The Tale of the Missing 9.0 at OS (and other review musings) - RaychelSnr's Blog

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The Tale of the Missing 9.0 at OS (and other review musings) Stuck

Posted on October 12, 2011 at 01:11 PM.

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The NBA 2K12 review raised some eyebrows here at OS. Under the new scoring scale, no game has achieved a 9.0.

In fact even under the evolving process of moving from the old scale to the new one no game has achieved a 9.0 in that past 13 months or so.

And interestingly enough, people are beginning to ask if a 9.0 is even possible at OS anymore. Whereas many sites hand out 9.0s like they have no real meaning -- for the new scoring scale to work, 9.0s will be exceedingly rare here at OS as long as "your's truly" is in charge and sports gaming continues along it's current path.

A 9.0 on our new scoring scale basically means a game has no part of it which is a weak point. All of the major modes work and work well, the gameplay is great, the presentation is great, and any flaws are incredibly minor.

With a careful survey of NBA 2K12, you'll see it doesn't meet those criteria. The online play has been a mess and My Player and Association have some serious problems. The gameplay and Presentation are incredibly good, but those two things alone don't make a game completely a classic. Yes, 2K12 will be talked about for a long time to come -- but it still has notable shortcomings and only the most ardent rose-tinted 2K12 glasses wearers will refuse to admit that simple fact.

A lot of you guys are used to the typical college paper grading scale where 9.0s or 90s mean the game is A quality, 8.0s mean the game is a B, etc. Here at OS, we made a conscious effort to basically move away from that thought process and to grade games on a full 10 point scale. If you see a score here at OS and think, "Oh a B, well then..." -- you simply don't grasp the scale. It won't be easy and it will take some time, but I think the new scale will really prove itself with time.

Any game getting an 8.0 or above on our new scale here at OS is a GREAT game. It simply isn't a 9 because there are some serious flaws within the game holding it back from being in the category we described above. 8.0s are worthy of the price of admission almost always -- and really should be celebrated as great works here at OS. If you really want to put an equivalency to it, a 8 to 8.5 is probably more equitable to a 9 on most sites which go the college paper route. But to make hard and fast comparisons of each score to a grading level is probably not too fair to the current scale.

Along the same lines of what makes a game great, games scoring in the 7.0s have aspects which may be great -- but areas which are also in need of serious repair. This means a game is likely good but simply not great. The token game for this rating level is Madden this season. The gameplay is something which is close to greatness (if not already there), the Presentation is good but not great, and the Franchise mode has a ton of depth wrapped in a jumbled interface. While no aspect of Madden is incredibly weak -- it also suffers from a lack of aspects which are incredibly strong. I called Madden 'good but not great.' I think that's the token saying of a 7.0 game.

As you work down the scale, the variability in case studies also increases. If we were to talk about what makes a game a 6 versus a 7 on our scale, you have to get into how a game could have good gameplay, decent presentation and horrible online play or how a game could have great presentation, decent gameplay and a great online mode, among countless other potential examples.

Simply put, working your way down to the areas in the middle of the scale really jumbles up the cut and dryness of the ratings. We prefer to make value statements from 4 - 6. For instance, a 6.0 is most likely worth the price of admission for fans of the sport while a 5 (average) is only worth the price of admission if no better options are available. A 4 (below average) is not worth the full price of admission unless a game is heavily discounted from it's full price.

Of course, it's not as cut and dry as that -- but we're trying to at least make the scale worth your attention. That means editorial decisions are more heavy handed in how games are scored. We are always striving to match the wording with our scale and scoring rubric (you should see how extensive the rubric guide is for our writers!).

I think the end result will be over time, the best sports-gaming reviews possible will reside here at OS.

Chris is the Executive Editor at Operation Sports and hosts the OS Radio show. He is a Jesus-Freak, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Stom Chaser, owner of the Tornado Titans Brand, and generally an incredibly busy man. You can follow Chris @ChrisSnr on Twitter.

Comments

# 1 Gramps91 @ Oct 12

Personally I'd still give the game a nine but trade logic problems in My Player and association as well as 2kShare problems are pretty aggravating. So I respect 8.5.

# 2 H to the Oza @ Oct 12

Loving the new system. This is the direction everyone needs to move. No more giving out 9s to broken game that take 3-4 patches to fix. Great job to everyone here at OS

# 3 charter04 @ Oct 12

The problem I have is that a 9 sounds like a 10. To get a 9 seems to be almost impossible so, why can't a 10 be that. If a 9 is as hard as you discribed to get then I would say there are no 10 out of 10 games. A ten would be perfect and there are no perfect games and there never will be. If that is the case then why make the 9 sound like a 10. Why not just say a ten is as good as it gets. It sounds like your scale is the same thing as everyone else just one number lower. I like the review write ups with all the detail but, the accually numbers are very misleading.

