Sending games to reviewers and content creators continues to be a key part of the Stonemaier Games marketing plan. It’s far from the only part, but it remains an important and significant marketing expense. I would estimate that we sent at least 500 units of Stonemaier products for review in 2020.
Since my original post on this topic two and a half years ago and last January’s update (plus this older–but still important–post), I’ve refined my methods for selecting reviewers, so today I thought I would share my current process. There’s been a lot of talk about the publisher/reviewer relationship over the years, and with this dialogue and my share of personal experiences/mistakes, I’ve continually tried to refine our process.
I don’t consume any reviews for Stonemaier products, as I want all reviewers to know they can say anything they want about our products without feeling like I’m looking over their shoulder (especially since I regularly chat with reviewers in the gaming community about non-Stonemaier games on Instagram, BGG, my YouTube channel, etc). The more impartial reviewers are–and the more impartial Stonemaier is–the better customers can be served by a diverse array of opinions.
The only thing I track is whether the reviewers who receive products from us eventually email me to say that they posted substantial content about that product (it’s those reviewers who stay on the list for future review copies). I also add a link for their review to our website at that point.
So here’s how we handle the different timings of the review copies we have available:
- Advance Review Copies: I typically receive 8-12 copies of new products via airmail from my manufacturer, Panda, a few months before we open preorders. I select reviewers for each of them–reviewers who are willing to share their perspectives on the game within a specific period of time, as I want our potential preorder customers to be equipped with an array of unrushed, unbiased opinions. These reviewers have the opportunity to tell me before we ship anything to them if they’re not available to review the product in a timely manner–I always appreciate when they’re transparent about that, as it means they’re not taking away a limited review copy that could go to someone else (and I say that I’m happy to send them a review copy later instead). While I choose a few well-established reviewers for advance review copies, many of the reviewers I select are BIPOC and/or other under-represented content creators. I provide a date for those reviewers when they can start sharing their primary content about the product (sometimes called an “embargo date”); the reason is that we do not want to rush reviewers–we want them to have ample time to play the game, evaluate it, and compose their thoughts so their reviews can best serve their audience. Without an embargo date, reviewers can feel pressure to race to be the first to release their review.
- First-Run Review Copies: Starting last year, I created a new process to remain as impartial as possible. When my fulfillment centers receive the full ocean-freight shipments, I email the list 200+ reviewers and content creators who have entered their information on this form and I ask if they’d be interested in reviewing this product. I then randomly select a pre-determined number of reviewers from this self-selected list to receive review copies. To avoid covering expensive import fees, we may slightly adjust the list if more than a few are outside of the regions of easy fulfillment, but with our 4 fulfillment centers around the world, that doesn’t come up often. I also contact other reviewers who requested that specific game to gently let them know that they won’t be receiving a first-run review copy from us (but they might get one in the future). That way they’re not left waiting, unsure if they’re getting a review copy.
- Reprints: I don’t want all of the buzz and visibility of our products to happen at the beginning of their lifespans, so I regularly dispatch review copies of reprints (I still send out review copies of Viticulture, even 8 years after it was originally released). For reprints, around once a month I send an email to all reviewers on our list who have either reviewed our games in the past or don’t currently have review copies of our games, and I offer those reviewers a promo code for a 100% discount on either a specific product or pretty much any in-stock product on our webstore (letting the review place the “order” is more efficient for us and ensures that it goes to the reviewer’s current preferred address). If a reviewer wants one of our products and is available to talk about it on their blog/channel/podcast, that’s great; if not, they will hear from me with other opportunities in the future.
- Newly Discovered Reviewers: Like any gamer, I discover new-to-me reviewers all the time, and if I really like their content or just want to make sure they’re better represented in the hobby (like our BIPOC efforts), I may contact them directly to introduce myself and see if there are any Stonemaier products they’d like to review. In those cases, I typically create the “order” myself.
- Damaged Games: Sometimes our customers report that they receive a damaged copy of one of our games (purchased from our webstore). In those cases, I often send them a mailing label to send the ding-and-dent game to a reviewer, and we send the customer a new game. Reviewers don’t need a perfect box, just a playable game.
A few other quick notes about our methods:
- We Ship to Reviewers the Same Way We Ship to Customers (from within their region): We ship from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia. However, if a reviewer is ever charged customs/fees by their courier, we ask that they contact us so we can refund those charges.
- We Don’t Charge Reviewers for Our Review Products, Nor Do We Pay Reviewers: Out of a desire for impartiality, we do not pay reviewers. I feel it’s important to communicate to reviewers that they are doing something beneficial for everyone when they post substantial content on their blog/channel/podcast. Creating substantial content takes time, effort, energy, and passion. For the “reprints” method described above, due to Shopify’s discount code limitations, we previously couldn’t offer discounts greater than 99% (and Shopify wouldn’t let us include shipping in that discount), but Joe recently found a way for us to offer a 100% discount promo code.
