Reviews: Writing for different types of gamers

Almost every gaming site that is out there has their own system when it comes to reviewing games. With systems I mean, symbols (Like the "Game Emblems" that Gamespot.com uses to sum up specific areas of the game that is particularly good or bad), different grading scales (Can be 1-5, 1-10, 1-5 with grades like 1.5, 2.5 etc or 1-10 with scores like 7.5 and so on. I I would mention all examples you will grow old and die before finish reading this article. Which would be a good thing in case it is abysmal) or something similar to 1-5 but with stars or something else representing the numbers.

What is interesting about reviews is that it seems very hard to write a review that is for everyone. Depending how deep your interest in gaming is (hardcore, casual or casual-hardcore etc.) you will most likely be looking for different things when reading a review.

To be a casual gamer means that you play games occasionally and only games that you can put down or save your progress whenever you want to. If you are a hardcore gamer you probably play for long periods of time and get deeply involved in whatever game you play. If you are a casual-hardcore gamer you are probably really into a specific genre while playing other types of games on a irregular basis.

A casual gamer would most likely want to read/see a review (I mention "see" due to the fact that a lot of people go to the review score immediately) and a review you would want is probably pretty short but very clear on what is good and what is bad with the game in question.

A hardcore gamer is more likely to be interested in reading about other aspects than just good or bad. A hardcore review is longer and goes deeper into the different areas in a game such as graphics, sound etc. It also mentions specific problems, if there are any, and will most likely use strong words (by strong I don't mean "bad words" and such, rather words that is enhancing the adjectives used without being a "bad word". Incredible, abysmal are two examples) to describe what kind of impact these things have on the game.A hardcore gamer is more likely to enjoy quite a few genres.

The casual-hardcore category is extremely tricky though. This category is more depending on the people themselves and what genres they prefer and since we are all different (thank god for that. Everyone being exactly like me; horrible thought.) There isn't much else to say about this category.

So why did I decide to make a piece about this? Well as we all know when it comes to marketing, targeting the right consumer-group is crucial to the success of a product. If the review isn't aimed at the right group of people, or written in a way that the target group would want it to be, they are more likely to skip reading it. But there is a dilemma. There are a lot of games out there that can be both hardcore and casual at the same time and it wouldn't make sense for a site/paper/magazine to write several different reviews at once. So the what is written in this case isn't as important as the visuals.

If the review in question contains amazing visuals in the form of pictures, videos or even animated content it can catch a groups attention without them being the main target group. But then again, different groups would want to see different things.

So the main point of this whole article is the following: When writing a review make sure that you know what your target group wants. You are more likely to get the attention that you want that way. If you write a review that is aimed for younger people, be sure to include pictures of things that they would like and use a language that they find funny. Same thing goes for the other ages as well.