How We Review, Score, and Rank Products
Having high-quality equipment is critical and we believe many other casual players, athletes, and experts share the same thoughts. No one wants to replace their equipment and accessories just after several games. Quality products not only bring the best value for money, as they are much more long-lasting, but also enhance your playing experience and even give you an advantage in competing.
That said, there are so many products on the market with different brand names, especially in popular games like pools, darts, or ping pong. It becomes difficult for users, especially beginners, to choose which ones to buy. Many of us in the team were in the same situation.
That’s why we want to offer our support. We want to help many others find the most valuable products that fit their purposes, needs, and skills. To do so, we have developed a framework, including a process, guidelines, and methods to review and rank products.
Our Product Review Process and Methodology
First and foremost, for each piece of equipment for a particular indoor game, we do our research to get the list of potential high-quality products. This is done by many methods. We utilize both online and offline resources. We search online, join forums, and receive advice/recommendations from our internal experts and local indoor-games communities.
A list of review criteria is put in place for such equipment in question. Some criteria are listed below:
- Materials
- Structure and components
- Look and feel
- Sizes
- Target customers/users/groups
- Budget/cost
- Quality
- Real user reviews and ratings
- Popularity
- First-hand experience
- Brand reputation
Take bristle dartboards as an example. We look into critical aspects like sizes, look, wiring, fiber quality, self-healing ability, mounting, accessories coming with the purchase, and user pool.
Then, we set a budget to purchase the selected products for first-hand experience. Games are organized within our groups to test out the products according to the criteria defined for the equipment.
Unbiased reviews are our philosophy. So, we also invite guests and experienced players to join our games for diverse feedback. We try to use the products regularly to make the reviews more reliable.
Sometimes, we seek help from our local communities. We ask them to try out their equipment, if it’s still relatively new, and also ask for their experience with such product.
Finally, we gather and consolidate the feedback from various sources (both internally and externally), discuss it internally within the team, and put out our personal list of the best products.
Our Team’s Experts
Our reviews are written by the content team, who have done sufficient research and experienced first-hand the reviewed products. By researching and writing all other types of blogs, guides, how-tos, and best practices, our editors build up their expertise. Some of them are even experts in certain indoor games like darts.
We also recruit and involve experts in reviewing products and helping our team members to improve our playing techniques and skill levels through organized games and competitions. By getting real playing experiences, our creators have more confidence in reviewing the products and offering more reliable reviews.
Please note that we work independently. Our reviews and feedback are solely based on our own research, opinions, and experience, not on sponsorship or the vendors of the reviewed products.
User Ratings and Consultants
User ratings and feedback on the products which we’re reviewing cannot be overlooked in our reviewing process. Since most of them are genuine and come from their real experience, these insights can help us set our expectations and criteria to test the products.
We also ask and consult experienced players that are within our network for opinions and buying advice. Social media and web presence coverage of the products are also taken into consideration.
How We Rank the Reviewed Products
We test the selected products according to a pre-defined list of criteria and put them on a 0-10 scale. We then compare all the reviewed options, adjust the score, and make the final list.
Please note that our list and scoring are not fixed. We might update and change the information in certain reasonable cases. For example, a new product or model is released to the market with more advanced features and technology.
In each review article, we’ll explain the criteria that we base on to review the selected products so that users will get more insights and understand how we create the list.