Talk:Squabble (video game)/GA1

GA Review
The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.''

Reviewer: A412 (talk · contribs) 21:45, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

I'll take a look at this. ~ A412  talk! 21:45, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Unfortunately I think this is going to have to be a WP:QUICKFAIL, as it's a long way from meeting some of the GA criteria.
 * The elephant in the room is that the article is short. Primarily, this leads to issues with 3a (broadness), as some expected article elements are not discussed at all. I recognize the sourcing may not be there for some elements, but the result is an incomplete article.
 * I also have concerns, though more addressable ones, about 2c (OR), primarily in the reception section, 1b (MOS), primarily in the guidelines on lead sections, and 6b (images). ~ A412  talk! 20:37, 18 March 2024 (UTC)

Spotcheck
There are few enough refs that I'm just going to check all of them.


 * [1] - CNET's Mark Serrels described the gameplay as possibly causing one to have a mental breakdown - I get what you're quoting, but having this as prose and not a quote, and linking to mental breakdown, makes it look like it's making a medical claim, when it's clearly just an exaggeration from the author from reading the source. I recommend playing it at least once - I don't think "recommended the game" and "recommend playing it at least once" are quite equivalent here.
 * [2] - Upon release, several journalists noted the game's frantic gameplay Given that none of [1], [2], or [4] use the term "frantic", and I can't cleanly determine what you're citing in each source here, I think this needs to be expanded as to what each publication wrote that could be summarized as "frantic".
 * [3] - Checks out.
 * [4] - PC Gamer's Christopher Livingston was more critical of the game - I think this statement is a bit synth-y, as I think that while the source makes the claim that Squabble is more frantic than Wordle, I don't quite think it's appropriate to describe it as critical, absent a statement to that effect or some comparable / numeric scoring.
 * [5] - Checks out.
 * [6] - Checks out.
 * [7] - Checks out.

RS

 * Checks out.

CV

 * Checks out.

OR

 * See concerns about verifiability and synth from the spotcheck.

Broadness / Focus

 * This article isn't very broad.
 * There's little contextual information. There's no development information (who is Ottomated? Is it a person or a studio?). There's minimal release information ("it was announced on Twitter" is the extent, currently). Did anything ever happen outside of it getting released in February 2022?
 * The reception section has been summarized to the point of being hard to verify where the information is sourced from, and not giving a reader a good sense of the reception of the game.

Lead

 * I know some authors like doing this, but web-based battle royale word game is a sea of blue.
 * a word game created by Josh Wardle on The New York Times - this is only in the lead, uncited, and a bit misleading (It implies that Wardle created the game on NYT, when I'm pretty sure it was acquired).
 * and battle royale mechanics seen in games such as Fortnite: Battle Royale - Also only in the lead.
 * Squabble received a positive reception from journalists, who focused primarily on the fast paced gameplay. - Absent some review aggregator, it's generally synth to label reception as "positive".

Gameplay

 * There are two modes in Squabble: Blitz and Squabble Royale. In Blitz, 2 to 5 players compete, while in Squabble Royale, there are 6 to 99 players - Bit redundant, I would combine as There are two modes in Squabble: Blitz, where 2 to 5 players compete, and Squabble Royale, with 6 to 99 players.
 * Each player has a health bar decreasing by one health point (HP) every second. - It's not particularly useful to know players lose 1 HP/s without knowing a total. We should add that information if its sourceable, and remove the specific number on the rate of loss otherwise.
 * To restore health, players must consecutively solve Wordle puzzles by guessing a five-letter word within six tries. Additionally, when a letter within a word is correct, an opponent gets damaged - Is it more natural (doesn't break up the discussion of the effects of scoring) to say Players must consecutively solve Wordle puzzles by guessing a five-letter word within six tries. When they guess letters correctly, an opponent gets damaged and the player's health is restored.?
 * others grids -> others' grids or other players' grids
 * one -> the player

Release and reception

 * The release of the game was announced on their Twitter on February 2, 2022 - Clarify if the game was released on this date, or just announced.
 * Blaine Polhamus of Dot Esports wrote the game to be - Unless Polhamus wrote Squabble, I think the wording should be Blaine Polhamus of Dot Esports wrote that the game was.

Images

 * Infobox image is fine.
 * We should be able to get a NFCC-compatible gameplay image.