What is "Critics vs. Customers"? The image above shows the "professional" critic review score average for a Wii retail game as 48.41%, and the Amazon.com customer review score average for the exact same game as 87.08%. How can there be such a huge difference?
If you have wondered why I usually write professional, as "professional" when it comes to the general video game critics' review score average in my posts, it's because I find most of the critic review scores for games to be so similar to each other, and it's almost like I can get more useful information about games from reading user reviews on Amazon.com, video game forums, and smaller blogs, than I can from reading reviews from sites that are supposed to be considered "professional".
The "professional" critics are often getting paid to play the games they review (either paid for writing the review and/or getting a free copy of the game), while the majority of the user reviews are probably from paying customers that are just trying to inform other potential customers of the good/bad they can expect from the game.
The "professional" critics are often getting paid to play the games they review (either paid for writing the review and/or getting a free copy of the game), while the majority of the user reviews are probably from paying customers that are just trying to inform other potential customers of the good/bad they can expect from the game.
With Critics vs. Customers we will look at a wide variety of games and see how games did with the critics' review score averages from MetaCritic.com and GameRankings.com, and customers' review score averages from sites like Amazon.com. General information and trailers about the games will be provided as well if possible, and maybe even more developer feedback on the posts.
If I have played the game being covered then the piece will probably be titled, "Critics vs. Customers AND Coffee" (or something close to it), and I will try to give my insights on the game and what I thought was bitter and/or sweet about it.
Caffeinated Thoughts
Many times game developers will have in their contracts that they may get a bonus or higher return on their games, if their game can meet certain MetaCritic review score averages. If you were to take a look at the image above and base your opinion on the game just on the "professional" critic review score average, you might not even give that game a try.
Why should developers not get a bonus because the "professionals" apparently are the wrong target audience for the game and perhaps don't even complete the game before writing their "reviews", while the customers that are playing, and paying for, the very same game seem to really be enjoying it?
I wrote a post on this topic of video game reviews, "Should There Be Game Review Standards?", ironically just over 2 years ago (almost to the date of this post being published). I hope this new feature can perhaps shine a spotlight on older games, and even new releases, from a different angle and give potential buyers a different look at what paying customers think about the games, instead of just the paid critics.
Question
Can you identify which game is used my image above, with the critic review score average of 48.41% from GameRankings.com and the customer review score average of 87.08 from Amazon.com?
If I have played the game being covered then the piece will probably be titled, "Critics vs. Customers AND Coffee" (or something close to it), and I will try to give my insights on the game and what I thought was bitter and/or sweet about it.
Caffeinated Thoughts
Many times game developers will have in their contracts that they may get a bonus or higher return on their games, if their game can meet certain MetaCritic review score averages. If you were to take a look at the image above and base your opinion on the game just on the "professional" critic review score average, you might not even give that game a try.
Why should developers not get a bonus because the "professionals" apparently are the wrong target audience for the game and perhaps don't even complete the game before writing their "reviews", while the customers that are playing, and paying for, the very same game seem to really be enjoying it?
I wrote a post on this topic of video game reviews, "Should There Be Game Review Standards?", ironically just over 2 years ago (almost to the date of this post being published). I hope this new feature can perhaps shine a spotlight on older games, and even new releases, from a different angle and give potential buyers a different look at what paying customers think about the games, instead of just the paid critics.
Question
Can you identify which game is used my image above, with the critic review score average of 48.41% from GameRankings.com and the customer review score average of 87.08 from Amazon.com?
