wow The Shadowlands User Metacritic Score Is... Problematic

[Dejo93 1,023]

On 11/27/2020 at 8:48 PM, Starym said:

Giving 0 or 1 scores based on what they said? Yes, they are 100000% wrong. Whether Shadowlands is good or not is a completely different issue.

True, but you have to admit that BfA left a really bad taste in their mouths. I'm willing to give the expansion a chance, but I'm also saying I understand how they feel

[Arcling 898]

11 hours ago, RavenFeare said:

If you are not capable of giving an objective review then you should now be giving your input. It helps no one to score a game 0 because you don't like it versus giving it something for it's merits. Some of these reviews literally say there is stuff they like but give it a 0 anyway so they are being openly salty and dishonest. Review bombing is basically fraud in the same way that giving favorable reviews to mislead people into purchases is.

Reviews are always subjective (stating objective facts is not a review), but I agree that 0 should have been given to a game that is simply broken/doesn't work. 0 is nothing, 1 is at least something, though usually typical review scale starts from 1 in most sources that review media.

[navysilan 34]

People: We want more Classic-like mechanics

Blizzard: Adding Classic-like mechanics

People: OMG IT'S SO BAD 0/10

[Seksi 208]

55 minutes ago, navysilan said:

People: We want more Classic-like mechanics

Blizzard: Adding Classic-like mechanics

People: OMG IT'S SO BAD 0/10

Actually loving the "classic introductions" (especially the much lower RNG and way shorter mandatory power grind), loving the xpac so far, left my wall-of-text review ? 

[druvirus 0]

On 11/27/2020 at 2:52 PM, Vanquinn said:

As a cynical piece of *filtered*, I'm enjoying shadowlands so far, but all of these 0 ratings are 100% justified. The game isn't even in the same league as it was 10 years ago, which is wild, a game is supposed to get better, not worse.

Here's another thing to add to the 0 rating. TARGET CAP. Also having cosmetic choices ripped out of my hands because I want to be Venthyr but it's actual trash for my spec is pretty depressing.

On the flip side, people who think leveling needs to be hard are on drugs, the point of the game is end game tbh, and if you like leveling, then you can just keep leveling new toons to enjoy the experience. The overall experience feels great, other than not getting interrupts til like level 20+.

No. There is no actual justification for a 0 rating, lest of having no game to review. A "0" rating is reserved to "I bought a game and when I opened it up a rock fell out. There is literally no game inside." A zero is the number given to literally nothing. WoW has game to it. You may not like some or all of it, but the game EXISTS. A zero doesn't mean, "I didn't like anything about it" it means "There isn't anything here." Categorically incorrect.

Also: no, a game isn't supposed to necessarily get better. Why would you assume that? Do movies get better with every new installment? Do books? Is every album a group puts out better than the last? Is your paycheck always more money than the last? Is your new haircut always better than the last? What about a meal you buy? Literally nothing in life is "supposed" to get better as it goes on. I mean, hell, even LIFE doesn't get better as you go on living, *filtered*. 

[durdyenglish 298]

On 11/28/2020 at 5:09 PM, Dejo93 said:

True, but you have to admit that BfA left a really bad taste in their mouths. I'm willing to give the expansion a chance, but I'm also saying I understand how they feel

You don't take out your frustrations from the last expansion on this one, especially when you're writing a review people want to be able to trust as reasonable and logical.

This is not a statement about how poor BFA was, this is a reflection on how good/bad Shadowlands is.

Saying "I didn't like that last one so I'm going to bomb this one" is just immature and shortsighted.

[Starym 3,800]

On 11/28/2020 at 11:55 AM, Yridaa said:

It's pitiful to think that a 10 (60+ people have given it that as of writing this post) is perfectly OK in @Starym's eyes but then condemns 0's and 1's. Talk about confirmation bias news reports.

So what you want to say is you didn't like it. See a 10 is actually a valid score cos it CAN be a 10 OBJECTIVELY. It, however, CANNOT be a 0, since the game actually works, has features and content. But you should definitely use the "I don't agree with this person's opinion and thus I will accuse them of bias" strategy, it's really making the world an awesome place to live in.

