How We Score.
Every POCG review carries a numeric score out of 5.0 and a named tier. The number is the judgment; the tier is what it means at a glance.
Scores move in half-point steps: the only valid scores are 0.5 through 5.0 on a 0.5 grid. There is no 3.7 on POCG: if a game sits between bands, I decide which side it belongs on and commit. That's the point of a score.
The tier always follows the score. A 4.0 is always Excellent, a 3.5 always Good. The label is derived from the number automatically, so the two can never disagree, on a review from last week or one restored from 1999.
What never gets scored
Previews are never scored. A preview covers an unreleased game and carries an anticipation level (On the Radar, Cautious, Hyped, or Must-Play), never a number. The score comes later, on the review, when the game actually exists.
Restored scores
Reviews recovered from the original 1998–2002 archive keep their original verdicts. Where the original used a 10-point scale, it's converted onto today's 5-point grid and the conversion is disclosed in the Editor's Note. We don't retroactively soften old opinions. That's what Replay is for.
Who pays for this
Right now, me. No sponsors, no affiliate quotas, no review-score deals. When Sega offered advertising money around the Dreamcast launch, we turned it down, not because money is bad, but because of what it pulls coverage toward. That decision is older than most of the sites we link to.
Will that ever change? Maybe. Someday this site might carry an ad on the podcast or YouTube, a Patreon, a donation button, or an affiliate link, if only to help pay the hosting bill. If and when that happens, it will be disclosed right here on this page. What will never change is the part that matters: nobody buys a score, nobody softens a verdict, and no revenue decision ever touches a review. No sponsors. No filters. Just opinions.