Zreview anyone?

[The Avatar]

Hey guys and gals,

Listen, Ive been thinking of making my own game review site. Ive seen a few around and most of them bombard the fuck out of my browser with adds. So I was wondering if anyone is interested in making a Game review site with me.

I am a huge gamer, and I know there are many peoples around here who are also. So why not put our skills to use, the other consideration is being able to put this on your resume, so if you ever want to change work place or something you can say that you have worked on an online review site.

I've been kicking this idea around for a long time. All I need is some people to help me make it. Anyone got any ideas or sugestions?

[s3raph]

I'm interested. How would it be financed, and hosted?

[The Avatar]

I'm interested. How would it be financed, and hosted?

1337.as server, Spingo should give us a cheap price as it is just starting out, and as traffic gets higher(so high that I cannot afford them anymore), we can work out maybe donations or something.

I need someone technical to help setup the site though. I will ask Pirate if he is interested in helping out.

[thingy]

I've been meaning to do hardware reviews for zgeek for a few years now. Ahh, the joys of being lazy.

Seriously, if you want to review (hardware/software/whatever) then start reviewing, submitting as news. If people actually did that I'd annoy Pirate until he made a reviews forum for it all to be archived in to, and you'd get heaps of rep too!

The problem with making a seperate site is that there's already 101 different sites out there that do the same thing. YOu can't expect it to become big, don't expect another zgeek (let alone another OCAU/[H]orde). It'll be a lot of hard work with little to keep you going, but you just need to be persistent if you do go ahead with the idea.

[The Avatar]

I've been meaning to do hardware reviews for zgeek for a few years now. Ahh, the joys of being lazy.

Seriously, if you want to review (hardware/software/whatever) then start reviewing, submitting as news. If people actually did that I'd annoy Pirate until he made a reviews forum for it all to be archived in to, and you'd get heaps of rep too!

Thats cool, but Im talking about a seperate site for zgeek completely. Because Zgeek can be NSFW, I would like to make a review site very much like zgeek, but just with reviews and stuff.

We could review everything, just like Gamespot and IGN, but without all the crap adds involved. I really want to make a MEGADRIVE review site. And I would also like to be in on the creation side of the site from ground up, just as a learning experience. I am willing to foot the bill on this one as long as I can.

[108]

I really want to make a MEGADRIVE review site. And I would also like to be in on the creation side of the site from ground up, just as a learning experience. I am willing to foot the bill on this one as long as I can.
Heh, reviewing ROM's too? You'll have quite a back catalogue to go through :p I'm putting my hand up, if you need me.

[Reprobate]

My two cents worth?

Listen to what Thingy is proposing.

Getting a site up and running is a big enough mission in itself, getting a reputation AND visitors is an even bigger task.

Im not saying you can't do it. Just that taking advantage of Zgeek is the easiest path and if you outgrow it, you've got the reputation and runs on the board to be able to stand on your own two legs*.


*Assuming you have two legs.

[s3raph]

Personally I've never had any problem with ads aslong as they're not intrusive.

[Thyrd]

The snes was the best console evar. Megadrive paled in comparison. I am intriuged by your proposal for a review site. The problem with most is that they are not updated often enough. Plus side, there could also be some pimping out to zgeek on the site.

[cub]

Plus side, there could also be some pimping out to zgeek on the site.

Plus side zgeek gets one visitor a week.

:p

[Fitty]

You could make it Zreviews... work something out with Pirate, being mutually pimping.

[SOC]

I think n it's a good idea avatar, but i agree with thingy that's it's gonna be real hard work. my advice is to do as he says - speak to pirate about doing it as an ofshoot of zgeek until it grows big enough to support itself as a separate entity.

if you want a hand, let me know - i used to be a games reviewer/editor for newspapers and magazines back in australia, and have a huge back catalogue of reviews (snes, megadrive, gameboy, pc, playstation, n64) - if i can remember where they are!

[The Avatar]

Sweet dudes, Im not to proud to go with thingy idea, so I will ask pirate about it. Ive already PM'ed him so if he gets his lazy, stoned ass here, he can put in his two cents worth.

My only gripe was the layout of the reviews and how they would be presented. Also if it does move to another site, it would be great to have a backup of all the previous written articles. I have so many ideas for polls, and articles.

[fastfood]

Yeah it’s a good idea.
I don't reckon the current zgeek format would really help it a lot though, not if the reviews are lumped in with the news, because that review of GTA SA that you spent 1 week writing, its just been pushed down the page by some article cut and pasted from SMH.com.au. They would need a separate section or seperate URL and a big shiny button saying look here.

and how about another separate section called zblogs?
zworld domination pirate, this is how it starts.