- I Don’t Read/Watch/Listen to Reviews of Stonemaier Products: I mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth repeating. I highly value constructive criticism, of which I get plenty from playtesters and gamers. But for reviewers, I want to remain entirely unbiased and impartial to their tastes so consumers can get honest opinions from a wide variety of reviewers. I’m human, and I know that if I would hear a reviewer blasting one of our games, as much as I respect their openness, it impacts my willingness to send them review copies in the future. So rather than risking that impartiality, I simply don’t read, watch, or listen to reviews of our products. For that reason, I’ve started to ask advance-copy reviewers to (optionally) send us a one-sentence quote from their review that features a key takeaway for us to use when linking to the review.
- A Distaste for References to “Hype”: Despite what I just said, I do see headlines of reviews when they’re posted on Twitter. Every now and then a reviewer will reference “the hype,” as in “Does it live up to the hype?” I have a natural inclination against references to hype, especially when a reviewer decides to use that word in the title of a review. I really appreciate the perspective on this topic shared by Rodney Smith of Watch It Played on this video.
- Brand-New Reviewers: If you’re excited to start reviewing tabletop games or you’ve only been posting for a few weeks, I highly recommend that you build up a solid base of content using the games you already have access to and have an engaged audience using games you already have access to before you request that any publisher send free games to you. A mutually respectful and beneficial relationship between a reviewer and a publisher goes both ways. There’s more on this topic here.
- Permanent discoverability: Reviewers spend invaluable time and effort to play, photograph/film, and compose their thoughts–I believe that their content is worth finding months and years after the original post. So I greatly prefer when a creator’s content is permanently discoverable. Specifically, if you post reviews on Instagram, (a) build up an audience of at least 5000 engaged followers before requesting a free game and (b) post your reviews somewhere that a search engine can find them long after the day when you first post (like a blog or BoardGameGeek). Conversely, if you post to a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel, a quick post on Instagram tagging @jameystegmaier makes it very easy for me to share the news. Sidenote about Instagram: A personal pet peeve of mine is when I open an Instagram story and am blasted with music. I don’t want to blast anyone else with music, so it’s very rare that I share posts that have audio.
- Featured content: If you accept a free review copy, we’re looking for substantial featured content. That is, we’re looking for more than a quick tweet or Instagram post (a series of such posts is more in line with the idea of “featuring” content). Featured content consists of more than a brief discussion among a number of other games and more than just a 1-2 minute standalone video.
We understand that some reviewers receive hundreds of games, and it’s their choice to accept (or not accept) a free review copy from us given these stipulations.
Overall, I’m really grateful for the wide variety of content creators who take the time to share their perspectives with the gaming community. If you’re curious about my favorite content creators, I’ve most likely featured them on one of our annual charity auctions (like these creators in 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013).
Below is a list of all reviewers who have given me permission on the form to share their information with you. If you don’t see your favorite reviewer on this list, it’s likely that they didn’t fill out the form or that they never featured content of free products they accepted for review. It also doesn’t auto-update–it’s something I manually update on occasion. In case scrolling within the list below is annoying, a full-page version is here.
If you’re a publisher, what’s your approach to reviewers and other content creators? If you’re a gamer, how do reviewers impact your decision to buy games, expansions, and other products?
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38 Comments on “Our Current Approach to Board Game Reviewers and Content Creators (2021)”
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[…] original post on this topic four and a half years ago, the 2023 update, the 2022 update, the 2021 update, and the 2020 update (plus this older–but still important–post), I’ve refined my methods […]
[…] original post on this topic two and a half years ago, last January’s update, and the previous January’s update (plus this older–but still important–post), I’ve […]
Hey Jamey!
Thanks again for an informative and detailed post. I am seeking information related to your first bullet point “Advance Review Copies”. My designers and I have a couple games ready for a more polished prototype. I know you love Panda but we have been using LongPack and the best they can provide is an offset sample of around 50 copies (for a fairly high price).
Do you have any advice for designers looking to produce a high quality (albeit not final) prototypes to mail out to reviewers before their campaign? I am especially curious if you think producing an offset sample is the best route as it gets you a physical copy from your manufacturer that uses the same manufacturing processes that will be used for mass production!
For reference, we do all our campaigns on Kickstarter so it is important we reduce cost pre-campaign where possible and are searching for the most efficient route to produce sample copies prior to launching the campaign.
Thanks!
Ben S
Thanks Ben! I do like the idea of getting “real” samples directly from the manufacturer, even at a high price. 50 units is a lot, though–I think all you really need is 10-20 at most.
