Biased Reviews- Part 2

[Kichwas]

An ideal situation would be to have reviews without numbers.


This reminds me of an old flamewar that happened at renderosity (a 3D artists website) when somebody got a score of 9 out of 10...


The victim started a huge flame war that lasted weeks, cost a few admins, and resulted in the person who gave the 9 score getting banned and unbanned a couple of times...

In the end they added the ability for artists to post work and not allow people to rate it numericly. Which I always do. They also added the option to comment on work without leaving a number even if the artist left number ratings in. Again when I comment I always leave out the numbers.

But the crowd who demanded that all their work be rated 10 or the ratee's get banned are still there and never admitted any wrong doing (in fact at one point they wanted the entire other side of the debate banned and several of those people were before it got cleared up)... And I havent seen a post by the person who had made that original 9 rating in well over a year or more.


Anyway...

Here we have these numbers over commercial matters. Anytime you have a rating system there are people who demand they get the highest scores and there are people who are willing to be 'paid' in someway to give it to them.

You see accusations of reviewer fixing all the time in the restaurant business. Often but not always true. It's appearances that count though.

Remove the numbers and reviews becomes a matter of the commentary; which is a lost less 'instant gratification' and thus less prone to this whole affair. Though still able to be abused.

 

[Troll Lord]

Hello all,

I see the discussion has continued. Just to keep the pot stirred...

Wayland, Ibach did not work for us when he wrote those reviews, nor was he in any way associated with us. He was not nor ever has been a playtester for us, we use two local groups. Ibach was only one of many who recieved products for review. Now that he is working for us, though he may review products, but their will be a disclaimer on his and our webpages. And furthermore, if his mother reviews products she will have to put a disclaimer on her webpage.

Of course your opinions of our products are your own and that's cool.


Steve

 

[Bard Lucian]

Support for DM_Jeff

I just want to drop a quick note to say that I've never found Jeff to be anything but a fair reviewer with good judgement. I check out his site frequently, and since I've seen him in action I know how he uses materials in his games. As far as I've ever seen, he is a good person to evaluate RPG materials. I don't know anything about the details of this whole thing, but I do know Jeff, and I find him to be a man of integrity. I think it's great that he's doing some work for Troll Lord. I wish somebody would hire me to do work in gaming.

Scott the Bard

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Actually I think it's fine foir people who work in the business to give their reviews (opinions) on projects. I just think they should tell us that they work for whatever company as the first sentence. For the most part the people who work for all these d20 companies seem like nice guys and it's interesting to hear what people in the business think about other projects.

Crothian is right on the money. Consider (IMO) the #1 d20 publisher and reviewer online: Monte Cook. The man is a prolific writer, and has no problems talking about his competitors' work. What allows him to do this is the fact that we know he publishes, so we know his words may be biased.

After Full Disclosure is given, I actually find his (and similar) reviews to be very useful. After all, if he says "this product doesn't live up to my standards," I know what those standards are. If he says it doesn't fit his idea of what so-and-so should be, I know what that idea is.

Being an insider can be a bonus for a reviewer, but to maintain trust, it's important to inform the reader that you are an insider. Also, note that Monte never reviews his own products.

Hopefully, now that he's gotten a job, Jeff will follow suit.

 

[DM_Jeff]

I apologize for not responding sooner, there was a small delay in setting up my ID here at the EN World boards. I also apologize for dragging a near-dead topic back to life but there are some things I feel need addressing.

The kind folks who suggested I only review stuff that appeals to me is pretty on target: unless something is so mind-numbingly awful that reporting it will help drive it away, I won’t even bother with it.

Thank you also those who wrote in defending my right and insight into my review content based on a designer’s point of view as well as a fan, which is exactly how I try to approach this.

And of course, I have never deceived anyone. If I ever had published credit in a book, I always reveal that in my reviews (blatantly in the cases of my group rewriting major rules points with Mongoose’s Seas of Blood and Chaos Magic). I was unaffiliated with Troll Lord Games before I wrote the contested reviews, and my admiration and rating for them comes from 1) respect for their boldness, 2) their unique setting and 3) different, imaginative ideas that really spoke to me. Sure, the Treklant trilogy had a few typos and mechanical difficulties, a few. On the other hand I thought the story arc was excellent, like I said it really spoke to me. As for the rating system, I always have the most terrible time working within only five stars here at En World; I find that they don’t work for me when trying to compare items. I just assign one based on my own opinion (which has also grown substantially since I first wrote the Treklant reviews). In fact many staff reviewers here don’t always write their text to match their rating which can also be confusing (but understandable, and forgivable). To me the interest lies in the text, not a convenient number. That’s why on my own reviews page DM’s Haven I don’t use a numerical rating system.

As for Mr. Psion’s comment on my needing a lesson on conflict of interest…my interest is in D&D, where’s the conflict!? Seriously the idea that I’d write glowing reviews of a crappy product just because the publisher employs me part time is conceivable but I can tell you is absolutely not the truth. If you think it even has to do with the fact that publishers send me items, I have lost two different publisher’s support because I wrote only a few negative things in reviews of their items and they couldn’t handle it. I am biased only in that I do review stuff I tend to like, but I try my best not to go out of my way to tell you a product is necessary I present information and suggest the types of games (or gamers) the item should appeal to.

Anyway, I respect the EN World staff reviewers. If we always agreed then something would be wrong with the cosmic balance and I hope folks read into the reviews to get a feel if an item would be excellent for them and their campaign, not to purchase it just because it has five, three, or one star next to it. Game on!

-DM Jeff

 

[Berandor]

I apologize for not responding sooner, there was a small delay in setting up my ID here at the EN World boards. I also apologize for dragging a near-dead topic back to life but there are some things I feel need addressing.

The question remains...
is the topic resurrected?
Or undead?



Berandor

 

[AnthonyRoberson]

I think that if you work for any D20 company, writing ANY review would be a conflic of interest.

I thought that I would throw in the fact that I am a semi-prolific reviewer and I have just started to receive Kalamar products for Kenzer and Company for review. I haven't gotten ANY pressure from them for positive reviews and if I did, I wouldn't review for them anymore.

I also have been working hard to get published in the industry. I have several proposals out there and I really hope one them is accepted. If I do get published, I guess I will have to seriously rethink my reviewing career....

P.S. Geanavue: The Stones of Peace is REALLY good. Check it out if you get a chance. Can I have my check now Jolly? (This was my attempt at a joke for those of you that might be a little slow on the uptake)

 

[DwarvenBrew]

And of course, I have never deceived anyone. If I ever had published credit in a book, I always reveal that in my reviews (blatantly in the cases of my group rewriting major rules points with Mongoose’s Seas of Blood and Chaos Magic). I was unaffiliated with Troll Lord Games before I wrote the contested reviews, ...

Well that seems to clear that up. Unfortunately, it looks like it was an unfortunate timing issue.

However, I would like to throw in my support that reviewers should make it VERY obvious that they have a relationship/affiliation with a company when they are reviewing said company's products. Personally, I would consider it rather unethical to do otherwise.