Reviews Not Influecing Buying?

[Vanuslux]

I rely pretty heavily on reviews when it comes to my buying decisions since I don't have a convenient FLGS to browse books at. I can find all WotC's books at the Border's down the street, but for d20 stuff I'd be lost without reviews.

 

[BSF]

Reviews have definitely influenced me. Heck, I have bought products based on nothing more than reviews. Since none of the LGSs had the product in stock, I wasn't even able to flip through the book. Nothing but reviews and whatever material I can find on the publisher's site. The key there is reviews, not a single review. If I am going to buy it sight unseen, I want a few different perspectives before I drop the money.

So, any publishers that dismiss the value of online reviews in purchasing decisions are not thinking of my purchases. I admit that an online review might not spike sales for anything, but there are surely a few sales made because of them. Think of the folks that are going to buy product when they do not have access to a FLGS, or even an LGS.

 

[Sir Elton]

Have you ever bought a book based on an online review?

I ask because when I was at Gen Con, several publishers told me that for the most part, online reviews while nice, did not translate into sales.

If you have bought a product due to an online review, if you could take a couple of miniutes to e-mail the publisher and provide a link to that review, that would be great.

I've used online reviews as a guide for purchasing many products. John Cooper has steered me towards some good buys and helped me avoid some terrible products. I never actually considered that most publishers would just dismiss the internet reviews altogether.

Now I'm not saying the internet is the end all or be all. It's still a small amount of role players and many role players never check out things like En World or the internet itself. However, I do believe that there is value in the various online reviews.

I used to buy books so I could review them. That was the main reason why I bought the bunch of d20 and non d20 Books that I had from Jan 2001 to Jun 2002. Now, since I became a writer and because I don't have a consistent cash flow, I don't buy books anymore for reviews.


However, I buy books because of a percieved need. I bought the Expanded Psionics Handbook because of a real need, for instance. sometimes, though, I'm still a victim of advertising.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Joe, you do know this is like going into a McDonalds and asking the people there if thet eat Hamburgers. Sure, many people here on line read and are influenced by reviews, but most gamers really aren't on line and don't have access or care about the reviews.

To a point you are correct but... there are 20,000+ members here. We've heard that several products, including Lost City of Barakas, only have limited print runs, and they are still in stores. I wonder then, how influencing are the reviews? If 5% of the people aren't convinced to buy something, not to mention the people you're talking about, those who don't get online, can't move a quality product, well, I've lost my train of though.

I guess I was just agreeing in some ways that yeah, the online reviews don't help to move product (enough).

 

[Trickstergod]

Well, my own reviews have 4-6 comments total stating they had steered the commentor towards buying or not buying those books. Whether those people actually went with what they said or not I can't honestly say, though.

As for myself personally, before deciding on whether or not I wanted the Midnight book, I perused all the reviews here on ENWorld before making my decision.

Sadly, though, many of the books I've wanted a review on hadn't been reviewed when I was deciding on my purchase. Had there been, I probably would have paid heed to the review, depending on who it was coming from and how many there were.

As it is, I keep an eye out on the reviews and do base my purchases off them in part. Even if I don't agree with the rating someone gave a book, generally the review will mention enough of what's in it to give me a sense of whether or not it might interest me. I don't believe in blind purchases, regardless of the company, not now, anyway, so like to either browse through the book or read a review on it. Also, while I'm the only one in my gaming group who really reads reviews, as far as I know, being the DM has strongly influenced the purchases for my group. I've warned them off certain books and recommended others, with generally some effect. Sure, that's only about six people, myself included, but there you have it.

If reviews have a minimal impact, I'll say, for me at least, it has more to do with them coming out too late after the book's been published and my interest having since gotten the better of me while I waited to see one as opposed to the review itself being meaningless. The more timely a review, the more effective, I say.

 

[diaglo]

I guess I was just agreeing in some ways that yeah, the online reviews don't help to move product (enough).

if the online reviewers are only online they don't.

but these are living breathing and playing gamers.

they also get word out thru word of mouth... at conventions, at their tables, at the FLGS, at ... well wherever they go.

at least i do. and i'm not all that much of a reviewer.

 

[der_kluge]

I've bought two products very recently that I probably wouldn't have bought if I didn't already know that they were solid products - Elements of Magic, and MMS:Western Europe (long time on waiting for that one, I know).

I can't imagine that I would buy anything recently released without at least hunting a review down somewhere.

 

[Mr. Kaze]

Market Analysis trumps Quality Execution.

Market Analysis trumps Quality Execution.

If I come out with a book of "101 CR 101 CRitters", a gaggle of reviewers can tell me that it's fabulous and imaginative and pretty and technically flawless, but the mere action of publishing the book will also likely reflect a horrible misjudgement on how many DMs need any CR 101 critters, let alone 101 of 'em, with the reviews doing nothing to boost my sales beyond people who would buy that sort of book after thumbing through it in their FLGS anyway. If the FLGS was crazy enough to stock it.

IMO, reviews might tell you how likely a product that you want is to fill the need that you have for such a product and if a publisher has properly judged the market before deciding to release this product, then they've already got a good feel as to whether or not you want to buy the book regardless of reviews.

Consider: The top four movies for last weekend on RottenTomatoes.com were all rated as "Rotten".

Cheers,
::Kaze

 

[jmucchiello]

PDF's are the primary beneficiary as there have been several that I would have never have known existed if not for their reviews...Joe's Book of Enchantment, Buy the Numbers, Character Customization, Deeds not Words, Elements of Magic & OGL Fantasy Lite.

I can state for sure that every review spikes sales of PDFs. But it's still a matter of degree. 3-5 sales can be a spike in PDFs. Print publishers aren't going to notice 3-5 extra sales of their books.

Also, when you read a review of a PDF, you can just straight to the publisher's website and hit the buy button and have your book in a few minutes. When you read a review of a book, you can just up and order it online, receiving it a few days later. Or you can hope to remember to look at it in the FLGS. Neither of these have the instant gratification of the PDF.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I certainly have been influenced to NOT buy something due to a review but I also admit that more and more I find myself checking out ENWorld for the reviews in order to make or break my decision. I am anxiously awaiting a review of OGL Steampunk and/or DragonMech to see what someone thinks of it before I throw down the cash.

In short, I am finding that reviews are more and more important to me.