What did you guys do to it? Writing a review has never been an easy thing, with the 350 word limit, but when I tried to write a review for Knytt Stories recently, I had to force myself to not close the tab. I will never write another review again, not under that system.
You can't split a game into different section (graphics, gameplay, etc)! I know everyone does it, but that doesn't make it a good idea. Also, that's the very reason that several game reviewing sites have things like "tilt". It's like splitting a novel into "language, storyline, illustration, dialogue".
The charm of every good indie game completely defies the "gameplay, graphics, sound, presentation" system! Knytt Stories does badly under it. Dwarf Fortress would rate 0 for graphics, 1 for sound, 8 for gameplay, 10 for lastability, and 9-10 overall. Phun would rate similarly as well. That concept only works for commercial games.
Art is not quantifiable. Please do not force reviewers to quantify it. I want the old review system back, back to when everyone used to enjoy writing reviews
I'd post this in the admin forum, but I want to know if I'm the only one who doesn't like to write reviews under the new review system.
Edited by an Administrator.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
That system is there to make organising your reviews easier (unless of course it fails at that lol).
If you read a review on the site, you'll see it doesn't actually split the review into "Gameplay" and "Graphics" .etc. So you can effectively write whatever you want in those boxes.
I'm willing to listen to new ideas if people want the reviews system to change though.
I can see both sides of the argument here; experienced reviewers will not like the format the review section is currently in (feeling that it is too restrictive) yet newer reviewers will like the prompts. I am in both camps since i don't like the restrictiveness of the topics, however i do like them because they prompt me to remember to write about everything (i am exceptionally absent-minded sometimes!)
Going forward i think i will stick to the topics in the review section, then edit the order of the review so that it makes more logical sense. That is, i would prefere to talk about the game ad-hoc and have everything still flow in an orderly fashion.
Maybe have a choice of templates for people to follow if you were planning to change it, one for experienced and one for newbies?
Yeah, I could see how newbies might find it a bit easier. It's not a good way to learn to write reviews, though. It's like encouraging students to learn to draw by tracing. Very bad in the long run
I think Shroomlock and DavidN should have the final say on it, though, since they've been writing a lot more reviews than me.
Disclaimer: Any sarcasm in my posts will not be mentioned as that would ruin the purpose. It is assumed that the reader is intelligent enough to tell the difference between what is sarcasm and what is not.
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