Obvious bias in reviews

Have you ever noticed that when just about anything is reviewed, any rated subcategories of the review seem to receive similar scores? There’s a reason for that. It’s called bias.

Video games provide an example of this phenomenon. In all fairness, the subcategories have at least some variety in scores. Even so, when was the last time that you saw a game receive high marks in all but one subcategory? How about low marks in all but one subcategory? Personally, I have encountered numerous games that have some serious strengths and some serious weaknesses.

Let’s just say for a moment that you rate games on a scale of 5 points (based on my solution to one of my mental exercises). Most games that would be worthy of a 5 in graphics are at that level because that was the primary focus of the developer. In an overwhelming majority of these games, gameplay is neglected. Most of those games would probably be worthy of a 1 in gameplay.

What’s happening is that reviewers develop a sense of how much they are supposed to give a game. If they love a game, how can they complain about any component of the game? If they hate a game, how can they love a component of the game? Subcategories are influenced by the overall score.

Of course, scores are based more off of what a reviewer feels that they are supposed to give a game rather than their personal feelings. They might not personally like a game, but they can’t let personal feelings influence the score, can they? They should. Otherwise, they are turning to others to influence their reviews. Influences can include impressions from others and hype surrounding a game or franchise. As a result, just about every review will reflect the same influences. Honest impressions will be hard to come by. Popular franchises will be praised regardless of quality, especially if heavily hyped (remember the silent movie with a weak plot known as Final Fantasy 7?). Unknown games will struggle to gain any support. These are the primary reasons that I view review accuracy as an indication of bias.

This isn’t just video games. In fact, it isn’t even traditional reviews. How about forms that people fill out to evaluate others. They will generally form an opinion of the person first, then base their opinions of the various traits off of the overall impressions. If I ever had to base a decision off of evaluations, I would put a lot more faith in someone who is praised in most areas but is still criticized than someone who is just praised. Why? Because I would view one as more honest than the other.