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Jason Scheier: "Starfield 83 Metacritic Score was only possible because of Xbox outlets"

Oppoi

Member
Imagine someone having to prove to a jury that Starfield is proper good entertainment. Imagine the sweat dripping down the defendants face as another loading screen is interrupted by another loading screen and the coughing and mumbling starts to get louder and louder.
 
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MarkMe2525

Banned
That's exactly where the term bias comes from though and it is the same meaning. In this case it would be those specific reviewers scores that are sampled resulting in a deviation of the score from that of the general population. That's exactly what Jason is referring to if you read the tweet. Not what you're referring to as "psychological bias" which if you think about it doesn't really exist.

It would be pretty fruitful, why wouldn't it be? especially when the hypothesis is that outlets with xbox in their name are what's bias. You can show this to be true or not statistically and even quantify it.
Firstly, you are insinuating that only fanboys go to work at any particular brand centric review outlet. In the real world, people are just looking for a job and take what they can get, most of the time. It's not DualShockers job to make playstation look good, their job is to cover playstation centric news. The only correlation is that dualshockers is more likely to review a playstation game, not inflate its score.

Secondly, I clearly explained my reasoning why the exercise wouldn't be fruitful.

Edit: T Three I'm having too many conversations at once. My first part is not in direct response to you but i will keep it up because I think it stands on its own.
 
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Kssio_Aug

Member
It's 83 point something

Removing the Xbox sites would make it lesser than that. Not to mention the argument about setting the tone which can have a big impact early on.
Reaching French Bulldog GIF
Go on, you can do it!
 

Three

Gold Member
Firstly, you are insinuating that only fanboys go to work at any particular brand centric review outlet. In the real world, people are just looking for a job and take what they can get, most of the time. It's not DualShockers job to make playstation look good, their job is to cover playstation centric news. The only correlation is that dualshockers is more likely to review a playstation game, not inflate its score.

Secondly, I clearly explained my reasoning why the exercise wouldn't be fruitful.
You're reaching. I don't understand why you believe that an outlet cannot be bias collectively, particularly if they are somehow funded, receive perks, or are otherwise reliant on the success of a given publisher/system. You think things like the kane and lynch incident don't happen anymore?
 
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bender

What time is it?
You're reaching. I don't understand why you believe that an outlet cannot be bias collectively, particularly if they are somehow funded, receive perks, or are otherwise reliant on the success of a given publisher. You think things like the kane and lynch incident don't happen anymore?

We've also heard stories of editors overriding the score that reviews, often freelancers, before publishing. There is more than one way to peel that potato.
 

MarkMe2525

Banned
You're reaching. I don't understand why you believe that an outlet cannot be bias collectively, particularly if they are somehow funded, receive perks, or are otherwise reliant on the success of a given publisher. You think things like the kane and lynch incident don't happen anymore?
Not that I can't believe it, I just don't think generalizing is very productive. I don't attribute the fault of a few to the whole, it becomes an exercise in confirmation bias.

Edit: I try not to, I am human and I am not above prejudice
 
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MarkMe2525

Banned
We've also heard stories of editors overriding the score that reviews, often freelancers, before publishing. There is more than one way to peel that potato.
I heard stories of English teachers fucking their students, but I struck out everytime I tried. He wasn't even that much older than me 😅🤣😂
 
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Three

Gold Member
Not that I can't believe it, I just don't think generalizing is very productive. I don't attribute the fault of a few to the whole, it becomes an exercise in confirmation bias.

Edit: I try not to, I am human and I am not above prejudice

it would be like saying "I think I will measure the global percentage of people who like Nascar by asking people in the US". if somebody were to suggest "but the US might not match the general population" that's not generalising. It's the exact opposite of generalising. It's knowing that there might be factors that introduce bias in the result and making no assumptions. If I were to say "you're from the US, you like Nascar " that would be generalising. Acknowledging that somebody from the US might be more likely to like Nascar than somebody from another country is not generalising.
 
