Damn ENWorld reviewers, reassuring me to buy product

[gariig]

I was curious about Green Ronin's Plot and Poison as I am running City of the Spider Queen. So I went over to the D20 review section here and found that Psion, Simon Collins, AND Joe G Krusher had reviewed this and gave it 5 stars!!! Now, I'm going to head over to my FLGS after the gym and snag this little gem. I just like to say thank you ENWorld staff reviewers. You help sifting through the mediocre and great products out there and the time you put into the reviews is commendable.

Gariig

 

[gfunk]

Let me second that!

I too have bought a lot of products (modules mostly) based solely on the recommendations of the ENWorld review staff. Personally, I don't pick up anything now without consulting them first.

Good job!

 

[Psion]

Thanks all. Speaking of which, I really ought to write some more reviews. I have a backlog again...

 

[blackshirt5]

I second the poster, I don't buy anything without consulting a review by Psion and/or trancejeremy.

One that I dislike though, is D20 Magazine Rack. I don't think it's necessary to give EVERYTHING high marks.

 

[Ghostwind]

We don't, as a rule, give everything high marks. The scoring system that is used on EN World doesn't necessarily translate well from our grading system. If you go to our site and take the time to read the reviews there, you will see that we can be quite harsh. Not every review we do gets posted to EN World.

A number or letter score should not be the single deciding factor in buying a book, regardless of who is behind it. Read the review thoroughly and pay attention to the good points and the bad points, not just the final conclusion and letter grade. You'll learn more about the product that way...

 

[blackshirt5]

ok. I just noticed that most product reviews by y'all seem to be very very high in the numbers.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

What Ghost said.

The d20MR system tends to give most products a "4 star" rating when you try and boil it down into one number. The actual grading system at d20MR depends on five different scores:

Open Game Content
d20 Compliance
Originality
Playability
Value for the Dollar

You really have to look at the full review to give the final score some meaning. If one of those five elements is more important to you than others, you should look at it and give it greater weight. The "Five Star" system, for all its simplicity, just doesn't do enough for individual products.

That's not intended to be a slight to EN World or the EN World reviews, which are generally great. It's just to repeat the old saw: judging a product by a single number score is akin to judging a book by its cover.