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Site Policies
by Linford Butler
1.1.08

The policies detailed here are what we keep in mind in our day-to-day work in the Gamer's Guide to Life Network. If you ever feel that any site in the Gamer's Guide to Life Network neglects, ignores or forgets these policies in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Reviews policy
Scoring policy
Comments policy
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Reviews policy

Correct as of Tuesday, 6th July, 2010 - Our reviews policy details the rules and guidelines which all Gamer's Guide to Life.com writers abide to when writing reviews on games and hardware. These are the promises we make to you, the reader of the review, and to the publisher/developer of the game in question.

We will strive for completion
When reviewing a game, our writers will strive to complete a game to the highest level possible. Never in the reviewing process of a game will a GGTL writer knowingly write a review without being able to safely say that they have completed said game to a satisfactory point. This might be completing a single-player story or campaign mode on a single-player game; completing the co-op quest on a two-player co-op title; or playing at least a few hours on each game mode on an online-only title.

However, please do not expect members of our team to be completionists - 100% completion on any game is a hard task, let alone on the massive sprawling epics which are oft being released. As such, we will only review a game when we reach a point at which we feel we have seen everything there is to see and done everything there is to do, and the gameplay and storyline seems to advance no further.

We will never show unnecessary or excessive console bias
Each member of our team has a different console preference, and as such the reviewer is likely to play the game they are reviewing on their console of choice. We promise that console bias will never get in the way of a review score. We base games solely upon what they are when played, not which system they run on. However, we cannot promise to be entirely free of objective console bias - it is acceptable for a reviewer to increase or decrease a review score if the console it was reviewed on detracted from the game experience, as this shows a fault on the developer's part (and therefore a fault in the game) to perfect the release build of the game.

We will state the platform on which a game was reviewed
In every review, we promise to state the platform on which a game was reviewed, in order to ensure that readers understand entirely the reviewer's experience with the game. Multiple reviews may appear for the same title on different platforms, but this will only occur if the review for the game on one platform is significantly different to that on the other platform.

We will remain impartial and unbiased at all times
Whilst some sites out there will be bribed, pushed, convinced or threatened into changing review scores or removing negative reviews from a site by a publisher or developer, we promise never to be swayed or biased in any way, for any reason. Our reviews are written fairly and carefully, and as such we will not be pushed into a corner by a publisher miffed at a 6/10 score, or insulted by the tone of a review.

We will never remove or edit content without good reason, and any attempts by a developer or publisher to threaten, push or otherwise manipulate us into changing a score or review because they're not happy with what we said will be entirely ignored. Whilst we enjoy friendly and strong relationships with publishers, developers and PR around the world, they realise that staying true to our morals and policies comes first and foremost, certainly over getting a game early or making 'friends', and we will not be bullied, belittled or threatened into abandoning those morals. We will never sell our soul for some cheap love.

We will always give you a good idea of the pros and cons of a game
We promise that our reviews will give you a balanced and concise overview of both the positives and negatives of a title. Furthermore, our reviews will always be designed to give you a good idea whether to buy or not to buy a game.


Scoring policy

Correct as of 6th July 2010 - Reviews on Gamer's Guide to Life.com are consistently scored with our scoring policy in mind. We will never knowingly under- or over-score a game without reasonable and fair justification as written in the review. Our reviews are scored using a traditional ten-point system in two parts: a basic out-of-ten score to give an instant indicator of a game's prowess, and a text-based description of that score to give a little more detail into what the numerical score represents. The system is shown below:

10/10:
Technically and creatively perfect. Deep, developed gameplay, characters and story.
The best a game can be - a must buy for all gamers.

9/10:
Almost pefect with constant 'wow-moments' and very, very few flaws.
Must buy for all fans of the genre/series and most gamers in general.

8/10:
Generally positive, with many redeeming sections and some stand-out moments.
A solid buy for fans of the genre/series.

7/10:
Pleasing in short stints and, on the whole, passable.
Worth a rental if you are a fan of the genre/series.

6/10:
Some redeeming features and potential, but nothing is really developed or exciting.
Worth playing a demo if you are a fan of the genre/series.

5/10:
Distinctly average. Not good, but not really bad either. A little bland.
Worth playing a demo if you are a fan of the series/developer.

4/10:
Some glimmers of good in a sea of mediocrity.
Even the most dedicated and obsessed of fans would struggle to enjoy it.

3/10:
Some vaguely okay sections, but a waste of money nonetheless.
In general, you ought to steer clear.

2/10:
Very, very few redeeming features with little lifespan.
Only worth playing if you are desperate.

1/10:
Barely works and is a waste of time when played.
Hardly worth playing.

0/10:
An incompletable, irrevocably awful, unplayable mess.
Not worth playing at all.

