Review Template

Should we have a template for each section of review, and have we decided on a generalized grading system for each section?

As far as a layout, we should offer at least the title and author for books. Video games should be title, publisher, developer. Movies should be title, director, and producer. Something that we could do that I haven't seen anywhere is a "Similar To" heading, which would just point out similar works that you might already enjoy that would give you a basic idea of the work being reviewed.

As far as grading, perhaps we could have 2 levels of grading. The first would be a simple rating of 1-5, A-F, or whatever other method we plan to use. The second would be a 1-10 meter that would show what level of interest in something is typical of the average consumer of said product. For example, let's take Diablo 3. Let's say it gets a "B". That would show that in it's genre it isn't the best, but it is definately worth getting. But does that mean everyone should go buy it? No. If you never played Diablo or Diablo II, then chances are your understanding of the story is going to be spotty at best. Thus, the plot would be confusing for you, and a majority of the people that are waiting for this game already know the whole backstory and whatnot. So, on the 1-10 meter, it would get an "8". That would just show that basically, this game is for the avid gamer, or a Diablo fan.

I dunno... I think my example is a little confusing, but fuck it. Perhaps you can understand it. If not, then I'll see if I can write up an example... So that's what I think on the subject though.

I say people who decide to do reviews alot make their own templates and stick to their own formats. That will keep things fresh. However there should be a Zelaron standard for Title/System/Author/Publisher.

Maybe the template idea could be for those of us who lack the ability of creating a world class review. I for one don't exactly have the best reviews. The kind of person like me would benefit the most from a template opposed to someone who knows exactly what they are doing.

Should we require them to discuss certain points of the piece of media, or literature they are reviewing?

How far should we require a person to be into the form of media before they can give a valid review? Some people like me have a bad habbit of playing for 10 minutes then assuming the rest. Infinite Undiscovery actually turned out pretty cool, where as my first impression was don't buy it. Should you be require to have completed the item before reviewing? Or perhaps giving an amount of time you have spent with it?

Regarding the rating system, I suggest that we let all members decide the score of the product using the thread rating feature. "Rate Thread" is disabled in quite a few forums, but when available, it shows up next to "Search This Thread" below the PM notification box. Because no-one really uses it, I think we could rename the feature to "Rate This Game/Movie/Book (and possibly album?)" and only allow it to be used in the review forums. We can probably ensure that the rating feature will show up outside one of the menus, too.

As for templates, I think this is a good example of a review: http://zelaron.com/forum/showthread.php?t=35998

However, only the first 700 characters of a review will show up on the portal; reading the rest of it requires you to click a "Read More" link. Therefore, the bolded Title, Developer, Platform and Genre information in the beginning of the reviews should not be used. Besides, there's a prefix system in place that will let you choose the platform, and the title of the product will be the topic of the thread. The information about developer/genre can probably be baked into the review itself.