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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sotterraneo" data-source="post: 393823" data-attributes="member: 3296">"Do publishers read the reviews of thier products and the products of other peoples?  Do you place any creadence in these reviews?  Do you just read certain reviewers?"  I'm not a publisher, just a reviewer (and a retailer) but I thought it could be useful give some ideas from the 'other side'.I read reviews, yes, but I'm always careful about the place where I read my reviews. For example, if I should read now a review about a Fast Forward product in the pages of Games Unplugged magazine or any advertiser's products, I'd not trust such a review for obvious reasons. Ditto for Game Trade Magazinewith its "Buy! Buy! Buy! Cool! Cool! Cool!" tone. I place much more trust in reviews in places such as RPG Net or Enworld because, simply, it's hard to 'buy' them (I hope!) and reviews are written by fans that, having bought the products reviewed and so invested personally, have a deep committment to describe, analyze and if needed criticize a product. Various years ago I did a lot of reviews 'on request'. I had a dream about becoming a professional writer, so I chased every writing gig I could find - reviews included. I actively contacted Italian and US publishers for review copies, too. But my reviews often were a product of the need to write, not about a real interest in the products themselves. More, my policy about not being too 'rude' with publishers imposed a sort of 'auto-censure' to avoid being blacklisted so losing possibile writing avenues and free review copies. My harsh reviews were so 'reserved' for minor publishers...Yes, I had the psyche of a real journalist 8-]  Now, it's different. I have another job in the gaming industry, retailing, so I am free from the obsession about chasing writing gigs and being 'blacklisted'. The only 'professional' work I do beside retailing is translating, for the pleasure of it and the need to better protect Italian language from some horrors I have seen in certain books... More, owning and managing a retail store gives me a lot of feedback about products from paying customers: this is a really valuable input in my opinion, not always right but surely useful. More, when I now write a review it's only because I have bought a product for personal interest. I don'ask for review copies (the magazine, <a href="http://www.kaosonline.it" target="_blank">www.kaosonline.it</a> does, but we are separate operations) so I'm free to write anything I want. Surely I'll not be always right (but a review is an opinion, after all), but I have no qualms in stating my opinions and defending them from authors (I remember a brief discussion with Phil Masters, a British author I respect a lot, trashing my GURPS Atlantis review on RPG Net and my defense of the review itself). Just my two Eurocents</blockquote>

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