Interesting read. How do you feel about developers - particularly indy devs, admittedly - approaching you asking for a review? I feel like there's always an expectation of a lighter touch on the review, that maybe you'll go easy because they're "indy" and young.
I generally don't like being asked to do this sort of work. I feel like I need a disclaimer in the opening conversation along the lines of "if I don't like it, I'm going to say that, but thanks for the free game!".
Well look, I have no problem with someone approaching me for a review as long as they don't expect something out of it just because they asked me to, that's a problem rampant in mainstream gaming journalism and what kicked off GamerGate.
If an Indie title wants to ask me to review a game they should understand that i'm going to be brutally honest regardless of if money changes hands or not, i actually forgot to put that part in my article is that Integrity plays a massive part in being a reviewer and i'm very in tune with my own strong ethical code.
So i'd say if a indie dev approaches a reviewer, they should expect brutal honesty if the person they're asking is genuine in their approach to be a real reviewer.
Cheers for the comment odin!