REVIEW SCORES: AN INFORMAL POLL

.5 - Completely Unplayable. Game crashes immediately and often.
1 - Unplayable. It might technically be playable, but the experience is frustrating. No redeeming qualities.
2 - Below Average. Inferior to the norm, but still playable. Nothing particularly interesting and a fair number of negative points.
3 - Average. The same type of game you see everywhere. Nothing remarkable, but also nothing terrible.
4 - Above Average. Better than your average game. Has a number of interesting features, but doesn't quite bring it all together into a complete package.
5 - A Must Play. A game I would recommend to all my friends. Not necessarily perfect, but the highlights greatly outnumber the faults

.5 - Utter Sheit
1 - Really friggin bad
2 - Would not play
3 - Average
4 - Good
5 - Fantastic

1/5 -> Terrible. Forget about hitting an audience. The game is so bug-ridden, or otherwise unplayable, that what entertainment can be found in the game has a hard time coming to the surface.

2/5 -> Bad but playable. I had a poor experience with the game. When played by a player the game actually caters to, it would serve it's purpose.

3/5 -> Average. A solid experience, but snags somewhere along the line cause it to be held back from being "good".

4/5 -> Good. I enjoyed the experience, and have no qualms supporting it if was considered for a featured game (if it wasn't featured already).

5/5 -> Excellent. Among the paragons of gaming experiences, and instant feature material in my humble opinion (if it wasn't featured already).

Considering the text at 1/5, I'm not sure what how a .5 would even happen. Nor would I want to find out how it would happen!

.5 - This game is abysmal and not worth your time until it's fixed. Usually the game is broken and glitchy in a bad way.
1 - This game is bad but it usually has some minimally interesting qualities. Should be improved upon, but it's not broken.
2 - Bad game but it has near redeeming qualities, has special meaning to me/good music or an interesting idea that I can see forming. Definitely not broken just lackluster needs improving.
3 - Average. Think full-blown RTP game with a generic story monsters etc. Usually has a left me not feeling I wasted my time.
4 - Great game, an RTP game will RARELY get up to this score but it's possible especially if it's simply in RTP style but the graphics are custom. Great story, interesting ideas and fun mechanics. Story is especially important for this score.
5 - Left me feeling wowed and optimistic about future indie games. Left an impact has special meaning and (usually) amazing aesthetics. This is Where I Want to Die was well-implemented and left me feeling great afterwards. There aren't mechanics to speak of, but the game looked decent at least, pleasurable at best. Story is probably the most important part for this.

0.5 - A game on this level would just be a particularly bad example of a 1 (see below).

1 - A game with this score would have to be unentertaining in every aspect. The gameplay would have to be either so hard that progress is a matter of luck, or so easy that progress is a matter of hitting random buttons. (This difficulty level would have to be maintained throughout the majority of the game in order to justify this rating). The story would have to be simple, uninspired, nonexistant, or so riddled with errors and inconsistencies that it becomes impossible to enjoy any redeeming qualities of the story.

A 1 could be considered equivalent to the "F" grade in the American school system: A game that completely fails to provide any entertainment.

2 - A game with this score (or lower) is a game that I would likely recommend against playing if asked my opinion about it. Gameplay would be well-balanced but uninspired (think default RPGMaker battle system and database), or innovative but poorly implemented or tested. Story would be likely on a level where the story moves along at times, but not particularly well-written (ie. the Mentor character's betrayal of the party either comes out of nowhere, or is telegraphed with the literary equivalent of flashing neon lights)

A 2 could be considered equivalent to the "D" grade in the American school system. To a certain extent, it entertains the player, but the implementation is flawed such that the player would likely have a better time doing something else.

3 - This level is roughly the level where if somebody were to tell me that they were thinking of playing the game in question, I would tell them "Sure, go ahead". Equivalent to the "C" grade in the American school system, games at this level achieve the purpose of a game (to entertain) without any significant flaws, but also fail to go above and beyond the expected level of entertainment in any meaningful way).

4 - At this level, a game has significantly enhanced the gameplay experience in some way. It might have stunning graphics, beautiful music, a thought-provoking premise, amusing dialogue, a well-written story, or innovative and well-implemented gameplay. (And would likely have several of said improvements). Games on this level are something that I would go out of my way to recommend to somebody.

A rating of 4 could be considered roughly equivalent to a "B+" or "A-" in the American school system.

5 - I've seen some people on sites with ratings claim that the highest rating on a scale should never be given out, because it indicates that said work is absolutely perfect. I disagree, but in order to recieve a 5 from me, I would have to believe that said game is well above average in most categories, or very very much above average in a few categories with a good reason for why it is lacking in the others. Either gameplay or story must be above average.

This is the rough equivalent of an "A+" in the American school system.

.5 - As good as 10% of games on RMN. In practice, more than 10% of games on RMN are horrifyingly bad in almost every aspect, so this is probably gonna be unplayable.
1 - As good as 20% of games on RMN. In practice, this probably means that it has no redeeming qualities, but has a couple parts that are almost passable.
2 - As good as 40% of games on RMN. In practice, this probably means that it had a vision and did a few things right, but couldn't create an entertaining end result.
3 - As good as 60% of games on RMN. In practice, this probably means that it was enjoyable at times, and was possibly briefly great at certain points, but was mediocre overall.
4 - As good as 80% of games on RMN. In practice, this probably means it successfully did almost everything it wanted to do, did a few of those things phenominally well, and the things it wanted to do worked well together to create a fun game.
5 - As good as any game on RMN. In practice, this probably means that the game was completely fantastic on almost every front, could easily be called a masterpiece, was probably as good as any actual Super Nintendo or Playstation 1 game, and rekindled my faith in RPG Maker.