1. Where do you get the games you review?
We buy them. We also get review copies from publishers, but we still bought a lot of the games you see here. If you are a game publisher and are wondering if we would like to review one of your games, the answer is almost certainly yes. Please contact us through the contact form about how to get a game to us.
2. How the review scores work?
All scores range from zero to ten, with zero obviously being the lowest rating in that category and ten being the highest. The meaning of the different scores is:
- Strategy: how much strategy and planning ahead is required to have a shot at winning the game? A low score here usually means that the game rewards being lucky more than planning. However, other reasons for a low strategy score might be that you cannot plan for your next turn because the situation shifts too rapidly, or that most decisions you make end up being entirely meaningless.
- Luck: a the Luck score tells you how much luck is needed to win the game, usually in the form of dice or cards. This is pretty much the opposite to the strategy score and the connection between them can be confusing sometimes. Just keep in mind that Luck + Strategy does not have to add up to ten, but for most games low strategy implies high luck and vice versa. If a game has both low luck and low strategy scores, your influence on the outcome of the game is generally limited, it doesn’t matter much what you do.
- Interaction: how much do you interact with other players in this game. While trade, negotiations and forming alliances will always lead to a higher score here, games without these elements can still score high on negotiations. For example, you might be able to block an opponent on the board, there may be an element of bluffing or other options to influence what another player does on their turn.
- Components and Design: this score unites the quality of the game components with the look and feel of the game. How well drawn is the game board? Are the meeple looking good and easy to tell apart? Is the game nice to touch? Does the design of the game help you understand what you are doing, or does it confuse you? And, not least of all, does the game fall apart when you touch it or does it still look like new after many games?
- Complexity: how difficult are the rules? Can you get started right away, or do you need half an hour to digest the manual? A high complexity score is not a bad thing, as a high complexity also means you have more options how to play. Of course, it could also mean that the rules are horribly convoluted and the game makes you jump through unnecessary hoops. Be wary of games with high Complexity and low Strategy, a game would need a good excuse to pull that off.
- The Total Score: the Total Score is not calculated from the other scores in any way, it stands on it’s own. The Total Score tells you how much fun the game is. Read it as “how likely are we to play this game again next weekend?”
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Everything you see here – unless noted otherwise is licensed as CreativeCommons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike. That’s a long expression, what does it mean? Basically, you’re allowed to use everything you see here and repost it on your website whole or in parts, change it, translate it, print it on a wallpaper. There is some restrictions, though:
When you use our content, attribute it. Tell people were you got it from, put a link back to us.
Don’t use our content to make money. Writing a review, taking the photos, maintaining the site, all this is a lot of work, so don’t just go and profit from our hard work. If you use our photos or texts on your private blog and the blog has some adverts, that’s no problem. If you’re a print magazine printing our content and make people pay for it, then we have a situation. If all your website content is copied from us and the page is stuffed with adverts, then we may need to talk as well.
Finally, if you use our content to create your own, you have to adopt the same licensing. I’m not sure about this part of the license, it seems like a good idea for now, but if you see issues with it, or just want to be exempt from that part, contact us and we’ll talk.
Keep in mind that some content on the site is not originally ours, so we can not apply our license to it. In that case, you will find a note on the content in question or at the bottom of the article. In that case, please respect the wishes of the original creator how they want their content to be used.
4. Can I use your content for my magazine/commercial website?
The answer is: it depends. If you read the answer above, you will realize that we don’t allow commercial use of our content. However, that is only the default license that applies without contacting us. If you really like our stuff enough that you want to reprint it then contact us and we’ll come to an agreement. How that agreement may be depends on many factors, including what exactly you want to do with our content, the weather and if we like your nose. So please include a photo of your nose for all requests.
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No.
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