Do reviews matter?

[FunkBGR]

Yes

If Reviewer X says they like something, and I buy it and like it, I pay more attention to Reviewer X. If it happens again, I pay more attention. Trends like that mean they may have my same play-style, which means I'm more comfortable dropping a lot of money.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

They don't help me much. They rarely contain enough information to be useful to me, and furthermore I'm not going to take reviews all that seriously when bad products somehow manage to get four stars. A table of contents, followed by four stars, is not a useful review to me.

 

[Rhuvein]

I find reviews somewhat important depending on the product and such. And in particular critical reviews of something that I'm interested in, are helpful if the person is objective and factual. Frankly I want to know the worse thing about a product (if there is one) before deciding.

 

[trancejeremy]

I really wish the review output on ENWorld was greater than it is. Does anyone know why it's slowed down? Was it the server crash from a few months ago making others gun-shy of putting the work into writing a review?

Well, for one, the review section here now has to have products added to it by Crothian, as opposed to before when anyone could add products.

For another, this is just me, but companies have seemingly gotten stingier about review copies. I used to be able to manage to get about 10-15 books a year from various companies. This year, 1.

 

[JakeRichmond]

The many positive reviews for Panty Explosion have helped us sell a lot of copies of the game. You can read a few of them on our site at www.atarashigames.com. Having someone say they like a game and tell you why can be a very strong motivator. I think every game I've purchased over the last few years was because of a positive review, a personal recomendation or from reading a really good actual play post.

Reviews rock.



Jake Richmond
atarashigames.com

 

[Imruphel]

Agreed. John Cooper, in my opinion, is the best RPG reviewer in the business. His reviews are insightful, incredibly detailed, and very well written. I also love the fact that he holds publishers accountable for things like stat blocks and poor editing.

BD

Agreed. His reviews are first class. I use them both pre- and post-purchase.

I also like reading reviews AFTER I have bought a product. Sometimes the reviewers will highlight something that I missed on my first read through a product and that something could be exactly what I need to make it a "useful" product.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What reviews do for me is give me a little bit more in-depth info on the contents of the product- more than I'd get from its cover or a quick scan in the game store.

However, I don't pay much attention to the reviewer's actual opinion unless he relates the product he's reviewing to a product I already own, or unless I'm familiar with that reviewer's past reviews.

IOW, if he likes what I like, I'm more inclined to buy what he reviews favorably. If his opinion is generally opposite of mine, I'll go counter to his reccomendations.

There are no rubber stamp reviewers for me, though, and "stars" are, IMHO, useless.

 

[MerricB]

I also like reading reviews AFTER I have bought a product. Sometimes the reviewers will highlight something that I missed on my first read through a product and that something could be exactly what I need to make it a "useful" product.

I delight in reading reviews after I buy something; especially to see how the reviewer's views contrast with mine.

On rare occasions, reviews make a difference to my purchases. Mostly, they don't. After all, if I don't get Wizards' newest product, how will I be able to review it if I want to?

(Yay! Finally finished my MMIV review).

Cheers!

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Reviews do matter to me -- but it depends on the reviewer. I ignore reviews that seem to be written by shills. I also tend to ignore poorly written reviews.

Ideally, a good review will discuss the good and bad of a product, even if the overall rating is positive.

As for the "star" rating, I feel that there is a noticeable star-bloat among most of the RPG reviews I've read. If everything is maxed out on stars, doesn't that rating lose meaning? I realize that some publishers get upset at anything below a 4-star rating, but it seems like many reviewers coddle RPG publishers in the hopes of gaining positive notice by them.

 

[Psion]

As for the "star" rating, I feel that there is a noticeable star-bloat among most of the RPG reviews I've read. If everything is maxed out on stars, doesn't that rating lose meaning? I realize that some publishers get upset at anything below a 4-star rating, but it seems like many reviewers coddle RPG publishers in the hopes of gaining positive notice by them.

If I could not rate products, I would. Because rating is possible the most subjective part of the review.

That said, if a product really rates below a 3 or 4 to me, I honestly have a hard time reviewing it. I'm not going to force my way through a mediocre product just so I can satisfy everyone's faith in a star rating system that I myself don't have any faith in.