A rant about D20 Magazine Rack

[JacktheRabbit]

Let me start off by saying that I'm biased, since I write reviews for d20 Magazine Rack. (And I'm respondind to a potential troll, but I'm wearing my nomex undies.)

<snip>

I can't speak for all of the (8-10) staff reviewers at d20 MR, but if you have issue with any of my reviews, or think my reviews show a bias, then I encourage you to post comments to the review at d20MR's site, or on d20 MR's boards.

I do not have issue nor do I give a rats behind about reviews on D20's site. My issue is with reviews transplanted to ENWorld that are often shallow, inaccurate, and or biased.

You post the reviews on this forum then you open yourself up to comments on this forum. We shouldnt have to go to your playground to complain about the plethora of poor reviews.


BTW. This may seem obvious to me but maybe it isnt so I should give it to you as a suggestion.

IF YOUR REVIEW PROCESS DOESNT TRANSLATE WELL INTO ENWORLDS REVIEW SYSTEM THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDNT PORT THE REVIEW OVER INTO ENWORLD.

You are doing no one any favors at all by posting grades that by your own admission are not accurate.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Me-
Then, why do you insist on bringing them over to ENWorld, if you've already got them on another site, and you yourself say that the ratings system doesn't translate well to the ENWorld one?

Not my policy -- I don't run the site; I just write the reviews -- hopefully Ghostwind will be along to clarify.

As I understand it, it's a deal worked out with Morrus to increase the number and variety of reviews an EN World. I fail to see how having a greater variety of reviews is a bad thing.

If you don't like/agree with the quality of a review, fine -- you can certainly post comments related to the review here, though if you want it to have some impact, making your concerns visible at d20 MR is a more effective way to go about it.

Reviewers are volunteers; d20 MR is providing you with reviews for free at multiple locations, and provides 8 free d20 e-zines to boot. You don't have to be grateful, but if you want your concerns addressed, you'll have a greater impact providing specific details in a more appropriate forum.

 

[drnuncheon]

As I and others have posted on this board many times before, the d20 Magazine Rack has a different rating system for reviews than EN World. Instead of a 5-star score, we use a set of five scores plus an overall grade. That rating system does not translate well to EN World's system. Most reviews will translate as "4" scores.

Perhaps you should look into a different method of translating your ratings to the ENWorld rating, then.

Edit: Having read the review scores, I see no reason why they would not translate well into the ENWorld system. One glaring problem I see is that guidelines are not given for what constitutes a '2' or a '1'!

J

 

[blackshirt5]

As I understand it, it's a deal worked out with Morrus to increase the number and variety of reviews an EN World. I fail to see how having a greater variety of reviews is a bad thing.

When your reviews don't make any sense, and you make EVERYTHING out to be good, it's a bad thing.

 

[shouit]

Okay, I am going to put my two cents here...

First of all, I read reviews from all different sites to get their opinions, but to be honest, I have never seen a review which said the product totally sucked at least not in a numerical value. Even here, I have very rarely seen either Simon or Psion give a review numerical value less then a 3, even though in the review they say it wasnt very good. Heck, I even read a review Psion did, cannot remember the one exactly, where he basically said the product blew chuncks, but still gave it a 2 rating.. Numerical values on something like a review, is very difficult to do. I listen to Psions reviews for the most part, actually reading them, not quick peek at the number.

Second, Olgar has a point, if you are going to bash something, which I may or may not agree with, at least do it where it can be heard by the people that do it. It does no good to talk about an error on another web site then the one that the error is on.

Anyways, sorry, just wanted to drop my two cents in..

 

[JeffB]

While I'm not really that concerned and/or irrate about the whole thing, I have to agree that if the reviews don't translate well to the ENWORLD scoring system then either they should stop being put up on Enworld, or there should be some kind of "disclaimer" at the beginning of each D20 MR review posted at ENworld. That just makes common sense, if you are not using the same guidelines, does it not?

That being said, anyone who complains about a campaign world sourcebook being too specific about the campaign world should really not be writing reviews.


That Darn Living Greyhawk GAz..it's just got too much...too much GREYHAWK in it....So I have to give it a 3 instead of a 5....

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

While I'm not really that concerned and/or irrate about the whole thing, I have to agree that if the reviews don't translate well to the ENWORLD scoring system then either they should stop being put up on Enworld, or there should be some kind of "disclaimer" at the beginning of each D20 MR review posted at ENworld. That just makes common sense, if you are not using the same guidelines, does it not?

That's a good suggestion. There is currently a disclaimer with a link to the scores at d20MR, but it's at the bottom.

That being said, anyone who complains about a campaign world sourcebook being too specific about the campaign world should really not be writing reviews.

Perhaps -- the quote did seem a bit off -- but consider your entire audience. The gamers here at EN World are pretty astute, but you may get people looking at a product for the first time who have absolutely no idea what the product is. Maybe they've never heard of Kalamar. You've got to try and write a review that covers a wide variety of expectations from novice gamers to d20 experts -- which isn't an easy thing to do. If I'm shopping for stuff to port to my own game world, knowing that I'm going to have a hard time of it because too many of the mechanics are inextricably linked to the original setting's assumptions might be something I'd want to know.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I have been pretty much ignoring thier reviews as I can nearly always guess what they will score something w/o even knowing what the product is.

 

[HellHound]

I have to agree with Olgar in just about every respect.

Yes it is true that the review scores posted by d20 Magazine Rack are high compared to the baseline, but it has been stated repeatedly that the LEAST important aspect of a review is the star-rating.

The reviews themselves are long and comprehensive, far from the "Spam" that they are being described as in this thread.

Additional reviews, especially comprehensive ones, are a boon to this review database, not a problem. If you don't like the style of the D20MR reviews, then don't read them. Just like posts to these message boards... if you don't like them, no one is forcing you to read them.

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I have to agree with Olgar in just about every respect.

Yes it is true that the review scores posted by d20 Magazine Rack are high compared to the baseline, but it has been stated repeatedly that the LEAST important aspect of a review is the star-rating.

The reviews themselves are long and comprehensive, far from the "Spam" that they are being described as in this thread.

Additional reviews, especially comprehensive ones, are a boon to this review database, not a problem. If you don't like the style of the D20MR reviews, then don't read them. Just like posts to these message boards... if you don't like them, no one is forcing you to read them.

Those scores do though affect a companies overal rating and can affect the top 20 D20 list which people use to find what is considered the best product out there.