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The Power of the Meta

Is it wrong to be a little bit uneasy about the use of Metacritic as part of the criteria with which to cleanse Xbox Live?

I love Metacritic. Really, when you want to read about a game, where else can you go to find five, ten, 15 articles on that game, all offering an evaluation and some insight into what it has to offer? I mean, Wikipedia, maybe, but not for obscure games that nobody knows about. So please, don’t misunderstand.

The problem I have is this: When you see rumblings, you see message board postings, you see off-handed comments on websites, but you can ignore those. It’s no secret that there’s an uncomfortable relationship between those assigned to promote video games and those assigned to review them. Sometimes, PR will go to great lengths to convince the critic that a game is worthwhile, offering swag, big packs of press releases espousing the virtues of the game, and even the occasional big exclusive to a big outlet (see: the hubbub over IGN’s exclusive GTA IV review). Why do PR companies care so much what the critics think?

Because Metacritic numbers matter. Apparently.

Gyruss, a personal favorite, is at risk for the axe.

The rumblings (and if these rumblings have been confirmed somewhere and I don’t know about it, please tell me) are that PR people get bonuses if the Metacritic numbers stay at a certain level. If this is the case, it’s not entirely fair that a PR person should be responsible for the review scores of a product that they had no part in creating, but it certainly explains why the packages we get when we get games tend to be bigger than the size of, well, games.

Microsoft made an announcement yesterday that confirms the sheer presence that Metacritic currently holds in the industry. Microsoft is cleaning Xbox Live Arcade, removing the chaff from it, the things that nobody’s downloading, the things that were ridiculed when they came out and simply never took off. The criteria for removing those games from the service? A title must be six months old, it must have a 6% or less conversion rate (that is, less than 6% of those who downloaded it as a demo purchased the full version), and it must score below 65 on Metacritic.

Perhaps it’s benign, perhaps it’s just numbers and I shouldn’t make a big deal about it, but what Metacritic doesn’t reflect is the “cult classic”, Metacritic doesn’t take into account personal preference, Metacritic doesn’t take into account those games dismissed by the masses that, against all odds, develop a small, devoted, loyal following. Metacritic is a series of numbers that adds up to one number, a number that allows for no subtlety, for no understanding of how people really feel about it. Sometimes the most interesting games are the most polarizing, and you can’t express polarizing in a number. And Microsoft has legitimized that number, by allowing the criteria for their Xbox Live Arcade cleaning algorithm to include it.

And, hell, where else am I going to get Triggerheart Exelica?

—Mike Schiller

Triggerheart Exelica - Stage 4 (Hell yeah!)

12:00 am | Permalink | Comments (5)

Tagged as: criticism | metacritic | microsoft | pr | xbox live arcade

Actually, for games, gamerankings.com is probably the most expansive meta-review source; I don’t think metacritic comes close.

Comment by kilovh from USA — May 23, 2008 @ 4:11 pm

Sure, you’re right, Metacritic isn’t the be all and end all—but isn’t that why Microsoft also chose to include the other criteria for the content’s deletion? Overall, I think Metacritic is a valid piece of the puzzle to determining a game’s worth, to be used along with other indicators.

Comment by Ed Borden from NJ — May 23, 2008 @ 5:30 pm

kilovh: You’re right, I was remiss in not mentioning GameRankings, where I do often go for a Metacritic-like experience; Metacritic is the first one I usually think of, though, since I go just as often for music/movie criticism.

Ed: The presence of other indicators does soften the reliance on Metacritic, but when the other indicators are simple age (which has nothing to do with quality) and conversion rate (which may reflect poorly on a game for which the majority of those interested simply pay to download the whole thing to start with), Metacritic still seems like the component with the most weight. Perhaps my understanding of “conversion rate” is wrong, but my issue, more than anything, is allowing the sort of power that keeps games in print (or not) to be wielded by a number.

That said, I appreciate that Microsoft is a business, and they need to use *some* criteria; perhaps I would have been more comfortable if they had provided less information as to what exactly that criteria is.

Thanks, both, for the comments.

Comment by Mike Schiller — May 26, 2008 @ 7:59 am

Yeah, I’d find it hard to think Microsoft collectively could make some decision about these games without using “numbers”, you know? There’s got to be some kind of scientific criteria to back up against, and I’d think the conversion rate is probably a bigger factor than Metacritic. I mean, a 65 on metacritic really isn’t a great game… so that almost seems pretty broad to me.

As far as conversion rate, you bring up the point that some games could have just had a lot of people downloading the full version straight out. That’s fine - according to your article, it’s the percentage of people who ARE downloading the demo’s they are looking at. Even if it’s a small portion of the number of people who just downloaded the whole thing, the statistics are still relevant to the whole group. The game just isn’t highly appealing.

I wonder, do you have any ideas of games that got dumped that you disagree with?

Comment by Ed Borden from NJ — May 27, 2008 @ 1:22 pm

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why Microsoft also chose to include the other criteria for the content�s deletion?

Comment by Toronto Lofts from Toronto — June 5, 2008 @ 8:04 pm

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