This review system contains of 4 categories for Modification Packs of AoK. After discussing possible categories in the Modpack Discussion Forum, we have agreed on the following categories: Playability, Usefulness, Creativity and Quality. Each category is scored on a range from 1 to 5 with 5 being the best score and 1 being the worst. The total score is achieved by averaging each category. Up until now, modpack reviewing had no formal structure and was only based on a 1-5 general score. This has caused many modpacks to be over rated, in my opinion, because many reviews had no system on which to score on. Below, I will describe in detail each of the 4 categories of the Modpack Review System: In this category, you should mark down for any bugs the modpack has, not including anchor errors. Some examples of bugs are the following: Palette problems, such as a white box around the graphic or if it comes out all messy because the wrong palette was applied to the graphic. Another bug would include player colors not working correctly. You should also mark off if the modpack has missing frames or too many frames or even if the mod unintentionally caused another graphic to be messed up. A score of 5 should be given if there are no bugs. For this category, you should describe how useful the modpack might be. This category will be mostly based on the Reviewer’s opinion, but should be based on how useful it would be to the downloader if they were to download it. If the modpack maker has not mentioned what it should be used for and you can’t think of anything either, you should give a lower score. For Creativity, you should describe how creative the mod is. Again, this category will be based mostly the Reviewer’s opinion, but should be based on the modpack maker’s effort into making this modpack creative, unique and/or original. And for Quality, you should describe the quality of the graphics and/or sounds, how accurate the anchors are, if any, and how well does it fit into AoK. Here you will score on how accurate the anchors are, if a unit modpack is bumpy, it should receive a lower score and for a building, if the building is lying too far off of the square/diamond space, it should receive a lower score. If the graphic and sound quality is very poor, a lower score should be given as well. If the graphic looks as well in the game as any other graphic in the game or looks like it belongs in the game, or at least close, it should receive a 5.0. If the sound quality is just fine, it should also receive a score of 5.0. The final score for any modpack will be the average of the four rating categories. Therefore, for a modpack to be truly exceptional, it must excel at all four areas. As with all reviews, the text of the review should not just be a series of numbers. Each category should be well explained, especially if they tend towards the high or low end of the spectrum, describing what could be better, and what mistakes could be learned from. Always remember that reviews serve two purposes: one to give the visitor a better idea of what they are downloading and two, to give the author some advice on how to make improvements. Reviews ultimately benefit the entire community so keep that in mind as you write your reviews. That's about it! I'd like to thank Cherub EO for his help on the Score Breakdown with Creativity. Good luck with your review and thanks for reading! - The Vampire Slayer [This message has been edited by The Vampire Slayer (edited 11-02-2001 @ 10:48 PM).]
by The Vampire Slayer
For comparison, I made an example as follows:
-- Usefulness: 4
-- Creativity: 4
-- Quality: 3
-- Final score: 4
Modpacks can be a lot of fun to make and some make AoK even more enjoyable to look at new artwork with the game. I certainly hope that with this reviewing process in place, reviews for modpacks will become more fair and there will be less over rated or under rated mods.