ON REVIEWING AND STANDARDS

Reviewing is a subjective process; it is thought and opinion, so this article and everything in it is by definition going to be biased by my personal beliefs. Some of you aren’t going to like what I’m about to say.

Some of you have very specific goals in mind when you create a game. Some of you are trying to tell a great story, some of you are trying to create fun puzzles, some are trying to create awesome and epic battles, and some are trying to show off your art or music. That’s all well and good; game-making can be a perfectly legitimate artistic endeavor and I do not intend to diminish that. But you have to understand not everyone is going to see it that way. People who download your game are looking for a fun game experience, and they’re going to have certain expectations of your project.

Some of you like to break down the components of a game in terms of their weight or importance and plug them into some sort of ridiculous math equation. {Gameplay = Story + (graphics/ music^2)} This is asinine for a couple of reasons. The first reason is it doesn’t even really make a lot of coherent sense. The second, and more important reason, is trying to imply that some part of an RPG is more important than any other is pretty ridiculous.

For you to have a fully realized game, none of these aspects can be lacking. Sorry gameplay people, whine about how story is a waste of time all you want, in an RPG there’s an expectation that there’s going to be some decent writing somewhere. I don’t understand this movement to sort of hack out parts of a game the creator doesn’t like with some kind of meat cleaver and expect the game to be better for it. It’s like a house of cards. You can’t take cards away and call the resulting mess a complete project. It might still be fun in some ways, but I think most people would agree that something was missing. The same goes for story people. If you’re going to tell a story but neglect your “gameplay”, why include it at all? If you’re going to completely forgo the RPG mechanics in pursuit of your storytelling, the resulting story might be pretty good, but you aren’t really making a “game” anymore. You’re kind of making something else.

Now, I don’t want anyone to misunderstand. I am not saying your story needs to be enthralling, but it needs to make sense. Your graphics don’t need to be gorgeous but they should be consistent and functional. Your gameplay doesn’t need to be stellar but it better not be boring.

So while I’ll judge your game on the individual aspects that make up your project, I’m also going to judge it as a whole. And if your intentions are clear I’ll even try to look at it from your perspective, as you intended it. But the bottom line is I am going to tell you what’s good and what’s bad, what’s wrong with it, even if it wasn’t a part of your project you cared about. Because it’s still part of your project and that part of it still reflected on the overall game as a whole.

Now, how can you minimize this? If you are not good at a certain aspect of a game, how can you make it so it’s not a problem? By playing down those aspects. If you’re not good at writing, don’t dump lots of long, badly written conversations on me. If you’re not good at making puzzles, don’t put a lot of puzzles! If you’re bad at balancing combat, don’t throw me into a fight every four steps. If a problem doesn’t bother me much, I’m not going to get hung up over it. If I don’t notice that there’s a problem at all, then it’s a non-issue.

Now, supposing you see a review you don’t agree with. It could be written by me or someone else, it could be for your game or someone else’s project. It is very important to remember that reviews are one person’s opinion. Getting a bad review is not the end of the world. It does not mean no one in the world likes your game. It also does not mean you should flip out and get defensive. If someone took the time to actually review your game it means that had a vested interest in it. If they didn’t care they’d simply not say anything at all. You should be thankful that someone, anyone, took the time to comment about your game and try to help you improve. Disregarding a review or claiming a reviewer has suspect motives just because they gave a negative review is not only offensive and disrespectful but ultimately a disservice to yourself and your fans.


By request, I am including my general reviewing guidelines here so that people know generally how I will look at a game and rate it.

My reviews will usually start with a short backstory about my understanding of the project and why I chose to review it. I will then provide a brief synopsis of the game’s plot to let the player know basically what they can expect going in. From here I rate things by the following categories.

Balance: This is my general impression of how battles in the game were handled, including any aspects of the game that tie into this including optional or additional systems or character abilities. I will judge by how mechanically interesting they were, if they were fun, if they were of an appropriate level of challenge and if everything generally worked the way it was supposed to.

Level Design: This is where I will talk about the general layout of the game and all the things it encompasses. Things like graphics will be discussed here, though I will generally not mention them unless they are very good or extraordinarily bad. Things like town design, dungeon design, puzzles, including aesthetics, will be included here, and if I have any concerns about the controls or interface, this is generally where I’ll mention them.

Characters: I will discuss my thoughts on the writing, dialogue, characters and their subsequent development. If I have any in-depth questions or thoughts on a character I will go into it, including any things I liked. If I have worries that a character seemed under-developed or seemed weak, it generally means I wanted to know more so shouldn’t be construed as necessarily a bad thing.

Story: I will discuss narrative structure here, including the overall plot, and any storytelling methods used. Any unconventional storytelling methods aside from basic, chronological linearity will probably be mentioned, and I will also discuss the nature of side quests or plot branches, if any. If I notice any stylistic influences, such as a famous work or author, I will usually give those a nod here as well.

Music and Sound: I will talk about how any musical choices used in the project added or detracted from the overall mood or atmosphere of the game, as well as pointing out any times I felt sound was being used inappropriately. Having “okay” music generally won’t garner much of a response from me, but having really great music will really impress me. I will generally favor music I haven’t heard before over popular commercial rips.

Finally, the general scale I use to “rate” projects is as follows. My ratings tend to be fairly arbitrary at times but this is a general indicator of what I thought.

5.0- A near perfect game. It must do nearly everything right as well as go above and beyond expectations in every way. I do not expect I will ever give this score, but you never know...

4.5- An exemplary game. Not only does it do almost everything right but goes the extra mile in terms of content, programming, or some other area that sets it above other games. Bugs are all but non-existent.

4.0- An excellent game I recommend people play. It has few flaws and those it has generally don't detract from the overall experience. Almost no bugs.

3.5- An above-average game. It does a lot of things right but unfortunately has a few flaws that drag it down. Very few bugs.

3.0- An average game. It has a mix of good qualities and poor design choices. Not everyone may like it. There may be bugs but they do not detract from the experience.

2.5- Still pretty average, but here the design flaws are very noticeable. One or more aspects of the game are severely lacking which detracts from the experience. There may be multiple obvious bugs.

2.0- A below average game, it has a lot of faults that overshadow its good points. There may still be a good game inside...somewhere, but it's not there yet. It is very hard to get a lower score than this from me.

1.5- A poor game. The game is severely lacking in multiple areas that lead to a bad game experience on my part.

1.0- A very poor game. A game with a score is generally a sign I did not think the author was trying or that they didn't care. The game is disjointed, mechanically broken and may be near unplayable. Even this is not a 0.5 from me, oh no, only a very special kind of bad gets a 0.5...

0.5- A blight on humanity. The game was offensive to me on a primal level. It has no redeeming qualities. It sends me into apoplexies of rage. I want to set it on fire. I think less of people who like it.

Please leave any thoughts, comments, complaints, criticisms, concerns, or death threats below.