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If you've got a question about our site, try here first. It's by no means comprehensive but at least it'll tell you about our reviews and about how to navigate our site.
- How do I get around?
Though Trigames.NET's content is essentially "unified" you can filter it according to what console you're interested in. On the top-bar, under the "Choose Console" menu, select what console to filter our content by. It will return you to the Trigames.NET homepage, with only "general" gaming content and console-specific content.
Alternatively, there are other places you can click: on the console abbreviation in the title/header lines of news articles, reviews, FIMPs and features; on the console's logo on reviews and FIMPs; and under the "Platform" column in our lists of reviews and articles.
You can reset the filter by choosing "All" from the drop-down menu or clicking on the Trigames.NET logo.
- What is your system for reviews?
Our system has changed over the years, but one thing remains consistent: our reviews are meant to recommend or criticize a game based on our personal experience and enjoyment (or lack therof) with said game. We strive to provide you with opinions and recommendations that are as well-thought-out and understandable as possible, but certainly opinions will differ.
As such, the best thing for you, the reader, to do is: (a) Get to know the reviewer's tastes by looking at his or her profile, or by studying his or her review record. (b) Aggregate an opinion by taking our reviews as well as others' reviews into consideration. You are making an investment of money and time with each game you buy. Be sure to research as much as you can.
To give you a bird's eye view of our assessment of a particular game, we provide a short blurb on each of the main categories of a game along with an overall assessment and a five-point evaluation. It is a simple scale of the level of recommendation we're offering a game. The category breakdown is as follows:
- Graphics - Anything affecting how you see the game. Framerate, art design, technical prowess, overall look and feel.
- Sound - Anything affecting how you hear the game. Sound quality and variety, musical score, voice acting, ambient sounds and sound effects.
- Gameplay - What you actually do in the game, and whether or not it works well. Design decisions that affect your ability play the game - such as level of challenge or level design - are also mentioned here.
- Value - The amount of mileage you will get out of the game, whether it be due to inherent replayability or extra content or goals to encourage replays. The overall feeling of whether the product is a polished, complete product or a rushed-to-market affair.
Please be aware that as an indicator of how enthusiastically we recommend a product, our five-point evaluation is not proportional to a letter grade or percentage. For instance, three "points" out of five does not equate to a C letter grade, 6 out of 10, or 60%.
- What is a FIMP?
A "FIMP" is our abbreviation for "First Impressions". Our FIMPs are generally much more lax and casual than our full reviews, which in contrast are more structured. Naturally, a final review of a game may turn out to be wildly different from the FIMP. Regardless, a FIMP can potentially be a good indicator of whether or not a game requires lots of patience and persistence to get into and appreciate.
- Can I submit articles, FIMPs and Reviews?
We encourage those who have an interest in writing about videogames to do so. As such, we absolutely accept submissions. Much of our content comes from our non-staff contributors, who you can learn about in the About Us page.
In order to submit, please send your piece to our Mailbag. Please send it either as a .TXT document, a Microsoft Word document, or within the body of the email itself. Our staff will look at your piece and approve it for submission. If need be, our editors will copy-edit your work. However, we ask that you please spell-check, grammar-check and thoroughly proofread your review for consistency - points should be clear and ideas should be backed up. It will not only speed up the submission process but also indicate to us that, off the bat, you are capable of writing quality work at a high level.
If you are writing a review, please adhere to the standards we utilize - provide a Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, Value and Overall blurb in addition to a final five-point evaluation. If you are writing a FIMP, please make sure the amount of content is substantial - "This game is cool so far, I like it" will simply not cut it. If you are writing an editorial or other feature article, please make sure to include any pictures you'd like to use.
Alternatively, you can have your work featured by getting yourself involved in the Community Contributions Union on Gamespot. The CCU, for short, is a user-created union founded by contributor DrFish62 and currently run by contributor Draqq. It focuses on positively contributing to the Gamespot community by way of well-written reviews and editorials. Chances are you will run into Trigames.NET Editor-in-Chief MrCHUPON there, and if your work is quality, you may just be invited by us to contribute.
Please note that your work is your own property. You can choose to keep your work exclusive to Trigames.NET, or you can choose to distribute it among other venues. However, we ask politely that any work you've written specifically for us - or any work that we commission you to complete for us - have a disclaimer notice somewhere indiciating that your work was originally created for Trigames.NET if you choose to post such a thing elsewhere.
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