Does giving a score or a letter grade at the end of a game review totally invalidate the text of the review? I think so. How often have you heard the internet scream about someone's score of a game being too high or too low? How often have you heard the same level of blind rage over someone's use of obtuse language or overly verbose tangents into far-left gaming philosophy? Not as often. The way I see it, either you write an in-depth assessment of all aspects of the game from a neutral point of view, or you simply post a score. Doing both is a bit of an oxymoron.

People want information, and they want it now. Not only that, but simple numbers or letters make it much easier to go into a blind rage over the inevitable sense of injustice that ensues. People often don't want to think or learn anything. They just like to yell. The last thing they want is to hear something contrary to their preconceived notions of their favorite game, which they most likely have never played. This is exactly what scoring a game provokes.

I see giving a score to a game to be the equivalent of wanting to be the cool kid in high-school. Everyone wants to be a part of the club, and the quickest way to do that is to slap on an arbitrary number or letter. Anyone can do that. Plus, most scores will just follow the party line, yet a 10 from one reviewer may mean something totally different when coming from someone else. Writing a thoughtful and informative review is more like being the professor. Not only can you more accurately asses the pros and cons and more subtle aspects of the game (assuming it has some), but you can also teach the reader a bit more about how to think critically. Obviously, this is a thankless stance to take, and far less appealing to the average reviewer.

This isn't pointed at anyone in particular, and it wasn't brought on by any specific review, and I'm not really going anywhere with it. It's just a realization I came to recently and wanted to tack down. I don't care about scores, and I never have. If I love a game, sure, I hope it scores well, but it doesn't change the fact that I love the game. In fact many of my favorite games have received a poor critical reception. I think the most important thing is not WANT to love or hate a game before you've experienced it yourself. We all have our pet genres and franchises, and that's just fine, but realize that even the gaming gods make mistakes from time to time, and it's OK to let your loves go.