What do you look for in a review?

[stratzilla]

I like writing longform reviews but I feel like I'm an outlier. I want to improve how my reviews are received, any suggestions?

https://steamcommunity.com/id/stratzillab/recommended/

[Crazy Tiger]

I look for short, constructive, to the point negative reviews. I have preference for lower playtimes. I'm mostly interested in finding out why people stopped playing, or refunded, a game. Then I can see whether those issues are an actual issue for me.

[zirkustier]

The most important criterion for me is playing time.

Then I look to see whether bugs and performance problems are described. Repetitive gameplay and negative things like that - I try to avoid long spoiler texts.

It's difficult to give general advice because the genres are different... It's probably like real life and a single sentence can say more than 1000 words.

[The nameless Gamer]

Mostly information on how the game feels and which input options it provides. I usually read the most helpful positive and negative reviews. Preferably ones which are on-point.

[crunchyfrog]

I used to write reviews professionally (though I mostly used to do walkthroughs and guides) back in the PS1 era.

There's a few basic tricks first and foremost. The obvious being don't drag it out. Try and condense it to as little words as you can, maybe at most a couple of thousand. ALWAYS write the review out and do at least one or two drafts before doing it properly.

As far as the meat of details, I find merely goin through and writing it as if you're explaining it step by step to a friend rather works best. DO NOT do the thing that others tend to gravitate towards online where you try to section things up into graphics, sound, mechanics and so on. It's boring and rarely works well. Far better to make it flow and make it cohesive.

For example, I have on my profile my review of Recettear. I'm quite happy with it as I found it was rather nice and easy to explain and people seemed to like it from the feedback I've got. So have a look and see if it helps.

[MonkehMaster]

anything that isnt spam, reviews with actual info on the game, how it performs, bugs/issues and info on the devs.

reviews like "gud game", ascii spam, meme nonsense, 1-2 word/letter/symbol, blank reviews, reviews raging over other reviews, points farming, ect... all get filtered out as they are off topic spam.

[stratzilla]

crunchyfrog původně napsal:

I used to write reviews professionally (though I mostly used to do walkthroughs and guides) back in the PS1 era.

There's a few basic tricks first and foremost. The obvious being don't drag it out. Try and condense it to as little words as you can, maybe at most a couple of thousand. ALWAYS write the review out and do at least one or two drafts before doing it properly.

As far as the meat of details, I find merely goin through and writing it as if you're explaining it step by step to a friend rather works best. DO NOT do the thing that others tend to gravitate towards online where you try to section things up into graphics, sound, mechanics and so on. It's boring and rarely works well. Far better to make it flow and make it cohesive.

For example, I have on my profile my review of Recettear. I'm quite happy with it as I found it was rather nice and easy to explain and people seemed to like it from the feedback I've got. So have a look and see if it helps.

Any publications you wrote for? I was an OPM subscriber from 1997 to 2000 or so. In a lot of ways, it helped shaped my gaming tastes today (mid 30s).

[D. Flame]

Short, sweet, and to the point. If you write a long form essay, I am just going to ignore it.

If you want to write a long review, write a short review first ( like 1 to 2 paragraphs ) and post it at the top of your review, then expand on it below. I would be able to see all that I need to know in that one paragraph, then if it was intriguing enough, I would also read the expanded points.

If you can't sum it up in a paragraph or two, work on improving your writing skills:

"If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter."

[Nite69]

i dont look at reviews, screenshots, graphics, and videos is enough for me to decide if I want a game or not

[Wheelie Gamer]

D. Flame původně napsal:

Short, sweet, and to the point. If your write a long form essay, I am just going to ignore it.

If you want to write a long review, right a short review first ( like 1 to 2 paragraphs ) post it at the top of your review, then expand on it below. I would be able to see all that I need to know in that one paragraph, then if it was intriguing enough, I would also read the expanded points.

