Policy
Editorial policy
GameGuidesHQ publishes less than it could, on purpose. These are the machine-checked gates a guide must pass before it can be built into the site.
Source minimum
At least three sources, including one primary source (store page, official announcement or patch notes). Each source must have a 200 response and a stored raw snapshot.
Verbatim player quotes
At least three quotes, each resolving to a stored Steam review ID. Quotes are inserted from the frozen review text, never retyped, so an edited quote cannot pass.
Numbers need a citation
Any paragraph containing a count, duration, percentage, price or file size must carry a citation or be explicitly marked unverified. Years, version numbers and official spec tables are exempt.
No unsourced superlatives
“Best”, “strongest”, “meta”, “ultimate”, “definitive” and similar claims are blocked unless the guide is a build guide, the claim names the patch it applies to, and both patch notes and player feedback are cited.
AI disclosure and human review
Every guide records the model, prompt version and generation time. Publishing requires a named human reviewer who confirms facts, verbatim quotes, sourced numbers, live links and spoiler placement.
No template duplication
Guides for different games cannot share more than 80% of their three-word sequences. One guide per game per type.
Media attribution
Every image must exist in the media index with a publisher attribution. Video must have a poster and never be re-hosted.
Stale handling
When a newer official patch is detected after a guide's verification date, the guide is marked outdated, a banner is shown, and it drops out of the sitemap priority set — but the URL keeps working.
Why the gates exist
Steam gives us store copy, system requirements, official announcements and player reviews. It does not give us boss order, item stats or collectible coordinates. When those facts are unavailable, the honest output is a gap — not a confident paragraph generated from nothing.
Freshness over volume
New builds are capped per day. A guide that cannot be verified is more damaging than a guide that does not exist, because it teaches readers to distrust the whole site.