The future of Quarter to Three's message board

Marcus · 2012-01-21T09:08:55.000Z

Clearly the solution is half stars.

RichVR · 2012-01-21T11:45:31.000Z

Or stars and planets.

Intangir · 2012-01-21T13:03:31.000Z

But if you divide the stars up into fourths then you could have the slightly decent quarter-to-three stars rating. Tom’s first qt3 star game could retroactively be Deus Ex.

That actually makes me wonder about something else though; would it be interesting/worthwhile to have a community score (only amongst registered users) rating in addition to the official QT3 review score?

TimElhajj · 2012-01-21T19:24:07.000Z

RichVR:

Or stars and planets.

Pink Hearts, Yellow Moons, Orange Stars, Green Clovers, and new Blue Diamonds!

Volksy · 2012-01-21T20:39:43.000Z

They’re magically delicious!

Titan · 2012-01-21T21:12:16.000Z

Where is the outRAGE? Stars 1-5 need their own forum or something…

Foxstab · 2012-01-22T04:41:15.000Z

Dual Star system.

Gold stars 1-5 : increasing ladder of BLISS.
Rust stars 1-5 : increasing ladder of SUCK.

This way you evade the canonical “no one rate with the lower end” and you also accurately describe the product, sort of.

HahaSoFunny · 2012-01-22T09:37:33.000Z

IMHO it would be best to give ratings that are as much as possible descriptive.

For example, one of the best ways to “rate” a game is probably to compare it to relevant alternatives, which can even be formalized by making scores depend on the relative placement of the game in a genre-specific ordered preference list.

You could then say, precisely, for instance, “I think this RPG is better than 83% of the RPGs released in the last year/of all time that I know of”.

Teiman · 2012-01-22T09:49:13.000Z

Now that I think about it, that image is wrong. Saying a game is a 10/10 is not the same thing whatsoever than saying the game is a 5 stars on the 5 stars system, math be damned.

RichVR · 2012-01-22T14:44:36.000Z

TimElhajj:

Pink Hearts, Yellow Moons, Orange Stars, Green Clovers, and new Blue Diamonds!

Needs something purple. Any suggestions Tim?

Alistair · 2012-01-22T14:51:08.000Z

I suggest one star, which varies in size.

Lynch · 2012-01-23T08:05:42.000Z

I’m still not entirely sure what a 1-5 scale actually means:

1 = 0-60(%); 2 = 70 (%) …
1 = 0 (%); 2 = 25 (%) …
1 = 20 (%); 2 = 40 (%) …
1 = ?

Gremlinclr · 2012-01-23T08:36:48.000Z

Why don’t reviewers just use letter grades? It doesn’t matter of an A starts at 94 or 90, it doesn’t matter if an F starts at 75 or 60. F is a bad game, C is an average game, A is a great game. The end.

Everybody already knows that system because they went to school. That way no more arguments on why some reviewers only use part of the scale or how does a star translate on a hundred point scale. It’s quick and easy and instantly understandable.

IainC · 2012-01-23T08:44:18.000Z

Gremlinclr:

Why don’t reviewers just use letter grades? It doesn’t matter of an A starts at 94 or 90, it doesn’t matter if an F starts at 75 or 60. F is a bad game, C is an average game, A is a great game. The end.

Everybody already knows that system because they went to school. That way no more arguments on why some reviewers only use part of the scale or how does a star translate on a hundred point scale. It’s quick and easy and instantly understandable.

Becauseeverything will get Bs except for games that have a lot of ad spend which will get As and games with no ad spend which will get Es. Nothing changes.

Scotch_Lufkin · 2012-01-23T09:10:36.000Z

IainC:

Becauseeverything will get Bs except for games that have a lot of ad spend which will get As and games with no ad spend which will get Es. Nothing changes.

“Es”?! What kind of school did you go to?

uncle_briggs · 2012-01-23T09:27:09.000Z

RichVR:

Needs something purple. Any suggestions Tim?

Didn’t purple horseshoes follow blue diamonds?

jason · 2012-01-23T09:31:44.000Z

E = Excellent
VG = Very Good
G = Good
A = Average
NI = Needs Improvement

I went to an elementary school that used that system. The idea that getting straight As would mean you were average tickles me.

MattKeil · 2012-01-23T10:16:29.000Z

Gremlinclr:

Why don’t reviewers just use letter grades? It doesn’t matter of an A starts at 94 or 90, it doesn’t matter if an F starts at 75 or 60. F is a bad game, C is an average game, A is a great game. The end.

Because the aggregates would still translate it into a 100 point scale that didn’t accurately reflect what the letter grades were meant to communicate.

Airscrew · 2012-01-23T14:00:23.000Z

Since the theme of the site is things you would stay up late to do, how about rating based on how late you would stay up to do something. Ratings would go from “cup of Horlicks and an early night” to “ten past four”.

SlainteMhath · 2012-01-23T14:09:53.000Z

Let’s just adopt the World of Warcraft item color system for QT3 game ratings. The rating is in the color of the title of the game as printed on the review page.

Standard Black = Poor, vendor trash, don’t waste your time.
White = Common, there is nothing to make this game stand out.
Green = Uncommon, has at least one unique or entertaining aspect to recommend it.
Blue = Rare, has multiple good qualities and should be purchased by everyone.
Purple = Epic, A can’t miss game, you owe it to yourself to play this.
Orange = Legendary, Reserved for games elected to the QT3 Hall of Fame.

Bonus - Imagine publishers trying to adopt this system into retail package marketing. “Rated BLUE by Quarter To Three!”