The purpose of this forum is to contain reviews written for the Retro Game Room games. When you go to make a review in the RGR from now on, you'll be taken to make a New Thread page which will give you reviewing options. Once you submit your Thread/Review, the review will be made available on the game's page in the RGR and the thread will be made available in the Reviews Forum; in other words, the Review and Thread will be linked, and updating the Thread will update the Review on the RGR game's page.



You earn 3 times more Viz for posting in this forum

When you reply to a thread or create a thread, if your post would normally earn you 20 Viz in any other forum, you'll earn 60 in this forum. That's because your Viz total per a post (and thread) is multiplied by 3. The reason for this, is because we realize that threads and posts created in this forum will have more time put into them compared to other forums, and we also want to encourage users to use this forum more.



The bigger the review, the more Viz

The size of your review also determines how much Viz you get. 100 - 499 words means you'll get twice as much Viz, 500 - 1999 words means you'll get 3 times more Viz, and 2000+ words means you'll get 4 times more Viz (this is the only forum in which you can earn 4 times more Viz for using 2000+ words).



Rules
- You cannot make threads from within this forum, you have to make them from a games page in the RGR.
- You should not use advanced HTML, if you want to use HTML then please only use basic HTML
- Reviews must be a minimum of 100 words; featured reviews must be a minimum of 250-500 words, depending on the depth of the game being reviewed (Pong vs. Final Fantasy VII, for example).
- You must finish the game to write a review of it.
- Plagiarism is a bannable offense.
- The rest of the rules you must follow will display when you go to create the review.



Notes to Staff

- By moving a review thread to the trash can, that automatically makes it no longer available on the RGR game's page; it's basically like deleting the review.

- To find out if someone stole a review from another site, simply copy 1 or 2 sentences of the review and search for it on Google; if you see the review coming up on another site, then give the user a temporary ban and move their review to the Trash Can. -Update- A new and useful tool for detecting plagiarism can be found here: http://www.duplichecker.com/ it's free, and all that's required is a valid e-mail address.

- When trashing a duplicate or plagiarized thread, please be sure to ignore the words of the original post, and to contact a moderator to revoke CP and Viz rewards, if applicable.

First of all, I want to define plagiarism. Plagiarism is the act of copying the work of another person, in which full rights of that material belong to them. It is the same as walking into someone's home, and stealing something that they own. To what extent is something considered plagiarism, and how do I avoid that, you ask? Well, that is exactly what this post is here to explain.


Obviously, the best way to avoid plagiarism, is to write reviews that are all-original. I understand that sometimes users may want to add in info from another person's review, or take info relative to their review from another website. This is acceptable, but there are certain guidelines that you must follow if you find it necessary to do so.


First of all, reviews must be mostly original content. No paraphrasing or rewording! I can't stress that enough. One of the largest issues with reviews, is that users tend to find information on a game that isn't theirs, and copy it word for word, as if it is their own work. I also see people change a few words around here or there, and try to claim that it makes the review original. Both of these instances are considered plagiarism, because the amount of original content in the review is very little to none. The most common reason for this type of behavior, is to try and gain rewards for high word count, which is also against policy. Be warned, that if you do any of the above, your rewards will be revoked, and in most cases you will receive a ban based on the severity of the violation.


Secondly, if you need to use content that isn't yours, make sure to cite your references. All in all, your review should contain very little content that isn't yours, if any. If you do use an outside source, make sure that you cite your references during or at the end of your review, by providing a link to the source from which the information was taken. Doing so shows that you acknowledge the material belongs to someone else, and that you gave them credit for the information. Most of the time, you can provide users with links to more information relative to your review without including said information directly. But if there is a specific piece of information that you need on a page with lots of other stuff that is irrelevant, use it, but remember to do so within reason. Citing your sources will prevent you from plagiarizing content, but too much usage of outside references also makes the review unoriginal, and then it is considered spam; which leads me to the last thing that you should remember before posting.


Including too much unoriginal content in a review, or providing too much/too little information pertaining to the topic is considered spam. In order for a review to be considered just that, make sure that it is at least 100 words minimum. If it does not meet that requirement, then it is likely to be deleted or moved to the Game Discussion Forum. Always consider if what you have to say could be summed up in a few short sentences, because if it can, your best bet would be to just leave it as a comment in that particular game's comment section. This can be a great way to spark up a conversation, plus it will keep you from creating possible spam. Too much information could ruin the game for other players, so be careful about spoilers and very specific content, as well. If you have to question yourself on whether or not what you have to say would be considered a review, then it's always best to play it safe.


On a final and more pleasant note, well written reviews that are lengthy enough and appropriately categorized may land them in the featured section. If you happen to write a nice review for a game which has no qualifying reviews (or any at all, for that matter), then it may very well get featured. The best tips that I can give anyone when writing a review, is to check for spelling and grammatical issues, and to break it down into sections, explaining each section according to how you rated it. If you feel that you have some decent reviews that could be featured, feel free to private message a Review Reviewer and let them know about it- they may just very well be! Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope it proves helpful. Happy gaming, everyone!

Here is a simple guide to follow when rating reviews. Although you do not necessarily have to rate reviews based off of this guide, it may prove helpful when trying to determine overall quality. Anyway, it is worth keeping in mind.

- If it is less than 100 words, it gets a 1.
- If it is more than 100 words, but less than 250, it gets a 2.
- If it is at least 250 words with good format, it gets a 3.
- 500 to 1000 words with good format gets a 4.
- Beyond 1000 words with good format gets a 5.

You can follow that as a basic rule of thumb, give or take the depth of the review or the content of the game. Most of the time, you can skim the comments on the review (if it has any), and get a good idea from others how the review should be rated, also. You can usually tell if the review is quality from the first few sentences. If there are a lot of grammatical errors or information is ran together, cut a point. If it is short but well written, or if the game doesn't have a lot to write about, give a point.

Davideo7 :
Also try these Plagiarism Checker
and Plagiarism detector
to check all plagiarised content.