REVIEW CATEGORIES

How about something as simple as genre/category tags. They could show up on the actual game review page (the one with the list of reviews) and the review preview under the review section - think something like game genre tags. That way you can tell at a glance but it's not actually changing much on the site.

As for mature content - there's really five issues with that, I think.

- The first is that what one person considers mature might not be what another person considers mature, so when someone plays a game and they think it should be marked mature they're likely to complain that the tag isn't there.

- Another thing is that it would be up to the creator to tag their game as mature and they might forget to do so or just leave it as blank (though I guess we could make it something like the genre/category tagging in that they have to pick one or the game won't be submitted).

- Then there's all the old games - will they require to be tagged too? The thing is that some of the creators (okay, a fair few) are gone from the site and would not be able to tag their games as mature - which would probably lead to people complaining (because, frankly, people do love to complain) about those games not being held to the same standards (I mean, someone complained about an old game the other day because it didn't have the required screenshot amount and thus shouldn't meet site standards... nevermind that it was one of the first games uploaded to the site and thus had gone 'through the queue' when the queue was a lot more forgiving - and the owner was now gone from the RM scene - I think it was Ara Fell, actually).

- There's different kinds of mature. Something with situational swearing (in high-tension parts of the game where a person would usually swear) wouldn't be the same as a game where everything is covered in blood and guts and every word is a cuss. They aren't equal and a person going into the second might be expecting something like the first or vice versa. They might judge a game unfairly, too, deciding against playing because of that tag when really it's very mild stuff, or decide only to play it hoping for guts and gore and being disappointed (and thus, perhaps, leave with a worse impression) when it's not as they thought. Instead of taking the game as it's own thing, they might judge it against a preconceived notion of what they consider mature.

- We tend not to have too many mature games on the site and would this encourage people to make more? That is, would we need to revise our stance on pornography if people suddenly think it's okay to have those kinds of games now that we have the option of tagging a game as mature? It's something to think about.


I'm not against the idea, I just think we need to consider these points before making a hard decision.

I usually don't do this. And I wouldn't advise to do it, either, as different genre put different emphasis on certain parts.
.. think about rating gameplay for visual novels equally to story!