Game reviews exist. They have their place and need to exist. There some from many different angles. Critic reviews, customer reviews, journalist (who haven't even plauyed the game) reviews . . . and more . . . you get the point. My issue is not about the reviews themselves, well not about the main body of the reviews. My issue is about the industry not failing to understand those the needs and time that the readers ofthe reviews have.
It's well known that a majority of the people who read game reviews, mostly scroll right down to the bottom. Some people read the final score only. Some read the summary bullet points. Why could this be?
We have established that a majority of the readers only read a time portion of the reviews, mostly at the end. The bottom of the reviews is where the focus should be put to grab the readers attention. This is not happening and this is where the issue is. Not enough focus is put on the bottom of the reviews to get people informed about the game they are looking to purchase. Just saying "go read the review" will be met with "No, I read the number score and that's all I'll do". How can we improve this situation to make these kind of readers more informed in their game purchasing?
If you look at this, you'll see a few things. Ignore the font choice, it's the rest that I'll discuss.
My Conclusion
Game journalists who write game reviews need to put more effort into the summary/conclusion parts of their reviews. Doing so will help everyone and insure more people make informed choices when purchasing games and the better games will get more sales as the reasons to buy them will be more better described to the public.
It's well known that a majority of the people who read game reviews, mostly scroll right down to the bottom. Some people read the final score only. Some read the summary bullet points. Why could this be?
- They already know a lot about the game and just want the score to get them off the fence
- They have no time to read a full review so the summary bullet points and score is the best they can do
- Are they just looking at the review score so they can post the polar opposite score to metacritic and review bomb the game
- Does the reader blindly believe anything that particular gaming journalist writes and feels the score is all they need
- Does the reader dislike reading long pieces of text
- Does the reader have the ability to read long pieces of text? Ie. is there a disability involved?
We have established that a majority of the readers only read a time portion of the reviews, mostly at the end. The bottom of the reviews is where the focus should be put to grab the readers attention. This is not happening and this is where the issue is. Not enough focus is put on the bottom of the reviews to get people informed about the game they are looking to purchase. Just saying "go read the review" will be met with "No, I read the number score and that's all I'll do". How can we improve this situation to make these kind of readers more informed in their game purchasing?
- One solution I have some up with is to not just finish up your review with a review score. A long wall of text, even if it's well formatted into neat paragraphs with just a score at the end does nothing to help this. There needs to be a distinct conclusion area that summarises the content of the review. What should this conclusion contain or not contain?
- It should not be more walls of text. It needs to be short and to the point.
- It should mention both the good parts of the game and the bad parts or issues the game has. No game ever made has been 100% perfect so there will always be negative things to say, but they could be writen more like recommendations, so they are said in a less harsh way.
- What is written here should be an accurate reflection of the main body of the review. Not tell lies or misinformation in the conclusion to get a more favourable responce to the game. This has two parts. Firstly to make sure the facts in the body are accurately summarised in the conclusion. Secondly that the journalist's opinions of the game are also accurately summarised here too.
- The formatting of the conclusions are very easy to read and stand out from the main body of the review. Using bullet points and separating the pros and cons go a long way to do this.
- Make sure the pros and cons are balanced. I do not mean have the same number of each. I mean balance as in not having 10 insignificant pros and one major con as the conclusion without a summary sentence or two explaining this. People will see 10 pros and one con ans think it's a great game, without realising that one con could be game breaking. Just a hypothetical example. Possibly further separating the pros and cons into major and minor might help.
If you look at this, you'll see a few things. Ignore the font choice, it's the rest that I'll discuss.
- There is clearly defined as a summary with a decently sized heading to people know to look here
- The good points and bad points are clearly separated so people can differentiate them
- The major and minor points are clearly separated as well
- The major good points are in green and the major bad points are in red for a reason. Because they are the major deal breakers. Issues everyone should be aware of. Reasons to get the game or not get the game. The minor points are more nitpicks, things you can live with but need to be mentioned to ensure the whole conclusion is an accurate reflection of the main body of the review
- Each point is concise. No additional unnecessary descriptive words are used. Describe it all in the main body of the review
- The whole conclusion is kept short. If it's too long no one will read it
My Conclusion
Game journalists who write game reviews need to put more effort into the summary/conclusion parts of their reviews. Doing so will help everyone and insure more people make informed choices when purchasing games and the better games will get more sales as the reasons to buy them will be more better described to the public.