Quote: Originally Posted by Eldredpe Does G4 and IGN have an audience with people that follow games, even? When I think "gaming journalism" I think Polygon, RPS, Giant Bomb, etc. So yes, comments and images like that make me roll my eyes. Because who was taking those people seriously to begin with? Pointing out their irrelevance seems unnecessary.

IGN and G4 and all of those guys factor into Metacritic and I see people going 'I was going to buy that game but it had a low metacritic score' all the time.

They don't have to be a well read and well followed or trusted site to have a direct effect on game sales. All they have to do is get Metacritic to recognize them as "professional".

Also note that the professional score is the ONLY one Metacritic number that populates to Steam. So even if most of the users hated a game if the 'professionals' get bought off love it then that is the number that will populate to Steam and that will make the game look like a masterpiece.

Too bad Dragon Age 2 isn't on Steam anymore because that is one of the most glaring examples of the huge disconnect the professional and user scores on Metacritic can have.