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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 8961793" data-attributes="member: 9254">This. Not all products will be useful to all groups or styles. Sometimes a "bad" review is accurately reflecting which parts of the target audience won't find value in it. It's no different from saying "anyone 6'3"/2m or taller should not bother looking at the Kia Rio".Back when I did rpg reviews for Shadis and a few other long-gone mags, I would note which types of players would appreciate the product (theater of the mind vs tactical minis, rules lights vs "rulemaster", etc).   Based on comments I saw on rpg.net and the like, which seemed more like player comments than publisher sockpuppets, I found that saying "good for theater of the mind" was received better than "bad for tactical mini". It is functionally the same thing but emotionally it hits different.And then there is the universally applicable "bad" review. Some can be fixed semi-easily (if expensively) with a new print run (legibility, material quality) but others are shots right at the creator's core deliverable: quality of writing, internal consistency, originality and core concept.Those are the hardest, and most important, for a creator to evaluate.  Because that's how you improve. Some you may decide "I like the weird cadences in my writing" and they stay. Others (grammar, consistency) can be addressed with editing, but the rest require improving as a creator.-long ramble here but I think it's still on topic:My SO writes novels and when she gave me the first one to read I asked her if she wanted the "SO review", the "semi-professional, got paid to review things for a year or two in college"  review, or the "~20yr game master who professionally submits engineering analysis to city/state/federal government" mark-up.She opted for semi-pro review, then when her eye twitched was given the SO review. She sulked for a while, mulled over it, then asked for the mark up. Sulked for a very long while, then tried fixing the things I thought needed fixing and discovered she liked that book better.Her writing process is materially different now (she has a writer's group, makes outlines & timelines, has character bios, I do mark ups every 4-6 chapters to minimize rewrites, uses text-to-speech to read her work back to her so she can "hear" errors better, etc)Her writing is significantly better and she has gotten contracts from small indie publishers. She is actually sad when they don't give any comments or markups now because she wants those tips on how to be better.</blockquote>

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