N'Gai Croal over at the Newsweek blog Level Up has begun posting, and was a participant in, A Symposium On Game Reviews. The symposium looks to be a quite detailed look at a topic that has been getting a lot of play in the gaming press since the Jeff Gerstmann fiasco of 2007. Invited to participate were several of the brightest and cutest (I'm looking at you, Leigh) minds in the business today (which of course explains why I'm just a reader.) The first topic revolves around review scores. (The entire text of the first topic can be found at Shawn Elliott's blog here.)

Reading through the panelists' comments naturally got me thinking about how I "review" a game (when I actually do), and what reviews mean/do/are in general. Though we haven't reviewed too many games here as of late, we tend to strive more towards giving the reader an understanding of how we saw they game, what stood out to us, and what we feel was lacking. The most important thing we want to come through, though, is if we had any fun playing it. That is the whole point of the industry as this time, after all. If it isn't fun, word will quickly spread in this day and age, and the gaming world will move on without a second thought.

That's why our rating system is about as simple as it gets: Buy It, Rent It, or Skip It. Tycho over at Penny Arcade once wrote a post about game scoring, wondering how one game can garner a 9.3, while the next one earns a 9.2 score. What really is that .1 of a point difference? He said basically "just tell me if the game is any good." I kept that in mind when opening this site. No need to analyze so many disparate pieces of a game's construction here; there is a time and place to do that, but this isn't it. We just want to let you know if you are going to have enjoy it.

Now, if we can do that depends on the relationship that you the reader builds with us the reviewers. With every moron and his brother running a gaming web site, it can be hard to know whom to trust, and listen to. The best idea I have found is to find a site or two or three that agree with you, and your tastes in games. Read past reviews, and see how they stack up with your experiences with those games. Once you have found a solid connection, stick primarily (but always be open) to these sites. It's the same with movie reviews. Here in Richmond, the local paper has a reviewer who pretty much hates anything big and splashy, and certainly fantasy/sci-fi oriented. He seemingly reveled in giving all three Lord of the Rings movies one star. Obviously, these are not reviews that I could trust. But, after reading IGN almost daily for the last several years, I understand where they are coming from, and what the are looking for in a movie. They can tell a good comic book flick from a bad one, where as many reviewers will automatically dismiss the genre. I'm not saying I follow them blindly, just that they are somewhere I can go to get a better understanding of what I know I'm looking for. Keep this in mind when looking at reviews and reviewers.

Another idea is to check out meta-review sites like GameRankings and MetaCritic. If you are on the fence, or looking for something new, or just curious as to what you might have missed, these sites are there to fill you in. Once tool on GameRankings that is interesting is the score distribution pie chart above each games review listings. They break the scores down by percentages, and group them by tens (scores in the 90s, 80s, etc.) While there are a lot of games that might end up with an 85% composite, how that 85% is achieved can vary widely. Games with the majority of their scores in the 80s can be counted upon as being solid, if unspectacular. However, if a game has a high number of 90s and an equally high number of 70s, then you will likely find that this is a game that polarizes people. They either love it, and can forgive any flaws, or hate it, picking all the nits they can find. These games are often the innovators and the forerunners of new genres and play styles.

Well, this has gone on way too long. There was much more intended for this post, but it will have to wait for another day. I thank both of you that made it to the end.