Daria's Inferno review in Entertainment Weekly

wrote:

I guess she didn't like it, huh?

Jeff M.

Actually, I didn't like it either. The only thing I would find worthwhile on that CD are the soundbytes (Provided there's a way to crack the sound file).

Chris Smith

[email] (JMorris830) writes:

The only thing I can't figure out is how she could write a couple dozen lines about how terrible the thing is and then give it a C-. How do you give an average score to a game you recommend be torched? How bad does a game have to be to get an F from this reviewer? :-)

Aaron

I figure in her line of work she, like any reviewer of ANYTHING, must sort through a great deal of chaff in order to find any wheat.

When you judge things on some sort of graduated scale, you do it by comparing the item to others like it, deeming it as "better" or "worse" than the next one over. "Daria's Inferno" probably rates a "C" because the reviewer has seen many other games that she would consider worse. You can't overuse your most extreme marks or they start to lose their impact.

Here's a movie example: I just saw Jim Carrey's "Me, Myself, and Irene". Now bearing in mind that this is just my opinion, I would rather mow the lawn than sit through this stinker again. So you'd say I'd give this movie an "F", right? Well, now suppose you are in an airplane and HAVE to sit through a movie, and you are given your choice: "Me, Myself and Irene" or the Chevy Chase movie "Nothing But Trouble"? Or maybe "Ishtar" with Dustun Hoffman? Well, given those choices, I'll go with the Carrey movie. But then, I'd have to grade those movies lower than "MMaI", right? So using my experience with movies good and bad for scale, I'd realistically give it a low "C", instead.

Where this process failed you, Aaron, was that you don't have access to the reviewers experience. "Daria's Inferno" may well be the worse video game YOU have ever played, but you don't review games for a living. I assume.

I can't believe I just wrote a dissertation on reviewing processes when I should be getting some real work done. These newsgroup internet things are evil! Evil, I tell you...

Pierce

Profile: Physically unremarkable

[email] (Pierces888) writes:

I haven't played it at all, so I'm not arguing with the review or the score. I just find it odd when I read a review, be it of a game, movie, or something else; and the review is scathing from beginning to end, only to wrap up by giving an average score.

It happens a lot with movies. A reviewer will say something like "I'd rather roll naked in broken glass than see this movie again. 1-1/2 stars (out of 4)." I always think: if this guy ever sees a zero-star movie, how's he going to describe it? Just how skin-peelingly bad does a movie have to be to earn an F? :-)

If I were reviewing something, and decided to give it a just-below-average score (C-minus), I'd go back through the review and make sure I said *something* positive in the text to support giving it that high a score.

Aaron

In article , Aaron Baugher wrote:

"The only thing this film has in common with the original is teenagers in the woods and the phrase "Blair Witch" in the title." :)

Sorry, couldn't resist.