Thomas Mahler, the boss of Moon Studios, has created a new website that intends to allow users to track video game reviews based more on player impressions than press, reviewers, and content creators. There is often perceived to be a gap between how the press might view a game and how players enjoy or fail to enjoy it, and VideoGamesCritic.com hopes to make it a little easier to decipher which press can be "trusted" or not, based on how their scores align with player reactions.
"I use Metacritic and OpenCritic a lot and they're clearly useful, but to me as a designer the user experience always felt a bit lacking. Then the thing kept growing, and at some point I realized it had become genuinely useful for any gamer, not just me. So here it is, for everyone. My main problem with the existing aggregators: Their scores tell you how the press felt about a game, not how players did," Mahler explained in a post on X. He said that decades ago he cared a lot more about what an outlet says than he does now, which is why he's weighed the reviews with two-thirds of a score being decided by player reactions, and a third being decided by a press aggregation.
<social>https://x.com/thomasmahler/status/2095125044577829134</social>
Gamereactor UK ended up on the list, because it seems there isn't an outlet that hasn't been put on there. According to Mahler's system, we score somewhat of a middling 51, thanks to reviews that scored a bit too high or a bit too low compared to player impressions. Our bias apparently matches that of players, and yet scoring things like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II and Hollow Knight: Silksong too highly have us at the #199 spot. Fair enough.
On the one hand, it's easy to see why Mahler's site can appeal to players. They're the ones who buy the games at the end of the day. On the flip side, it also fails to take into account the idea that press outlets are not some enigmatic force, but are made up of individuals who play and enjoy games. The mentioning of there being a "player side" on the site draws a distinct line between reviewers and players, even though the only difference is a job title.
<social>https://x.com/FordJamesGames/status/2095203273753907426</social>
Steam's review system is also not without its own flaws, as users can log a review on a game within an hour of playing, or with even less time in a game, refund it, and leave their thumb down forever. User reviews can also often weigh a lot more on developer controversies and launch build quality than press reviews do. In some cases again, this can be beneficial as it gives players a voice post-launch, but it's a benefit the press doesn't have. You can't go back and change a score just because players voted differently after a game released.