# 4 truintellectplaya @ Oct 12

Are u serious did someone just write and proofread a article calling Madden's gameplay close to greatness. LMAO, I respect everyone's right to a opinion but that kinda makes reviews invalid from here to eternity. I understand that people sometimes feel the need to justify things but this is not a good justification. The fact is in your database you have plenty of games rated ahead of NBA 2K12 which have no business being rated above it. It is simple if I was running a company rating basketball players I would never have D Wade rated better than Michael Jordan. That is a tragedy that you have games in your history database rated ahead of 2K12 that have no business being rated ahead of them. Either change your entire database history as far as rankings to compensate for this new system or it's a failure of accuracy. That's all, much respect to this next persons opinion but you don't have to justify things when you are doing things in the correct manner.

# 5 DustinT @ Oct 12

It's nice to know everyone who responds to this reads the blog first!

# 6 Ryn Vintage1986 @ Oct 12

Yup. 8.5 is fine for 2K12, but if you gave Madden a 7.5 and — ahem — NCAA 12 an 8.5, then your review team needs to remove those same collective rose-tinted glasses off.
Madden came out at least decent, but if you saw 2K12 has one point above decent, I'd have to disagree. Conversely, if you viewed NCAA 12 — easily one of the most flawed products to be released to the public by a AAA party — as 2K12's equal, you're just a silly person, or you're looking to work for EA Sports... Oh, wait....
In any case, by all means, grade games with a harsher microscope, but that microscope should remain consistent. So far, it hasn't.

# 7 jaosming @ Oct 12

http://www.operationsports.com/revie...k-baseball-12/

# 8 Bumble14 @ Oct 12

Good to see I'm still being insulted even after leaving--looks like OS hasn't lost it's touch.

# 9 DustinT @ Oct 12

Ryn,

Madden was the official start of the new scale. We've mentioned that multiple times. Also, you can't take trash about developers like that here. /TOS

<3 you Bumble.

# 10 bigsmallwood @ Oct 12

MMChris: I respect your write ups as always, BUT I can't respect nor take the review process seriously, when Madden 11 and Madden 12 have been rated close to NBA 2K11 and NBA 2K12 which are two of the greatest sports games in history. Then to top it off NCAA Football is an 8.5....#head scratcher. I just find it funny that other sports games that are nearing that GREATNESS that is rare air for sports video games get only 8's or 8.5's....yet Madden has been pretty bad this entire Next Gen and yet is consistently praised and given a passing score.

# 11 spottieottiedop @ Oct 12

If OS was to re-rate most of the major sports games in the Xbox 360 & PS3 era using the new ratings system, would there be any game eligible of a 10 ?

# 12 dodgerblue @ Oct 13

Perhaps every game rated prior to the new system should be adjusted for "inflation" or is it "deflation". Deduct a full point (or another number) from the prior ratings?

# 13 Hjkflannel @ Oct 13

My site uses a grade system out of 7, we are going to see how it works. I like the fact it has no mid point but i think these systems will always be translated into the old ten score in our heads, it's like learning a new currency you always translate it to your own.

# 14 sroz39 @ Oct 13

I agree with the sentiment offered by a few guys that if you're going to rate NBA 2K12 an 8.5 based on your new ratings system, then you kind of have to take the next step and re-rate the games already in your database. No new write up or anything but on the old scale, NBA 2K12 would easily breeze into a 9 and may even have a chance at a 9.5. If you're going to make 9 the new 10, then all the old games rated an 8 or an 8.5 are now considered to be better than they ever were by default.

At it's core, I am totally on board with the new ratings system. Truth be told, most sites/mags essentially use a 5 point scale, 6-10, so to use the full spectrum is the right way to go about it. At the same time, I'm conflicted a bit in the sense that I think games like the past two NBA 2K's, the past few Show's and even College Hoops 2K8 were "10's" in the sense that they were the cream of the crop in their respective sports. But with the new ratings system, none of those would achieve a 10 and may even have a difficult time getting a 9. Which is a shame because like someone mentioned, there is no such thing as a perfect game yet many times we play games that are that amazing - sports or otherwise - where we feel a 10 is not over-rating it.

Great write up and really, no wrong answer on either side of the debate. Now if you excuse me, I have to re-position myself a bit on this fence I'm sitting on...

# 15 cmehustle @ Oct 13

Well at least we now understand the new ratings system. Everyone may not agree but I think the whole key of his article is to help everyone to understand it. I really have no problem with either side of the argument here, I have to agree that NCAA and 2k just arent in the same league lol.

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