INTRODUCTION
Star Wars is franchise that continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. And with its growth, the saga that so many hold dearly has continued to evolve and transform. As more and more fans ‘take their first step into a larger world’, the debate regarding the quality of new Star Wars material is a passionate and provoking one.
While fans have never unanimously agreed on liking all aspects of the original six Star Wars films, the new directions that Disney continues to take the franchise have sparked strong reactions- sometimes with extremely polarized opinions amongst fans. And while databases such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and Nielsen viewership data are useful in gauging the opinion of the general public, it is rather challenging to know what Star Wars fans really think as a whole. This is significant because many fans note contradictions in character personality, or events that conflict with previously established canon. In our opinion, fans provide valuable insight into what contradictions and plot writing (whether good or poor) are significant when assessing a particular piece of Star Wars material.
But for fans’ opinions to be significant, this also implies that these fans have at least a moderate level of knowledge of the Star Wars continuum. Many individuals claim to be ‘Star Wars Fans’ but actually know very little about the science fiction story they criticize. As a result, the varying opinions spread across the internet may be misrepresentative of what knowledgeable and sincere Star Wars Fans actually think.
Admittedly, there is really no one way to define a ‘fan’ – and here on TrueSWFans, we don’t claim to possess an absolute definition either. What we DO hope however, is to find knowledgeable fans that want to rate Star Wars material by asking them to take a quiz in order to join this site. A brief study was performed using our quiz and recording the results of both individuals who did and did not consider themselves to be Star Wars fans. In this way, we’ve created and calibrated a quiz that can help more objectively define someone as a Star Wars Fan. (To see the study, click HERE).
With the shocking emergence of review-bombing that ‘The Acolyte’ has seen on both Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, and the extremely polarized opinions published on the internet regarding the series, the need for an accurate Fan-Based Scoring System for Star Wars has increased dramatically. In response, we, as the creators of TrueSWFans.com, have created a new scoring system officially known as ‘The General Audience- Functional Fan Index’, abbreviated The ‘GAFFI’ Score.
HOW THE SCORE WORKS
The GAFFI Score is comprised of two elements which are averaged together: A General Audience composite score, and a Fan Execution Score.
General Audience Score: The General Audience score is calculated by using three databases: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic. The scores from these databases are recorded as soon as the material has finished its release, with a standard post-release waiting time of at least 1-2 weeks. It is important to note that the scores from these three databases are adjusted to a 10-point scale. The three scores are also carefully assessed for signs of review-bombing. This is performed by evaluating the number of reviews or ratings for each database. If the evaluated work contains notably more reviews/ratings than older Star Wars works, then the work is considered likely to have been review-bombed and the score is not included in the General Audience Score calculation. While this technique does have limitations, it appears a reasonable method until more advanced techniques for identifying review-bombing are available.
In addition, unlike Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, IMDB does not report scores for individual seasons of a television series, thus individual TV series seasons are calculated by taking the average of all the episodic scores for that season. This technique has been verified by comparing the average of all episodic scores for TV series with only one season released. In multiple trials of this technique, we were able to determine that the average for all episodes of a particular season is close in value to the overall rating for the season.
Fan Execution Score: The Fan Execution score is calculated using an itemized list of 13 points that are all rated on a 10-point scale. As the authors of TrueSWFans, we broadly review comments and overarching criticisms of a work and determine the Top 5 aspects of the work that were liked or received positive acclaim as well as the Worst 5 aspects of the work that received criticism or negative feedback. In addition, three universal aspects of every work are also included and rated on a 10-point scale which are: Storytelling Quality, Character Development, and Continuity. The 13 collective points are then averaged to produce the Fan Execution Score.
After the release of a completed piece of Star Wars material, we as the authors of TrueSWFans, release a video describing our initial GAFFI score, marked with an asterisk to designate it as the initial score. The video is intended as a means for sparking conversation and thought amongst Star Wars fans, as well as to promote awareness for the score and encourage viewers to apply as Star Wars Fan Critics and also rate the GAFFI Score.
Fans who which to rate the score are encouraged to fill out our online application to become Star Wars Fan Critics. If accepted, fans gain access to the GAFFI-scoring surveys which use a Likert-styled scale system to rate the 13 points previously described. This Likert-like scale is then adjusted numerically to a 10-point scale and the scores are added to existing scores with the final GAFFI Score automatically updated on our site.
APPLY TO RATE THE GAFFI SCORE
If you’d like to become an official Star Wars Fan Critic and rate the GAFFI Score as described above, you can find the link to the application HERE. Several questions regarding your interest and passion for Star Wars are asked, as well as a few demographic identifiers which are primarily included to assess diversity in our Star Wars Fan Critic population. Demographic and personal identifiers will NOT be made publicly available at the individual level. If an initial acceptance of your application is granted, you will be asked to complete our True Fan Quiz to certify that you possess a base level of Star Wars knowledge. As the number of critics grows, we may also provide an option for a second quiz which may be used to a create a subset ‘expert’ fan critic group.