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

[MonsterMash]

Well, been away from this one for a couple of days. A couple notes to make and then I'm pretty much done here.

To FickleGM: Thanks for chiming in. While I don't think vindication was necessary, I am glad to see I wasn't the only one that noticed the cliquishness put forth in that little exchange. This kind of thing is to be expected on message boards, especially hobby ones. But its still a bummer when it happens...particularly from website representatives.

Regarding the "Silent majority" discussion: There seems to be a sentiment of "if no ones complaining, why change it?" and thats fair enough. But on the other hand, why not try to make things better? Do you actually need to hear complaints before you say to yourself "there may be a better way to do this?"

A little about myself: On weekends I do some performing work. I've worked in community theatre, and I'm also a family-show magician. I don't claim to be God's gift to the magic world, but I'm also booked every weekend in a midsized market...so I'm doing OK. If I followed the "no complaints = why change?" logic, I'd still be doing the same tricks and routines I was doing 8 years ago when I started. I've never yet had one event organizer say to me "The hatching a rubber chicken sandwich from a real egg trick would go over a lot better if you clowned it up more" It's not something people (besides other entertainers) would even give a thought to. Does this mean I've nothing more to do to make the act a better one? Heck no. Anyone that takes what they do seriously is always looking to improve. I could never just sit on my laurels because I get mostly compliments and no complaints.

When you're green you grow...when you're ripe, you rot. Know what I'm saying?

The reviews and the reviewers here are most excellent here. I've really never had a complaint. But its folly to think there are no improvements to be made.

That's all I wanted to add.

Trev

A lot of good points there and its one of the reasons all the reviewers ask for feedback, but sadly we rarely get it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The one complaint I have about reviews (staff and user) here is that the review text itself often doesn't match the number of stars assigned. I've seen several reviews with fairly harsh criticism and 4 stars (which should suggest the product is very good). I'm not going to be calling out names, but one staff reviewer in particular is guilty of this. Personally, I'd abolish the star system and break the overall score into several subscores.

I know I've been guilty of that. Usually a mechanic or piece of the book strikes me as damn fine, or the book as written to be used is great, but many things about it bother me. The World of Warcraft would be a good example of that. I tried to put my grievances if you will at the start of the review in that instance. We'll see how that works.

 

[Psion]

Is it me??

Probably me. I get "this reads different" complaints from time to time.

Well, Sammael, I am going to assume you are talking about me unless you claim otherwise. Maybe it's a guilty conscience. But in addition to the fact I think I quibble to much over assigning star ratings as it is, I really don't plan on changing that aspect any time soon. Why? Well, as discussed before, I don't consider the star rating all that informative. But if you read my review and form enough of an opinion that you can dispute my star rating, then I have done my job. Because I have given YOU an impression that is based on your values. My star rating is pretty much the result of me applying my tastes and weights to the aspects I mention in a review. I may feel compelled to mention many things in my review that are negatives, but if I still give it a high score, that indicates by my weighing criteria, I don't consider it all that significant.

 

[Psion]

I know I've been guilty of that. Usually a mechanic or piece of the book strikes me as damn fine, or the book as written to be used is great, but many things about it bother me. The World of Warcraft would be a good example of that. I tried to put my grievances if you will at the start of the review in that instance. We'll see how that works.

fine example. If I were to write a review of that, it would fare fairly well. Not because I don't agree with many of your criticisms, because I do. But because I don't consider those criticisms all that significant to game play. (Yes, I think the art director should be smacked for including some of the game graphics. But there is some simply beautiful artwork in there, and in the big picture, I don't weigh the CG outtakes that highly.)

 

[scourger]

I'd prefer a playtest review, anyway. But most reviews I've read have given me the information I sought to inform my decision. I've mostly read the ones at rpg.net, but I've found the ones here useful. Even Amazon had a couple for a book I looked at recently. The ones on rpgnow are a little too concise, though.