Reviews reporting

[Ghostwind]

As one of the sites who have greatly benefited from being posted on your site, I am all for continuation of posting the reviews. On each day that that EN World posts an announcement of a review on our site, we see an additional 300-500 hits over and above the regular traffic to the site.

I believe it is good to post reviews from sites other than those on EN World. Personally, I find that much of the time I may disagree with the review of a "staffer" and having the option of knowing where to go to read others' reviews of the same book is an asset in helping me determine whether to buy it or not. By having more than one choice, it also gives me a good feel to what the book is really about rather than relying on the skewd perspective of a lone individual...

 

[Zenon]

Hi Morrus,

I'll chime in and say that posting links to reviews is not a waste of your time. Although I don't read all of them (and I doubt anyone does), I do go look at things I've heard about or am interested in. Having ENWorld be a repository for all these links saves me scads of time in searching for them on my own.

Even better are the links to the outside sites. While Psion writes a good review, I like to see whatseveral people might have to say about a product. Just like a movie review, each reviewer may see things in a different light, so I like comparing what more than one has to say.

If it takes you a lot of time to sort through scoops sent in, get them ready and post them, just let me say that I, for one, appreciate them and the work that goes into putting them on ENWorld's site and vote that you should keep doing it. To me, that work is not wasted.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, IMHO, the trouble is, a lot of the reviews from other sites sort of , well, suck.

Many of them are vary short. Many also seem to be written from the premise that since the company gave the person a free copy of the game, they'll give it a good review. Many are basically just ads, trying to get people to buy the product through the site (the ones at At Fantasy.com, for instance).

But at any rate, the majority just aren't very good.

I hate to pick on someone, but take the recent review at d20 Gurus of Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil...

http://www.d20gurus.com/reviews/042.shtml

2 paragraphs the reviewer talkes about himself, then the reviewer gives it a extremely superficial review, based on 'Presentation', 'Fun Factor', and 'Orginiality', all extremely subjective things. He never really mentions what's in it. So it's basically worthless.


Another thing - it's sort of redundant linking to Mr. Kohler's reviews on other sites (like RPG.net) when they also appear on this site (as good as his reviews generally are...)

 

[jaults]

I'm w/ Eric...

I read the reviews every time they are posted. This is the first place I look when deciding to buy a product, so links to external reviews are extremely helpful. Having external reviews linked into the d20Reviews.com DB is a fablous idea...

Jason

 

[GameWyrd]

Linking to external reviews

I'm entirely bias since GameWyrd's one of the sites that Morrus kindly takes the time to list new reviews from.

I should like to take this chance to thank him for his hard work.

If there's anyway in which the process can be made less time consuming for him then that would be a bonus. What about automated code where users with a special password can enter the HTML themselves? These can either then be checked and approved or taken in on the basis of the author's previous good record.

Further up this thread someone's observed that many of the external reviews tend to, well, suck. I think that's bound to happen but one of the advantages of linking to external reviews is that a wider range of reviewing styles is opened up the EN World community.

 

[Krellic]

I'm something of a sad b*stard. I have enough disposable income to be able to spend too much of it on D&D3E material.

To this end the reviews are useful, in that they allow me to check up on things that have already intrigued me and make me spend money on things I was not planning to buy...

In fact I think I hate you stop all reviews imediately

It's about time there were few more Brit publishers (Go Mongoose go) at least then I could stimulate my own economy...

 

[d20Dwarf]

I follow the review links, not all of them, but quite a few. I would hate to see them go.

 

[crunchy_d20_bits]

I'm 100% in favor of keeping the links to reviews.

It's one of the items that makes ENWorld the be-all clearinghouse for all things D20.

 

[AussieDM]

Don't scrap the reviews!

My 2 cents...

The d20 reviews is the only reason I check in daily.

I do follow the links to other sections on occaisions if something interests me, but it is the reviews that have me here.

If you need to put effort in any particular area, put it into the review section.

Cheers,
AussieDM

 

[s4dfish]

Reviews? Fabulous

Currently my favorite thing about the site is the reviews. I base my purchase on the reviews, when possible. As far as external reviews, I don't read them. If they're cross posted I'll take a look, but have more faith in local reviews.

What I'd like to see is more functionality in the reviews page. The ability to search for products based on personal likes would be nice. Like if I tend to agree with a particular group of reviewers it'd be nice to search for products based on their ratings. Also the addition of a simplified review system would be a great addition. This would allow people who own the book to simply give it a rating without writing a review. This wouldn't be a replacement to the reviews, but an addition. Rankings could be posted for the 'popular' opinion and the 'critical' opinion. Think it'd make for a more comprehensive look at the product.

Even if nothing changes, it'll remain the primary reason I check the site.