Personally I wouldn't give Shadowlands a 10 ever, I'd never give WoW in general a 10 in any era, the post had nothing to do with the actual "score" of the Shadowlands, it was about people baselessly bombing it (which is what 100% objectively happened, you can pretend it's not all you want), and how childish that is. If literally all those people had given the expansion a 2 or so there wouldn't be any issue, but they, as you apparently, can't really make themselves calm down and stop their INFINITE hate for a game they play for 5 minutes to actually think what an appropriate score might be.

[Senou 40]

I need to put this up here again, and I'd like to ask for your opinion, fellow readers:

 

I feel like I have nothing to do anymore in Shadowlands. By now I can only run 8 dungeons on mythic, I can queue for heroics which do not benefit me anymore. I have already reached a point where I can only upgrade equipment by sheer luck. Running mythics and seeing people who get 2-3 items with others getting jack *filtered*, I wonder how this is fair in an mmorpg environment. This is no fun. The fact that I have nothing more to do after about 60minutes of gaming now, to clear my calling, to do some world stuff apart from running dungeons feels so weird. I don't need to do Torghast if there is literally no reward at all. I'd be fine with Transmog, Pets, Mounts or other cosmetics. I'd be fine with a resource I could grind to get a recolor of some armor or whatever but there is just nothing to get.

People who would like to put in more effort are pressed on the bench, while casuals who can spare a few hours each day have plenty of enjoyment. So my question is: Why am I restricted in playing the game and gain more power or fun? Why is it ok for players who want to push to wait, but casuals cannot be asked to farm more when they lack the time? If I decide to push +10 keys or +15 keys I can do that. If they want to push the same level of content they need to get as ready as possible just like we did before.

[Yridaa 490]

11 hours ago, Starym said:

So what you want to say is you didn't like it. See a 10 is actually a valid score cos it CAN be a 10 OBJECTIVELY. It, however, CANNOT be a 0, since the game actually works, has features and content. But you should definitely use the "I don't agree with this person's opinion and thus I will accuse them of bias" strategy, it's really making the world an awesome place to live in.

Personally I wouldn't give Shadowlands a 10 ever, I'd never give WoW in general a 10 in any era, the post had nothing to do with the actual "score" of the Shadowlands, it was about people baselessly bombing it (which is what 100% objectively happened, you can pretend it's not all you want), and how childish that is. If literally all those people had given the expansion a 2 or so there wouldn't be any issue, but they, as you apparently, can't really make themselves calm down and stop their INFINITE hate for a game they play for 5 minutes to actually think what an appropriate score might be.

10 can be a valid score as can a 0 be (Why else score it from 0 to 10 if 0 isn't supposed to be valid?). A 10 would imply perfection, flawless. In every aspect. Worth the money more than any other game in the same genre that wouldn't have that same score by the reviewer.

To get more on point with the post and the context of this game, there are a lot of 10's done "because other reviewers give it a 0 and I think the average score is too low so I'm going to give it a bump with my score of 10 even if I don't believe it deserves it"

It's part of the problem just like reviewbombing it with 0's. That's why it's biased. You show only one side of the problematic review system. A 10 can objectively be a 10, most of the reviewers that voted a 10 for Shadowlands however do it to bump up the average, with a certain percentage (of course I can't give numbers here as I don't have the data) outright stating they do it to raise that average number up.

Okay I'll admit to you, my message to you was crude. I still stand by what I said but I should have elaborated more, in hindsight. I apologize for that.

Edited December 1, 2020 by Yridaa

[Starym 3,800]

8 hours ago, Yridaa said:

10 can be a valid score as can a 0 be (Why else score it from 0 to 10 if 0 isn't supposed to be valid?). A 10 would imply perfection, flawless. In every aspect. Worth the money more than any other game in the same genre that wouldn't have that same score by the reviewer.

To get more on point with the post and the context of this game, there are a lot of 10's done "because other reviewers give it a 0 and I think the average score is too low so I'm going to give it a bump with my score of 10 even if I don't believe it deserves it"

It's part of the problem just like reviewbombing it with 0's. That's why it's biased. You show only one side of the problematic review system. A 10 can objectively be a 10, most of the reviewers that voted a 10 for Shadowlands however do it to bump up the average, with a certain percentage (of course I can't give numbers here as I don't have the data) outright stating they do it to raise that average number up.

Okay I'll admit to you, my message to you was crude. I still stand by what I said but I should have elaborated more, in hindsight. I apologize for that.

