No Rest For The Wicked Director Calls Game Critics 'Untrustworthy'

Key Points:

• Thomas Mahler, lead developer of the Ori games, has launched VideoGamesCritic, a new game review aggregator that prioritizes player scores over professional critic reviews, weighting player feedback at two-thirds versus one-third for critics.
• The site combines critic scores from OpenCritic with a "trust-weighted" analysis of Steam reviews, giving more influence to verified and experienced players while attempting to filter out review bombing and low-playtime reviewers.
• VideoGamesCritic also evaluates the accuracy of gaming media outlets by comparing their review scores to player consensus, assigning trust scores to highlight which outlets align with player opinions.
• Mahler’s motivation includes addressing the issue that existing aggregators do not reflect changes in games over time, such as updates that significantly alter gameplay, by weighting more recent player reviews more heavily.
• While the site aims for transparency through its mathematical approach, critics note that the weighting system reflects Mahler’s personal biases, and some question the reduction of nuanced criticism to a numerical alignment with player sentiment.