Quality of reviews (66.185.84.81)
I know I'll probably get flammed for posting this but I don't care. I want to help with the reviews in a way I can (clears throat). Please don't take this personally. I'll be very blunt in this post.
Some if not most of the reviews are terrible. I read all kinds of reviews occasionally from various sites and this site offers some of the lowest quality reviews ever witnessed by me and I'm sure any one that can read will agree. Maybe the reviewers don't care about professionalism, but I'm sure many readers do. The bottom line is, these reviews (if you can even call them that) suck and I bet even grade 9's can spot the problems. I'll go into details about what's wrong with them.
I believe I can help by editing your reviews before you post them. Even if I haven't played the game or viewed whatever you are reviewing, I can at least fix up the "other aspects".
Whats wrong with the reviews. There's a wide range of problems. Not every review I've read share the same problem.
1. Lack of standard format. Someone should really form a standard format for the reviews. All items reviewed should have been reviewed using the same grading scale and judged by looking at the same aspects of the type of item that contribute to its quality (ok maybe I lost some of you). For example, aspects that contribute to an anime's quality are: animation, voices, music, story, charatcers etc.... each anime review should look at these aspect and write upon each in a organized way and not just stick them all in a paragraph or two. This is just an example.
2. Too subjective. Instead of giving your favourite game 10/10 or whatever, you should grade things coherently. This is easier to do if you have some kind of "measuring stick". Imagine what the perfect game and anime would be, then measure the item under review by that standard.
3. Overall flow of the writing.
Things like "I think", or "In my opinion" are not needed. It's your review, we know it's what you are stating. There are a zillion other examples that makes your reviews akward to read. Compare other review sites with these reviews, you'll easily see the difference in the flow of reading it.
4. Some reviews lack content
A review should give the reader a feel of what the game is about what how it is to play it. Some reviews simply lack information. A review should only be written if the item under review has been completed. Otherwise it's just a "preview" or "first look".
5. Some spelling/grammar
99.99% of the sentences can be understood. It's just that they aren't 100% correct. I didn't see too many spelling errors, but there are buckets of grammar faults (I'm not perfect either).
These are all the flaws I suggests paying attention to. These are also things I can help with (except for # 4, I can't write up info I don't know). Send me your review before you post it. I'll give suggestions and edits.
I understand this site doesn't have an organized staff group. That is exactly why some of these reviews get out of hand.
Lastly, I'd like to state that I appreciate people spending time to review things here. I love this website in many ways and I only hope to make it better. I'm not claiming to be the greatest writer or purposely trying to mock you. I'm simply offering fair criticism and my helping hand.
Re: Quality of reviews (65.95.72.181)
Here is my flame:
Good job. Get Nymph to notice this thing and we could start cleaning out the grammar.
I agree on the context and grammar problem. Precisely why I type perfectly and check grammar (some mistakes, occasionally)...
I admire your sense of professionalism...now to see if Nymph can get you a job/right to edit the content in this site...
NOTE: I am simply too busy to maintain ALL of the content in this site unless I have 1 month to waste away, which I don't, for I have a GAME TO CREATE! Grr...
‘å •¿ Žá Ý Žè , ´ •— ŸÞ “V ‰º .
å« ”ñ E ˜V ¹ , ’A ‹ •K —L œä !
- Yang Sei Fu (—k´•—)
=/| ClearWind Design Studios - http://ClearWind.web1000.com |\=
All hail the largest poster in the site whose post count exceeds even the webmaster himself... WHAHAHAHAHA....
Re: Quality of reviews (67.113.245.20)
"I want to help with the reviews in a way I can (clears throat)."
hehe you mean in anyway you can (grammar check) haha ok that was a joke... all kidding aside... let me congratulate you on this finding... but to tell you the truth... i don't feel the suggestions are concrete enough to make a legitimate change... first let me point out the problems... then maybe we can all work together to fix it (though i am barely around now a days)...
1. On the part where you think there is a lack of a standard format... I should remind you that there were standard formats at each point and time and that this website has gone through at least 4 format changes that I know off... first change was the original posters... we each had our own ideas and nymph basically let us all loose with our review style... just as long as we were able to give a summary and an overall statement... second format change was to try and make the reviews more standard... thus we each know what to cover in our reviews... music, gameplay, story, etc... then came the pro and con scale which was more subjective but preferable by the others and I at the time because the notion of games are rather subjective... and finally came the point standard in which I am still disagree with... More or less the standards in reviews are more of an evolutionary process that was taken from the birth of the site... now... if we were to really go back and correct everything... it will definitely be tough (maybe even impossible unless we can pull back all the previous reviewers and have then edit their own work)... yes it is possible to change some work to a standard format but for the reviews that aren't scored... this is clearly not ideal...
2. I agree with the score system being subjective... thats why I always stayed in the third format where there was a pros and cons... but again... the perfect game is like a moving target... the industry always re-invents itself and no perfect game can be used as a measurement tool... such is the trouble on a grading scale with a dynamic target...
3. no disrespect to other review sites... but i have been to other sites... and though their reviews seems somewhat more elegant... at other times it seems like they never even finished the game and are basically giving you the run around using fancy sentence structures and words... but overall yes the "I think"s and the "in my opinion"s gets annoying...
4. see #3... and I am not sure about now... but this was a big issue back when we were reviewing... complete the game... get screen shots from all stages of the game (not just the opening sequence)... and yes do FINISH the game... but again... we don't hold up knifes to peoples throat to see who finishes the game before reviewing... another problem might be the lack of information on the game itself... there are games that are completely useless but we still play it... there is absolutely no gameplay in the game so how can we even talk about it... the last problem in this might refer back to the lack of a standard format... without key points being noted on what a game review should point out... reviewers basically give a score... and say why it scored the way it did...
5. I might be wrong to make this judgement but keep in mind that being bilingual or trilingual can take a toll on grammar... maybe suggesting that word documents be sent instead would help a little in the spelling and grammar problem... but again... even if you double check or triple check for grammar errors... we are the writers... sometimes... things will escape us... and yes putting a staff to screen these problems out definitely would help... but without a standard... reviewers will not benefit from having their reviews grammar checked and screened...
so my only opinion in this is maybe the staff should agree on a standard format... get a word document file to be sent it to minimize possible spelling and grammar problems... have maybe allow some staff members to have the "power" to edit or correct grammar mistakes or simply message the reviewer to correct it themselves
Re: Quality of reviews (67.113.245.20)
and yes i did notice my grammar problems in that post... hope my professionalism ratings don't go down because i posted without a grammar check (JK)
Quality of reviews (66.185.84.81)
Re: Quality of reviews (65.95.72.181)
Re: Quality of reviews (67.113.245.20)
Re: Quality of reviews (67.113.245.20)