Forums → Games → How to rate a game correctly
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I've spent a lot of time playing games on AG, and to put it bluntly, most games I encounter have ratings wildly out of proportion to their actual quality. In a few cases a game is rated too low, but usually it's the opposite: people appear to rate games based on what other people have rated them, nearly as much as their own opinion -- or they simply don't want to give any game a "bad" rating.
Here are some general thoughts and pointers:
1. A game author may not like getting a low rating, but it's important to rate games accurately -- for two reasons. First, so other players know what to expect; second, so the author knows if they need to try harder in order to produce a good game.
2. Other people's opinions are not yours. All a 9.5 rating means, is that the game has a 9.5 rating; don't be afraid to rate a game a 6 or 5 just because everyone else didn't.
3. Every rating number has its own meaning - the entire spectrum, from 1 to 10, should be used when appropriate.
4. Most games should get between 4 and 7 in ratings -- 1-3 should be reserved for spectacular failures, and 8-9 should be used sparingly.
5. You should never rate a game a 10 unless you've thought about it pretty hard, first - if the "10" rating is to have any meaning, it should be extremely uncommon; I don't think I've ever given a 10; I've given a couple 9.5s, but there are always flaws.
6. Once in a while, a game is simply so creative you want to give it credit for being so original; I suggest rating it like usual, and then adding no more than 1 to the resulting rating... even creativity needs to be balanced by discipline and skill.
Anyway, to help people give better ratings, I've provided a number-by-number breakdown of possible ratings and when they should be used:
1 - AWFUL: unplayable, impossible to enjoy, or even tolerate; games which are so buggy you can't even play a minute or two might qualify, too.
2 - Terrible: nobody in their right mind would enjoy it; comparable to watching paint dry for sheer entertainment value.
3 - Bad: boring, annoying, repetitive; terribly balanced; severely buggy, etc.
4 - Mediocre: amateurish, tedious, or suffers serious balance issues; you wouldn't say it's out right bad, but you wouldn't say it's anywhere near good.
5 - Average: no crushingly bad flaws, but nothing impressive - a good way to waste time, but nothing more.
6 - Above average: fun, but with flaws; there may be balance issues, bugs, or implementation issues of a good idea. This should be the highest rating a game gets if it has even one serious complaint.
7 - Good: no serious complaints or bugs; above-average enjoyability, or an unusually creative game concept.
8 - Great: a great idea, with good implementation; there may be minor issues, but nothing that would stop a reasonable player from having a great time.
9 - Amazing: not quite perfect, but a masterpiece. No real issues; the only problems should be extremely slight, or subjective (matters of opinion).
10 - Perfect: flawless; absolutely no complaints whatsoever, and game play slightly more addictive than crack.
- 88 Replies
nice..its the only well-written and clear instructions ive seen in a while online..and ilike how u wrote its slightly more addictive than crack xD
I have given 4 games a 10/10. These are the games I rated a 10/10 with comments included:
Faster Miter Master:
There is no comment of mine that shows why the game deserves the rating.
Treadmillasurus Rex:
I actually have 2 comments to show for this one. Here's the first one:
I played this game three times and almost scored 70,000 in one of them, which put me 2nd today and 6th this week. I like how each game is different because the Wheel of Awesome is random. I also noticed what causes spins. I found out that every three spike balls that reach the left side causes a spin. So, faster spike balls make spins happen more frequently. In my best game, I maxed out the party. I realized I did so when I spun a +1 Party with no effect. I also like the game's music, both intro and in-game. The intro music starts when the Armor Games animation begins and cycles every 24 seconds. The in-game music sounds like it has two parts and sounds techno. The dinosaur in the main menu alternates between hat and no hat. I also found something contradictory about the dinosaur's speed. One of the random facts says, "The T-Rex is built to run moderately at about 11 mph," yet the dinosaur in the game can run over 20 mph. I simply noticed it, and it is probably the best speed to balance the game. Speaking of game balance, the game is appropriately easy to begin with, but gets more challenging as the game goes on. This game is as close to perfect as I have ever seen because it has great music, great game balance, and it has a very interesting game concept. I would love to see a sequel to this game that also has great music and game balance. As for how good I am at this game, the average score is a little over 20,000. I am generally above average at this game, but I have my slumps, such as the 2nd game I played, which earned a score of only 11,912. Of the three games I played, my average is a little less than twice the average of all players who submit their scores. This comment was so long that it took me 20 minutes to write it.
Here's the second one, which mentions the way high scores work:
I wish that there was a way to reset submitted scores, because my best score is almost 70,000 and I can't seem to beat it. This keeps me from seeing how well I'm doing daily and weekly. I also wonder why John shows up as jmtb02 when showing him as the programmer.
Elephant Quest:
This was the game that got me to join Armor Games. It also contains my first comment ever with my account. This is the comment:
This is the best elephant game ever! The game has a lot of replay value, but it has too much focus on side quests and not enough on the search for Wooly, which is the main quest.
Hedgehog Launch 2:
This is the comment I made on this game, which was really more of a response to SupaLegit's comment right before mine:
There is a story reason for upside-down launches. In the first letter, the World Council has restricted the airspace of Minovia Cay. However, Minovia Cay prepared by drilling a hole in the Earth that would launch through the Earth and come out of Nebraska.
This is SupaLegit's comment:
It is a neat game. In the beginning, in the underground area or what ever it was that was upside down, I got dizzy. However, it is a great addition to the first, which i also enjoyed. Remarkable job John!
hope everyone sees this im not saying this because everyone else is i truly think it is very informative
There's no way to correctly rate a game. but this gets everybody on the same page which is huge!
agree, but many people rate games only the first saw it, they do not play until the end, so I think people better rate the game after they play it long rather than just playing for a while. if it good game and you enjoyed it then rate it high, if you don't even want to open that game anymore then rate it low.
I don't see why we can't change our ratings. Sometimes the developers make updates on games and make them better, or you just learn something good about a game even if at first is wasn't a good game to you.
I don't see why we can't change our ratings. Sometimes the developers make updates on games and make them better, or you just learn something good about a game even if at first is wasn't a good game to you.
Well that just means you have to think long and hard about a game before you rate it, and don't just rate a game after the first five minutes to play it.
I think it's a little arrogant to say that this is the "correct" way to rate a game. This is just your opinion.
Seeing as you've never given a game a 10, it sounds to me like you are a very harsh rater and shouldn't hold everyone else to your standards. Maybe you're rating Flash games according to console standards instead of Flash game standards.
I would hardly count low ratings as constructive criticism. Feedback is what helps developers. Low ratings can hurt them. Higher ratings are not only encouragement to make more games but they also can indicate to sponsors that their games are worth more. A high rating doesn't cost a player anything but can make money for developers. Of course I'm not saying to just rate high all the time, but you seem to have missed this point in your assessment of "correct" ratings. It's worth considering not only the quality of the game but how much you like the developer and how nice you wanna be.
I think it's a little arrogant to say that this is the "correct" way to rate a game. This is just your opinion.
^This.
Need I say more?
but there are always flaws.
Just because it has flaws doesn't mean the player cares about them enough to rate it less than 10. I gave Raze a 10. It has it's flaws, but I like the game too much to care about them because they're also small flaws; like it lagging some when you have 10 characters on screen at one time.
I'm with Turtleman1234 on that one. Seems that just because a game isn't perfect, it doesn't deserve a 10 or even a 9. Same as Tm1234, I rated Sonny 2 a 10, even though it has a major bug and a couple of minor issues. I honestly think that rating is subjective to the person. If AR wanted us to rate according to a scale, they would have given it to us.
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