D&D 5E What do you specifically want out of reviewers?

[TwoSix]

WHAT???????? I don't even have a clever retort; I am speechless. And you call yourself a D&D player!

It's a little weird, I admit, but I already read the books, and I didn't have an HBO subscription in 2010. Now I just follow along with the media.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I often read/listen to reviews of movies *after* I've seen them, which I suspect is a different reason to when I read them beforehand.

I do this with Movies with Mikey. He reviews movies way after they've shown in theatres and usually well after they're out on DVD. But his reviews can be very insightful and give me a new insight on a movie that helps me appreciate it more. A for instance would be the John Wick movies. I hate both of them. I think they're ridiculous and boring and trite. Yet after watching Mikey's review on them, I could at least appreciate the artistry and effort that was put into them, despite not personally liking them. I watched them again because of this and softened my opinion of them. I still wouldn't say I liked them, but I did enjoy the second viewing due to those insights and greater appreciation.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

The "finding a reviewer that has the same taste as me" approach does not work for D&D imo as just to determine how good a certain AP is you need months of time. Consequently I think objective facts are more important here.

It's different for say, taste in music. I can quickly listen to music and immediately know if I like it or not, so it's very easy to find someone with the same taste. So the approach to just figure out who likes the same music and then ask him for recommendations works perfectly well.

But for D&D, I just don't see it.

 

[Morrus]

The "finding a reviewer that has the same taste as me" approach does not work for D&D

I think you’d need a much higher volume of product to make that useful.

 

[MerricB]

#1 The reviewer MUST have actually experienced playing whatever it is they are reviewing.

Sadly, this is one thing that is incredibly difficult to do. Most people appreciate reviews soon after a book comes out, and it's likely to be a very long time before you've played the content enough to assess it on that basis. Consider Tomb of Annihilation - I expect we'd be still waiting for the first review if we required that. Rules material is even harder (I haven't seen all of the PHB in play yet, and I run 10+ hours a week!)

Shorter adventures seem more likely, but even then you're talking 4-12 hours to play them (if they meet your schedule). It's a lot easier to schedule and review a board game than a RPG adventure.

I review a lot of the DDAL adventures because I run them, but I don't want to confine myself to just them.

Cheers!

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, it takes two hours to watch a movie before you review it. It takes months to play through Curse of Strahd before you review it. By then, nobody’s interested in the review.

For RPG material, a solid read through is a good compromise. First impressions reviews tend to be more a list of the contents. As long as the reviewer has properly read and thought about the product, I’m happy.

 

[JonnyP71]

Ok, I see the issue with adventure modules - especially now they are so lengthy.

But what about entire game systems?

The guy I cited has 106k subscribers, his AD&D review video has nearly 12k views, and yet he has NEVER played the system and repeatedly misquotes rules and makes incorrect assumptions as a result of which he gives a negative opinion of the game....

The 'review' is nonsense as a result.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

The guy I cited has 106k subscribers...

Which guy? I didn't see a link.

 

[JonnyP71]

I purposefully didn't give the direct link to the review video I mentioned in my earlier post. The reviewer was Dawnforgedcast and he seems to fancy himself as a bit of an internet RPG celebrity.

 

[LordEntrails]

I use reviews to help make purchase decisions. I don't use them for anything else (at least in any memorable way).

I expect reviews to be critical. Pointing out the good and the bad, and the why they are good and bad. I also expect a blog or reviewer to have a list that describes what and how they do their reviews. As an example, here's mine (http://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/entry.php?232-Virtual-Scribe-Reviews). Community type reviews (such as on the DMsG) I do not expect such.

I will agree with the earlier post that I expect full disclosure. If I find out a reviewer hasn't disclosed something, I will never read another review of theirs again. Integrity is paramount.

A good review will tell me why a rating or opinion was made, and then I can judge if I agree with the reasoning. For instance, you might find a review that thinks a product is really good, but if the review is well done, I will be able to inform my own opinion and maybe even decide the product is not for me. Or vice versa.