The Art of Review

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mike_Hunter]Mike Hunter
Writing a board game review is an art, and just like any art it requires both the writer's own sense of style and voice combined with the ability to ground the work in a form that can be recognized and identified with. In a proper review, form must meet function.
What is a review for?
At its heart, any review serves a very simple purpose - to tell people what a game is like.
People read reviews to gather information about a potential purchase. It is a form of selective discrimination - people have limited time and other resources. A review helps them narrow down the available choices to get the results they wish.
What goes into a good review?
The first thing every good review needs is honesty. A certain amount of trust goes into reading a review. Breaking that trust makes a review worthless. Further, it can give the reviewer a reputation among reviewers as a poor source.
Second, the review must be clear and focused. Vague generalities such as "liking the concept" won't do here. What is needed is a clear message that explains whether the board game works, and why or why not?
What goes into reviewing board games specifically?
Writing a board game review is, once again, an art. No single 'way' of reviewing board games dominates. That said, there are some key elements that can be addressed.
The first is gameplay. Not every boardgame is Monopoly, after all. Risk plays very differently to Chutes and Ladders. People want to know what kind of gaming experience they will be getting.
Start by asking several questions about gameplay. Is it dice based? Card based? Something toy-based like Mousetrap? How many players does the game need? Is it turn based, or does everyone act at once?
Other questions about gameplay include how long a game will run, or how fast a round or turn goes by. The average turn in Monopoly tends to go fairly quickly, but the whole game can last for hours. Robo Rally on the other hand has long turns, but tends to finish up play in about an hour.
How much of this any writer puts into their review is up to them, but any review should cover the gameplay to at least some degree.
Next, a review shouldn't forget to consider the presentation. A game might have outstanding box art and be entirely mediocre. Or a great game might remain unplayed and hidden because it's printed on cheap flimsy cardstock.
Does the game have a lot of small, easily lost plastic bits? Are the instructions printed clearly and easy to read? Does the game take a lot of punching out tokens before it can be played?
Third, there are peripheral concerns. These are odd mistakes or strange things that might not fit into another category in particular. A game might ship with incomplete instructions, for example.
Board Game Review Sites
Board games appeal to a wide section of society even in a console gaming age. Some like them for the nostalgia factor, others find them an inexpensive way to entertain the kids. Regardless of the reason, board games are interesting to people, and the web is a place for interested people to get together.
BoardGameGeek (   rel=nofollow http://boardgamegeek.com ) is an example of such a site. A combination of forum and review archive, it is a nexus of people who enjoy gaming in general and board gaming in particular. They have an entire section set aside to reviewing every board game known to man, from common favorites to obscure titles like Zombie State.
Specific sites aren't necessarily important - they can be tracked down with a bit of Google and some keyword thought. What is important is participating in the site actively and honestly. Forum based sites are social networking hubs - emphasis on the social.
People remember bad reviewers, and give props to good ones. Folks who update steadily and provide constant, consistent feedback get noticed. Good reviewers build up a good reputation, and good reputation is vital in a social environment.
A reviewer should be active in the social forums of several board game related sites. The good reviewer reads multiple reviews a day, and uses them as springboards to produce their own content.
Getting paid to review
This can be a tricky business. It's possible to get paid for anything online, so it isn't as simple as saying yes you can or no you can't make money reviewing board games. Where it gets complicated in particular is in who does the paying.
A board game company, particularly independent or smaller press companies, depends on reviews. Good word of mouth is key to any company, and if people hear a game is bad, they aren't going to play.
In particular, some companies offer to pay for positive reviews of their product. This might come up against an ethical consideration, for obvious reasons. So what is the right choice here?
In short, no review has to be absolute. If you feel able to, find what parts of a game ARE good and focus on writing about them. Don't lie, simply present the review in honest terms about what strengths ARE there.
Regardless of whether you write to make money or review for fun, there is an enjoyable art to board game reviewing, and an entire culture of reviewers waiting to hear what you have to say.
More information is available at [http://www.boardgamespub.com/]Board Games Pub.
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