So, after an unexpected vacation, work continues. Sort of. A common request was for the ability to compare an outlet internally against itself to see how it reviews games on different platforms. I’m still working on a dynamic means to do this, and one which will fit a smooth curve to the data points. But in the meantime I took the Gamespot data and did the necessary database query for PS2, ‘Cube, Xbox, and PC and slapped them together manually into this animated GIF.

Is Gamespot “BIAS”, as the kids who haven’t learned the adjectivial form of the root word like to say? That you’ll have to decide for yourself. I can tell you the 23 scores in there that have my name attached to them are individually the one true score for each game they were given to.

But check out the weird distribution on Gamecube scores. The most common score is 6.5, with 19 games scoring 6.5. But, the next most common review score is a tie between 8.0 and 7.2, with 18 games scoring thusly. There’s no clear tip of the curve, but one thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot fewer datapoints for Gamecube, with only 442 reviews compared. The average score per platform comes out to be almost the same— in between 6.9 and 7.0— except for PC, where it’s a lot more profitable to publish crappy budgetware.

Another weird thing you might notice is how certain scores tend to not be represented in the expected curve. In particular notice how no matter which console platform you look at, it seems particularly difficult to score a 7.7 or a 7.8. There’s a noticeable dip at 7.4 too. PC seems more immune to that phenomenon. Like I said, weird.

Anyway, have fun comparing and contrasting each and every point on the scale, to prove whatever point you think needs making.

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