RPGFan is a passionate and dedicated fan site that has been around since 1998. What makes RPGFan special is that it’s run entirely by volunteers. Every team member takes time out of their day to provide you with news, reviews, streams, podcasts, videos, and much more from across the globe. This page outlines the various ethics & policies regarding how we offer coverage on our favorite genre(s). We take our roles seriously and abide by these policies at all times on RPGFan.
This is a detailed way of saying in multiple circumstances that our opinions are our own, and reviews, news, and other coverage on RPGFan can not be bought or incentivized in any way.
Product Access
We’ve worked hard to build up strong relationships with many publishers and developers, to enable us to bring to you the extensive RPG coverage we’re known for. This often allows us to receive pre-release access for upcoming games or albums (hereafter collectively referred to as “products”) from developers, publishers, PR firms, or record labels for reviews or other features. This access in no way affects our score or opinion on any game, or opinion on music reviews (music reviews do not have numeric scores). We do not share any of our opinions with outside companies before content is live on RPGFan.
Typically, we make requests for products ourselves, but sometimes we are sent products without such a request. In these cases, the decision to provide coverage of these games is at our own discretion, so being granted an unexpected free game does not guarantee coverage on RPGFan.
Any time we are given a copy of a product (be it physical or digital), whether or not it was at our request, we disclose it on the article page.
Finally, sometimes we cover products not granted to us by any company. In these cases, RPGFan team members will purchase the product for themselves in order to provide coverage.
Review Scores
For information, please see our Scoring Systems page.
Reporting
Our news stories are reported as quickly and as accurately as possible, to ensure we bring up up to date news on your favourite RPGs and visual novels.
We make every effort for everything we report on to be factually correct. If we find something to be incorrect, we will rectify it as soon as we spot the error. If you see an error in any of our articles, please let us know.
Conflict of Interest
Kickstarter Campaigns
RPGFan team members are allowed to back crowdfunding campaigns for games they are interested in. This does not influence our coverage of these games, nor affect a potential review score. In the event that the reviewer assigned to a crowdfunded game was a backer, we will disclose this in the review.
(This is despite the fact that we feel anyone who has a personal/financial stake in a game is actually more likely to give an honest critique.)
“My Uncle Works at Nintendo”
Many of us have heard it, usually on the schoolyard. There’s always someone that has an enigmatic relative in the industry. What better way to earn clout with your friends? Realistically though, the more the game industry grows, the more likely this scenario is. Many RPGFan team members may know people in the industry in both professional and personal capacities. Furthermore, some RPGFan team members have even been known to work with developers on a contractual basis. In a business, this would almost certainly not be allowed, but again, RPGFan staff are volunteers, and we wouldn’t deny staff who are trying to make a living.
That said, any team member who was involved in a game in any way is disallowed from providing any kind of coverage for it on RPGFan. Furthermore, if RPGFan covers a game that a current or recent team member worked on, we will disclose this fact, even if that person is not directly involved in said coverage.
Events
RPGFan members are eligible to attend events across the world, and if offered, we accept travel and/or accommodation from the organizers of these events (hey, we’re volunteers). Like anything else offered by developers, publishers, and PR firms, our invitation or acceptance of such accommodations in no way affects our opinions or coverage, nor do the aforementioned companies have a say in what form our coverage will take.
Advertising
RPGFan relies on advertising as its main source of revenue. The revenue generated enables us to keep the website running. We do not accept monetary gifts from companies under any circumstances, nor do we accept any of the many email offers we get to post sponsored content that is designed to blend in or appear as an RPGFan-authored article.
Legal & Privacy Policy
For information on legal, privacy, and data policies, please see our Legal & Privacy Policy page.
