This is a misnomer of course, considering the site hasn't even really launched yet. The real title of this page should be something more like "Questions I Figured You Might Have", but I decided to use the colloquial version nonetheless.
How Do I Activate My Steam Key On Steam?
Here's a video showing you how to activate the games you redeem on the Steam client:
Got Any Examples Of A Good Game Review Publication I Can Get Ideas From?
I like to consider this site more akin to Rock Paper Shotgun or Seanbaby than I would Polygon or Kotaku, but there is a place for all styles of review on this site, be it professional or irreverent, as long as they are written with heart.
With that in mind, here are a few fairly respected outlets in multiple flavors:
That being said, I don't want anyone to think they have to confom or adapt their style to any of the above, they are just for reference in case you need some guidance or inspiration. If you feel confident in your ability to create an insightful, entertaining review without looking at these publications, then go for it.
What Happens If I Run Out Of Points?
We've made that particularly hard to achieve. Considering that some games cost as little as 100 points, and in turn you can acquire thousands of points for an article, the worst that should be theoretically able to happen, is you have to get a game that might not be up your alley and review it.
The key is, we want reviews for bad games too. I know most people only want to review games they know they will like, but it's in the best interest of the community at large if they are informed of the crappy games as well.
After Open Beta is complete, we will also be working on other ways to accrue points via interaction with the site (Daily Login perks, answering polls, etc) so in all seriousness there will eventually be no real way to truly run out of points forever.
What Will Open Beta Look Like?
So right now we're in Closed Beta. At this point, I'm only accepting requests for authorship from people I know and trust. Once that is complete, we're allowing each author to send out 2 invites to interested parties, provided the author has published at least one review.
From there on, an author gets a new invite for every 10 articles published.
Where Should I Get Pictures For My Review?
I like to use as many screenshots as possible for my reviews, but I also use the artwork from the Steam Trading Cards for each game if they have cards, and I have a stock photo subscription if I feel the need to dig deep. Public domain and Creative Commons images are great sources as well.
We shouldn't be limited to that though, if you have a picture of yourself playing the game, a convention that the game is at or anything else related, don't hesitate to put that in too. Whatever you think is relevant to the piece you're writing.
How Many Games Can I Redeem With My Points?
At any one time, you can have 3 games redeemed without having a review published for them yet. Get a review published, get your points for the review, and a slot opens up for you to redeem another game.
What If I Just Redeem 3 Games And Never Review Them?
Then that is what you decided to do. Obviously this site didn't hook you in the way I intended it to, and that fault lies with me, not you. It falls on my side to make this an enjoyable experience for everyone who gets a chance to be an author. If I don't, then maybe I can at least find out why it wasn't for you.
How Long Do I Get To Review A Game After I Redeem It?
Basically, we're not planning on chasing people down if they don't write their reviews. It kind of touches on the previous question as well. The idea is that everyone takes differing amounts of time, and hopefully we can use that data to figure out a system to work with that happy medium.
How Much Of A Game Should I Play Before I Can Review It?
This is a personal question at its core, it will be different for everybody. The easiest answer of course would be to the end but that's not always possible. For starters, not every game has a definitive end, especially when that game is multiplayer or leaderboard-based.
Even when the game does have an end, what does that mean for a game that is bad enough to not want to play anymore? Or a game that you find too difficult to beat? What about a game that is super-long with a billion side quests? In all cases, I would say that the best indicator of the minimum amount of time played, is the point at which you understand the plot and/or mechanics of the game enough to make a sound judgment call about it. Where that point is however, is up to you.
Can I Write Reviews For Games That I Already Own?
Updated: YES! If you connect your Steam account to your SomeAwesome account on your user page, you can review games that already exist in your library to earn points.
Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for your library to sync up with ours so you may not be able to review a game in your library right away. It really depends on how many games in your library are already saved to the site.
Can I Write Articles For The Site That Are NOT Game Reviews?
Not at the moment, but I'm not counting this out later down the road. For now however, I want to focus on the main functionality of the game review author workflow system.
How Can I Contact You About Problems With The Site Or Additional Questions?
If you find a bug, or a design flaw, the best thing to do is use the Leave Feedback form in your user profile page, since that creates a ticket that I can track development with. Otherwise, if we're friends on Facebook you can send me a message there (or send me a friend request), ping me on the Discord server we have for the Minecraft group, or join the dedicated Slack channel.