If you can't sum it up in a paragraph or two, work on improving your writing skills:

"If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter."

you probably know this already but if someone writes a lot of waffle in some cases they might have a disability or difficulty or illness that affects the way they input words, even medications someones on like strong anti pyschotics can affect writing masively. its not to force people to put up with it but its just so people are aware of some of the causes. self moderation isnt always possible either in gamers with memory issues and/or executive dysfunction issues.

id love to be able to sum up a clear decent review in a couple of paragraphs, but ive suffered from severe epilepsy all my life,which has caused a lot of small brain injurys,im classic autistic and have mild intelectual disability and i end up waffling way to much as im constantly forgeting with each sentance and it ends up a big pile that overloads me with my own infomation (lol). my suport staff often help me when they can with going over reviews.
the only exampel i can give is a review i wrote earlier tonight,i did it for riders republic (on steam).

[miakisfan]

Nothing. I prefer pre-build looks at games. That's why I used to get PS Magazine back in the day. Inside views at what is being made.

Fact is if a game was a RPG I'd just buy it when it came out. Didn't care if others thought it sucked or not.

The people at Best Buy in one specific Arizona store knew me by name and if a customer had a question about a game and they couldn't answer it and I was there they'd come to me. I would describe the game to them and let them decide if they wanted it or not.

[Nosteru]

I always set newest first and allow all language (im using google translate on them). Because games get alot of patches and some older review can show alot of wrong information.

[Castyles]

Honest ones, without bias.

[stratzilla]

D. Flame původně napsal:

"If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter."

A very poignant quote. I try to offer a paragraph summary and then some quick bullet points followed by a full review.

[crunchyfrog]

stratzilla původně napsal:

crunchyfrog původně napsal:

I used to write reviews professionally (though I mostly used to do walkthroughs and guides) back in the PS1 era.

There's a few basic tricks first and foremost. The obvious being don't drag it out. Try and condense it to as little words as you can, maybe at most a couple of thousand. ALWAYS write the review out and do at least one or two drafts before doing it properly.

As far as the meat of details, I find merely goin through and writing it as if you're explaining it step by step to a friend rather works best. DO NOT do the thing that others tend to gravitate towards online where you try to section things up into graphics, sound, mechanics and so on. It's boring and rarely works well. Far better to make it flow and make it cohesive.

For example, I have on my profile my review of Recettear. I'm quite happy with it as I found it was rather nice and easy to explain and people seemed to like it from the feedback I've got. So have a look and see if it helps.

Any publications you wrote for? I was an OPM subscriber from 1997 to 2000 or so. In a lot of ways, it helped shaped my gaming tastes today (mid 30s).

Yup, I wrote for the Official PS Magazine in the UK from the PS1 to the early days of the PS2. I wrote for a few others but not so much as that.

If you read the walktrhoughs sections and saw things like guides to racing games like TOCA World Touring Cars, Colin McRae Rally 2.0 then they were mine. I also did a lot of smaller tips and the odd review (but most of my reviews were for other publications).

So you might have read some quick tips in that section for Dino Crisis, Star Wars The Phantom Menace or a load of other games and they'd be mine too.

[crunchyfrog]

miakisfan původně napsal:

Nothing. I prefer pre-build looks at games. That's why I used to get PS Magazine back in the day. Inside views at what is being made.

Fact is if a game was a RPG I'd just buy it when it came out. Didn't care if others thought it sucked or not.

The people at Best Buy in one specific Arizona store knew me by name and if a customer had a question about a game and they couldn't answer it and I was there they'd come to me. I would describe the game to them and let them decide if they wanted it or not.

Fun fact - those pre build looks you get of games back then in the PS1 era were a wee bit of a lie in a lot of cases (not all, mind).

You might have got the impression that they played and greatly involved themselves in the game, heard what is being worked on and so on.

Ofttimes, nope. A lot of them were merely a press disc with images stored on them they reprinted in the magazine. I have several of these.

One way to tell, looking back, is to look at the article and see if there's any shots of the actual workplace or the people involved. If it seems clear they went there, then they likely tried it out. Otherwise if it's just a dozen or so shot, and some artwork and stuff, likely just a press disc and a PR letter.