7 replies to this topic

[WhatIsLife]

Just wondering if you had plans to create a general gaming discussion area/category/forum/? for stuff like multiplatform titles and abstract gaming talk.

[Axe99]

Great idea Eggy .  We could pretend that it was all part of our masterplan, but it would be much fairer and accurate to give you the credit for thinking of it .  Have added it in now - I'm not sure whether we'll move our sub-forums for multi-plat titles in there, but I suspect we will.

[WhatIsLife]

What I'm hoping for also is for more active discussion in a general forum. Say there's this awesome new indie title that I want everyone to know about, posting in the PC sub-forum probably isn't going to have the greatest reach .

[Axe99]

I think we need to keep things in there appropriate place, or it could turn into one big mess (getting attention for a PC indie title wouldn't necessarily be that easy if we just had one big gaming section either), but there are plenty of other ways to get attention for titles.

If there's a new PC indie title that's released that you think deserves a bit of attention, as well as starting a thread in the PC forum we can:

• Post a trailer for the game in the gaming vids section, with a link in the description back to the thread in the PC forum.

• post a gaming news article, linking back to the thread - just talk to admin or content about it, or post up some info and ask if we can 'blog it' to the gaming news feed (we can turn any post into a gaming news entry) - just make sure there's a 16:9 image in the post that can be used as a thumbnail.

• If you've played the game through, or at least given it a good shake, talk with admin or our content team about getting a review (if you've finished the game) or a First Impressions (if you've played it a bit, but haven't finished it) posted - that'll give it a big splash on the front page.  We're relatively strict about the structure and quality of writing of our reviews/first impressions articles, just because they do get such prominence, but we're always interested in new reviewers.  Have a gander at the reviews and first impressions we've got up at the moment if this sounds like a good idea .

Also, don't forget that all new threads show up in the left-hand side of the forum index, and the most recent active threads show up in the left-hand side of every other page with a forum sidebar, including the front page.

How does all that sound?  We've deffo tried to make it as easy as possible for content to get noticed here, and for people to share stuff with the community - and like your suggestion above, we're very much about making this site work for everyone .

[WhatIsLife]

All sounds great Axe . Thanks for the advice, I honestly didn't think of posting in Gaming Vids with a link back.

Good to know you have a great pipeline for getting community content out there, when I get off my arse and finish some games for once I'll attempt to write some reviews. I was wondering if there's guidelines for reviews somewhere - but I can interpret a pretty decent template and guidelines from the current reviews.

All that said, I've never written a review before - any tips to give? I was hoping to do reviews for Hotline Miami, Retro City Rampage, Mark of the Ninja and Farming Simulator 2013. (That last one isn't a joke!)

[Axe99]

Top stuff Eggy .  I've just moved our 'review the game you last played' thread into General Gaming Discussion - there are some guidelines there for reviews that should help.  The best way to approach it is to think about what you want to know about a game when you read a review, and roll from there.  First Impressions are similar, but less formally structured (as first impressions can vary a lot more, particularly by genre) - we've got two up so far, for Dishonored and Borderlands 2, if you give them a read, they should get you moving in the right direction.  If you've got any questions at all, just let me know

And that list of games sounds great .  We've got no worries at all posting reviews for niche titles either (this sentence may or may not be implying that Farming Simulator 2013 is a niche title ).

[WhatIsLife]

Just read the 'review the game you last played' thread, great info there. Thanks for all the help!

(Farming Simulator isn't that niche, it's still in the top 20 sellers on Steam!)

[Axe99]

Go Farming Simulator!  Looking forward to reading the review .