Reviews

[Crothian]

Another thing is people mostly seem to react bad to negative reviews. Looking through most of them, especially of the bigger nemaed products, all have people coming to the books defense. But I think that's more a fault of the comment section where people mostly seem to write what they want with little fear of reprissal.

 

[baseballfury]

Another thing is people mostly seem to react bad to negative reviews. Looking through most of them, especially of the bigger nemaed products, all have people coming to the books defense. But I think that's more a fault of the comment section where people mostly seem to write what they want with little fear of reprissal.

Well, some negative reviews are clearly hack jobs written by folks with some kind of agenda. I think that's when the defenders come out. When you see a product that's getting nothing but 4 and 5 reviews suddenly get a 1 or 2, it's a good indication that the review is a hack job.

 

[HellHound]

I have to disagree.

Some people just DO NOT LIKE some products.

No matter HOW good a d20 giant robot supplement is, if the person who reviewed it wanted something ornate and complex like Battletech and got something simple and "elegant" like the Epic Warhammer products, the review is going to reflect this. Even if this product contained ingenious new ideas and systems to handle the giant robots in such a simplified system, the reader who hates simplified giant robots and wants something complex and finely detailed is probably going to review it negatively.

It is not an agenda, it is a bias. And reviewers have biases. If they didn't, we would only need one review for each product, and it would always be perfect, pinpointing EXACTLY what is wrong and right with a product and nailing the proper score for the product immediately.

 

[Rifter]

I have to disagree.
It is not an agenda, it is a bias. And reviewers have biases. If they didn't, we would only need one review for each product, and it would always be perfect, pinpointing EXACTLY what is wrong and right with a product and nailing the proper score for the product immediately.

And, lets face it, most reviewers/critics have definate views, and ideas, and don't mind telling everyone about them. I have reviewed some games, and have some ideas about doing a .pdf rating site. (Just need to get my server up and running... I tend to be a little lienient, but, in my personal reviews of products, I look at their usefullness, in general. And, personally, I do not mind spending 20-25 on a book, for a killer section. I have a few books in my collection, that I have not even looked at the rest of the books. In a review, you really can't do it, but you can bring to light, your favorite parts.

Check out what a particular reviewer has reviewed, and base your views on products on that... or, better yet, look at their other reviews, on products you DO own, and look for people that match your views.

 

[baseballfury]

It is not an agenda, it is a bias. And reviewers have biases.

Of course they do, but it's how they deal with their biases that proves their worth as reviewers. A good reviewer knows the difference between a well-executed book that doesn't take an approach the he personally favors and a book that is simply poorly done.

 

[Sir Trent]

My thoughts

Well my thoughts are that if the majority of D20 products are well-written etc as the above posts seem to imply, that would make them average, and I don't believe the reviews as posted reflect that. However the part about people buying stuff they know they're going to like anyway does make sense. That's a point I hadn't thought of. As a writer that is destined to be world famous D ) I had the impression that for my work to earn good reviews, it would need to be well written. Now it just seems that all I have to do is to put minimal effort in to a product and I'm guaranteed a decent review and don't ever have to worry about a bad one. I guess I was just looking for another form of motivation to keep my quality high.

 

[Ghostwind]

One thing to bear in mind is that the quality of d20 products continues to improve. The standard continues to move up and several publishers consistently hit that standard. If one were to compare a product that was released right after the release of the OGL against one released today, it is likely the earlier product would receive a lower score now than it would have at the time of release. By and large, the vast majority of d20 products are at least good enough to warrant a positive score and remark. There are exceptions, but even the new entries into the market mostly show a good grasp of the mechanics and are able to make a respectable offering. That's why it is important to READ the review and not make a judgement based upon the scoring alone...

 

[Crothian]

Of course they do, but it's how they deal with their biases that proves their worth as reviewers. A good reviewer knows the difference between a well-executed book that doesn't take an approach the he personally favors and a book that is simply poorly done.

Right and then says so in the review. But a review is an opinion and a book that is poorly done might rate the same as a book the reviewer just didn't like. That's why people are encouraged to read the review sand not go by the rating.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Just in case you're wondering what goes into reviews, d20 Magazine Rack has posted its guidelines for its staff reviewers, so you know exactly what they're expected to do and what their ratings mean.

That's a pretty fair thing for them to do, IMO.

As to bias in reviews, I as a reviewer know I have biases. I, personally, detest psionics or anything to do with psionics, for example. But I feel my job as a review is to consider the product based on (1) what the publisher intended, (2) what someone who is specifically looking for the product might expect, and (3) what the casual gamer picking up the product might expect -- my own biases have nothing to do with the product.

Personally, I try to swallow my personal feelings about any product and give it a good objective look. There's probably a reason it got published -- I try to find that and point out where the publisher succeeded. If there's an expectation that a gamer might come to the product with, I try to answer that expectation. If I succeed, someone considering buying the product should be able to pick up the review (or hopefully, read several reviews for a good picture) and have it help decide whether or not to buy the product.

I hope I hit the target more often than not. I may not like psionics -- but I reviewed Quintessential Psion and thought it was quite a good product, and I'd hope the review reflects that.

 

[trancejeremy]

Re: My thoughts

Well my thoughts are that if the majority of D20 products are well-written etc as the above posts seem to imply, that would make them average, and I don't believe the reviews as posted reflect that. However the part about people buying stuff they know they're going to like anyway does make sense. That's a point I hadn't thought of. As a writer that is destined to be world famous D ) I had the impression that for my work to earn good reviews, it would need to be well written. Now it just seems that all I have to do is to put minimal effort in to a product and I'm guaranteed a decent review and don't ever have to worry about a bad one. I guess I was just looking for another form of motivation to keep my quality high.

Can you give me an example of a product with 'minimal' effort put into it that has gotten a good or 'decent' review?

In reality, most products do get rated from 3 to 3.99, which is 'average'

Look at the list of reviewers. Of the people who have written 30 reviews or more, only the D20 magazine racks people have an average rating of over 4

Simon has written 250 or so, with an average of 3.5
Alan has 190 something, with an average of 3.65
Gamewyrd has 137, with an average of 3.76
Joe's written 86 with an average of 3.67
Crothian's got 34, with an average of 3.71
I've written 89 with an average of 3.47
Tuerny's written 33 with an average of 3.79
Bojan's written 30 with an average of 3.70
Archer has written 33 with an average of 3.70
KDLadage has written 41, with an average of 3.32

But despite the name, 'average', I don't think anyone is grading on a curve, since that would basically be impossible.

And if you look at the top 20 list, only 56 products have a rating of 4.00 or more. 56 out of what, 1000 or so d20 products.