Reviewing the review sites

http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=8370

Pretty Interesting.

Over time, every videogame publication will be accused by its readers as being either too harsh or too easy in its reviews. And often the accusations simply depend on the most recent batch of scores. But thanks to stat-geek friendly websites such as GameRankings.com, we are able to compare each magazine to its competition as well as the overall review average for each game and get some definitive answers.

We here at Media Coverage, certainly don' t believe in an entropic review theory in which scores should all meld into uniformity. But when we are able to look at hundreds and thousands of reviews, trends of either tougher than average grading or easier than average grading do start to appear.

The overall averages used here are based on each magazine' s scores compared to the GameRankings.com averages for the same games.

*Note: Since Media Coverage is a part of GameDaily, we try not to cover this publication, but in the interest of full disclosure. GameDaily reviews score on average 7.5% lower than the GameRankings.com review average.


GameSpy scored in with the most game-friendly reviews online; however, compared to the other categories, the scores were relatively close to the overall average. On the tougher side, 1UP.com was definitely the most tightfisted of the group, outpacing GameSpot.com by a wide margin.


Play Magazine and GamePro showed scores leaning towards gentler reviews, while the Ziff duo EGM and GMR were both stricter in their grading. Game Informer, however, was the closest publication of all to the GameRanking.com overall average.


Surprisingly, for the most part, the platform specific magazines were not easier on their respective systems. Most of the magazines graded harder than the average, with XBN leading the charge. The key exception was PSE2 magazine which was by far the easiest grading publication in this entire survey.


All of the categories came in below the GameRankings.com review average. (The vast number of small and specialist websites that GameRankings counts are more than enough to counterbalance this.) However, the multiplatform mags averaged out to be the easiest spot for kind reviews. Mainstream mags were far less forgiving."

That is interesting.

...multiplatform mags averaged out to be the easiest spot for kind reviews. Mainstream mags were far less forgiving.

Why doesn' t that surprise me.

http://biz.gamedaily.com/images/story/mw11186.jpg

So from this we can gage that CNN is the fairest reviewer? Or most boring? Whatever.

That does it! I' m turning to CNN for ALL of my gaming coverage! From what I gather, it MUST mean " most boring" .

Also the data is less meaningful with so few publications included in the study. Gamerankings.com compares the individual and average review scores of ALL sites it lists with the industry average scores (for both individual and all games).