The future of Zelaron, Game Reviewing?

I think it's a pretty good idea.

Like Kaz, I also prefer the 1-5 grading system. The only other place I can think of advertisements are sites like gamefaqs.com.

Outside of that, I really don't have any other input I could give...

The 1-5 would be a rating of the specific review, if implemented. I also think that we could have a revolutionary strategy where the reviewers have yet another incentive. How about advertising revenue sharing? Not a lot of it, of course, but a small percentage of the amount of advertising revenue the specific article generates (if this is possible?) Not only would they get notoriety, free advertisement, and a community, but also they'd have a financial stake in the website succeeding.

I'd be more inclined to use a grading system rather than 1 to 5, or even nothing at all - a good review should put across both the good and bad points, and sum things up in the conclusion. Adding a mark makes things more complicated, for one persons 3/C may be anothers 5/A.

If members only rate the reviews, then it severly inhibits any rating system. We've got, what, 30 active members at a stretch? Maybe 10 would read the reviews and rate them. Open ratings to the public, however, and we move from an shot glass of raters to a sea. If poossible, ratings should be done with Unique IPs, and we should be able to categorise reviews by: Rating, Views, Date with each the first two categories being further split into Today, This Week, This Mont, This Year, All Time.

Every review should be submitted to places like Digg, Del.Icio.Us and StumbleUpon.

I'll have a think about incentives and features.

The only way this will work is with a gimmick. Come up with something interesting nobody else does that would make people want to at least check a review here.

Like what? We're up for any suggestions here. It's brainstorming time :P.

Well, what about grading different parts of the game? Storyline, Gameplay, Battle System, Music, Graphics, etc?

Again, what you love in a story may be something that I find make me snap the disc in two.

Thinking about it, the best way to 'grade' games may be for every user who reviews the games to have a favourites line onto which they place the games they review in order from most hated to Holy Grail (I'll make a mock up of one when I've got the time). That way, the game is still rated, but as a comparison with other games, rather than a simple number - any ratings are thus made more meaningful.

Yeah, I can see that, and I think it's a good idea too. Personal preferrence would still be a variable, however.

I think the gimmick would have to be a kind of unique rating, such as a dollar value you place on the game, or a ranked comparison to a smash hit like Ocarina of Time (though a system like that would likely be too subjective).

Actually, if properly (and not frivolously) executed, a rating based on dollar values could allow for other additions, such as an "average value of PS3 software". Of course, that would kind of be a pipedream idea because you would need both a multitude of realistic reviews as well as an exclusion of terrible titles that skew the average.

Anyways, just brainstorming.