How we score
Two of us, our own laptops, a shared spreadsheet. That's the whole operation. But we do the same things every time, so here they are.
What gets played at all
The game has to run in a normal browser with nothing to install. It has to stay properly playable for free past the first week. And it can't involve real-money gambling in any form, which rules out most of what gets called a "browser game" in ads these days.
How long
A month minimum, usually longer, and both of us if we can manage it. Normal accounts, live servers, no press access, no free premium currency. We try to sit through at least one event and get past the point where starter bonuses run out, because that's when a game shows what it thinks of free players.
The four things we score
| What | Weight | The question we're asking |
|---|---|---|
| Play | 35% | Is it fun on day one, and still fun in week four? Do choices matter? Would we open it with no rewards attached? |
| Depth | 25% | Does it keep opening up: new systems, economy, social layers? Or is week four just week one with longer timers? |
| Fairness | 25% | How far does a free account get? Does money buy convenience or does it buy wins? How loud is the shop? |
| Polish | 15% | Does it run well in a tab? Is it readable? Does the interface fight you? Bugs? |
We each score the four out of 10 on our own, then compare. Anywhere we're more than two apart we talk it out until we understand why, and the published number is the average. The overall score is the weighted mean, to one decimal. Under 7 doesn't go on the site.
The plus and minus lines under each review are the part we'd read first. The number is a summary; the lines are the reasons.
Going back
Browser games patch all the time. When something big lands, one of us goes back for a week or two and either confirms the score or moves it. The date under each title is the last time that happened, and the recent notes box on the front page says what changed.
What we won't do
- Take money, keys or premium currency from a publisher.
- Show anyone a review before it's live.
- Move a game for any reason other than its score.
- Write about a game we haven't played for a month.
Affiliate links go in after scores are final, added by whichever of us didn't do that review. We don't currently have agreements with every publisher on the list, and the reviewer isn't told which.
Think one of these is wrong?
hello@tabtavern.com