[Pirate]

I'd be up for a bit of site helping, but I've pretty much got my hands full with zgeek & work. But if you want to do a zgeek games site that would be hella cool. I've always wanted to do that but I'm too damn lazy.

What we could do is set up something like http://games.zgeek.com as your own site with your own hosting etc. We'd have to sort something with Spingo with the hosting and that way you could have your own site and we could pimp each others gear. I've also got contacts here in Australia for all the games and console companies to get games. I'm pretty sure I could con them into some freebies.

[fastfood]

Count me in as a writer. I'll be a footsoldier in the z armies cos I am certainly not leadership material :)

Hell, I might try and write some reviews here in zgeek when I get some time, then you can chop em straight over to the other site once its up, (if they are any good!)

:D

[108]

Getting a reliable (or at least, regularly updated) Australian release date list is something that would make you instantly valuable. I don't think that there is a site with a regularly updated Aus list.

Right now, I'm stuck visiting about 10 different AU games sites or phoning EB for release dates.

[SOC]

Getting reliable release dates in Australia is almost impossible (I know this from bitter experience) ... from memory, Sony were the best and Sega were the worst ... I actually found Sega to be the absolutely worst company to deal with in the complete and utter history of business.

[Kyle]

If you're planning on reviewing games I could give you "sneak peeks" or whatever since I'm over here in the US and many major releases come out here first. Just an idea.

[lostreality]

i can do some artwork if required.

[lectrotext]

I can also help with design and artwork.

[The Avatar]

Done and done.

I will give pilate a msg. We start as soon as pilate, spingo and I have worked something out in regards to hosting and site content layout.

So far any console will be review, including as far back as C64 if some one out there is a real die hard fan. I wanted to get a few more women on the pannel, so that we could have a review format kind of like the movie show, where he says, then she says thing.

This is going to be awesome, as long as we dont get too lazy. Thats why Im hoping to get as many people involved in this as possible, so when one person slacks off, another takes up the slack.

SWEEEEEETTTTT.......

[Grizzlee]

I had a site up for reviews of Aussie released games. I got to lazy to keep it going with other sites I needed to keep going as well. But if you need a reviewer or any other help with the site, I'll do it.

I can provided a weekly release schedule too and will try to keep it up to date.

Being where I work, I have endless supplies of reviewing material =)

[The Avatar]

I can provided a weekly release schedule too and will try to keep it up to date.

Being where I work, I have endless supplies of reviewing material =)

That my friend, is going to be gold, you have just earnt REP+++!

We need a weekly release schedule for the site. What consoles will the release schedule be for?

[Grizzlee]

I can provide release dates for all systems (Cube, GBA, PS2, Xbox and PC).
Just be aware all release dates should be used as a guide. Changes can happen without notice.
Some companies keeps us up to date more regular than others.

[Pirate]

Just had a word to Spingo, he's gonna have a read of this thread and tell us about hosting.

[tikdoph]

Grizzlee has proven himself time and time again to be an invaluable source of game release info here. He was the first person I thought of that you might want to include as part of your endeavour. Go Grizz!

I think it would be a good idea to ask any volunteers to provide sample reviews before deciding on your regular reviewers. A good idea would be to pick a popular game from each of three different genres (FPS, RTS, and RPG, for example), set a rough word count limit on each review, (SOC or kleph should be able to give you a rough idea of what a good length would be) and get the volunteers to review the games. Then you can compare the reviews submitted for each game and pick the best reviewers from there. Remind the reviewers that things like spelling and grammar are important because the better job they do of making their reviews look professional, the less work you'll have to do when editing/finalising/posting. Advise the reviewers to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each game, describe ease of installation, playability of the game, minimum specs required, specs of system tested on, single or multi-player or both, etc.

I would also suggest they rate each game a score out of ten. You might even want to break it down even further into categories like Playability, Hardness, Addictiveness, Graphics/Sound, and X-Factor (for games that are made special by that something extra or new that isn't covered by the other categories).

Remember, people read reviews as a basis for whether or not they buy a game, so you want to make the review as relevant as possible. Spingo and Pirate will no doubt be able to offer you some good advice on what makes a great review. Their articles and reviews in APC, and Netguide, respectively, are excellent. Of course, neither of them will blow their own trumpet, but take my word for it... they can teach you a lot. From their wacky antics on ZGeek, you'd never guess that they are both very respected writers in their field.

