[request/rant] To all reviewers, amateur and pro...

[JoeGKushner]

For the record, I don't believe that the RPG "industry" has any professional reviewers including myself. For most of the "professionals" it's an unpaid gig for places like En World and RPG.net where the product is the payment and in others it's just an enjoyment of sharing what they enjoyed or talking about how they expected X or Y.

In many ways, they're just more formalized posts that you'd see in a message board.

 

[diaglo]

For the record, I don't believe that the RPG "industry" has any professional reviewers including myself. For most of the "professionals" it's an unpaid gig for places like En World and RPG.net where the product is the payment and in others it's just an enjoyment of sharing what they enjoyed or talking about how they expected X or Y.

In many ways, they're just more formalized posts that you'd see in a message board.

as a consumer, i prefer to read reviews by people who have done like me and paid their own hard earned cash.

 

[Crothian]

I agree with Joe there are no professional reviewers, or if there are I haven't met them.

 

[diaglo]

Long as ya read it first.

you can count on that. look for it in a month or two.

 

[Crothian]

as a consumer, i prefer to read reviews by people who have done like me and paid their own hard earned cash.

How do you know if they did though? I do reviews of books I'm given and books I buy.

 

[JoeGKushner]

as a consumer, i prefer to read reviews by people who have done like me and paid their own hard earned cash.

And that's cool too. I don't think anyone's telling you that you have to read only the "professional" reviews.

And if you got the chip off your shoulder about losing some reviews years ago, I'm sure more people would love to see you return to doing your own reviews.

 

[diaglo]

How do you know if they did though? I do reviews of books I'm given and books I buy.

i hope they qualify their reviews. that is something else i use to weigh the review.

example... [i purchased this... or i received this product from publisher X...]

 

[Crothian]

i hope they qualify their reviews. that is something else i use to weigh the review.

example... [i purchased this... or i received this product from publisher X...]

I never do because that doesn't matter in my reviews.

 

[Frater]

I wouldn't worry about it too much Mouse, some reviews are so bad I can't even get through the entire first part of the review. But I still like to go to forums and talk about how bad the review was, even though I didn't read it all.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

as a consumer, i prefer to read reviews by people who have done like me and paid their own hard earned cash.

Interesting point. As a fellow consumer, I read reviews (hopefully before purchasing the product - ). Many of the reviews that I read the most are ones by "professional" reviewers. Many of these reviewers are given product to review. Some of the reviews are by "amateur" reviewers. Some of these reviewers are bitter due to buyer's remorse. So, consumers have valid concerns regarding product reviews in general.

The following are not an indication of how the "reviewer community" acts, but are thoughts that run through my mind when reading reviews (I guess that the moral of the story is to read many reviews and ask for many opinions):

On the one hand, the publisher may be saying, "Here, for your hard work and balanced reviews I will allow you to have a copy for free to review."

On the other hand, the publisher may be thinking, "If I give you the product for free, you may give me a more favorable review, for I am not concerned as much with a fair review as I am with increased sales."

On one hand, the "professional" reviewer may be saying, "My morales and ethics force me to give a fair review, regardless of if I purchased the product or was given it."

On the other hand, the "professional" reviewer may be thinking, "I am not real concerned with this product, but the one they have coming out next month really interests me so if I give this one a good review maybe they will give me a free copy of that one as well".

On the one hand, the "amateur" reviewer may be saying, "I am going to do everyone a favor and review this product that I just purchased so that they can see an unbiased review."

On the other hand, the "amateur" reviewer may be thinking, "I really don't like this company, so I am going to put out a bad review in order to hurt their sales."