eli5 why do so many tier lists go in order of S A B C D E ?
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S being better than A started in Japanese games, probably beginning with something that gwve you a rank at the end of a level. You could get an S rank, to make something cooler and new, with a feeling of exclusivity and putting it above the alphabet. That would eventually bevome more widespread and just naturally make it into tier lists, as tier lists are also common in fighting games popular in Japan, where the S rank started.
“A B C” etc. is a little self explanatory— it’s a grading system, where the first letter is the best, then the second letter, etc.
The Japanese grading system considers every grade under “C” to be a failure, so when Japanese companies make video games that also have a grade system (think “if you clear this level with a certain number of points you get a score” type of games) they wanted to insert an even higher grade letter at the beginning so that there are more scores you can attain that don’t feel like failure. They opted for S because it looks cool, and it stands for “superb” or “super.”
Companies in the west thought it looked pretty cool too, so they started adopting it too. Now it’s trickled down into tier lists too as fans also adopt the grading system to describe characters or objects in games.
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This is the seating tier ranking in Japan. S stands for “special” or “superior”. They are considered the best seats and are usually the most expensive. Concert seats, baseball stadium seats, musical theater seats are all arranged in this way. The order usually goes: SS, S, A, B, C, D, etc.
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