Looks like you've got some very talented people volunteering their services. Good luck with it and keep us posted. :)

[fastfood]

Once this thing is off the ground, don't forget that I thought of the idea in the first place!

No, wait.. that was Avatar.

But I thought of falsely claiming that it was my idea first, which has to count for something!

:D

[Kez]

Can I help? :D

I can provide release dates for all systems (Cube, GBA, PS2, Xbox and PC).
Just be aware all release dates should be used as a guide. Changes can happen without notice.
Some companies keeps us up to date more regular than others.

*cough* Valve/VU Games *cough*

[fastfood]

I like the bio thing, but also like long reviews! Maybe a synopsis for lazy readers ;)
They have them in business/IT mags, they call them 'executive summaries'!! For important fat-cats with no time to read the fine details!

Just give me the gist of it!

[s3raph]

I'm happy to do some reviews, and some of the site artwork.

[108]

Could I suggest keeping the reviews short...
I agree. I also just skip to the "Closing comments" and /10 scores in the IGN reviews. I don't wanna know every little detail about the game, I just wanna know whats good and bad about it. But they must have the long reviews for a good reason. We're probably inthe minority. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[The Avatar]

Could I suggest keeping the reviews short and building more on the Bios of the reviewer? I read the last paragraph of IGN reviews and I skim mags and just read the scores. I don't know what the person reviewing likes and dislikes so their review could be weighted in a different way.

First step would be to get your reviewers to fill out profiles like top 10 games of all time, favourite console, day job and the like. That way people know if the person they are reading the review from is in the same ballpark as them. The other advantage to keeping them short is that you can have a whole bunch of reviews from different people. This would give your punters heaps more scope.

It's a new and exciting idea that could really take off if you guys are game (pun not funny)

If you use the shorter more concise review format, I'll be in for sure. The day of the 2,000 word review are dead!!

Yep, that was already on the agenda, about having profiles and such. I was also thinking of doing multiple reviews for games, and maybe a he said / she said format like in the movie show on SbS.
On sat, im heading to pirates house to discuss these topics and next week we will start seting up the page.
This is going to be awesome!!!!

[tikdoph]

Could I suggest keeping the reviews short and building more on the Bios of the reviewer? I read the last paragraph of IGN reviews and I skim mags and just read the scores. I don't know what the person reviewing likes and dislikes so their review could be weighted in a different way.

First step would be to get your reviewers to fill out profiles like top 10 games of all time, favourite console, day job and the like. That way people know if the person they are reading the review from is in the same ballpark as them. The other advantage to keeping them short is that you can have a whole bunch of reviews from different people. This would give your punters heaps more scope.

It's a new and exciting idea that could really take off if you guys are game (pun not funny)

If you use the shorter more concise review format, I'll be in for sure. The day of the 2,000 word review are dead!!
We're not talking about a $10-15 movie ticket here. We're talking about forking out for games that may cost up to $100 or more. If I'm considering paying that much for a game, I want to read a decent sized review that gives me a good idea of what I can expect to get for my hard earned dollars. Not a short review that someone cobbled together after reading the blurb on the back of the box.

[SOC]

Not a short review that someone cobbled together after reading the blurb on the back of the box.
There are a lot of reviewers working in magazines and newspapers making very comfortable livings for themselves doing exactly that! :mad:

[The Avatar]

SOC, are you interested in being an editor for the site?

I have 2 people already lined up, but you would make a welcome edition to the team.

[fastfood]

What's wrong with having both?

The 'executive summary' thing they do in the business IT mags.
The same way you write papers at uni, summarise it in a couple of paragraphs, then link to the bigger article.
Just because everyone else does long reviews doesn't make it wrong!

[SOC]

SOC, are you interested in being an editor for the site?

I have 2 people already lined up, but you would make a welcome edition to the team.
Yep, more than happy to help out.

[SOC]

It's a terribly easy thing to do. You get each reviewer to write their review in full (1000 words, or whatever length you want it to be). On your main page you have a cut-down version of that review (say 150-200 words) for those who prefer brief ones, then a link at the end to click on for the full review.

It's dead simple.

[The Avatar]

Yeah, there will be heaps of stuff you could do to contribute, but right now we have to concentrate on getting heaps of reviews up and running. No point hosting a game review site with fuck all game reviews.

Once we get 100 + reviews or so, we will start to incorporate other things into the site, like polls, and game cheats + walkthroughs.