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Three

Gold Member
We've also heard stories of editors overriding the score that reviews, often freelancers, before publishing. There is more than one way to peel that potato.
I vaguely remember this, at polygon everything had to go through Arthur Gies who had final say on the score.

They're certainly very open about the fact that they do some kind of collective scoring over there

"Once a review is complete, the reviewer meets with a group of senior editors to determine which score on our scale properly reflects the text as written."
 
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MarkMe2525

Banned
it would be like saying "I think I will measure the global percentage of people who like Nascar by asking people in the US". if somebody were to suggest "but the US might not match the general population" that's not generalising. It's the exact opposite of generalising. It's knowing that there might be factors that introduce bias in the result and making no assumptions. If I were to say "you're from the US, you like Nascar " that would be generalising. Acknowledging that somebody from the US might be more likely to like Nascar than somebody from another country is not generalising.
Edit: I'm not going to argue semantics. You were generalizing.
 
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Three

Gold Member
Edit: I'm not going to argue semantics. You are misrepresenting my statement.
I saw it before the edit. 😉

No i don't assume they are bias. I haven't tested the hypothesis at all, I'm just saying it's something that can be tested statistically and you wouldn't be generalising by acknowledging a bias can exist. It even does exist.

I see that you double edited to accuse me of generalising. I did no such thing.
 
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Well, this thread has everything and is going exactly the way it's expected :
- accusations
- typical bickering
- Persecution complex from the usual suspects
- Deflection attempts
- Xbox tax®
- Sony too®
- constant back and forth

Aren't you motherGaffers tired of it by now ? 😁

Fook fellas, just try to chill out for once, it's the same song and dance every day in here.

Peace
 
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damidu

Member
not only that, they also tried to inflate day-one scores by boycotting outlets that would actually "review" this turd.
cancer of the industry at every turn
 
No game comes even close to this rent free space on GAF and its users minds like Starfield.

The game has more threads than any game I’ve ever seen on here.

Todd Howard has done it again.
what do you expected? is the most important RPG of the last 10 years and yes, its exclusive after all.
 

peish

Member
It is one of most flat bethesda game I ever played
Just a feeling of emptiness and the constant loading on gen4 ssd breaks immersion
 

Fess

Member
That year was rough. Only Elden Ring and Ragnorak were true goty contenders. The rest was fluff. If Ragnorak came out in 2023, it would be around 90.

Id rate GOW around 85. Great game, but underwhelming finale to a series with so much more potential.
?
Game critics don’t rate games after how they fare against other games the same year. Any serious one would rate the games for how they think they stack up to all games they’ve played.
 

K2D

Banned
To me, user scores are more unreliable than MC scores since all it takes is some internet bombing and a game can go down the drain. As much as people like to hate FIFA, WOW, COD etc.... these games can get user score bombed to 1 or 2/10. Thats worse than Big Rigs Racing. So for you guys comparing MC scores to user scores, dont forget these if user scores are so accurate.


Lr8rVmH.jpg

3GpUTem.jpg

OG TLOU2 user score seems pretty accurate given

1) how polarizing the game actually is

2) the number of users scoring which makes it only more representative of the total users

3) 1-10 scale is pointless in user scores (unless reviewers are vetted/screened for consistent reviews).


Same thing. PC users bombed it too.


OeeYRTa.jpg
Q8UdeGj.jpg

PC version was a mess at launch, no?
 
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Ozzie666

Member
Companies using CIA level tactics to manipulate their audience is nothing new. It's become so common place, get any edge and positve pr you can. This is include shills, willing or unwillingly falling suit. I think Redfall is a good example as well. Paying reviews, bribing with yellow chairs, influencing switch streamers, review bombs or fake reviews. Kids play.
 

