Every fact, score, fix and verdict on a game page rests on a source a reader can open. These rules decide which sources count.
1. Which source for which claim
| Claim | Accepted sources | Not enough on its own |
|---|---|---|
| Critic scores | The game’s own page on OpenCritic (Top Critic Average) or Metacritic (PC Metascore) | Scores quoted by other sites, Wikipedia’s review box |
| Release year, developer, edition | Steam store page, the publisher’s or developer’s own site or announcement, MobyGames | Wikipedia without a primary source behind it |
| Windows 11 status and fixes | PCGamingWiki, the developer’s patch notes, the fan patch’s own official page (GitHub release, ModDB page or the author’s site) | A single forum post, mirror or re-upload sites |
| Apple Silicon | AppleGamingWiki, the developer’s notes, Steam’s macOS requirements (64-bit or Apple Silicon listed) | “Works for me” posts with no macOS version or chip given |
| Linux and Steam Deck | Valve’s Deck rating, ProtonDB’s summary page | One ProtonDB report |
| Design verdicts | Retrospectives and reviews from established outlets, PCGamingWiki (for saving, UI scaling and controller facts), the game’s wiki for how a mechanic works, community threads (see 3) | One person’s opinion |
| What players say now | Steam reviews and discussions, the game’s subreddit, r/patientgamers, ResetEra, GameFAQs boards | One thread without replies |
2. Quality tiers
- Primary. This includes the store, the developer or publisher, official patch notes, and the score aggregators for scores. Use it whenever it covers the claim.
- Maintained references. These are PCGamingWiki, AppleGamingWiki, ProtonDB, MobyGames, and a game’s official or well-kept fan wiki. Each documents what it tested and is kept current.
- Established outlets. Examples are PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Digital Foundry, GameSpot, IGN, Polygon and Kotaku. Use their signed reviews and retrospectives for judgment, not their listicles.
- Community. Use it for player experience only. It must meet the rules in 3.
3. Community sources
- A complaint counts as widely shared when it appears in at least two separate threads, or in one thread with many agreeing replies or upvotes, or in a retrospective that names it.
- Prefer threads from 2020 or later. An older thread counts only for facts that cannot have changed, like how saving works.
- Link the thread itself, not a search results page.
4. Never use
- Content farms, AI-written pages, and SEO lists (“10 games that aged badly”) with no testing behind them
- Key resellers and gray-market shops (G2A, Kinguin, Eneba and the like), and affiliate or price-comparison pages
- Download mirrors, ROM and abandonware sites, and cracked or re-uploaded patches
- YouTube comments, social media replies, and pages that need a login to read
- Search result pages, and URLs that were never opened
5. Freshness
- Compatibility claims (Windows 11, Apple Silicon, Linux, Deck) need a source updated within the last two years, or one that names the current OS version.
- Recheck a game when its store page changes edition, it is delisted, or a remaster replaces it.
- Every page shows when it was last checked.
6. Link hygiene
- Use https and the canonical URL. Strip tracking parameters (utm_*, ref, affiliate tags) and fragments that do not point to a section.
- If a page is gone, link its web.archive.org copy and say so in the label.
- Label each source as “Site: page title” so readers know what they are opening.
7. When sources disagree
- Primary beats maintained reference, which beats outlet, which beats community. For player experience, many recent community voices beat one older review.
- If the disagreement is real (for example, some players have crashes and others do not), say so on the page rather than picking one side.
- When nothing reliable covers a claim, leave the field empty. A blank field is better than a guess.