Amazon ratings of Ghosts of Saltmarsh

Morrus · May 22, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Well, someone has given it 5 stars now, along with a comment.

Very suspicious of "One Star" reviews, especially with no explanation.

Well, presumably 1 star and 5 stars are equal extremes, unless you don't agree with them. It's a binary world these days - things are either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.

Paul Farquhar · May 22, 2019

Morrus said:
Well, presumably 1 star and 5 stars are equal extremes, unless you don't agree with them. It's a binary world these days - things are either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever.

Not quite. One Star needs an explanation, since there must be something very badly wrong. Five Star simply means "it does exactly what it says on the tin" since the advertising clearly gives the best possible interpretation of the product.

Also, given the tendency for the internet to be negative, it is much more likely that a One Star is political (by which I include any reason unrelated to the quality of the product itself, such as "I hate what Hasbro is doing with Eberron").

Morrus · May 22, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Not quite. One Star needs an explanation, since there must be something very badly wrong. Five Star simply means "it does exactly what it says on the tin" since the advertising clearly gives the best possible interpretation of the product.

That's not how I would interpret 5-stars.

Hussar · May 22, 2019

Morrus said:
That's not how I would interpret 5-stars.

True, but, that is generally how ratings are done. That's why most reviews skew so high. Really, a 7/10 should be a pretty high rating, it's higher than the majority of other similar stuff out there. But, unfortunately, what it really means is that it's a barely adequate product because the baseline is 9 or 10 out of 10.

Same goes for 5/5.

It makes reviews pretty much pointless in most cases.

jasper · May 22, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
Not quite. One Star needs an explanation, since there must be something very badly wrong. Five Star simply means "it does exactly what it says on the tin" since the advertising clearly gives the best possible interpretation of the product.

Also, given the tendency for the internet to be negative, it is much more likely that a One Star is political (by which I include any reason unrelated to the quality of the product itself, such as "I hate what Hasbro is doing with Eberron").

Never heard of "on the tin". But that is what a 3 star rating is for. Does it job. But "Don't impress me much".

Sadras · May 22, 2019

jasper said:
Never heard of "on the tin". But that is what a 3 star rating is for. Does it job. But "Don't impress me much".

This is closer to my understanding of it, but I'm not an expert on the accepted norms.

Paul Farquhar · May 22, 2019

jasper said:
Never heard of "on the tin". But that is what a 3 star rating is for. Does it job. But "Don't impress me much".

It's a line from a commercial (from a company that makes wood preserver and similar products).

But if "doesn't impress" matches the product description, then the person writing it isn't doing their job properly. They are supposed to make the product sound impressive. It's called "selling".

jasper · May 22, 2019

Paul Farquhar said:
It's a line from a commercial (from a company that makes wood preserver and similar products).

But if "doesn't impress" matches the product description, then the person writing it isn't doing their job properly. They are supposed to make the product sound impressive. It's called "selling".

I know it selling, puffing etc. But I always discount the market language. Remember waterdeep heist was suppose to be "Oceans Eleven meets x" And we got to play the part of cops. Not the robbers.

CydKnight · May 22, 2019

From my observations of the Amazon reviews of 5E adventure and rule books, a good bit of the low star reviews have to do with shipment packaging and handling

Mr. Wilson · May 22, 2019

The book has an updated version of "The Stynes", which is probably my favorite Dungeon adventure.

For that alone, I bought the book.

Also, it has updated ship rules, which is kinda important to my campaign because one of my players is a Tabaxi Pirate hoping to return home to Xen'drik. Arrrr!