Metacritic

Metacritic is a website that reviews for movies, DVDs, music, computer games, books and TV shows aggregated. Each product is evaluated in terms of a number from 0 to 100. Here is an excerpt and relevant link will be provided to each of the reviews listed. Metacritic has been online since 2001.

They calculated the so-called Metascore according to a secret formula from different weighted evaluations of relevant media. The classifications of the site have primarily by manufacturers of computer games great weight, so some contracts contain clauses publisher, after which a good Metascore from Metacritic leads to a bonus payment to the developer. Even on the stock prices of companies involved have the ratings this page influence.

In addition to reviews of major media, and users can submit their own reviews. They are graded on a scale from 0 to 10.

Metascore

Metascore is legally protected from the website Metacritic.com in the U.S. term for a combination of several existing reviews of a media release to an integer number between 0 and 100 Review This enables on -a-glance, albeit greatly reduced, qualitative assessment of a title. It refers to a Metascore of 100 a title of very good quality, and a score of 0 indicates a title of very low quality.

Other sites that are based on the same principle ( Rotten Tomatoes, Game Rankings, GameStats ), have their own names and not use the term Metascore. However, other publications use the term often synonymous with any judgment aggregation.

Determining the rating number

In the evaluation of flow usually several dozen reviews of various publications one, including the major print media from the respective industry, but also - especially in console and PC games - renowned Internet publications.

The award of the critique and judgment is then tied to the Metascore - scale of 0 to 100 points converted as a weighted average with the other, to the title belonging judgments. If there is no assessment in the form of a scaled numerical value ( for example " 6 out of 10 points " or " 83 %"), the Metascore editorial assigns the report - based on various clues in the article and the overall impression reproduces the one - even a score to.

The weighting of the individual judgments based on the reputation and the degree of specialization of the publication. So a recognized trade magazine for computer games for the Metascore of a computer game receives a large weighting for the score of a book on the other hand a smaller than a magazine about books new releases.

The individual judgments may be found, in the discussion of the Title again.

Criticism

The two biggest weaknesses of this rating system can be found in the weighting of the individual publications and the manual assignment of a case of pure word Metascores judgments. Behind both decisions is a human editorial staff whose assessment does not have to always be objectively the relevance of a publication or the tenor of a test report. So the Metascore can be moved by clever choice of the weights and the individual score assignment in a certain direction, without being obvious.

There was but nowadays passed in many publications already to scale reviews, the Metascore can be used as a good indication of the quality of a title. When in doubt, but should the individual judgments used their own evaluation to assess the o sound of the publications themselves.

Use the Metascore rating system

Metascore reviews found for example in the online catalog of the computer game distribution platform Steam and the associated user account management again. If present, is for each game of the Metascore on the relevant product page, displayed in the game list or other similar sites. The same technical system uses the German company games radar, there the method is applied on user comments and under the label Hype -O-Meter on the measurement of the circumference, which reports on a not yet published game.

Within the games industry, the Metascore acts often also affect the contractual conditions between the developers and publishers, which comes across sometimes controversial views. Greater attention aroused a statement of the Game Designers Chris Avellone in March 2012 on Twitter, after which its development studio Obsidian Entertainment a bonus payment for the development of Fallout: New Vegas 've missed since the Metascore only amounted to 84 points instead of 85. In sum, the development studio, a performance bonus in the amount of one million U.S. dollars will thereby have escaped. According to a statement of the Game designer Kim Swift April 2013 Metascore of previous work also often used as the basis for contract negotiations between publishers / financiers and developers. From proponent side of this process is argued that this serves as security and trust for the donors, especially at high amounts of funding. Critics complain that this would be used by funders page merely as a justification to significantly reduce the profit share of the developer regardless of the sales success can. This has sometimes meant that accompany the development of measures to be taken are not used to improve the game but for the potential increase in the Metascores, such as the elimination or reduction of especially critical journalists and testers.