If you really loved this game and want a sequel get inside

[Forlorn Hope]

Writing a 10/10 BEST GAME EVAH review after clearing the starter dungeon is kinda lame IMO. I may write one, but not before I've reached the end at least once.

Yes that is lame but you can write your first impressions after having played 10 hours or so and acknowledge this in your review. As others have already mentioned, people are reading reviews now and if we want to help PE sell it's now or never, in my opinion. 10/10 BEST GAME EVAH reviews can be lame but they are nothing compared to 0/10 WORST GAME EVAH reviews, especially when obviously this is not the case (however best game evah might not be too far from the truth).

[ruzen]

sorry but who cares about MetaCrit

 

**This post reminds me IgNs "review" calling: outdated art stye. I said It again -months ago- and sayn' again in quick summary,

  Art Cant Be Improved! It is not technology!

Edited March 27, 2015 by ruzen

[Forlorn Hope]

sorry but who cares about MetaCrit

Apparently, many people care. Go ask Obsidian. Or maybe don't.

[Zwiebelchen]

Here I found a link that shows the relationship between metascore and steams' sales and it looks like the relation is exponential with a lot of noise:

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/steam-gauge-do-strong-reviews-lead-to-stronger-sales-on-steam/

 

Furthermore having a 90 is pretty much a guarantee for around 800000 copies sold and usually many more.

 

Dude, do you know what "Variance" means in statistics? Basicly, this chart shows that there is literally no relation between metacritic scores and sales.

[barakav]

 

Here I found a link that shows the relationship between metascore and steams' sales and it looks like the relation is exponential with a lot of noise:

 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/04/steam-gauge-do-strong-reviews-lead-to-stronger-sales-on-steam/

 

Furthermore having a 90 is pretty much a guarantee for around 800000 copies sold and usually many more.

 

Dude, do you know what "Variance" means in statistics? Basicly, this chart shows that there is literally no relation between metacritic scores and sales.

 

Well ,after 2 degrees in physics I know the meaning of standard deviation very well...

 

I happen to have worked in a biology lab for a while back and it was very common to see a chart like that (yes even on a logarithmic scale) and yet I could show that there was probably a trend.

 

The fact that that the distribution can be very wide doesn't mean that its' metascore doesn't affect it at all but that there are other factors that  can influence the game sells at the same degree.

 

Furthermore ,if you look closely you will see that when you are entering the 90+ region it seems like the variance becomes smaller

,which probably means that when the reviews are great ,people tend to buy the game even if other factors they are usually buy games for aren't present.

Edited March 27, 2015 by barakav

[Zwiebelchen]

 

Furthermore ,if you look closely you will see that when you are entering the 90+ region it seems like the variance becomes smaller

,which probably means that when the reviews are great ,people tend to buy the game even if other factors they are usually buy games for aren't present.

 

 

This is a bold assumption. Have you considered that a metacritic score of 90 or more means that it is a generally good game?

 

I just fail to see how metacritic should affect anything. Metacritic scores high points on good games. It's no surprise good games sell well? If a game is rated 85 or lower, it's mostly for niché audiences so it's no surprise those games sell less, simply because there will be more people that score it low based on their genre-prejudice.

 

Basicly, sales affect metacritic scores, not the other way round.

 

 

Also: it's a logarithmic scale. Even at a metacritic score of 95, sold copies can vary between 200.000 and over 10 millions! This is a factor 50. Just because the variance is even larger on lower scores doesn't mean there's any perceivable correlation to be seen here (other than: good games will sell well and receive good scores).

 

There's even a game with a 65 rating that sold almost 10 million copies there...

Edited March 27, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[barakav]

You might be right but steam is showing the games' metascore in the games' selling page so people see it right before they are deciding to buy the game. (and I think that amazon does it too)

 

And there are many players  who love a game ,and are searching for similar games or games from the same developer and read about them in metacritic or in wikipedia.

 

For example ,this is how I discovered Jade empire...

Edited March 27, 2015 by barakav

[Zwiebelchen]

The metascore might matter for a 10$ indie game, but for anything above 40$, I'd say people usually read some reviews before clicking purchase.

Edited March 27, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[barakav]

Also: it's a logarithmic scale. Even at a metacritic score of 95, sold copies can vary between 200.000 and over 10 millions! This is a factor 50. Just because the variance is even larger on lower scores doesn't mean there's any perceivable correlation to be seen here (other than: good games will sell well and receive good scores).

 

There's even a game with a 65 rating that sold almost 10 million copies there...

 

Look at the graph for the minimum amount of sales. ****ty games with 90+ scores sold more than 50000 copies ,****ty games with less than 90 sold around a thousand . This is more than a 50 fold difference! probably because of an hype factor (ahm ahm Evolve ahm)

 

 

The metascore might matter for a 10$ indie game, but for anything above 40$, I'd say people usually read some reviews before clicking purchase.

So price is one of the other factors that makes the distribution so wide.

Edited March 27, 2015 by barakav

[Zwiebelchen]

 

Look at the graph for the minimum amount of sales. ****ty games with 90+ scores sold more than 50000 copies ,****ty games with less than 90 sold around a thousand . This is more than a 50 fold difference! probably because of an hype factor (ahm ahm Evolve ahm)

 

I'd say that a game that scores a 90+ score on metacritic can't be that ****ty. You are essentially what is the problem with metacritic: haters and fanboys posting extreme ratings like 10/10 or 0/10 even though the game was actually somewhere inbetween.

[Moirnelithe]

If people have a limited amount of money to spend, what do you think they would buy at release, the 92 score game or the 80 one? The score does influence sales, like it or not. And we can influence the score. Signing up is free, it doesn't hurt to write a review.

