Regarding Level Reviewers (+Applications)

[Kley]

Hey everyone! As previously mentioned in the Month of September thread, we are proud to announce that we are implementing a new level reviewing system! Our new system will consist of many of you guys who are willing to give the best constructive criticism we know you're capable of providing.

Why make a new system and not bring back level judges?

We want this to be as lax as possible, and we do not want users to stress out about meeting a goal towards how many levels they have to review. There is no obligation to review a certain amount of levels a day/week/month. We want to encourage users to apply for this position, as you will be doing the community a huge favor by helping your peers become better level designers. The staff wants to emphasize that all hired level reviewers will not be put in a special usergroup, but instead will be given a special reviewer's rank. This rank will essentially tell you "Hey, this user knows what he's talking about!"

How do I apply?

Applying to be a level reviewer is very easy! PM a moderator or an administrator with what you believe is your best review for a level. After examination, the staff will decide and notify you via PM whether or not your reviews are suitable enough to give you the unique level reviewer's rank.

Note: you can reapply should you not be hired. Just be sure to send us a different review from your last one.
We look forward to granting this rank to many of you guys, and wish you the best of luck when applying!

[Marina]

So it's been a while since Level Reviewers were implemented, and since I came up with the original idea I'd like to clarify a few things.

The idea behind Level Reviewers is not to replace Level Judges. In fact, quite the opposite actually.
Level Reviewers were implemented to get away from the old score-based system the site had and instead to focus on levels individually. They're there so users know that there's someone who has experience with level design and is able to clearly articulate where a level's shortcomings lie in terms of accessability and what the creator can do to improve the experience they are trying to give the player. They're NOT there to judge a level against some arbitrary standard and then give a score for it, like a Level Judge would. If they were to do that, they could run the risk of critizising the level for something that it's not even doing wrong. The goal is to review the level based on what it's trying to accomplish.

As an example, if you were to judge a kaizo level by the standard of a regular Mario level, you would probably wind up with critizism like "it's too hard" or "it's too unfair". Well, of course it is, because that's what the level is trying to be.

I still firmly believe that game design is an art form, and by trying to apply a set standard to it, we would hold it back from its full potential. Also it's not fun posting your level that you worked hard on and then having it placed in a Trash Can because the "community standard" says it belongs there.