Awesome, thank you Jamey! Do you tend to send these copies to companies you have messaged in advance so you know they are eager to take a look? I got that impression from your post but was not sure if you had any special advice for picking which will be the most likely to play the game so those 20 copies do not go to waste!
I know nothing is certain when sending these games out but would you recommend just messaging the channels I like and see what they have to say about it? Basically, go with the channels you like or the channels you think would be the best return, and if the latter then how do you pick?
Yes, whenever the advance review copies are ready (we usually request 12), I contact my reviewers of choice for them to see if they’re available and interested. Other than the information I noted in this article, here’s another article about things I think about when choosing advance review reviewers: https://stonemaiergames.com/do-you-support-small-content-creators/
Great! Thank you for the wisdom and help, as always.
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[…] Stonemaier Games, “we promise reviewers that we (me in particular) do not read, watch, or listen to reviews of any […]
What are your thoughts on a reviewer sharing their physical copy with another reviewer that you didn’t choose, either via mail or with another reviewer they may know locally? Would you view that as a 2-for-1 review bonus or do you only want the reviewers you chose to review that game?
For advance copy reviewers, if they ask me about that and provide me with that reviewer’s contact information so I can provide them with the details/dates/etc, I’m fine with that. If they did so without telling me, that would be problematic. That has happened with a major review channel.
Thank you for taking the time to maintain and publish a list of reviewers for publishers to reach out to. Time is a valuable resource. Definitely going to be making use of this.
Hi Jamey
We’ve been producing live playthroughs and other content for over a year now almost 60 Streams.. I believe we are unique in that we do “live playthroughs” No editing, So I believe viewers get an accurate measure of how a game plays. I have only just discovered your site here and have filled in the form to become a supported creator and look forward to hopefully receiving a copy or two from you.. We found you through our connection to Thinker Themer.
Awesome! Thanks for finding an innovative approach!
Jamie, this is amazing. Thank you!
Thanks Abe!
Thanks for a great insight! I’ve been reaching out to every reviewers that I can think of for my upcoming card game. Out of 30 reviewers that I’ve reached out to, only 3 were interested in doing a paid preview/review. My game is a filler cryptocurrency bidding game. My budget is quite limited as a low cost card game and first time campaign.
1) How do I approach reviewers when I introduce my game?
2) How important are the reviewers’ audiences/ and engagement on their channel? Some of them have quite small channel followers.
3) What are your thoughts on written review in 2021?
Thanks for your questions!
1) How do I approach reviewers when I introduce my game?
Here are a few articles about that:
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-27-bloggers-podcasters-and-reviewers/
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-5-connecting-with-bloggers/
2) How important are the reviewers’ audiences/ and engagement on their channel? Some of them have quite small channel followers.
I think it’s good to have a mix of reviewers with a wide reach and reviewers of any size with really engaged followers. When you look at review channels in particular, don’t just look at total subscribers–look at views and comments per video.
3) What are your thoughts on written review in 2021?
People consume content in different ways, so I think variety (video, podcast, and blog) is key. As noted in the article above, I think written content is best when it’s in a permanent place (i.e., a blog) and shared on in-the-moment platforms like Instagram and Twitter.
Thanks, You are the best!
Hello Goat, how’s your game going? I’m a reviewer and I’m into Cryptos, so this looks very interesting for me, look for Wargarage, I don’t know if I can share my url here
This was a pleasure to read. I completely agree with Rodney about the usage of the word “hype” by game reviews. Thank you and Rodney for being so introspective and thoughtful👍
Thanks Julia! I really appreciate that video of Rodney’s–it really resonates with me (especially after my experiences with Scythe).
Thanks so much for sharing that list Jamey! I’m several months away from launch but starting to contact reviewers already to have plenty of time to schedule. As a low cost game (and first time campaign) I’m planning to send a lot more copies out than a big box game would normally allow, but that adds a lot of time to research and contact more reviewers. Your list helps a lot with that!
I noticed that a lot of reviewers request a copy of the game. Do you let the reviewers keep the advance copy, send them a ‘final’ copy after launch, or something else?
Thanks Ben! Yes, I always let reviewers keep the review copy I send. The only exception was back in my Kickstarter days when we were making a few very expensive review prototypes, in which case I asked a few reviewers to pass around those copies.
Heya Jamey,
I’ve added Meeple Mountain to the list. Do you create a new list for each year? I know that I’ve added us in the past, but I didn’t see us listed in the embedded spreadsheet above. Just wanted to make sure you received our details.
It’s the same list every year, Andy. The only way a reviewer gets removed from the list is if they request a review copy, we send it, and they never review it.
