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Our guide to a world of awesome game reviews

Game reviews are important. They help developers get direct feedback on their games, and as gamers they help us make an informed purchase or share our thoughts. Writing a quality review carries a certain responsibility: to do good by both the game and the community. Striking that perfect balance is a challenge, a delicate art that we want to promote.

Next time you're about to write a review, you'll see our simple suggestions for crafting a top-notch review. You can always revisit them from the review form as well.

Focus on your in-game experience: if you have general feedback or need tech support, contact us!
Avoid politics and drama: let the game stand on its own merits.
Critique responsibly: whether it's positive or negative, a great review should be helpful and informative.

We hope that these three essential guidelines will help make GOG.com reviews even more awesome than they already are, but we also don't want to stop there!



CONTEST: REVIEW OF THE MONTH

Together with our friends at ROCCAT we venture to encourage and reward the best reviews on GOG.com – and to that end, we are introducing our monthly Review of the Month contest!

Submit your review for any game (or games!) released on GOG.com between May 1 and May 31, 2016. This time around, the grand prize is the RENGA gaming headset, courtesy of ROCCAT.

Here's what you need to know:

—Once you've posted your review, submit it for consideration by also quoting it in this post's forum thread.
—Keep the review guidelines in mind. A good review can be both entertaining and informative, it can be brief or extensive. It doesn't need to be positive in its overall assessment of the game - as long as it's eloquent and fair (or hilarious), it has our attention.
—All eligible reviews must be about games that have joined the GOG.com catalog within the previous month. For this first phase of the contest eligible reviews shall concern games that came out on GOG.com between May 1 and May 31, 2016.
—Winners will be announced at the beginning of every month with the start of next month's contest. The first round of winners will be announced in early July, giving you guys a bit of extra time to fine-tune your entries. Remember that if you're not happy with the shape of a review you've already posted, you can always contact our support team to rectify that.
—The best review of each month will win a sweet piece of gaming gear, courtesy of the good people at ROCCAT. Any runners-up will receive honorable mentions and one $9.99 code each, to be redeemed at GOG.com.

Let's celebrate the reviews that hit the nail on the head — the most constructive, informative, or fun to read. Grab your keyboards and make some magic happen, GOGers!
Post edited May 31, 2016 by maladr0Id
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omega64: Anyone know which games actually released since May 1?
I struggle to remember.
See here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/review_of_the_month_contest_7732d/post36
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IAmSinistar: Ha! Given my experiences with the GOG review system, that is sadly probable.
The message from GOG would be priceless in that case.
"We really loved your review, but that other person just had something special going on in theirs.
That's when you wouldn't know whether to laugh, yell, cry or drink.
Post edited May 19, 2016 by CarrionCrow
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CarrionCrow: And that's when you wouldn't know whether to laugh, yell, cry or drink.
I think I'd opt for a little of all of these, while hopefully stopping short of "mailing anthrax".
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omega64: Anyone know which games actually released since May 1?
I struggle to remember.
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mrkgnao: See here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/review_of_the_month_contest_7732d/post36
Thank you.
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drealmer7: I feel like a system like this is going to decrease the quality of reviews, not increase them. Reviewing a game the same month it is released and rewarding those who do it? Sounds like a ploy to get marketting done for you.
Agree.

Though I think it would increase them if there were no physical (or digital) rewards, only a simple "That was a great review! Congrats!" comment. That way, people who really care about writing reviews would still be able to get something; and people who aren't really interested in writing reviews but rather interested in the rewards probably wouldn't make the effort to enter the contest, therefore resulting in an overall higher quality because it was done with passion.
"—Focus on your in-game experience: if you have general feedback or need tech support, contact us!
—Avoid politics and drama: let the game stand on its own merits.
—Critique responsibly: whether it's positive or negative, a great review should be helpful and informative. "

So, a little common sense, basically? Gotcha. ;)

I approve of this initiative to improve the quality and quantity of game reviews on the site ( in particular for new releases ). Whether it will actually work out in a positive way remains to be seen, but it's worth a shot.
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IAmSinistar: Duskers

a review by SonicFan4178

This is hard game! I keep dyin when I open doors and the ship not move even when I say "go". Also the grafix on hsip are all static and not pretty.

PRos:
1) Can name robots (mine aree Sonic, Tails, an Knuckles)
2) Is in space
3) Can review on GOG without owning
4) Can make own commands, so I blow up robots with "ur gay" :)

CONs:
1) Is not easy
2) Needs thinking
3) No clear if captain is a dude, don't want to play homo or gurl or black guy
4) Espensive but I pirate (see PRO #3)

1 star, PLZ GET SONIC ADVENTURE GOG!!!1!
Ver god reveiw but I liek Turtls more than SOnc. Wer did u dnlowd teh gam? Pirats r awsom.
Post edited May 19, 2016 by CharlesGrey
high rated
Here's my guide to a world of awesome game reviews:

- Fix the broken review system first before introducing such an ill-conceived contest
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IAmSinistar: 3) Can review on GOG without owning

[...]

4) Espensive but I pirate (see PRO #3)
Ah, just what the janitor ordered:
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maladr0Id: ... keep in mind that no purchase is necessary to participate in this contest!
---

So you want lots of high-quality reviews GOG? Here's an idea: replace each reward with a user-friendly improvement of the review functionality.
Post edited May 19, 2016 by Lemon_Curry
high rated
The current review system does not honour lengthy reviews and makes it difficult for readers to find them. The word limit is too small and if a game has many reviews already, then you are likely not getting anywhere near the first page for people to see your review. A filter or sorting option is the bare minimum. Until then, I will find my reviews elsewhere, I am sorry.
I actually have one concern about the new review guidelines, namely the "avoid politics" rule.

The problem is that some things that some people consider "poitics" could negatively impact some people's experience of the game.

For example, if a game has heavy amounts of sexism, that could negatively impact my experience of the game. Similarly, transphobia could easily turn an otherwise decent game into one which I would not be comfortable playing.

Also, suppose a game does include a transgender character. Is there anything wrong with discussing whether that character was well written in a review?
Well, I was bored, and I went for it. Let's see how this one turns out.
Edit: Hold up...my review didn't appear. And I can't try to re-post it, since the "add my review" button is now gone. What am I supposed to do now? Post it here in the thread?
Re-edit: Ah, finally appeared after about a half an hour.
Post edited May 20, 2016 by zeogold
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zeogold: Well, I was bored, and I went for it. Let's see how this one turns out.
Edit: Hold up...my review didn't appear. And I can't try to re-post it, since the "add my review" button is now gone. What am I supposed to do now? Post it here in the thread?
Post it under a different game.
Then start a contest thread to see who finds it first.
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zeogold: Well, I was bored, and I went for it. Let's see how this one turns out.
Edit: Hold up...my review didn't appear. And I can't try to re-post it, since the "add my review" button is now gone. What am I supposed to do now? Post it here in the thread?
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mrkgnao: Post it under a different game.
Then start a contest thread to see who finds it first.
Tempting.
Edit: Oh, would you look at that, it made it. 'Bout time.
Post edited May 20, 2016 by zeogold
high rated
Is this another one of those GOG contests where no winners are ever selected and the contest thread just quietly gets dropped?
On the topic of reviews, have you ever added the ability for a person to remove their own review, rather than just edit the review? I've had at least one that I'd like to remove both review and rating, but it wasn't an option last time I tried, so I just left it as it was.

Speaking of that, an ability from profile to find all reviews might help for people cleaning up old, irrelevant reviews too.