Quote: it really is best if designers stay out of the ratings game.
I have to disagree with this opinion.
Designers are also game players so there is no reason they need to stay out of a rating of a game.
Where it can get bad and negative is at say Game Squad where Designer # 1 hates Designer # 2 and they both viciously attack each other at every chance, that gets tiresome and that may only be seen on ASL places, but stating that a Designer should stay out of a ratings game is at best just silly, in my opinion.
Heck look at some of the old Generals, Moves and S&T magazines, designers did just that. It was not until F&M came out where "purists" wanted to see the ratings for players come on more.
Designers Ratings are like all things, their opinions of something, it's not gospel, and I may even disagree with them, or the opposite be so intreged that I go out and buy said product to see if its that bad/good as Mr. Soandso says it is.