Biased Reviews- Part 2

[Waylander the Slayer]

I had posted a post a few months ago about a reviewer who seemed to consistently give biased reviews to a certain company (on his own website and here as well). I just found out that the said reviewer has been hired by the company on a full time basis.
This gets me sooo mad!!! How can people do blatantly biased reviews? Is the market so tight that you need to mislead the community in general??? This is so pathetic. when it comes to marketing and everything else in life your integrity matters! Because, eventually, when people realize that you use unethical practices and low n dirty tactics they will NEVER buy products from you.
I usually drop $500 a month on D20 products and from now on i guarentee that the said company will not see a dime of it!!

 

[MEG Hal]

I am not the company in question (phew) but I went to a site that had a review of our product saw the level of detail he was putting into his NPC's on his site for free downloads and hired him as our NPC tech, so sometimes it just happens that way... do not know the situation you are speaking of but, wanted to show anotehr side of the coin. I am sorry this happened to you and high score or low score I enjoy a well written reveiew of my products.

Hope there are enough other sites for you to get some reveiws from on product.

 

[Crothian]

I know people don't like to post negative specifics like this, but I'd really like to read the reviews for myself to judge how bias they are. There are many sets of circumstances that this could happen and I'm not going to assume the company in question is trying to mislead the public without seeing all of what you say for myself.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

Here ya go


You are correct about this. I do apologize. Feel free to follow the link and make up your mind for yourself or even buy the products (which i did) and review them personally. You can find other reviews on these products ar rpg.net as well. As to who the biased reviewer is - you will have to decide for yourself.



Review

 

[Desdichado]

I don't know exactly what your problem is: so he wrote a good review of a product that ONE other person gave a mediocre review to. And then he got hired by that company. Obviously you believe that he got the job because he wrote a glowing review of a product that is so inherently bad that he must also have secretly loathed it, but just wrote the great review to get a job there.

That's pretty pathetic, really. It's much more likely that he gave the product a great review because it's something that's really up his alley. Chances are, that's why he pursued a job there, and they probably hired him because he is of a like mind as the publishers.

 

[Waylander the Slayer]

What I express is my opinion. A reviewer has to be unbiased; if you work for a company, wrote a product, playtested a product etc. etc then it is your duty to point this out at the time of your review.

My opinions are just that; opinions. Further, what i stated is not based on one review but on four and on the modules that i purchased and the quality and value i got from the products. I could be TOTALLY WRONG. I just want people to be aware of what I PERCIVE is happening as the market gets tighter and several people start fighting for the ever decreasing market share.

AS always its perfectly ok to disagree.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

AS always its perfectly ok to disagree.

Not when you are accusing someone of improper behavior- that is not a matter of an opinion.

I looked over the reviews (especially of books I also own)- they seem to be thorough.

Granted, they are not critical and pointing out every flaw- but they do point out every thing he thinks are good about a product.

I find the latter more useful then the former.

If you don't, then don't read them and post more reviews of your own.

FD

 

[Troll Lord]

TLG/Jeff Ibach

Waylander,

sorry if this rambles, i only just cracked my first dr. pepper today and its already NOON!

I was wondering last night as I put the press release together if there might be some negative feed back because Jeff has consistantly reviewed our products and given them at least the thumbs up. (those I've sent him at any rate, I'm horribly remiss in getting my products out to reviewers, just ask Simon from the enboards, I sent him the Codex (to Ireland) via Ground mail (like a moron), and it still hasn't arrived, grumble mumble firth)

But trust me that we did not bring Jeff on board because of these reviews. We brought Jeff on board through an entirely different avanue (as you can see I need a %@^&# editor because I can't figure out how to spell avenue).

As you may or may not know we lost Mac Golden about 5 months ago. Mac was our rules guru, Davis and I wrote most of the material and Mac (alongside two troops of playtesters) made certain it was solid 3e. Well, when Mac left I scooped up the job. That alongside managing the business and writing has proven way too much. (first play test of Heart of Glass the playtesters acutally laughed at how weak most of the vampires were). So we had been discussing the idea for some time, hiring a mechanics editor that is.

Jeff came to mind for several reasons. One we had a talking relationship, this because he alerted me to some negative feed back some of our d20 rules/stats/blocks and so forth were getting over at MonteCooks boards.

After entering the debate I realized these gamers had some legit complaints about some of the NPCs and what not which in turn spooked me for the 3e material in Gygax's upcoming Canting Crew and my own Heart of Glass. I began bouncing things off of Jeff at this point. This just reinforced the whole idea.

Now, long story even longer, if you have been to our website recently you would have noticed that we have an open apology to WoTC for some non OGL material put in Gaxmoor (this was not a good thing). This major snafu just further reinforced the fact we needed a technical editor and Jeff had already proven himself in that capacity.

I learned that he did work for AEG so we brought him on board. He is not a "full time employee" but rather a work for hire. We pay him per job and the job varies depending on the size. Jeff is not a content editor. TLG's material is edited by two outside folk (who are also work for hire) but Jeff is the man in line for mechanics, this way I can get back to doing what I do best, writing usably settings/adventure for your campaigns and developing Erde and he can cover my ass.

I can see how the whole thing seems inappropriate but I assure you it had nothing to do with the reviews . . . he only gave Dogs of War a 3 by the by . . . now if he had given it a 5 we may have brought him on full time Just kidding.

TLG
Steve

 

[Troll Lord]

DOH! He did give it a 5! Now I feel like a dumbass!

 

[Eosin the Red]

Troll Lord -

I hate it when I stick my foot in my mouth. That was pretty funny though.

General:
I have had a problem with many of the reviews I find. So many folks are so lieniant that the reviews mean next to nothing for me. I do not percieve a 3 as "dogging" a product, merely stating that it is a sound product, but could use some work - that covers 95% of the d20 stuff I have purchased.

I also find that the vast majority of others want something different from a product. There is a little bellyhoo over the reviews of Librius - someone is pissed because they felt decieved by the reviews. Reviews only provide me with one answer - what does this book contain? I used to stand in the Game Store and flip through several supplements until I found something interesting to me. Now I go and flip throught things that I have pre-screened for content. When I buy based on reviews, esp glowing reviews I usually come away with a bad taste in my mouth.


Just some food for thought. It is nothing to get freaked about.

Waylander, do you have a warehouse to store all of that product? I figure that has to close to 18 inches of frontage. Multiply that times 29 months? That has to come out to something like 10 bookshelves of nothing but d20. I need to come over and game at your house.