Below is my review policy. BestNerdLife does accept review codes and other items in order to create coverage. If a developer, publisher, or PR firm wishes to send over a review code, then please email contact@bestnerd.life. Likewise for any other item. I try my best to cover each item in a timely manner, however, as a one man band, other factors in my life may have to be prioritised.
Usually, I don’t request items unless I have a specific wish to carry out coverage of the game. I will not provide coverage of an item should the offer of payment in return for a more favourable review be expressed. I also don’t knowingly provide coverage if an item has been obtained through any illegal method.
Although I have my own personal tastes, I try to give an objectively fair review each time. I don’t trash products just because they aren’t in line with my own personal view.
New for April 2023
Unfortunately, due to some frankly unclear guidance from the UK Advertising Standards Authority, any content I make with anything I received for free is now classed as an “AD”. This includes any review code it seems, even if there was no feasable way for me to actively pay for the game before launch. As such, in as many instances as I possible can, I will be including the word “AD” in the title for the stated 12 months after I’ve released said content. I just don’t have the funds to pay for every single game or product I review in an entire year. I also don’t want to suffer any legal consequences.
I’m not entirely sure how they are going to police this. I suspect that they don’t know how they are going to do it either. I take my reviews very seriously, and as usual it is a few bad actors ruining it for everyone else. Seem like they just going to suppress honest smaller content creators, because some big fishes in the pond got into hot water for being dodgy.
Giving codes out to reviewers before the general public is critical to the Games industry. It helps consumers make informed decisions about what to use their hard-earned money on. If this is classed as an “AD” then so be it. The thing that makes it 1000% worse is that it seems that just the UK is enacting this. Talk about helping to cripple the UK gaming industry with arbitrary laws. Giving away codes to reviewers isn’t a UK only thing, so why should it be penalized by location? Anyway: rant over.
Thanks for reading
I know this review policy is kinda boring to read, but i’ve put it there to cover my own back. I also keep to it as closely as possible. I’m not a legally-minded person, so the above few paragraphs might be objectively wrong. However, as someone who is a small part of the industry, the above ruling just kinda looks a bit badly thought out. That is just my opinion, obviously.