As a reviewer, I know I impacted some folks’ decision to buy or skip buying a certain game, depending on my humble opinion. As a gamer though? I just read/watch reviews to have a feel of the game, but I always, ALWAYS want to try a game myself to have a final opinion. I’m yet to find a reviewer who has the same taste in games as I do.
Btw, can I be on the list for reviewers in 2021?
I am @kutuoyunufalan :)
Thank you for sharing invaluable insights!
Thanks for asking! If you read the above article in full, you’ll find a link to where you can sign up as a reviewer. This is a very important paragraph, though:
Reviewers spend invaluable time and effort to play, photograph/film, and compose their thoughts–I believe that their content is worth finding months and years after the original post. So I greatly prefer when a creator’s content is permanently discoverable. Specifically, if you post reviews on Instagram, also post them somewhere that a search engine can find them long after the day when you first post.”
These are great insights into how a bigger company like Stonemaier handles reviewers. Do you have any advice for how a first-time game designer might go about handling this process? Especially since we don’t have the clout or the marketing budget to handle it the same way you might.
Particularly the part about not paying reviewers stood out to me. That seems really hard to do in a well-established reviewer and a lesser established (or unknown) game designer scenario.
Thanks for the post!
That’s a great question. First, I would never recommend paying someone to express their opinions. If you want to pay someone for a rules video or playthrough video, that’s fine, but never for opinions.
As for a newer creator with a smaller budget, I recommend simply contacting fewer reviewers so it fits in your budget. Here are some related articles about how to form relationships with reviewers in the hopes they might review your pre-Kickstarter prototype:
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-27-bloggers-podcasters-and-reviewers/
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-5-connecting-with-bloggers/
Thank you so much Jamey!
Thanks for this Jamie, I was thinking on this exact topic last night. One thing I’m unsure about as a first time publisher is getting review copies printed. I had assumed id have to do that via something like the game crafter but it sounds like you have panda do a short run for you. Maybe that’s a scale thing though, but something for me to ask potential printers about, perhaps for a small extra fee they would do this.
Thanks Stuart! Here are some articles about creating prototypes for reviewers before the game is published. For us, we simply pull the first few games off the print run–there is no short run (remember, we don’t use Kickstarter, so it’s not like we’re sending anything to reviewers well before production begins. We just manufacture the game, and when it’s done, we send the first few copies to advance copy reviewers).
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-83-custom-meeples-and-review-prototypes/
https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-77-creating-card-prototypes-for-third-party-reviewers/
Hmmm….. I admire your desire to stay impartial, but at the same time I disagree with a couple of your policies here.
I personally find I’ve learned a lot from listen to reviews of my games. Reviewers often have a different take than your average gamer/play tester. They’ve usually played more games, and they usually play each game less time before giving an opinion. They are often the first to play a fully printed copy too. To me it has helped me make better expansions and better future games.
I don’t see the point in sending a party game to a reviewer that only likes heavy war games. I guess you don’t allow them to say if they are interested, but that hasn’t stopped several reviewers from reviewing games they know they won’t like even before playing. It isn’t like they are dishonest, just not helpful.
Seth: I think you make a great point about not sending a party game to a reviewer that only likes heavy war games. While I don’t consume reviews of our games, I follow the content of pretty much every reviewer on our list, so sometimes I see an odd request like that, and I check in with the reviewer to see if that’s what they intended to request.
And I agree that there’s plenty to learn from reviewers, and I learn so much from reviewers by consuming the content they create about non-Stonemaier Games.
I truly enjoy your thoughts on how the board game industry works and your philosophy on how it should work. This is an outstanding example of that sort of thing.
I have reviewed your games. I have reviews on BGG for Charterstone, Scythe,* and Viticulture among the nearly 60 reviews I have written. I am working on reviews for Wingspan, Pendulum, Between Two Cities, and others. I am not someone who should be on your list by any means (i.e., don’t want/need free games, do not have a following per se, ad astra). But I love playing your games and I enjoy writing about them.
I have said this before, but your company is a bright spot in my view of the world. My interactions with you and Joe have been nothing but pleasant and respectful. My experience with your games has been wonderful — whether it has been the dialogs, the quick answers to questions, the amazing customer service (when it comes to things like replacement parts and the like), to just the joy of watching you on YouTube talk about games you didn’t make and how much you like them. Keep up the good work, and never stop being who you are.
Take care all.
* I even have a review of Rise of Fenris, even though I typically do not review (or rate) expansions. That one was simply far too much fun not to write a review on it…
Thank you, David! Like you, I post about games from other companies all the time on my YouTube channel and Instagram, but I’m not a reviewer, and I don’t ask any publisher to send me games. It’s just something I enjoy talking about. :)
I really appreciate the affirmations, and I hope we can strive to continue doing those things!