I’ve been reading books about game industry specific topics, and one of the common ideas is that a lot of people start out with a blog or other site wherein they review and talk about games prior to writing their own.
This makes a lot of sense to me, and I’d love to have a space wherein I can recommend games that I have loved, as well as analyze those which, for whatever reason, didn’t work for me. I’ve bought and played enough COG/HG games that that will probably end up being the majority of the games I review. I’d primarily be looking at games through a narrative, writing, worldbuilding and mechanics lens. I’d look to answer questions like
how well does this game introduce its world,
do the choices feel cohesive,
is the game itself paced well,
do the stats and mechanics relate to the story’s themes,
etc, as well as providing a space for refining and distilling my vague game design philosophies and preferences. Obviously my answers would be quite subjective but I think there would still be value in the exercise, especially because it would force me to think critically about games instead of just consuming them, regardless of whether I developed a readership.
I don’t know if I’m disappointed I didn’t come up with that, or sorry to know that name exists out in the world somewhere. I applaud your pun game.
On a more serious note, I’m not necessarily trying to persuade people whether they will like a given game, or even whether the game is objectively good. So its not necessarily consumer focused, just my little corner wherein I give my personal and entirely subjective opinions. If someone else happens to share my taste well enough that it ends up being useful, that’s fantastic. But that’s not necessarily the intent.
I’m a fan of rhymes, and the first thing that came to mind was The Playthrough Review. It seems to be available based on a Google search, but I didn’t check the various domains.
I guess the caveat is that the name implies you’d complete a full playthrough of any game you reviewed, which is probably why it’s not taken; most reviewers don’t have time for that unless they’re hobbyists.