being ignored just because I boycott deodorant. (Hey buddy! It does nothing but fuel the corporate machine! Michael Moore told me so!)

Again, the names have been changed to hopefully avoid lawsuits.

JimmyAll: Do you smell what the Jimmy is cookin?!

SkinCalmer: Chicken Cordon Bleu?

JimmyAll: Chicken broke the cordon my lamp! HAHAHAHA!

SkinCalmer: Nice.

JimmyAll: I was just flipping through various TV channels and stopped on G4. Guess what was on.

SkinCalmer: No flipping!

JimmyAll: Guess asswipe!

SkinCalmer: Fine... Thunderbirds.

JimmyAll: Wrong! X-fucking-Play! The best game show of all time!

SkinCalmer: Eh, I tend to think that would be The Price is Right.

JimmyAll: I just wish Adam Sessler wasn't so damn biased. He gives too many good games bad reviews. I mean, he gave Deus Ex II a 4! I know he hates anything that could remotly be called a RPG, but get a life.

SkinCalmer: Umm, you do realize they rate games on a scale of 1-5, right? Not to mention they have writers that write the reviews and come to a consensus on what to give it. It's not just Sessler's, or Morgan Webb's, opinion of the game. How long have you been bitter about this? Wow.

JimmyAll: 1-5? How gay is that? Why don't they do what most NORMAL people do and rate on a scale of 1-10. Just 5 is so gay.

SkinCalmer: But adding 5 more proves your manhood... I think you're confusing that with the 5 I scored on my BC Calc test.

JimmyAll: Nerd.

SkinCalmer: Anyways, 1-5 is perfectly fine. You look at places that do go by 1-10 and how often do you see them use the full scale anyways? Even a really shitty game gets a 5 or 6.

JimmyAll: But saying a game is a '4' doesn't tell me anything. I mean they gave NFL Street a 4. Are you going to tell me that game is as good as Deus Ex?

SkinCalmer: It's a 4 for the type of game it is, on the system it came out on, at the time it launched. It's all relative. Why are you trying to compare Deus Ex to a sports game anyways?

JimmyAll: Stop spinning my words around! I'm not stupid enough to fall for your master debating tricks. Please.

SkinCalmer: Please... take my wife?

JimmyAll: I said master debating, eheheheh.

SkinCalmer: Okaaaay... So what's your point again? It's THEIR opinion, not your's. And are you saying that if a game got a 7 you wouldn't buy it, but an 8... you're all over that!

JimmyAll: No, I'd never base a purchase on some lame review.

SkinCalmer: So why do you care at all!

JimmyAll: It just seems stupid. And I hate stupid people.

SkinCalmer: You hate stupid people you say... Interesting. I mean, I just don't get it. What, do you need to hear a game you like get good reviews to make you feel all rosy inside?

JimmyAll: What?! You [racial slurs deleted].

SkinCalmer: Umm... This is the same shit Nbrid went through with Evo. People hated the small 5-point scale so we changed it to 10. Well, still out of 5, but by .5's, which is the same as a 10-point scale for those who failed Pre-Algreba.

JimmyAll: And weren't the reviews better for it? Well, all except Sonic Adventure 2 and Outtrigger...

SkinCalmer: Hey! Outtrigger was a fun game... if you had a mouse.

JimmyAll: Who could tell? 1, 2, 3, 4, and even 5 out of 5 is pointless without the ability to give a 10 out of 10 for the really kick ass games.

SkinCalmer: I just find the whole thing pointless. One good thing about a 5-point scale is it helps remove personal preferences. I mean a 4 is a 4, but when doing it out of 10, or worse out of 10 by .1's, are we then to think that a game that got an 8.2 is better than a game that someone else gave an 8.1?

JimmyAll: Well 8.2 is a bigger number than 8.1 so why not?

SkinCalmer: Why not? Because the difference is too small to mean shit! It works in reverse too. People see a game get a score of 8.1 and think it's a decent game, but nothing that great. But a 4 of 5? That's pretty darn good... IT'S THE SAME DAMN SCORE PEOPLE! Because people don't see it that way, reviewers on the 10-point system always 'hedge' their score higher. Hence making the whole 10-point scale pointless.

JimmyAll: I trimmed my hedges the other day, if you get my drift...

SkinCalmer: Thankfully, no.

JimmyAll: It's just that stupid Judgment Day even rates out of 10. And that show sucks!

SkinCalmer: True, but JD bases their whole review on the final score it hands out. X-Play uses the body of the review, the text of the review, the meat and potatoes of the review to convey their opinion of the game. Almost making the final score pointless. So hence 'out of 5' is fine.

JimmyAll: MMM... sausage and a grain of rice... I'd still rather read what IGN has to say.

SkinCalmer: Yeah IGN, Mr. "we're so damn competitive that we overrate games exclusive to the console we're covering".

JimmyAll: That coming from Mr. "makes no damn sense yet writes super damn long rants".

SkinCalmer: So you think Mario Sunshine deserved the 9.4 they gave it? Especially when you realize not a single sub-category got higher than a 9.0?

JimmyAll: The only GameCube game I give a flying felion fuck about is Smash Bros. Melee. Everything else is crap. Even my cat knows that.

SkinCalmer: And here I was all this time taking you to be more of a dog person...

JimmyAll: And here I was thinking you weren't gay.

SkinCalmer: Sorry to disappoint you. Bottom line, 5 is fine for their situation. I mean, look how successful Siskel & Ebert were and they reviewed movies on a TWO-point scale. So how can anyone bitch about X-Play's 5?

JimmyAll: Yo mama!

SkinCalmer: I see where this is headed...

SkinCalmer signed off at 8:02:37 PM.