Fess

Member
Jason’s statement could be used for any platform exclusive, the high-scoring platform focused websites are always there. There are low-scoring websites too though. It is what it is. The whole idea with Metacritic and Opencritic is to see an average score where the extremes gets kinda filtered out. But with Starfield there is a PC version and on Metacritic the PC version has a higher score. And when combining the versions on Opencritic, where more reviews are included high and low, it has a ”Mighty” status and sits at 85. Even IGN network have a 8.5 average. I don’t see any controversy here. Some like it, some don’t. An average score between 8 and 9 on a 10-point scale seems spot on.
 
Who cares, shit. This is almost like trump stuff lol. Media hated him, but always want to bring something up cause it bring in views. It been out for a few months now. I shouldn’t hear anything bout it unless new dlc or mods.
 

hemo memo

You can't die before your death
Welcome to the reality of exclusive games reviews Jason. You’re just figuring this now? This is not a unique Xbox case. We have a remaster from Sony that is pretty much a directors cut with so ridiculously minimal changes sitting at a ridiculous 91 on MC. Watching DF video and reading those reviews is so embarrassing.
 

Fess

Member
This is not a unique Xbox case. We have a remaster from Sony that is pretty much a directors cut with so ridiculously minimal changes sitting at a ridiculous 91 on MC. Watching DF video and reading those reviews is so embarrassing.
I don’t see what they can do. Maybe refuse to review it. A good game being barely upgraded doesn’t turn it into a bad game, especially if it is the definitive best version.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Jason’s statement could be used for any platform exclusive, the high-scoring platform focused websites are always there.
Without proof? No. It could not be used.
There are low-scoring websites too though. It is what it is. The whole idea with Metacritic and Opencritic is to see an average score where the extremes gets kinda filtered out.
It doesn't average out. When/if brand-centric websites continuously rate a game higher, they inflate the overall average score. The 83 MC we see for Starfield is already inflated. Take out all the 9.5s and 10s out of the equation, and the score will likely drop to 80 or below.
 
Lol this is hilarious considering the obvious score boost any game gets when its a Playstation game. I always suspected this but didn't know for sure. But now that these games have come to PC I can say for sure most of them are totally overrated.
 

foamdino

Member
I finished Starfield before Christmas. It's a 6/10 at best. Such a fall from grace from one of my favourite game devs.

Best thing about Starfield: encouraging me to restart Cyberpunk and complete that
Worst thing about Starfield: lack of exploration in loading screen simulator
 
Lol this is hilarious considering the obvious score boost any game gets when its a Playstation game. I always suspected this but didn't know for sure. But now that these games have come to PC I can say for sure most of them are totally overrated.
TLOU2 is not though, absolute masterpiece IMO but deserves a much better remaster.
 

samoilaaa

Member
I think Starfield is an example of just how difficult it is to create a game nowadays. They gave themselves enough time to create a new IP. 7 years. MS then gave them an extra year for polish. Something zenimax never gave them before. They put in the work to make the graphics look way better than their past games when other bethesda devs like Arkhane and Machine Games simply phoned it in. The marketing showed that it had the elements to make a truly great game, but unfortunately, it just didnt come together at the end. I think the devs made the game they wanted to make. They just didnt realize that it didnt work.

Todd said he wanted to make a talky game to stand out from the crowd because there are so many open world games out there today. Well, he did that. It's just that the writing sucks and talking to people simply isnt as fun as going out there and exploring those Bethesda worlds.

I had the same feeling with cyberpunk. We take for granted how all these AAA games just work and hit 90 on metacritic, but one thing off and it doesnt work. Cyberpunk had the graphics, the city, and the combat, but it just felt like it was lacking something that the only managed to truly capture 3 years later with phantom liberty.

TLDR; making great games isnt just hard, it's a miracle we all seem to take for granted nowadays.
the problem these days is that they try to make the game as big as posible and think thats enough , all we could hear about starfield was how big it was and that you have 1000 planets to explore , lets look at larian for example because its the most recent high success , every time they showed the game they talked about how much you can do in it , how progression works , how much choice and consequence there is , how the world reacts to what you do , because its an rpg

if someone is making an rpg and the things that he brags about are the size of the map and use of pronouns from the npc then you should already see it as a bad sign
 
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