That's a very good example of why user scores are so bad. It became cool to hate Dragon Age 2 well before it showed up. When you expect to hate a game, you'll probably hate it. When you know you'll get laughed at if you like a game others hate, you're even more likely to find reasons to hate it.
Critics' scores have problems, too. Not the "they are corrupt" BS we keep hearing, though. I'm sure those happen but I'm also sure they are fairly rare and probably a matter of shaving off or adding 1 or 2 points on a 10 point scale. What's far worse about critics' scores is that they reflect the game when the game showed up or soon after. Patches count for nothing unless a paid DLC shows up later and somebody decides to review it.
No Man's Sky is a good poster child for this. The initial reviews for that game are worthless now. User reviews, at least when taken over the past 30 days or so, account for that.
It really doesn't matter all that much, though. We all care about our games too much to just buy RPG X over RPG Y because X got a score of 8.3 and Y just got a 7.1 or even a 6.1.
Everything about your post is factually wrong, and worse, deeply ironic.
1. It did not 'become cool' to hate Dragon Age 2
before it showed up. It was a wreck of a game made more objectionable by the false praise given to it. The only "before" was the ludicrously high 'review' scores. DA:O and Bioware in general was the 'cool' game to play at the time. Your 'invention' of history is really quite disgusting.
2. I think you'll find people are perfectly capable of standing up for games they like against all odds - you know, like you're doing in your post.
3. Yes, the only problem with review scores is the "they are corrupt" aspect.
4. No, they are not rare.
5. Reviewers have the same biases as anyone else as well.
6. No it's not just a matter of a point or two shaved off here and there. Utterly disgusting 'assumption'.
7. They reflect the release date condition of a game because the game's primary selling period is at the point of release. This was made worse by the very game you're talking bollocks about, Dragon Age 2, where the marketing was specifically designed to maximise day one purchases and then forget about the game, just as EA have copy-pasted with each successive 'bioware' release. Stats are available on this and I have posted them in the past.
8. In a world of live services, yes, review scores are a completely stupid concept, the same game is a new game literally every month. That's why people don't talk about the ratings of MMOs much.
9. Yes, No Man's Sky is a poster child for the fact that games aren't complete games any more, but instead are forever evolving entities that hook players with perpetual promises of "It'll get better one day, just you wait".
I'm delighted you have whatever standards you have, I'm sure they work for you, but I think the juries out on whether that's how life's gonna be for everyone
What the jury isn't out on is whether someone is talking complete shit just to justify why the game they like isn't popular.
Sorry for the bluntness and crudeness, I guess you really 'trigger' people when you pile quite so much dung on top of dung
