The Indie Game Magazine May 2014 | Issue 37 | Page 6

EDITORIAL
Something about Cheerleaders and Getting Soft…
You know, most outlets on the web would throw up a headline like that just to draw in cheap clicks. But
as a Magazine, we’ve got work even harder to draw people in. We have to bring something new to the table,
even if that means shaking our familiar foundation to the ground, and rebuilding anew. Oh, and about that
title, it actually directly relates to this month’s topic. Allow me to explain:
IGM recently decided to do away with review scores entirely. While we’re keeping the Pros and Cons
section for readers who only have time to skim-read and check out a few key points, we’re getting rid of both
the review score breakdown, and ultimately the review score itself. It’s wasn’t a decision taken lightly, but it
is one I’m extremely confident in.
The main reason for doing away with review scores is that, to put it bluntly, they don’t matter. To put it in
indirect terms, they matter equally as much as the points performers earn on Whose Line is it Anyway? I don’t
want to rehash what was said in the announcement post, but I do want to reiterate that doing away with an
arbitrary score allows reviewers the freedom to express their true criticisms about a game, without adhering
to some strict guideline that could never hope to accommodate the variety of unique and incomparable
experiences some indie games provide. Even if scores were standardized across the entire industry, games
aren’t all meant to be directly compared to one another, and assigning them all a static number with which
they can only be compared does them a disservice.
The most vocal resistance I’ve heard - albeit from an extremely limited number of readers - is that getting
rid of scores means we’re “going soft” on critiquing games, that we’re cheerleading all developers instead
of giving our audience the truth about which games are worth their time, and which ones should be passed
over. I couldn’t disagree more. Getting rid of scores unshackles our writing team, allowing them the freedom
to tell the complete story about a game, pitfalls and all. I don’t believe in cheerleading games, because
that doesn’t help our industry. If a game sucks, we’re going to tell you it sucks. (Those developers whom
I’ve befriended can attest to my candidness.) But more than that, we’re going to tell the developer why it
sucks, and how it could be improved, because that’s how we better ourselves. Constructive criticism isn’t
cheerleading, it’s the foundation for growth. I want our words to carry weight, and numbers have a way of
diminishing their significance.

Vinny Parisi
Editor-in-Chief
Indie Armada Fleet Admiral

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