|
Should free games get reviews? Yes!
Wow, shortest article ever! No, no…NO! I can’t just leave it at that. I’ve recently had some contact with developers about this. They say while it’s ok to blog about it’s not okay to review them since they’re free. From that I gather they believe that they should be exempt from the review process because they’re not asking for any money from you.
I can see how they’re thinking there. I’ve written two freebees and I’m likely to produce a few more. It was getting a fair bit of attention even though it wasn’t the best looking game out there. I asked for donations and put Google-ads up and made absolutely no money! I did build up a small community at the time however and that made it all worthwhile.
But I found that even though I wasn’t asking for money I was asking for something else precious to users. I was asking for their time! And this is something a lot of people are more likely to judge a free game by.
I understand how much time and effort goes into making these games. However unless you’ve got something addictive and fun going on there I don’t believe users should be subjected to even more adverts. That’s where I come in! Rather than just blog or talk about every free game that comes out I have a really good look and try to explain if it’s worth someone’s time to go play it. I’ll even score them on a level pegging with commercial and shareware titles!
Flash game creators keep raising the bar. Ok, that’s not a problem for freeware, but is this a good thing? Where is the cut off point for when developers should say “This is worth money now”. Cave Story for example is a lot better than a fair number of pay-for games. When I was writing my own game it certainly made me pause for thought on if I should charge for it. But my reasoning is, if they are going to increase their standards like that, there’s no way you can’t judge them with the same mindset.
This might sound harsh to the programmers. Unfortunately I’m not primarily here to tell the world about these games. I’m here for users and to try to help save their time. Before they are confronted with a mediocre game splattered with unnecessary or intrusive adverts.
That said; I’ve not come across many browser games I don’t think are worth a go. This should be clear from the reviews and scores so far. However if I think a game is awful I have no problems saying that in no uncertain terms!
If you’ve written or seen a free game you think should be reviewed here, please click here to use the contact form to let me know!
Or click here to see the free games reviewed on this site.
Click here to return to the articles listing
|