[kat7ra]

How can I review the game when  haven't played more than a 3-4 hours yet!
Those people who instantly gave the game a 9 or 10 with cero hours of play, or one hour of play are being just as silly as those who gave the game a 1 after the same amount of play.

you don't rate stuff based on your own bias, or your own wishes, it's bad and it makes the "score" useless.

 

I will rate the game when I've PLAYED it enough to give my 10c, not before.

[Moirnelithe]

How can I review the game when  haven't played more than a 3-4 hours yet!

Those people who instantly gave the game a 9 or 10 with cero hours of play, or one hour of play are being just as silly as those who gave the game a 1 after the same amount of play.

you don't rate stuff based on your own bias, or your own wishes, it's bad and it makes the "score" useless.

 

I will rate the game when I've PLAYED it enough to give my 10c, not before.

That's up to you, I've played it for 8+ hours so far and I love the game, there's a good chance I will continue to love the game the longer I play. Same as with DA:I which I didn't enjoy all that much and I continued to not enjoy all that much until the ending. Should this change I will change the score (that's possible afaik). 

[Forlorn Hope]

How can I review the game when  haven't played more than a 3-4 hours yet!

Those people who instantly gave the game a 9 or 10 with cero hours of play, or one hour of play are being just as silly as those who gave the game a 1 after the same amount of play.

you don't rate stuff based on your own bias, or your own wishes, it's bad and it makes the "score" useless.

 

I will rate the game when I've PLAYED it enough to give my 10c, not before.

Well the game has been out since yesterday and many people have played it for over 10 hours already so it's not unreasonable to write a review and acknowledge this in the review. And yes, you can change the score later.

[barakav]

 

 

Look at the graph for the minimum amount of sales. ****ty games with 90+ scores sold more than 50000 copies ,****ty games with less than 90 sold around a thousand . This is more than a 50 fold difference! probably because of an hype factor (ahm ahm Evolve ahm)

 

I'd say that a game that scores a 90+ score on metacritic can't be that ****ty. You are essentially what is the problem with metacritic: haters and fanboys posting extreme ratings like 10/10 or 0/10 even though the game was actually somewhere inbetween.

 

Again ,Evolve is a good example.The game might be fun for a few hours but thats it ,and yet it sold well in the beginning thanks to the hype and the great reviews he got probably after the reviewers played the game for maybe an hour or two.

 

When it was released it had some great ''professional'' reviews of 9s and 10s but after a day users who played the game for more than few hours posted metascores of around 4 mainly thanks to its' short lifespan.

 

This is an example of a ****ty game that got great reviews in metacritic and sold well only because of that. And this is also an example of a game that encourage many players to check the user scores of games they are interested in as well.

Edited March 27, 2015 by barakav

[barakav]

Our score has nearly topped 90 and I want it to increase above that so those who haven't done it yet and want Obsidian to succeed join the site and give this game a good score.

 

And here is the reason why Metacritic does matter and how Obsidian lost a big bonus from Bethesda just because their Metascore for F:NV wasn't 85 or more :

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/03/why-linking-developer-bonuses-to-metacritic-scores-should-come-to-an-end/

 

Higher user score might help Obsidian to get more developing contracts in the future.

Edited March 28, 2015 by barakav

[valmont]

Video game journalism is becoming more and more irrelevant, even sites like Kotaku are trying to remain relevant by removing review scores.

 

The streamer/YouTuber generation are far far more influential these days, which is why so much PR has revolved around that with GOG getting people like TotalBiscuit to stream it.

[Mungri]

Yes youtube and streamers are much better resources for game reviews than written review sites. We've had blatant cases of publishers bribing review sites for good scores (cough EA, sneeze DA2).

[barakav]

I won't be surprised if Bethesda bribed a critic site so they won't have to pay Obsidian the bonus for F:NV...

 

Usually it takes a while for video reviews to kick in though especially with games that aren't AAA  titles like this one.

[Darth Trethon]

PoE is absolutely great but what I'd love even more would be if they could obtain the IP for Planescape and do a full on sequel to Planescape Torment. A game that works the way the upcoming Torment: Tides of Numenera will work where combat is a fairly rare and even then often optional where everything is all about the story and the lore and deep philosophical and psychological topics.....THAT would be the absolute best thing ever.

[Darkeus]

The problem with Metacritc and the User Reviews is that you have the silly practice of people rating things a zero, which is just stupid. There are not many Zero games out there at all.

And to counteract that, the people who like the game give it Nines and Tens. Nothing is a ten.... PoE is close but not a ten. It damn sure is not a zero either.

But the point is, the user scores become worthless because nobody scores objectively. It is just tens and zeroes mostly. An average that is not....

[ToveriJuri]

As much as people would like to say that traditional reviews are becoming irrelevant, they are wrong. The people with the money, the publishers and so on, still care what traditional reviews scores are.

 

I don't personally care about reviews. I think Metacritic's system is the worst offender and don't use it. But I do want this game to be successful there. Maybe it's the whole Kickstarter thing.

[barakav]

As I already posted ,metacritic is a useful site if you are searching for new games in the genres you like and you want to have a general idea about the quality of the game.

 

There are many great games that haven't been developed by big and famous companies so there is not a lot of information about them elsewhere including youtube lets play and video reviews.

Edited March 28, 2015 by barakav

[ioerror]

I would love a sequel and I hope after Pillars of Eternity that Obsidian realizes just how much fans want more games like this one and the old Infinity Engine games.

[Torhal]

I would love a sequel and I hope after Pillars of Eternity that Obsidian realizes just how much fans want more games like this one and the old Infinity Engine games.

 

Well, they are releasing an expansion according to the fact that I already paid for it over a year ago. :D