{"id":1889,"date":"2014-02-24T09:46:35","date_gmt":"2014-02-24T08:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=1889"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:44:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:44:58","slug":"how-important-is-games-usability-to-reviewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/24\/how-important-is-games-usability-to-reviewers\/","title":{"rendered":"How important is games usability to reviewers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As games user researchers, we consider usability to be a major factor in the quality of games. However it is not the only aspect that makes games \u201cgood\u201d. A game could have fantastic usability, and yet still be boring.<\/p>\n

In order to get a snapshot of the importance of usability for game quality, I have looked at some games released last year and listed all the issues found in reviews. For each issues I\u2019ve determined whether the issue is a usability problem, or whether it\u2019s something else \u2013 anything from appeal (\u201cthe character is ugly\u201d), to the concept (\u201cwe\u2019re bored of farming simulators\u201d).<\/p>\n

From this I hope to gain a greater understanding of how important usability issues are to games reviewers.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s put a disclaimer up front also \u2013 this isn\u2019t an academic study and so I\u2019ve picked some arbitrary games to look at \u2013 eurogamer\u2019s reviews for the top 3, mid 3 and bottom 3 metacritic rated games from last year. Where eurogamer didn\u2019t review the metacritic rated game, I moved onto the next game until I found one they had reviewed.\u00a0 I picked eurogamer as it\u2019s my preferred review source \u2013 like I said, I\u2019m not being academic!<\/p>\n

First we\u2019ll look at the findings, and then consider what this means about games usability and reviews.<\/p>\n

The Games:<\/b><\/p>\n

Grand Theft Auto 5<\/b><\/p>\n