Would this style of reviewing RPG Maker games work?

[Stanley]

Hi everyone! I figure since I've got plenty of time to kill on my end, I wanna review RPG Maker games, especially the ones posted in this forums, to encourage the fans to keep on making and playing RPG Maker games. Especially those game threads that have the least respond to them. I wanna encourage them. And promote RPG Maker games and spread RPG Maker awareness. Is it okay, would you guys think if it's okay, if I make written review on RPG Maker games but only based on 1-3 hours gameplay?? I'd hashtag it or title the review series as something like "Would-I-Finish-This-Game RPG Maker Games Review" you know, just so that people get the impression that I play the game then I review it and I tell whether I'd finish the game in the future. Will that work, can that work?? Would people read it or even, for the developers, be encouraged by that style of review?? Let me hear and contemplate on your perspective and opinion.

P/S: No I dont do Lets Play, my voice is horrible if speaking spontaneous English, I'm a really terrible English speaker although borderline good writer.

 

[Kes]

It's possible to do a good review based on that sort of time scale if you are carefully looking at things like balance, mapping quality, character development, skill development and so on. The quality of those things should be apparent at the beginning of the game. Obviously your ability to speak about how the story builds up/develops/has plot holes/plot twists etc. will be limited, but the dev should understand that.

 

[Stanley]

Thanks @Kes. Okay I will keep that in mind. I opt for this option because there's so many games to play in the forums but so lil time, but umm but I really really want to encourage them to keep on making.

 

[Poryg]

Never ever give people the ability to cast multiple votes on something that has only "one response per person" to your question I chose I think so and Definitely not at the same time, which is contradictory to each other.
But now seriously.
I don't think you can give a fully fledged review of the game when you haven't finished at least a significant portion of it (unless the game is, let's say, terrible in its' entirety).
Because the game still may hold plenty of secrets or turnarounds if you have only played, let's say, 33%.
However, in the end it all comes down to your ability to review. If you are good in reviewing through this method, you can still unleash better reviews than many people who played the full game. But I always try to finish the game, unless I'm faced with too many game crashes and/or overwhelmingly "difficult" bosses.

 

[Aoi Ninami]

When the game gets out to its consumers, they are going to judge it by whether the beginning portion grabs their interest. So really, it's more important for developers to get the beginning right than any other part of the game.

 

[Wavelength]

I think this style of review could work. It would be sisyphean to try to play through hundreds of 20-hour indie RPGs and give a review that takes the entire game into consideration (without making this your career). I think two hours is a bare minimum (and three would be ideal) for a "fair" early-impressions review of an RPG, since RPGs (which tend to be mechanically-complex, narrative-heavy, slow burns) are a notoriously hard genre to make a great first hour with. There are so many RPG Maker games out there that are way beneath the radar, and a well-received series of reviews written in a strong style would be a superb way to get the word out there about them!

 

[theNathan]

I am pretty sure this would work fine, because as Aoi said, the consumer judges the game by the first hour or so. If he likes this first hour, he will continue playing, if not not. If you take a look in the global steam-achievment sites, you can even see that only around 50-70% of the people who own a game play it longer than to the first achievment (which is normally max 20 min playtime).

I'd even say this kind of review is better than a review where the reviewer forces himself to play the game to the end, because that is not a realistic impression.

 

[Skunk]

I'm personally a huge fan of driftwood gamings reviews of rpg games.
He goes over everything that's either positive or negative and isn't biased what so ever.
Like theNathan said, people rarely play games long enough to give an honest review, so he will play until the game breaks or until he figures hes played enough to give a half decent review.
Love you @Driftwood Gaming

 

[Stanley]

Okayy thanks for your input everyone!
I agree, a review based on a very small early portion of the game may not do justice cus what if let's say the rest of the game turns out to be beautiful rite? But what I'm trying to do here is..um I mean, I wanna tackle the queries that players have bypassing the usual "should i download this game" over to "should i finish playing or even continue playing this game" to, well I don't know, just to have an early feel from the prose articulation? ahaa.
Anyway, I love watching Drifty's videos especially the first impressions ones.

 

[Poryg]

I watch Drifty's tips and tricks instead, because we have so different opinions, me and Drifty, that I don't want to be biased by his opinions.

 

[Tai_MT]

I had originally thought of such a concept myself for other games. I had this idea rolling around in my head about making a YouTube channel called "When do I get bored?" and playing a game up until the point I got bored playing it and dropped it entirely. I'd have offered opinions into what was working for me, what wasn't, what was frustrating, why I was quitting, if I'd ever pick it back up again, etcetera. But, I never made the channel because the market is too saturated, I don't own a mic, I don't own a webcam, and I'm frankly too lazy to maintain a channel.

However, some of the format could work for a 3 hour review of a game. You could preface the end of each review with a, "Would I keep playing?" portion. That question could be a "yes", "no", or even "maybe" with conditionals. You're going to have games that feel like a slog at 3 hours. You're going to have ones where 3 hours just isn't going to be enough for you and you want to play more. You're also going to have ones where you're like, "I guess I could stand to keep playing this game and maybe it gets better".

As for written format? We live in an "instant gratification" culture. Unless your reviews consist of maybe 3 paragraphs maximum, not many people are going to read them. As a writer myself, I frequently run into "tl;dr", even from some of the staff of this website. After all, if it's a video or audio, it's much easier on most people to put it on in the background and do something else. But, if it's a written review? That means they can do nothing except read what you've written, and that's just SO TIME CONSUMING to people who aren't accustomed to reading.

Personally, if it was written well and I were looking for a review on a game, I'd read it all. But, I know I'm pretty much in the minority on that format.

It's a sad fact, but I think you'd honestly do much better if it were a YouTube channel or a Vlog thing... Or like an audio format. Plus, people often like a person to show the specific thing you're talking about, when you're talking about. So, even if you wrote it, you'd have to accompany it with at the very least, some screenshots. You'd probably have to add video in there as well if you start talking about bugs and such.

 

[Stanley]

Okay noted, @Tai_MT