How to review to acceptable standards

I'm thinking of putting this on the main site. But I'm going to post it here first.
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I can make a rough estimate saying that at least 2/3 of the reviews that I receive have to be declined for not completing all of the criteria. Sometimes the reviews are just total blanks, sometimes they are devoid of effort, and sometimes they are just plain incomprehensible. In order to see if we can increase the number of reviews on the site, and hopefully interest some others into reviewing for themselves, I have devised this short guide on what to know when reviewing, and what to expect for an acception.

First, I'll go through definitions of the terms, because at least once somebody did not know what one of the categories means, and hopefully I can help that.

Pros: The good aspects of the game.
Cons: The bad aspects of the game.
Graphics: How you would rate the graphics in the game.
Sound: How you would judge the overall use of music and sound effects.
Gameplay: How you rate the effectiveness of the way the game is played.
Replay Value: Is the game worth playing to the end? Worth playing again?

Next, I'll go through the absolute basics that we're looking to see in reviews.

1. Fill in all of the boxes given.
Almost all of the reviews that I have to decline from the site don't fill at least one of the boxes, sometimes all of the boxes. Please fill in something for all of the boxes given. Leaving any box blank doesn't result in a quality review, because therefore you are not saying anything about some aspects.

2. Descriptiveness. We are looking to see reviews that actually look at the game and say many things about what they find good and what they find bad, not just a simple skirting of "good graphics" or "Bad sound". Try to say as much as you can find about each of the subjects.

3. Pertain to the game. A few reviews we received were really long-winded and usually didn't pertain to the game some of the time. On one occassion somebody docked his score a few points because there were no yoshis in it, which is ridiculous. When you review a game, try to keep to the subject matter.

4. Length. Many reviews are declined because they are too short. Try to at least have two nice, structured sentences talking about the subject at hand. Having one or two sentences is usually not reccommended for a review, but tolerance is given for the Replay Value section, because a short answer can suffice. For Pros and Cons, even so much as a word or a few is acceptable. That being said, please try to be as descriptive as you can in the body of the review, because the more things you talk about, the longer the review can be.

Finally, I will convey some of my own helpful hints for maximizing review potential.
-Expand on what you identify. Did you think the sound was bad? Then why did you think the sound was bad? Was there something lacking? Was there something clashing? Was there no sound at all? If you thought the game was just terrific and was the best thing on the internet in a long time, please divide it up and talk about each of the aspects that made it such a thrill.

-Don't be afraid to talk about some of your other impressions. If you were blown away by a cutscene or the level design was constructed with character, there's usualyl a place to say these things, like in the Pros section.

-Try to be coherent. Receiving a review with a lot of poor grammar, typos, and unreadable sentence pieces is unfortunate because more than likely we will have to remove it. In order to avoid this, please try to make as much sense as possible, minimize net-speak slang and caps-talk, and make sure others can understand what point you are trying to make. Additionally, if you give something a great praise in words, don't give it a bad corresponding number rating, That sends your message in different directions and makes it unable to be read.

-Do not be unneccesarily rude. Did you think the game you're reviewing was the worst thing you've seen in your life? If so, please do not try insult the person who made it or anyone who would potentially enjoy it by attacking them or labeling them rude things. Some reviews have done this.

I trust that this section was helpful to at least some. I have been wanting to make this for a while. I'm sure many people wonder why their reviews don't get on the site when they get declined, and I can assume at least most of them aren't aware on how to review to good standards. I hope this can correct everything.

Fix that real quick and you got yourself a great guide =P

Done

HOW TO REVIEW TO ACCEPTIBLE STANDARDS
By Trasher.

1.) Don't do this.



2.) ???

3.) PROFIT.

yeah, those rules should be put up somewhere on the main site.

Don't do this either. You will offend my virginial sensibilities

Moved to submit it and stickied.

Can we add "Keep the criticism in your reviews constructive without unnecessary sarcasm and demeaning comments"? I've seen too many accepted reviews on the site that are just plain mean, the way they're written.

I was thinking about that, but it was like 2:30 in the morning. I'll add.

I like this FAQ PK

Cleaned out the commentary on the example bad reviews and other bad reviews that were posted. Trasher's three bad examples are enough to make a point.

I think the review template is fundamentally flawed, but until I come up with a list of what needs to be changed, those are good guidelines to follow.

However, if you're going to enforce the idea of constructive criticism vs. outright insults, I think there are some reviews that need to be taken down; if anything, newbies will base their reviews off those they find on the site, rather than a lengthy list of do's and don'ts that they'll have to hunt down. There are a ton of reviews that don't meet these standards, especially those under, oh, say, Paper Mario World

This post has been edited by Kramer the Bird on May 31 2005, 09:01 PM

Wait, you're saying I should throw in some examples? (either real or fake)

No, he's saying you need to go through and clean up the review database. Because

Which leads me to believe that he's saying people will reference off of something that exists rather than a list of yeses and nos.

That's why he said that the bad reviews should be taken down. He never said anything about making example-reviews up anywhere.

It would help.

No. You'd just benefit from putting reviews up for people to laugh at. There's a reason why SM never actually did his Hall of Shame.

I'm going to be making these examples up myself.
And SM never did the hall of shame in part because you probably would have had a fit after seeing it. Don't say you wouldn't have.

I would rightfully have "thrown a fit". It's down right ****ing ignorant to pull something like that. And it would make denying the submission pointless. And he did not do it simply because of me. Sorry, you give me way too much credit.

If you want to point at and make fun of something, go do it on a Live Journal.