A little bit on scoring

So I had one of my readers ask me an excellent question the other day, how come come it seems every cube I review, both on this blog and on the old one, receives a very positive score? Most of the cubes score in between 7/10 and 9/10 on both objective and subjective, and there have even been quite a few 10/10s which should not be easy to earn at all.

Well, I actually read an article about this issue a while back which I think dealt mostly in gaming. It seemed that the average score for gaming reviews tended to be a 7/10 rather than a 5/10 as you'd expect, which skewed things because a 6/10 should be a positive review on a proper scale but ends up being negative judging by the average review.

I told myself I would try to buck this trend and make 5/10 a proper average. There are reasons you don't see 5/10s and see 10/10s, however:

1. A flawless cube should get a flawless score. Now, some would argue that flawless cubes don't exist, but if a cube has perfect corner cutting, doesn't pop or corner twist, doesn't catch, and suits a lot of people's preferred feels, objectively a cube can't get more flawless than that. If I give a cube like that an objective 8/10, what could I define as my requirements for the last 2 points? Do I have to like it myself? No, that has to go in the subjective score, so objectively I have to give a 10/10.
2. Cubes aren't video games. There isn't all that much to judge on. While a game reviewer can nitpick all the nuances of game play and the story and the environment, I'm basically given corner cutting, anti-pop, anti corner twist, catching, and whether I like the feel or not (as mentioned before) to work with. There isn't much I can take off points for. 
3. Quite simply, not many people are interested in average cubes or below average cubes: most are just interested in the cream of the crop. Yes, I could spend my entire day writing about the Qiyi Warriors and the Cyclone Boys of the world, but reviews do take some effort to write (especially when they're thousands of words like mine are) and I think that time would be better spent writing about the newest and best cubes on the market or the cubes that blow me away. Hence, most cubes I write about are going to be in the very positive range.

That being said, I do want to write a harsh criticism for fun at some point. I might break out an awful cube to review, maybe a Guanlong or the Mf8 squan or something. 

Anyways, I do have exciting (and positive reviews) coming up: the Shengshou Fangyuan, which is a budget cube that's shaping up to be quite a strong contender, and the Valk 3, which is currently blowing my mind with how amazing a cube can be. Stay tuned!