Let's get the obvious part out of the way first: the name. Yes, I have no doubt it will come across as rather pretentious given that I am an amateur video game aficionado, and given that I couldn't take "Game Academy" as my URL I'm assuming someone else has and may just take umbrage to my desire to use it. BUT, there is a method to my madness. The name is chosen to imply exactly what I want to convey in this blog: not just opinions and reviews, but articles over the history of gaming as a whole. There will likely be a heavy emphasis on video games, at least in the early life of the blog, but the goal is to eventually start providing readers with information and lesson plans focusing on the development and cultural significance of games as a whole, from card games to pinball, all the way to the modern home console markets. As such, Game Academy is a very apt name for what I intend to supply my readers.
Now that that's said and done, on to the fun stuff. Content will start out being posted as I write it, with no set plan or order. Once I've achieved a certain amount of content it will become my goal to schedule posts to the blog based on subject matter. In the long term the goal is to focus on purely informational posts rather than opinion pieces, but at first things will likely consist of mostly reviews, opinion articles, and the like. These will continue to be a part of the blog's content, but will move from being major content to weekend or special event content as more informational and lesson plan material is worked up.
Reviews will be posted for games and hardware, and will cover both old and new releases as they are reviewed. Everything will be reviewed on a ten-point scale structured as follows:
-1- Lowest of the low. No redeeming qualities. Avoid at all costs.
-2- Trash. Perhaps a good idea or concept, but awful execution.
-3- Amateur. Glitchy or broken, but with strong concepts that make it worth consideration.
-4- Below average. Problems mar an acceptable experience, but the product fails to stand out.
-5- Low average. Nothing exceptionally bad or good, kind of a meh game.
-6- High average. Entertaining, but flawed, or exceedingly well executed but fails to enthuse.
-7- Above average. The product as a whole is strong and has merit beyond simple entertainment.
-8- Good. A cut above, exemplifying good construction in story, gameplay, or both.
-9- Great. Stylistically or technically impressive. What every game should strive to obtain.
-10- Ideal. Nigh impossible level of perfection in technical, gameplay, or story detail. A game for the ages.
The scale above lists standards based on games, but the same general level of consideration will be applied to hardware as it gets reviewed. Note that mid-level scores are average, not low. This means that just because a product fails to obtain a superior score -- and few will -- does not mean it is a poor product overall.
The last thing I want to cover in this introductory post is writers. For the moment I am the only writer, though it is my intention to recruit others to the cause as well. A more typical "getting to know you" article from me will appear in the future, and as new writers are added and contribute material such articles will appear to cover them as well.
With all of that said and done, welcome to Game Academy! I hope we can all have a great time and learn a lot of great things!
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