Every Saturday, I sit drinking decaff* coffee and reading the Guardian** with my wife. Generally, weekends are super busy with three highly sporty daughters – GB trials last week and next! – and there is little opportunity for gaming. Such is family life. I’d give weekends a solid 7 out of 10.
As a university lecturer, 7/10 is 70%, which is a 1st class honours degree. In the US, 7/10 is a pass with 8, 9 and 10 being a C, B and A respectively. In gaming terms a 7 means average. Only 85% or higher on Metacritic gets the PR guys and girls their bonuses! Most people would only consider buying games that got higher again, with elusive 10s being titles I’d often pass nowadays. It seems that scoring is rather relative.
I’m looking at the Guardian Saturday Magazine section, Blind Date, and instantly look at the pictures of the man and woman***, before looking at the score they gave each other. Today (25/1/14) the woman scored the guy 8, with a “No.” to “Would you meet him again?” The man scored her 9, but his “instinct says no.” to romance. What’s funny here is the 8. Maybe she was being kind or, like us with our games, holding out for something better?
Expansive are introducing scores on their reviews. Let’s hope they don’t mean readers skipping the actual review…
* I’ve been denied caffeine by my urologist, for at least three months. Withdrawal is Hell 🙁
** Actually, I flick through the magazine and look at the rather appalling Games page in The Guide, but at least the mag inspired this column 🙂
*** Occasionally it’s two men, but I’ve never seen two women, interestingly.
