What makes a good review? Almost every criteria you could either impose or suggest is mostly subjective rather than objective: some are completely arbitrary.

Gamers don't all fit neatly into pre-supposed stereotypical "boxes". Gamers are individuals, as such each person looks for different types of content within a review. Some gamers simply want a quick "down-and-dirty" about gameplay. Others are "meat & potatoes" gamers: whether a game is coded with GPU-specific graphics or if a certain brand of sound card is supported over another. Still others want to know how a game compares to other favorites in a particular genre.

Five paragraphs of 5-7 sentences each is rather arbitrary, as that just boils down to personal preferences, likes and dislikes. If you don't have 5-7 sentences to describe a paragraphed subject, then trying to write more sentences than you originally meant to say will likely ruin an otherwise good review.

In reference to review content, I estimate that most gamers are concerned with (in no particular order) are spelling, punctuation, good grammar, and how much they gleaned from reading said review. One gamer may not agree with a reviewer's take on a game, but they do at least want one that is readable versus atrociously painful to look at.

In conclusion, you'll enjoy writing a review more if you write it from your viewpoint and say what you want to say in as many words as you meant to say them in. Make it presentable enough so no one will develop a headache once they are finished reading it, but write it in your own style.

A bit spooky-sounding: Vampire Appliances. It certainly caught my eye, the first time I caught the term out of the corner of my eye while surfing news articles.

Yet the term does make sense. A vampire appliance uses electricity even when you are not actively using them. For example, the clock on your stove, microwave, DVR, home theatre system, what have you. Or how about a cordless phone, the base has to be plugged in to work. Convenience wins out over conservation.

Do we really need the clock on our microwave, when there are several others that are accessible? Your phone no doubt has a clock, not to mention your TV (plus whatever you may have hooked up to it).

Yes, I know: taken individually, each one has a small power draw - turning it off wouldn't even make a dent in your electric bill. But turning more than one off would. Say any two uses 20 watts. 50 hours of continuous use means you have just added 1 kilowatthour to your next power bill. And that's only two appliances over a two-day period.

Convenience pwns everything....but does it have to pwn your wallet as well? Is it really so difficult, so life-changing of an event to have to unplug a microwave once you're done using it? Do you need more than one clock in a room?

Time does seem to be in shorter supply these days, but time is a constant nonetheless. Time controls you only if you are late.