Bad Review vs. Good Reviews

[ColonelHardisson]

Re: Is every game mechanics in any d20 book OGL?

Well, reading this topic, a doubt come to my mind:

This book contain a colection of feats of several D20 books? PHB, R&R, etc.?

If positive the answer, am I right to assume that every game mechanic used by any d20 publisher are open game licensed and free for anyone using it?

Kind off topic, but...

Only the content the original publisher designates as open game content is available. Open content has to be identified as such somewhere in the book. When another company uses that open content, they have to identify where it came from in section 15 of the open game license which has to be in every d20 book.

I think that's right. If anyone knows better, please feel free to correct me.

 

[Scarogoth]

Know what you mean!

I'm a Southerner, so politeness is ingrained in my being. Posting a negative review just breaks that old "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule.

Well, I'm a Southerner, too, but of the British variety, though I totally agree with this comment. When I first joined these boards, I thought it would be great to become a full-time reviewer and churn them out like SC/Psion/GameWyrd, etc. whoever...

And then I discovered I couldn't do it. It wasn't that I couldn't be critical -- that wasn't the problem -- but I was loathe to write down anything that might upset somebody, be they artist, author or publisher -- big boy, or small-time operation.

So I decided not to do it. Rather than be a "reviewer" I would be a "recommender" only. Anything that I felt was a really worthwhile purchase I would quite happily write about -- even be a little bit critical if I felt it needed it. I imagine that quite a few other sporadic posters feel the same as me. Unfortunately, since I started work full-time in the industry, I've not had a chance to write nearly as many as I'd ever intended, and also because of my job, I'm nervous about saying anything in case it opens up a "pot calling the kettle black" thing.

I do know what you mean about being swayed by the reviews though. I took one look at the plethora of stonkingly high ones for the Manual of Planes, and without really reading them, just decided that this obviously had to be a "must" purchase, almost one of the core rulebooks, if you like.

But I didn't like. I didn't like at all. It was stupid, stupid, stupid. Astral Color Pools? Worlds on giant cogs, like something out of MYST... Elysium looking like a set of stacked Bonsai plants with neverending waterfalls. All totally useless to me, and I really felt I should write a review to say so. Just like you did. But I just didn't have the heart, nor the nerve to take it back.

Unfortunately, I didn't get urged to do so by the noble folks on this board -- I'm glad they did so for you. You review was balanced, thoughtful and very useful. Thank you.

 

[ced1106]

Re: I posted it.

I would really like to know what you think of it (the review). Is it proper? Useful?

Well... duh. (;

My favorite parts of the review:

* This statement is concise and objective. : "Now, even at a 50/50 ratio of solidly designed and written feats to poorly designed and written/edited feats, this book still presents about 500 good feats. Some of the bad feats could be salvaged by a player and DM willing to put some thought on them to figure them out and settle the issues."

* This personal statement states your subjective opinion, but does not pass it as fact. It also understands that your target audience has only so much money. : "Personally, I want to return this book to the store for a refund, because with the systemic problems of balance, consistancy, logic, and general usability it just is not worth anywhere near $35."

Hope to read another of your reviews in the near future.


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Sammael99]

Re: Know what you mean!

Unfortunately, I didn't get urged to do so by the noble folks on this board -- I'm glad they did so for you. You review was balanced, thoughtful and very useful. Thank you.

There's still time ! Go write that MotP review ! For what it's worth, I had mower expectations when I purchased it, and although I still find it useful, I also find it horribly dull... Maybe I should write a review too...

 

[Bagpuss]

So far I've only reviewed a few products.

Acceptance of Fate - Poor 2

Speaker in Dreams - Average 3

and as DMaple (forgot the password to this account), I reviewed
Creature Collection - Good 4
This I think was my first review and I think I rated it too highly compared to the text of the review.

I never seen to find the time to write reviews and the last couple of things I've thought about reviewing didn't even appear in the list of products.

 

[Krug]

Bagpuss, which products were they? Just post them in Meta and we'll slot them in.

You can also change ur rating for Creature Collection if you wish.

 

[Psion]

Personally, due to my impression that ENworld reviews are generally warm-and-fuzzy I always go further afield when looking thru reviews to decide on whether a product is worthy of buying. In most cases, this means trawling thru the rpg.net reviews and forums...where people seem to be more willing to call a spade a spade. At least thats my impression.

The problem is that people at RPGnet (some who also post here also) are frequently willing to call a club a spade, and a few hearts and diamonds too...

 

[Psion]

I think part of the problem is that negative reviews are almost the only reviews that get deleted and almost all the positive ones stay and that more than half the reviews are by staff reviewers so a lot of diversity is lost.

I'm sorry archer, I know you have an axe to grind with the moderators since they wouldn't let your slamming of the other reviewers stand, but you are way off base here. You quite simply do not know what you are talking about and have know way of actually tracking what gets deleted. I have nixed far more pointless three-sentence gushes than I have killed negative reviews.

Those negative reviews that are deleted are deleted for pretty much the same reasons positive reviews are: lack of real review commentary, vapid content, and so forth.