You’re only shown so much, however.
Cornell professor James Grimmelmann digs into this in a - wait, come back!
Developers rely on scores and ratings not just to model rewards but to render their worlds intelligible to players.
But perhaps enchantment isn’t the only applicableRPGmetaphor here.
Perhaps it’s better to think about Metascores as a form of alchemy.
As any reviewer could tell you, Metacritic’s “distilling” of critical voices very easily becomes distortion.
This has had an absolutely terrible effect on videogame criticism.
It’s perennially hard to say how much Metacritic and other aggretators really affect the fortunes of game developers.
But it certainly has clout.
But Metacritic doesn’t just influence what gets made - it also helps decide what gets preserved.
TL;DR: the alchemy stopped working and the magic fell through.
