Topic: User Reviews? Anyone? Bueller?

It would be great if users were able to write their own reviews for the titles across the site. It would be beneficial in that it allows users to create content and bridge the gap on many retro titles or lesser-known titles that NintendoLife staff have not yet had the opportunity to review. It would also allow users to better quantify the numerical scores they already provide when rating titles by backing up their scores with a personal review.

Edit existing page template for: /games/console-name/name-of-game

• In the existing table on game pages where "User Ratings" and "Our Review" values appear, an additional field could exist titled "User Reviews", which would display the number of user reviews submitted for that title. Clicking on the "User Reviews" label would bring users to a User Reviews page for that particular title.

Create new page: /games/console-name/name-of-game/User_Reviews

• This page would feature sortable user reviews organized in tables, with a set number of reviews displayed per page (say, ten reviews). If a game has more than ten reviews, the excess would be spread out across multiple pages labeled 1, 2, 3, etc., which would appear at the bottom of the User Reviews page.
  • Each user's avatar image and numerical score would appear on the left side of the table, with leading line text taking up the remaining horizontal space of the box. The date posted value in the upper right-hand side. An "Expand" option could appear at the bottom right of each user's leading line; clicking it would expand the height of the table and display the rest of the user's review.
  • User reviews could be upvoted or downvoted similar to the existing functionality seen in user comments. If no reviews exist for a title, a basic "Be the first to write a review!" message would appear in grey text in this area in lieu of the tables.
  • Two tabs could exist at the top of the page labeled "By Date" and "Top Rated". Clicking either would filter the user reviews by these criteria.
  • A "+ Add Review" button in NL's branded red colors would appear at the top of the User Reviews page to non-administrative users. Clicking this option would bring the user to a new "Write a Review" page featuring two text forms (similar to the existing text form feature used for composing forum posts and comments).

Create new page: Write a Review

• The first text form on the "Write a Review" page would be labeled "Your Review" and would accept plaintext and simple HTML with a character limit as needed.
  • The second text form would be labeled "Leading Line", allowing users to summarize their review with a strict character limit. The contents of the leading line would be what appears on the User Reviews page.
  • A "Your Score" label with a slider ranging from 1-10 would appear above the first text form, allowing users to change their numerical score for the title from this page.
  • A "Submit Review" button would exist in the upper right-hand corner above the text box.
    • Pressing this button would initiate a basic character limit and offensive word check similar to what is currently used for comments/forum posts. If the entered text passes this check, the user review would be submitted and would appear under the User Reviews section.

A lot of people have sort of been doing this in the "Games you recently beat" thread. But I agree, it would be a nice idea to be able to drop user reviews somewhere with a game tag and to be able to skim through reviews that way.

Then again, Metacrictic has shown that user reviews aren't always the best thing... What with review bombing and people "counter bombing" because they think the average score is too high or low...

Considering user ratings already exist, I don't think the addition of text to back up the ratings registered users are already providing would do any more harm than allowing them to give ratings in the first place does, which is apparently very negligible given Pokemon Sword & Shield's very generous average user rating of 7.8.

@Menardi I don't know how many people know this, but on your profile page, in your games section, you can give each game your personal score where it says "user score" at the bottom of the game's thumbnail (any time after you've added a game). I did it on my profile page. I know you want way more than that. The caveat to that is, I think only a few of NL users know about it . @Heavyarms55, did you know about that?

@Woomy_NNYes Know about it? Yes. Use it? No. lol

@Menardi we have discussed this internally and do like the idea of user reviews... especially now that we are physically unable to review all Switch games. We're not in a position to add this feature anytime soon, but maybe one day