BoardGaming.com – The Website - Tips & Strategies

But we do…

Because they are awesome.

They are big and grand and sometimes hard earned. (There’s this b-Other joint that has really small ones I hear. :P)

Quested for or bought – badges define us.

We all have our favorite aspects of the BGdot. Explorable Favorites. What are You Playing? Adding colorful icons to our cyber gaming shelves.

And we all have our favorite badges too. Badges we display with pride. Badges we flash for flair. Far future badges that we covet.

But there is a very important badge on the BGdot.

The Supporter Coin

On your profile – don’t forget the Gem bar. It tells you how to purchase gems which lead to Supporter Coin levels. And not to get all Sally Struthers, but for the price of a Mid-Grande Cup of Java at BigBucks – every few months or year you can support the BGdot. It is a little something to give back. A little coin in the pocket and a little coin on the profile.

Gems lead to gold showers that can buy other badges, heart your favorite games, buy zazzy avatars, and medal a hard day’s review.

Supporter Coins say ‘Thank you BGdot’. Thank you for being the Friendly Local Gaming Site. Thank you for building gaming bridges and harboring few trolls. Thank you @Jim for a whole lot of practically one-man showmanship. Thank you for the badges and quests. And even…Thank you for giving Jack-the-Downgrader a place to hang his hat. 😉

The Supporter Coin is a badge to wear with honor.

If you are like me and you grade a lot of reviews, then it can be hard to find ones that you haven’t graded (this is especially important when new game exploration quests come out).

There is a very small box on the top menu where the filter and order by drop-down menus are, which is labeled “Not yet graded”. Just click this box and it will return only the reviews that you still need to grade!

Because this option can be easy to miss, I thought it might be useful to share here.

I like to read reviews. I like to hear other people’s opinions. I enjoy other people’s takes on gaming. I even delve into ‘hate mail’ on games I enjoy. One of my Cardboard Catchphrases: “We’re all both experts and addicts after all.”

The BGdot encourages personal reviews – that’s nice! The more reviews the merrier.

Recently, I’ve noticed personal review ‘imports’ and ‘reprints’ from other sites trending.

Doppelganger Reviews

Nothing wrong with that. Reviews are work. After an afternoon or two of bending words and sneaking up on my opinions with a sock full of quarters so I can lay them out on a page – why make them one and done? I’ve tossed a personal review or two I’ve originated here over to a B-other site to get lost in the vortex of some discussion about an Android:Netrunner card or whatever. However, I do smarten them up and walk them to the bus stop myself.

I’ve noticed that some of these Doppelganger Reviews are a bit rough on the reformat transfer. What might have been pretty in the Otherwords are now globs of text and sometimes include ghost photography references not in phase with this physical plane.

These were once your words (I hope). They may not have originated here, but they are visiting. Do them more of a courtesy than a quick cut and paste and a button push.

It is also a courtesy to the site which is gangering the various doppels, which in this case, be this one. 😉

Much like Everybody’s Pal Tom on the MyFace – most of us follow Jim.

Push come to shove – when I have to give someone the UnFollow and get some elbow room to show Newbie Love or whatever…

Jim gets the boot!

Don’t worry Jim. I usually pick you back up in a week or so and I’ll buy some gems to make up for it. I mean, it isn’t like I am somehow going to miss what he’s saying. 😉

Poor Jim. So sad. 🙁

(But you did make up the Follower/Following rules) 😛

The site has done a good job of making sure that sheer numbers of reviews are meaningless. Good reviews are required to move up the ranks. While it is true that you can do a lousy review and just edit it later, there is not any real benefit to doing so, and you are actually going to hurt yourself doing so.

The biggest boost you are going to get is from people who are following the games you are reviewing when you first review it. They are going to see a notification that someone posted a review or tip as soon as it is done. If they read it and find it to be bad, they are going to say it is unhelpful. If you edit it later, there will be no such notifications, so your first impression is wasted.

Worse, now you have a review or tip that states a lot of people think it is unhelpful. You can never make those go away. People who come and view the game later are going to see that “2 of 15 gamers found this helpful” and they may just decide that it isn’t worth the time to read it. Or they may just agree with the other 13.

Put some thought and time into your review or tip and it will be rewarded by the folks here. Sheer numbers are meaningless, it is all about quality.

One of the best ways to gain experience for your Professor and Critic skills is to fully utilize the frequent Explorable Favorites quests! When a couple of games pop up for the week and you’ve played those games before, now is the time to write some tips, strategies and reviews for the game. BG is literally advertising the game, so you’ll have extra eyeballs on that content. Of course, just because you’re taking advantage of the free advertising doesn’t mean your content standards should take a hit. Don’t try and cram the quick and easy in for the XP. Still take pride in your work and submit quality! As always, YMMV!

Anyone with an account can submit reviews and tips as soon as they sign up. This can prove to be a double-edged sword. It allows them freedom, but can also lead to them being intimidated right from day one if they get smashed with too many negative reviews.

I recommend the following for newer members of the community:

– Don’t dive into submitting until after you have already voted on at least 100 items similar to your intended contribution. This will allow you to establish a baseline on what is standard for the site, what others feel is worthy and what attributes YOU feel are important in a submission.

– Browse through the tips on this page. They are specific to playing this “game” and are invaluable to hitting the ground running. Three of the most important tips are:

“Was this helpful?”
“Tips to read when leaving tips”
“Spread out your reviews and tips”

Since the inception of the new game exploration quests in June, users of the site are flocking to these games to read reviews, tips, and strategies in order to “explore” the game. If you are lucky enough to be one of the few that have played the game, review it! You will be rewarded with tons of XP! You will also be helping out us fellow explorers by providing more content.

One more review needed for Kill Doctor Lucky. Played it? You know what to do.

When you’re going to enter tips/strategies/house rules on the site, be sure to check the link under the box your type your tip/strategy/house rule into.

Directly under the text box, there is a line reading:

Before you submit a tip … and a link with a series of things to consider before posting. Items include:

– Reading through previous tips to avoid duplication
– Checking spelling/grammer
– Items specific to the game
– Strategies including why a player should consider it
– Tested house rules

Taking these tips into account will lead to better content on the site, as well as more “Yes” votes for your Professor Quest!

Sometimes you might start clackin away excitedly at the keyboard, writing a review for a game you just learned over the weekend and then get stuck in the middle, not knowing what to put down on the page… that’s ok! Shelve the review to notepad for a bit, play the game a couple more times, give yourself time to put your thoughts in order. Your review will be stronger for it! In short… Don’t rush it, be proud of what you put down on the page before clicking submit! 🙂