Old Scoring System

This was the description and explanation of the Old Scoring System (or OSS). A new scoring system is laid out on a separate page.

In an attempt to encourage other reviewers to use a standardized, award- (or take-away-) points system for the betterment of all IF, we here at Strange Breezes IF Reviews have devised the following scoring system. (The inspiration is due in no small part to an essay by Quentin D. Thompson: in it he proposed a system which we have modified to suit our own purposes and preferences.)

The overall scale of 0-100 points is broken down into ten separate categories, for which a game can earn from 1 to 10 points. The scores are then added up to produce a result between 0 and 100. (I like to then divide by ten to get a scale from 1 to 10 again. You might think this is a lot of extra steps, but to me it makes more sense than awarded, say, 0.6 out of 1.0 points for humor.) As QDT suggested, we have split the ten scoring areas into two broader groups: the "intelligence" scores (more objective) and the "goodwill" scores (more subjective). The categories and guidelines for points are:

I. Intelligence

a) Story. The basic story of a game, plot development, plot twists, sub-plots and so on.
0: absolutely pointless
1-3: bare-bones
4-6: clichéd, or original but inadequate
7-9: clichéd but effective, or original and adequate
10: excellent

b) Writing. Prose, sentence flow, grammar, spelling, and so on.
0: absolutely terrible
1-3: full of typos, grossly overblown, or poorly executed
4-6: mediocre, several typos or errors, or over-ambitious
7-9: competent, good but with a few faults, or good but not as engaging as it should be
10: excellent

c) Puzzles. Quality (which includes whether they can even be done), cleverness, and level of integation into the game.
0: obscure and irritating
1-3: detract from gameplay, artificially stuck on, or require author mind-reading
4-6: passable, may require unreasonable omniscience
7-9: clever, logical
10: excellent, integrated into the story, multiple solutions

d) Coding. Lack of bugs, crashes, flaws, ambiguities.
0: absolutely wretched or numerous fatal crashes
1-3: possibly crashes, difficult to play without serious errors
4-6: passable, but a few bugs/several minor errors
7-9: good, with a few small bugs
10: excellent, no crashes, no serious minor flaws

e) Parser. Responsiveness, synonyms, nouns, implementation.
0: basic verbs not implemented
1-3: lack of synonyms, numerous nouns missing
4-6: passable, a few problems and annoyances
7-9: good, many nouns implemented (typical Inform level)
10: excellent, tons of implemented nouns, extra goodies

II. Goodwill

a) Humor. Generally, we like games better if they make us laugh.
0: none
1-3: flashes, or too heavy-handed
4-6: in-jokes alone, or failed attempts at humor
7-9: funny responses, occasional game humor
10: excellent, integrated into game, or just plain hilarious

b) Participation. A measure of how much the player "gets into" the mind of the PC, the "feeling" or "involvement."
0: none
1-3: occasional, inadequate
4-6: barely adequate or over-ambitious (a lot of treasure hunts fit here)
7-9: competent
10: outstanding

c) Lack of Annoyance. Purely subjective. Reviewers may add points at will. In today's IF world, the *lack* of annoyance is such a precious commodity that we actually award points for it. Go figure.

d) Philosophy/Game Idea. This allows scorers to penalize games they "just don't like" or award games for appealing to the right audience, or to give high marks to types of games they especially like.
0: pointless or loathsome
1-3: inadequate, trite, or repulsive
4-6: average, or vague
7-9: original, good, understandable, not perfect
10: outstanding or extremely appealing

e) Wildcard points. Another purely subjective category, the Wildcard can be between 0 and 10 points based on the feel, likeability, and playability of the game. This can also be used as a bonus when the author includes, say, a squid, or a bartender named Gus.

Add the scores from the ten categories to get the total score, a number between 0 and 100. You can divide by 10 if you want a score on a 10-point scale.