trancejeremy said:
The only way to get a semi-valid top 10 would be to look at sales or shelf-space in stores, and that really just tells you who is biggest/most commercially successful. Using reviewer scores produces some weird results because it dooms the big publishers to have middling scores (large sample sizes will more closely resemble a standard distribution and push their mean score towards the average (3.0-3.5 seems to be an average review since reviews seem more inclined to give 4s than 2s).) whereas the small publishers are the most likely to be the outlyiers (the 1.0-2.5 range and the 4.5-5.0 range). My apologies if my statistical terminology is off. I haven't taken a stats course in twelve years.
After looking over the lists, I noticed that most of the bigger publishers which I usually think of as reliable and high quality seem to have large numbers of publications and 50+ reviews. The known "big boys" tended to have average scores between 3.5 and 4.3... which makes sense. With a large product range, some variation in quality is likely to occur and the possibility for poor reviews of occasional products increases dramatically (i.e. you can't please all the people all the time), so they should average well above 3 (showing their overall appeal) but not extremely high (due to the more extreme scores neutralizing each other in the calculation of the mean score).
I would say that as a starting point any producer with a large number of products reviewed and an average score over 3.3 is doing something right and deserves a look. As you move to companies with fewer reviewed products (some small guys make great stuff), you could make your requirements somewhat more stringent, scaling up to perhaps 4.0 average for very small numbers of books.
Do keep in mind this is just a suggestion to help narrow your search. There may well be some company that failed to make this arbitrary cut that makes products that are quite enjoyed by some players and are exactly what you want. Only you know what you enjoy and only you can judge what is quality product to you.
Product reviews are a good way of assessing what is likely to be a mechanically sound and probably usable product. A product that consistantly gets 1 or 2 out of 5 probably has some serious game mechanics problems, but reaching the magical 5 of out 5 usually requires the product to have some special appeal to the reviewer. It may or may not have that appeal for you. Whether a product will have that special something that makes you in particular thing "this is so cool; I must have it" is something only you can assess. A large number of high reviewer scores should tell you only one thing: this product holds appeal to a significant number of gamers. That score does not tell you if you are one of them (but maybe it is worth looking at it to see if you are).
My advice is too comb through several companies' products, as many as you can get your hands on. Assess if they tend to produce products that appeal to you. Odds are that if they are doing so now, future products will also tend to, but do give them another chance after some time has passed. Companies that survive in this industry tend to learn from their mistakes and learn to make better product (or at least product with wider appeal).
"Best" is really a subjective assessment that each gamer must make for him/herself.
Green Ronin also published the ENnie winning Sidewinder: Recoiled by Dog House Rules.
