This is a repost of an article I posted, but it was to short for an article so I am posting it on the boards.
I am sorry but what is with all the HORRIBLE previews I have been noticing lately? 50 percent of them are garbage. The last straw was when I read this preview: "In world of guka you take the role of ether an,orc,wild elf,dawrf or amgrid and travel the world of guka doing quest killing monsters and aventuly ufolding a main quest."
Uh, ok. That was the whole preview! It is extremely obvious that rules NEED to be put in place for previews. Here is what I think the rules should be:
1. Previews only allowed if the game is at least 25 percent done. Sorry, but when I read a preview, I want it to be about something that I will actually get to play, not about something you dreamed up and then posted a preview for it. In other words, not vaporware that is almost certainly never going to come out.
2. At least 4 screenshots of different parts of the game. This helps to ensure that the game is not vaporware.
3. Previews must be at least 1500 characters long (same as with reviews).
Any preview that did not follow these rules would be deleted. These rules really need to be put in place, because all these stupid previews are just pushing down legitimate previews.
99 percent chance that the above post is 100 percent correct.
The trouble is we can all wax lyrical about crap content posted by people, I know I've done it for ages now, but the truth is, nobody listens and nothing changes. It needs to be enforced. Why making screenshots and a minimum word limit in previews isn't mandatory I've no idea.
Maybe the thumbs up/down rating should be expanded to include previews, as well. If, after, say, ten votes, your preview's rating falls to less than 20% thumbs up, we carve out one of your eyes. This should curb the amount of repeat offenders.