The Map Key
How we survey a game
Five measures, one elevation profile and a mark out of 100. Here is exactly how a game earns its grade.
Last revised 31 October 2026
Every game on the Guild's sheets is surveyed the same way. We play for at least ten hours, or to the end if a game is shorter, on a mid-range Windows laptop, a MacBook and a phone, using Chrome, Firefox and Safari on a normal UK home connection.
The five measures
Load-in 20%
How fast you get from a link to playing. No installs, no forced sign-ups, works on a normal laptop and phone browser.
Controls 20%
How it handles with mouse, keyboard or touch. Responsive input, readable screens, nothing fiddly.
Depth 25%
How much there is to learn. Do skills grow, do strategies open up, is there more under the surface?
Fair Trade 20%
How it treats your time and money. Ad load, paywalls, random-reward items, data collected for ads.
Return Trips 15%
Whether you will come back next week. Daily puzzles, ladders, community, updates.
From measures to a survey mark
Each measure is scored from 0 to 10 in half steps. We multiply each one by its weight and add them together to give a survey mark out of 100. On a sheet's elevation profile, each peak is one measure: the higher the ground, the better it scored.
| Mark | Grade | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | Summit route | Outstanding. Worth the climb for almost anyone. |
| 65–79 | Ridge walk | Very good, with a stretch or two of rough going. |
| 50–64 | Valley path | Pleasant if it is your sort of country. |
| 0–49 | Boggy ground | Too many soft spots. Approach with care. |
Fair Trade, in detail
This is the measure we take most care over. We count how often ads interrupt play, whether anything important sits behind a paywall, and whether a shop sells random-reward items such as spins or loot boxes. Random rewards always lose marks, because they work much like gambling.
What we never do
- Accept payment, gifts or advertising in exchange for coverage or marks.
- Use affiliate links. Every "play" link goes to the game's official site.
- Review real-money gambling. The Guild covers games only.
Resurveys
Browser games change quickly. When a game changes its prices, ads or core play, we play it again and revise the sheet, and the revision date appears at the top of the page.