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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AaronLoeb" data-source="post: 399926" data-attributes="member: 4382">Thanks for the reply, Joe!One thing I do want to clarify -- I didn't mean my post as a broad indictment of RPG reviews or a complaint about the state of them. I honestly meant it more as an observation. Seeing a typo a dozen times does bother me; bad layout does bother me. I understand why all of these things are included in reviews AND I find them useful as a consumer.I meant the post as a collection of observations, ala "reviews of RPGs are very different from the way other games and similar products are reviewed, I think. Here's how."The one area where I did mean to slip into actual "I take issue with this" is the general tone of "style just doesn't matter; only idiots care about art in their game books" posts, which I see more often on other sites. I think art and style matter a lot, and I like to hear about it in reviews from a subjective, analytic perspective. Anyway, the point made by both of you is a very good one: these are functional works, and therefore require review of their functionality, thus the key differences. But I'm left with these questions: is there room for purely subjective reviewing ("I had fun reading this, and I thought this was pretty, and you will too if you like X, Y and Z")?; is there some part to game books beyond their functionality that is currently being ignored in reviews?; and even if there is room for subjective reviews and even if there is some part of these books being ignored, does anyone want to read reviews like that?I actually don't ask these questions with answers in mind. I really don't know what I think about this -- beyond knowing that I don't think art and production quality should be ignored as insignificant in reviews. They are not as important as the quality of the system work, but they are important.The whole thing has me thinking of the musical 1776 (which I just saw again two days ago, so it's in my head), where Ben Franklin says, "We've spawned a new race here, Mr. Dickenson. Rougher, simpler, more enterprising, more violent, less refined. We're a new nationality; we deserve a new nation."  When I think "review" I think of a whole critical language spawned from literature and film. Maybe RPGs really don't need that language; maybe we hobbyists don't even WANT that language. Maybe we deserve a new language. AJL</blockquote>

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