A community poll about reviews in the Games Beaten thread.

[Exhuminator]

I prefer for reviews to be short, fairly objective, and to make succinct points. I also like review scores. I try to write my reviews that way. But sometimes I do write big long multi-paragraph reviews. But that only happens when:

I feel exceptionally strongly about a game positively or negatively, and want to explain why.

I beat an obscure title which I think deserves recognition, so I want to describe its merits in detail.

I love cover art, so I always include that in my reviews. I also think screenshots are worth a thousand words, hence I include screenshots. For me, sometimes writing reviews in Games Beaten feels like a waste of effort, but I still write them as an act of personal closure regardless. If anyone learns anything from my reviews, or is at least entertained by them, then that's cool too.

[dunpeal2064]

I tend to read reviews based on the games being reviewed, moreso than the user (Though I quite enjoy some of your write-ups, and will read your reviews even for games I have no interest in )

Length doesn't matter, as long as it feels like the writer didn't cut it short despite wanting to write more, or pad it not wanting to write a small amount.

I love the screenshots, sometimes I plan to skip a review, and a ss will catch my eye, and have me going back to read it.

Positive and negative reviews are both cool by me, it expands on the particular writer, and lets me know where they fall in relation to my taste, which strengthens their impact on me wanting to play or avoid games they review.

Admittedly, I tend to avoid posting in the Games Beaten thread, as I'm no reviewer, and usually just spout out a few things, which feels a disservice when the majority of posters in there are putting a lot of thought and effort into their write ups.

[ElkinFencer10]

There are certain folks whose reviews I always read, and I skim through the others.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Some people have mentioned screenshots, and given that we're talking about the GBT in general, I feel it's worth mentioning that as someone who likes writing longer reviews without including photos:

1) I don't really know how to include photos. It requires hosting them on some external source and I'm really unsure on how to do that. I also haven't taken the time to learn because of
2) Most games I play are in formats where it is impossible for me to take screenshots of any kind. I play a lot of games on 3DS and on consoles. I don't have a retron or a modded 3DS with a TV-out, so the only way for me to take most photos would be with a literal camera of the screen. That tends to look terrible, so I've never even tried. As for consoles with built in screen-shots
3) My PS4 is very far from an internet source, so I can't post snapshots online. I also don't really have any easy way of transfering data off of a Micro SD, let alone a Sony memory card, so I can't really do anything with pictures on my Switch or Vita either.
4) This is something I mostly do for me, as I like cataloging my thoughts at the moment of reviewing, and I also like the idea that someone on here might enjoy reading what I've written and maybe even get a laugh or some useful info out of it as well. There's nothing really riding on whether or not people read my reviews, so I've never really felt compelled to deal with all of the above in any capacity to fix it.

If putting photos here were super painless and easy, I'd totally do it because I do think it makes y'all who do include 'em have cooler looking reviews. The above are just such a barrier that I've felt no need to look into it. This isn't an angry post or directed at anyone in particular. I'm just putting forward why I write reviews the way I do.

[Sarge]

When I feel convicted to go the extra mile, I either link to external sources (not great since those can change or go away), or upload to Imgur.

[Xeogred]

I also recommend imgur. You can often drag an image from the webpage itself unto imgur's page and upload it. Managing photos if you register is a bit unorganized though, but I don't even bother logging in and just throw images on there when I post them around the forums thesedays.

I tend to slap on review scores randomly myself sometimes, but never take it too seriously. Seems like everyone else feels that way too judging by the responses. But I guess it's the old school magazine reader in me that still looks to throw numbers out. It's always subject to change though. Time is always the ultimate test.

[Key-Glyph]

I'm with the group that either reads Games Beaten reviews based on who's writing them or what games they're about. If there's a game I'm interested in, I'll read anyone's review of it. If one of my favorite writers shows up, I'll be reading their reviews regardless of the game.

I'm more interested in people's experiences with the games than the need for objectivity or detailed gameplay description, though. I can go elsewhere on the internet for clinical breakdowns (possibly even our own Game Reviews subforum), and I can hop on YouTube to see actual gameplay. I come here because I enjoy you people as individuals and I like it when your personalities shine through. Because of this I tend to favor -- and am much more likely to read -- the less polished, more introspective, off-the-cuff stuff than the magazine-worthy pieces.

That's not to say that long professional reviews aren't great and something everyone should be proud of. They're just not what I personally get excited about.

I like a screenshot or two, but that's about it. I'm not too interested in lots of high-definition images; I'm just looking to get a basic flavor.

I don't know if anyone should necessarily pay any attention to my opinions, however, because the Games Beaten thread now populates so fast that I've stopped keeping up with it. I get more excited about the Summer Games Challenge thread every year, because the posts tend to be the casual, personal reflections I enjoy and the whole thing clips along at a much more manageable pace.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I did make my vote, but overall I think the current direction of "everyone does what they like" is perfectly fine overall.

For me, the thread moves really fast and is hard to keep up with, and I usually don't have the game fresh enough on my mind to do a review. I like reading what other people post though, although I don't read every post.

[Damm64]

I enjoy reading some reviews. Sometimes i want to read a user opinion on a certain game or just want to know more about the game in general. With my current free time i actually find myself liking shorter material, games, videos, reading... everything i see is short and sweet lately.

[ElkinFencer10]

Image hosting is a bit easier for me since I write all of my stuff on my blog first and then just copy and past over here, so all of my images are linked straight to my blog.