10/10 Is Bullshit

Little disclaimer before I start this post that I've not played MGS5 yet and I'm actually super excited for it.  I'm not about to rag on MGS5 or any other game that has been awarded a 10 by any outlet but I'm ragging on the idea of giving a game, or anything for that matter, a "perfect" score.

So MGS5 came out recently to massive amounts of people singing its praises and a number of 10/10 scores from various gaming websites.  This is fine, because I know that MGS5 is going to be a really good game because Kojima is one of those few names you can trust to produce something of quality.  No matter what your opinion on the story might be, almost every Metal Gear game has been an absolute blast to play.  That said, giving it 10/10, or any game, seems like a bit much and feels like your trying to pander to the fandom rather than genuinely comment on the quality of the game.

I'm pretty sure I've said this in previous blog posts but as a concept numbered reviews are fantastically fucking stupid.  Trying to quantify a complex opinion on something down to a simple number is stupid and if you're the kind of person looking at nothing but the number to get a quick idea then you probably aren't making an informed purchase and you're likely to get burned.

The dreaded 10/10 is something that not really pisses me off but makes me roll my eyes in frustration.  10/10, to me, means that the game is perfect.  If a games writer (lol) gives a game a perfect score then they are making the claim that the game has absolutely no problems in any area.  This is bullshit because almost every game has something wrong with it in some way.  This isn't the fault of the developers, its just the nature of the beast when you have so much shit going on. 

Let's take a look at one game that I really love that got a few 10/10s

Do I agree that this game is fucking amazing?  Hell yeah I do, this is one of my favorite games on the PS2, but do I agree that it's perfect?  Fuck NO

SotC has its issues.  Getting lost in the over world can be a death sentence on your time the first time you play the game, some of the colossus feel a bit shit (that bull thing comes to mind) and scouring the map for lizards is one of the most painfully stupid things in any game ever.  However despite all that SotC delivers one of the most memorable experiences in all of gaming but it's still not perfect.

I suppose if you wanted to insist on shoving numbers on your review then at least split the numbers into categories and give the game a score out of 40 or 50 (which is what I think famitsu and a few other websites do).  I'd be less frustrated if you were to say something like "yeah, the story was perfect but the FPS dropped to 20 in high action and that kinda sucked" and then scored it appropriately.  You're still putting your opinion into a number which is dumb but it's less dumb than just having one big fat 10 at the bottom of the page.

Still, it's whatever, it's not like I pay attention to these scores anyway, it just feels like giving big AAA titles 10s is stupid pandering rather than good reviewing. 

Stop it and Grow Up

Twitter is cool, I don't use it but I can see why people like it so much.  It's a good way to have a direct line to certain people and have a platform to send them short messages or questions and it kind of brings people together.  That said, it's also a place for a lot of needless internet drama and despite it being really funny when it happens, it kind of needs to stop.

The above picture was a tweet made by Halo designer David Ellis commenting on a redesign of a Metal Gear Solid 5 character, here is what they came up with.

Now this isn't an issue about sexism or anything like that because I'm sure there are tons of morons already arguing about that shit, I have a problem with Mr Ellis's tweets regarding this design.

As far as I know, Kojima changed the design of this character to be "more erotic" to promote cosplaying.  Kojima isn't an idiot, he knows who he is designing this game for and that demographic like skimpy outfits on females.  He also knows that there are a large amount of female cosplayers in Japan who will jump at the opportunity to recreate this outfit so really he's just pleasing two fairly large groups of people.

Now you can criticise it all you want and no doubt there is definitely stuff to criticise with this design no matter how much I quite like it personally but calling Kojima a "man baby" on twitter is unprofessional, stupid and it kind of shows that you have no idea what you're talking about so you resort to petty insults because you feel like this should offend you for some stupid reason.

(As a side note, I don't think the man who's involved in making generic robot soldiers really has the right to be commenting on anything, get a clue)

David Ellis isn't the only person guilty of doing this shit though.  Phil Fish, a man who I have ranted about before was notorious for just insulting people on twitter and generally starting web drama because of his lack of tact and professionalism.  So you may be thinking "But Tau! You insult industry figures on your blog all the time!" and you would be completely right.  However the difference between me and them is that I'm a fucking nobody on Blogger writing for a small audience of people and I have absolutely no power in anything.  These people are industry leaders who should be setting a fucking example and going around twitter insulting people is not the example you should be setting. 

If it ever came to a point where I started having some kind of serious impact on anything, I would damn well make sure that I wasn't spouting the same rage filled nonsense that I do here.  If I was doing posts on let say, Tom Hulett for a proper website, they would be well constructed and thought out pieces on why his decisions are bad for the Silent Hill series.  Instead I can just down a bunch of caffeine drinks and smash my keyboard so that swear words appear around his name on the screen, but in this day an age I'm sure that would acceptable in a "professional" environment as well.

So basically, get a fucking clue and stop bringing school yard insults to twitter if your trying to criticise other professionals in your field.  It's childish, stupid and it sets a bad example and sends the wrong message.

Grow up and stop pretending to be offended by things for the sake of seeming "progressive" to morons on the internet.