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Prime Player is the brainchild of two gamers with a passion of…games, and writing about them. After spending countless hours of frequenting forums and message boards, we thought: “Why not apply our opinions and ideas into a venue where we can be heard? Forever.”

On this blog we’ll be posting the standard review/preview/editorial, but we will also be providing presentation and content that is unique to our site. Hopefully, we can live up to our motto and aspirations! Enjoy it and feel free to interact and contact us as you see fit. Note that you must become a member (Player) to comment. It’s easy, so don’t be shy and tell us what you think!

Contact P2 :: theplayers@primeplayer.net

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Our Rating System

P2 editors take journalistic integrity serious and uphold game reviews to fair and unbiased standards. The system uniquely portrays at-a-glance impressions to in-depth analysis. Our process reflects many factors including: standards of respective platforms/genres, originality, audience, and discriminatory elements that gamers (hardcore/casual) can translate into worth.

Introducing the Play-O-Meter

The P-O-M is a large graphic that consists of three sections.

1.) The categorical meters

These five meters represent the quality of key categories within a game. Each meter has five   squares (S) ranging from 1 – 5. 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Even though the meters grow in increments of 1 square (S), categories have their own weight (W) in the formula to determine the final percentage (%). We interpret a hierarchy of importance with each category, instead of each   square (S) having a weight (W) of 1.

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• Game play: the quality/worth of design, mechanics, stability, controls, and intuitive aspects of game play
  = 2 weight (W)
  
• Graphics: the quality/worth of technical, artistic, stability, animation and flair aspects of graphics
  = .5 weight (W)
  
• Sound: the quality/worth of technical, implementation, composition, voice, and effects aspects of sound
  = .5 weight (W)
  
• Longevity: the quality/worth of lasting appeal, value, and replay-ability aspects of the game
  = 1 weight (W)
  
• Fanboyism: the quality/worth of personal appeal and entertainment factor aspects of the game
  = 1 weight (W)

Since the meters are all multiples of 5, we divided the number 5 into five different amounts (2+.5+.5+1+1=5). It all adds together in the end.

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Formula
There is an extended formula to calculate the percentage (%). First, the value (V) of each category must be found.

S x W = V is the formula for finding the value of a single category.

“S” is the number of squares given to a category
“W” is the weight of category
“V” is the value of category

Then add the five values (V) together. Depending on the squares (S) given to each category, a game can attain anything from 0 to 25 V. The value (V) is then multiplied by 4 (since 25 is ¼ of 100), giving us our overall percentage (%).

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Example using the mock-up above

Game play received 1/5

1 x 2 = 2

Graphics received 2/5

2 x .5 = 1

Sound received 3/5

3 x .5 = 1.5

Longevity received 4/5

4 x 1 = 4

Fanboyism received 5/5

5 x 1 = 5

Now add the category values (V) together:  2+1+1.5+4+5 = 13.5 (out of 25)

Finally, multiply the combined category values (V) by four:  13.5 x 4 = 54

According to the mock up P-O-M, this generic game would receive a 54%! Not very good, though we admit to shamelessly exploiting this fake game for further comprehension.

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All of the above calculation is done under the hood of the P-O-M. The only number that the reader will see is the percentage. This makes casual viewing less complex, yet still detailed.

2.) The Plus/Minus boxes

These boxes contain the pros and cons of the game in review, rightfully dubbed: ‘+’ and ‘-’. They are short text descriptions of the game and further provide more detailed information at-a-glance.

3.) Game score

Here is the percentage (%) score of the game. In addition to the score, some games can garner a medal selection. If a game scores between 70-79% it is awarded with a bronze selection. 80-89% is a silver selection and 90-99% is a gold selection. The most prestigious award is the diamond selection, which is only given to games scoring 100%.

Disclaimer: We’d like to note that any game receiving a ‘diamond selection’ isn’t considered
perfect. But rather the absolute highest quality experience a game product can provide at the time of release.

Underneath the P-O-M there will be a detailed text rundown of each category and a final thoughts paragraph.

Finally, at the end of the review post there will be a unique feature called “Staff Opinion”. Displayed here will be other staff members’ opinions of the review and game itself. They may agree or disagree and comment about the game. Every one has an opinion. And Prime Player is run by multiple people with them!

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Meet the Prime Players

A central factor to our site’s presentation and identity are the Prime Players. These caricatures are fictional representations of hardcore fans of their respective company/game system of choice, each with their own personalities. The prime players will be featured in various posts: reviews, site features, creative editorials etc.

Sony Prime Player

Name: Sonny
Favorite game: Gran Turismo
Bio: Sonny is a former star pro-gamer prodigy who succumbed to the limelight of his success and popularity at the gamer academy. Afterwards he took his gift for granted and decided to embark on a rapping career. This soon came to conflict with his initial dreams thus he underwent an identity crisis. Stay a gamer or become a commercialized rapper with expensive tastes? Signs point to him swaying back to his original roots, but time and time again, he surprises everyone with his decisions.

Microsoft Prime Player

Name: Mike
Favorite game: Halo
Bio: Mike is the son of a billionaire tech mogul who refuses to go to private school and is a serious gamer. This is his second year at the public gamer academy. He was never too popular last year, being labeled as new and eventually hardcore. Recently he has attempted to become more casual to fit in, but to no prevail so far. His family background and personal image unfortunately gives him the oxymoronic title of an underground-snotty brat.

Nintendo Prime Player

Name: Nancy
Favorite game: Animal Crossing
Bio: Nancy comes from a long line of modest inventors, and has inherited creative knacks of her own. She’s a gamer who is either respected by many or ignored by the hardcore crowd. This is mainly due to her newfound outgoing and non-competitive personality. She was once a by-the-books player with bright activist ideas, who then decided to make a new club to convert casual gamers to become hardcore. This has led her to being the most popular student at the academy.

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Prime Fact

Prime Facts are interesting bits of history presented by each Prime Player atop of the side panel. Depending on what the fact represents or correlates to determines who presents it. So if its a Nintendo fact, Nancy will say it. Prime Facts randomly rotate with each page refresh so don’t forget to check them all out, maybe you’ll learn something new!

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The Impressionator

Unlike the governor of California, this scale is easily interpreted and compliments previews well. Each preview of a game, service, company, etc. will be accompanied by a graphic that portrays our current impression of said entity. We’re real, fair, and just in our outlooks, not solely positive like the industry standard.

The Impressionator is basically a thumbs-up gesture pinned to a half-circle scale with differing degrees of interest. The angle at which the thumb is tilted equals the impression. Let’s use a clock to better explain:

- 12:00 = Awesome
- 1:30 = Good
- 3:00 = OK
- 4:30 = Meh
- 6:00 = Lame

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Underground News

Defines stories that directly represent the gaming community or news discovered by gamers. This can either be video, audio, or stories on the net about individuals/groups in the community. They are normally not press releases or news posted by companies or individuals in the gaming industry.