Last Week on #DailyPoll – 1/29/26
Welcome to last week on #DailyPoll. Every weekday we pose a question to our twitter followers over on @PSNation for them to vote on. At the beginning of the week we pull all the polls together into this post. Let’s go!
Monday
We had a theme going for this week: how much certain aspects of a game should affect review scores. We kicked off the week with graphics.
#DailyPoll How much of an impact should graphics have on a game's review score?
— PlayStation Nation (@PSNation) January 25, 2016
It seems that graphics are pretty important to gamers. Maybe not the most important thing but they should have a moderate affect on a game’s review score. People like their good looking games. Micheal DiGlovanni said as much but made sure to make a distinction based on games that were purposely going for retro graphics.
@PSNation Depends on the game. A game going for a retro feel shouldn't be lowered for it. But a game that just flat out looks bad should.
— Michael DiGIovanni (@ArmorFist) January 25, 2016
Tuesday
Tuesday’s question asked about the audio aspect. Audio covers a lot of parts of a game, from music to voice acting to sound effects. So, how much should that be reflected in a review?
#DailyPoll How much of an impact should audio (voice acting/soundtrack/etc) have on a game's review score?
— PlayStation Nation (@PSNation) January 26, 2016
The same answer as Monday was the top answer but the answer “a lot” had a higher percentage of responses compared to on the graphics poll. As a result, we could assume that gamers generally value audio higher than graphics. Interestingly, several responses mentioned The Last of Us as an example of why audio is important, for example this response from Stoffinator.
@jcalvinvesco @PSNation Imagine the Last of Us with poor voice acting and bad quality sound. Like not being able to hear a clicker behind u.
— Stoffinator (@Stoffinators) January 26, 2016
Wednesday
Wednesday moved on to the aspect of length/replayability. These two aren’t exactly the same thing but both have the goal of giving the player an overall longer time playing the game.
#DailyPoll How much of an impact should length/replayability have on a game's review score?
— PlayStation Nation (@PSNation) January 27, 2016
Once again, “moderate” won out but not by as much as the previous days. This poll was a lot more spread out. Even in the responses, some gamers place a lot of stock in a game’s value proposition (as a ratio of price to length) while others seem less concerned about the time spent playing the game and more with the quality of that experience. Interestingly, some even went to the extreme of the value proposition, saying that too lengthy a length even detracts from the experience. Joshua Miller put it pretty nicely:
@PSNation if the length effects the experience, sure (such as felt unfinished or dragged). But just because its long or short? No.
— Joshua Miller (@jmille99) January 27, 2016
Thursday
On Thursday I used the question to talk about story. How important is the story to a game? Here are the votes:
#DailyPoll How much of an impact should story (ie the main plot itself) have on a game's review score?
— PlayStation Nation (@PSNation) January 28, 2016
A different winning answer today with “a lot” coming out on top. Clearly the plot of the game is very important to gamers, probably above the other aspects from the previous polls based on these results. One response, from Cesar Brenes, even said that they consider it more important than the gameplay.
@PSNation story over gameplay for me
— Cesar Brenes (@cbavista13) January 28, 2016
Friday
Finally, Friday. This one used the same form but to ask about technical aspects like framerate and resolution. These aspects of a game are often use in trolling matches online when comparing different console versions of a game but do gamers consider them important to a review?
#DailyPoll How much should technical aspects (framerate, resolution) affect a game's review score?
— PlayStation Nation (@PSNation) January 29, 2016
Based on these results, it would seem gamers generally consider these important aspects. At least on the level around the graphics and audio, looking at the comparison to the other polls. Although, multiple replies said that they only really care about the technical aspects if the technical aspects are bad. But not all, Henry Holloway summed up the week’s polls pretty well with this response:
@PSNation Anything that affects the experience (positive or negatively) to the point where it's noted should contribute to the score, IMO
— Henry Hollaway (@YummyHenry) January 30, 2016
That’s all for this week. Be sure to join us on Twitter to answer the daily polls and keep an eye on the website for the Last Week on Daily Poll article!