It’s time for a change. We’ve been discussing reviews as team ever since the site started. We began without scores, then added them, then tweaked them, then tweaked them again. We also know that Metacritic has become an uneven mess of a system with far too much riding on essentially arbitrary numbers.
So, we got together and discussed how to make things better for our little site. And this is what came out of that: an updated review policy that stops using traditional scoring and focuses on the words and the writer more than ever before.
Ryan and I have been looking for ways to make the site feel less like a job and more like a creative outlet for the individuals that inhabit it. This updated policy will greatly reinforce that, and make things a LOT easier for us when it comes to reviewing games that both come in from publishers and those that we actively seek out. In essence, it will continue to get back to what the site was originally created for.
As a bit of inside baseball, here’s what spurred the conversation:
- Choosing a score/rating took a lot more time than we ever imagined.
- Who should review a sequel? A fan of the series, or someone who might be a first time buyer?
- But what if other team members wanted to write a review about a game that was already reviewed?
- Reviews had become “SideQuesting” reviews, instead of individual writers’ thoughts, forcing a wall between writer and reader.
- Patches can sometimes come in that greatly improve an experience, but the review and score may already be out in the wild.
And now, our updated review policy:
- We’re done with review scores. Instead, if a game is deserving of a high recommendation, we’ll have a Team Choice banner displayed with the review. These can only be attained through conversation between the staff, not just the reviewer and Ryan (our Reviews Editor). This is THE HIGHEST HONOR ANY VIDEO GAME CAN EVER HOPE TO ACHIEVE. There, I said it.
- We are now going to allow multiple people to review a game. So, that means that even if one person reviewed it and another would like to as well, that’s totally fine — and is probably preferred. These will help confirm a prior review, or provide a rebuttal to one. This will help readers determine who’s reviews they want to follow instead of that of the all-seeing Eye of SideQuesting.
- If the game is a sequel or part of a series, we’ll try to push to get those with experience in the series to review it if possible. Considering that those that read the reviews will probably be fans of the series already, it would be optimal to get the Editor(s) on staff who have the most relative experience with it to review. We’ll ALSO post a quick bio/update within the review or on the new staff pages as needed to show what games we consider ourselves experts/fans of.
- In games that are genre specific or niche, we’ll make it a point to aim the review to that direction. If a game is a hard core JRPG (for example) but may not appeal to many outside of the genre, we’ll review it that way, with wording within the review to reflect that.
- We’re going to make our closing sentences be much more of a reflection of the overall review. Not a bullet-pointed summary per se, but a way to wrap up our big thoughts about a game.
- Multi-person reviews are also welcome. In areas where a game thrives on multiple players (like MMOs or games like Destiny, for instance) it may be worthwhile to have two or more people tackle a review together.
- We’ll be able to post updates to reviews. Getting rid of scores allows us to go back and update reviews as needed as patches and content updates become available, as long as we date the edits accordingly. It won’t always happen, but when it does you’ll it labeled as such.
- More multimedia reviews! That’s pretty self explanatory, but expect more audio, video and other kinds of reviews!
That’s what we have so far. This policy may even change over time — and frankly, I think we all hope it does to reflect what we feel the medium requires. We’re already in the process of transferring our old reviews into the new format, but our “Team Choice” banners will only start with reviews going forward.
We hope this is something that will interest you as much as it does for us. We strongly feel that this will allow our reviews to be more reflective of the games and the people who play them, and will help us as a team have more time with games we’re interested in.
Don’t hesitate to shoot me (dali@sidequesting.com) or Ryan (ryan@sidequesting.com) an email if you have any questions, or feel free to comment below. We’ll post this in our policy pages soon after as the site layout has been updated.
Cheers!
Dali
Header image courtesy NASA