First off, NP man, it happens. To me the only relevant factor in judging if a person is worth the conversation and not just a fanboy/hater is their reply after a deeper conversation - aka if they'll just double down on the insults and ignore any actual discussion, or if they'll try to at least understand what's being talked about/bring across their opinions more clearly. So you, sir, are definitely worth the conversation ?

In terms of the actual subject, yea see, that's a valid argument with people throwing 10s out as well. They're defending the expansion by giving it 10s.

But let's look at it from that perspective then, cos it's an interesting one. So we do know 100% that the 0es are unfounded and just hate reviews (we could make an exception for those that literally couldn't play the game due to queues, server issues etc, those would be legitimate 0es, but those people also fully know the issues will only last  a few days max). We don't actually know 100% whether ALL the 10s are just a reaction to the 0es, aka people "fighting back", but it's very likely many of them are. Also, without the childish  hate-filled 0es, there never would be the overly defensive "i'm just trying to justify the time I sent in the game so it CAN'T be bad" 10s.

So to circle back to my original point, as well as the point of the article, the 0es aka "bombs" are the core problem. Without them there wouldn't be over-inflated 10s in response, the game would get an honest review (good or bad) and people could make their choices based on that. Instead these rage-filled babies just go there and shit on stuff (not just for WoW, people do this for the dumbest crap reasons of all time), and the site is basically useless. Which, i guess who cares, but it's just very indicative of the general World problems right now :d

[Yridaa 490]

11 hours ago, Starym said:

First off, NP man, it happens. To me the only relevant factor in judging if a person is worth the conversation and not just a fanboy/hater is their reply after a deeper conversation - aka if they'll just double down on the insults and ignore any actual discussion, or if they'll try to at least understand what's being talked about/bring across their opinions more clearly. So you, sir, are definitely worth the conversation ?

In terms of the actual subject, yea see, that's a valid argument with people throwing 10s out as well. They're defending the expansion by giving it 10s.

But let's look at it from that perspective then, cos it's an interesting one. So we do know 100% that the 0es are unfounded and just hate reviews (we could make an exception for those that literally couldn't play the game due to queues, server issues etc, those would be legitimate 0es, but those people also fully know the issues will only last  a few days max). We don't actually know 100% whether ALL the 10s are just a reaction to the 0es, aka people "fighting back", but it's very likely many of them are. Also, without the childish  hate-filled 0es, there never would be the overly defensive "i'm just trying to justify the time I sent in the game so it CAN'T be bad" 10s.

So to circle back to my original point, as well as the point of the article, the 0es aka "bombs" are the core problem. Without them there wouldn't be over-inflated 10s in response, the game would get an honest review (good or bad) and people could make their choices based on that. Instead these rage-filled babies just go there and *filtered* on stuff (not just for WoW, people do this for the dumbest crap reasons of all time), and the site is basically useless. Which, i guess who cares, but it's just very indicative of the general World problems right now :d

I definitely agree with that part. It's the other part of the coin of having just reviews by the general public or a well known news/review source. Review sources tend to be more objective and know that if they doll out a very low rating just out of frustration while at its core a game can be good, will affect their company's reputation. The other side of that is that some of them get free products or other incentives to give a favorable review. Or sometimes that reviewer still is a fanboy "I love Bungie so I'll give them an 8 for this game/expansion but they better do better next time!". But at least that reviewer isn't throwing a number at one end of the spectrum.

Public reviews... Nobody remembers any of the people that give a 0 or a 10. I think this is what Steam tried to alleviate a bit with their "Curator" system, but that's also faulty with meme curators such as "nepnep!" positive review on every single game just to get more exposure as a curator or "My name is Commander Shepard and this is my favorite game on the Citadel!".

No matter how a review system like this is, if there are no consequences attached to it, it'll be exploited by the majority at the detriment of statistical value.

[hahaha 0]

On 11/30/2020 at 11:56 PM, Starym said:

See a 10 is actually a valid score cos it CAN be a 10 OBJECTIVELY. It, however, CANNOT be a 0, since the game actually works, has features and content.

Thats just setting the goalposts where you want it and calling it a win. A 0 can be a 0 for any reason the poster believes, a 10 can be a 10 for any reason as well. I, you, anyone else dont get a say in that. You want a 0 to only be for broken and unplayable games? Cool, thats your prerogative, but you dont have the authority to define that for everyone else. The site doesnt give guidelines for what makes a rating worthy of being what it is. You can debate how much you agree with the score or why it was given the score till youre blue in the face, but it never invalidates them.