First review, looking for feedback

[haiiro]

Yesterday, I wrote my first gaming review and posted it here on EN World. I'm interested in getting feedback and criticism from folks who've written reviews here -- particularly the staff reviewers, and others who've written or read a lot of reviews.

Here's the review: http://www.enworld.org/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=haiiro&product=TKBBA. I had fun writing it.

If you have the time to take a look and give me a bit of feedback, it would be most welcome. Thanks in advance!

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

Would reading a lot of reviews count as experience?

Anyways, it is a very good review. Extrememly informative and gives a good covering of everything in the book. I can tell the reason you gave the book the score you did.

Although I do not care for products of this type, I know other do and this review will be of great use to them.

Good job!

 

[Rl'Halsinor]

This is the kind of review I look for: straight and to the point. IMO, you gave enough detail to allow us to determine whether or not this is a PDF worth our time. This is especially true for DMs such as myself that really don't buy unless I can flip through what I am looking for. Far too often we read of companies such as Mad Kaiser Games and their products but shy off from buying them because the most we get are a line or two of description but nothing more. Thanks for the effort and I hope to read more from you on these kind of 3rd Party Supplements.

 

[haiiro]

Thank you both -- that's exactly the kind of review I was aiming for.

I'm still interested in more feedback, if anyone else wants to jump in.

 

[Olive]

Good review! The only think I'd suggest is perhaps a bit more about what makes it as excellent as a 5 should be. To me the review reads a bit like a four star one.

What I'd also say is that the review would benefit more from having more of your voice come through. Perhaps explainign how you would use it or the like?

But over all good on ya! It's a good review, it made me interested in the product, and it's always good to see people reviewing the products that are out there.

 

[Rawwedge]

Thank you both -- that's exactly the kind of review I was aiming for.

I'm still interested in more feedback, if anyone else wants to jump in.

I haven't seen other reviews posted on this site yet but I do take an interest in them generally. I did not really try to pick apart your grammar but nothing jumped out at me; that's good. It was an easy flowing read and you didn't slip into any confusing or misleading sentences; again, very good. I am a big fan of this kind of product and I feel like I know what I need to know about it based on your review; that is extremely good.
As to the technical review of the PDF itself, I'm not savvy enough to notice more than whether it works or not. I do care a great deal if it looks good and if there was proper editorial work done. Did you find any typographical, spelling, grammatical errors that made it look amateurish? I know that information is of interest to me.
IMHO you are off to a great start.

 

[trancejeremy]

Very good review for your first.

You might give a bit more info on just what the product is. I mean, I gather it's a PDF, and about markets, but I'm not sure if it's just a list of stuff, or a location book.

 

[Crothian]

Good review, but a little bit more detail like trancejeremy suggests would be nice.

So, what made you decide to do a review? And why did you review this? Most people's first review are of print books especially Wizards stuff. Its hard enough to get people used to doing reviews to review pdfs, I'm just amazed someone starting out went this way.

 

[haiiro]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I'm absorbing them while I try to decide if I want to do another review in the near future.

So, what made you decide to do a review? And why did you review this? Most people's first review are of print books especially Wizards stuff. Its hard enough to get people used to doing reviews to review pdfs, I'm just amazed someone starting out went this way.

I bought the first two Kaiser's Bazaar PDFs because they looked useful for my campaign, and I wound up liking them quite a bit. When I posted a thread over in the d20 Publishers forum asking about release dates for future titles in the series, I expressed that I was most interested in a particular book -- the Nightmarket.

Mad Kaiser (who runs MKG, as you can guess), made me a peculiar offer: write an honest review of one of the KB books here on EN World, and he'd make Nightmarket the next KB title he publishes.

I've thought about writing reviews in the past, and that offer was just to good to pass up. As I stated in that thread, I didn't let his offer influence my opinion of the book in any way -- it's a good book.

As for reviewing PDFs in general, it actually seems like a pretty neat prospect. They're generally shorter than print products, and (from what little I've seen) often have a narrower focus -- IMO, this should make them a bit easier to review than, say, Eberron. Crothian, you might feel differently.

 

[haiiro]

You might give a bit more info on just what the product is. I mean, I gather it's a PDF, and about markets, but I'm not sure if it's just a list of stuff, or a location book.

Thanks for the feedback.

This was actually one of the things I thought I got across well (specifically in paragraphs 5 and 10, for example) -- it's a bit of both, but leans much more heavily to being a book of lists. Would you have preferred to see that information right up front, or did I just obscure it too much by trying to be descriptive?