Each review is scored by its respective reviewer, and the score given in one reviewer's review will be justified by the written review and the pros and cons of the game, but may not necessarily represent the views of other writers.


Comments policy

We pride ourselves at Gamer's Guide to Life.com on providing a clean-cut, flexible and pleasing experience to our users. As such, we strive to ensure that discussion on our website via the comments form is friendly, positive and productive. It ensures that commenting and discussion on GGTL is worthwhile and enjoyable for everyone. However, to ensure this, we have to impose strict restrictions on what we allow and what we don't.

We will not tolerate discrimination
First and foremost, we will not tolerate any form of discrimination. Be it racism, sexism, ageism, islamaphobia, homophobia or heterophobia, anti-semitism, religionism or any of the other forms of discrimination; it is one of the scourges of our planet and we will not tolerate it in any form on Gamer's Guide to Life.

Every single person who visits our website and chooses to take part in discussion with others has the same level of authority and responsibility as any other. Every one is equal here.

Any form of discrimination will be dealt with in the most serious of manners. Discrimination, prejudice, persecution or e-bullying toward another member of the Gamer's Guide to Life community or any other commenter will result in an instant permanent ban based upon your IP address, which will prevent you from joining in discussions on our site. We have no tolerance or respect for people who discriminate, and they are not welcome to be a part of our community or discussion.

We dissuade obscenity and will not tolerate excessive profanity
As is the way with the open-to-all nature of the internet, we often have gamers of the younger variety taking part in discussion on Gamer's Guide to Life.com. As such, we dissuade obscenity on the whole. Whilst we won't come down with the 'ban-hammer' for a naughty word or two - heck, we use them in our own articles where we feel strongly enough to - we won't tolerate excessive profanity. Comments containing very little content and alot of sweariness will be deleted without exception. Multiple instances of these sort of comments will result in an email ban or even an IP block.

We encourage on-topic discussion and debates, but won't allow our discussions to become troll- and flame-bait
Whilst we understand that members of our community have different preferences and ideas when it comes to their gaming experience, and have the civil liberty to speak their mind freely, we won't allow our discussions to turn into a flame-war between trolls. We encourage productive debate between commenters on a subject, but we will intervene if we think a debate is becoming heated to the point of being an argument. Sometimes it's best to just agree to disagree.

Furthermore, anyone posting comments which are off-topic or are designed to be flame-bait, and are quite blatantly designed to spark an argument, will be deleted without exception. Posting such comments is known as trolling, and is defined as "posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community with the primary intent of provoking other users into a desired emotional response or otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion." Trolling isn't allowed here. 'Nuff said.

We prohibit spam, excessive linking or inappropriate material
Spam comments or comments containing excessive and unnecessary self-promotion, advertising or other such linkage will be deleted and such commenters may face a ban. The same goes for commenters who post inappropriate material, such as pornography, in our comments section.

Comments disclaimer
All comments are the sole opinion of their respective writers and as such do not necessarily represent the views, opinions or ideas of Gamer's Guide to Life.com, our writing team or any other commenters, hence, Gamer's Guide to Life.com should not be considered responsible or liable for any comments of any nature, posted on the site; all comments represent the views and/or opinions of the commenter, who shall be exclusively responsible for the same. In view of the foregoing, comments should not be taken as fact or as official GGTL views. Furthermore, comments should not be taken as a representation of Gamer's Guide to Life.com as a publication, as comments can vary hugely in tone, suitability, obscenity and quality. Comments are not always moderated.


Advertisement policy

The Gamer's Guide to Life Network works with a number of advertisers and advertising networks in order to generate the revenue needed to maintain the Network. As such, your experience with our websites will no doubt involve, in some way, some advertisement.

Our advertisements are often loaded from outside servers that we don't control. Therefore, there may be slow page load issues occassionally. We apologise for this, however it is something which is beyond our control.

Please do not use any advertisement blocking tools when using sites in the Gamer's Guide to Life Network, as advertisement serves as an extremely vital tool in generating revenue to ensure we can continue what we do, maintain the sites and continue working to our extremely high standard. Please add an exception to your advertisement blocker for our websites.

  • We will attempt to ensure that advertising is relevant to our audience.
  • Make every effort that advertising is from respectable companies and servers, and that it does not contain malicious content.
  • We accept no responsibility for the content of advertisements.
  • We accept no responsibility for the content of outside websites linked to through our advertisements.
  • We accept no responsibility for any malicious content whatsoever, howsoever picked up, whether through our advertisements or through linked sites.
  • We always ensure that our financial operations, including the arrangement and serving of advertisements, remain entirely seperate to our editorial content. We will never be swayed into changing our opinion or editing our content to please advertisers.

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- Linford Butler

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