RPGNow paid reviewers

[Tim Gray]

A fundamental problem at RPGNow is that it's really difficult to persuade customers to leave comments, yet many customers want to read them before deciding to buy. This is the site taking an initiative to address that.

 

[Big Finger Games]

I feel that a review by someone that bought the product is always more useful than a review from a person that was given a product.

1. The person that bought the product has an interest in, and possible use for, the PDF.

2. The person that was given the product, in my experience, will usually write the review in order to get more free product. Whether or not it is a subject/game they have any interest in or knowledge of.

I agree.

One thing that is nice about the staff reviewers at rpgnow is that they've been instructed to only review products that they are interested in/for systems they play.

A big pet peeve of mine is a review that starts something like "well i've never liked so and so system" or "I don't get so and so system". So why review a product for that system? How does that help a fan of said system?

Hopefully if the staff reviewers follow their instruction this will not be a problem.

-mike

 

[Vigilance]

I'm not a reviewer. I'm leaving comments.

And, no offense intended, you guys aren't selling anywhere near the volume that amazon does. Everyone's complaining they aren't getting enough reviews (or comments or whatever). Now you all have one less person saying anything.

Edit: If RPGNow wants to allow rating comp copy and paid reviewer reviews only, I have no problem with that.

Part of the problem with any comment system are customers leaving comments for a dozen games by the same company with 1 star ratings and the comment: "This company sucks".

That's the reason Amazon allows reviewers to be rated and its a reason RPGNow is rating them as well.

Im not sure why the volume of comments makes that system ok on Amazon and a bad idea at RPGNow.

Also, philosophically, it seems to make sense. Its ok for someone to leave a 1 star review comment on a book I spent 3 months on with a one sentence "Not what I expected" explanation, but its not ok for the people reading that comment to say "This wasn't helpful"?

Chuck

 

[trancejeremy]

I feel that a review by someone that bought the product is always more useful than a review from a person that was given a product.

1. The person that bought the product has an interest in, and possible use for, the PDF.

2. The person that was given the product, in my experience, will usually write the review in order to get more free product. Whether or not it is a subject/game they have any interest in or knowledge of.

I mostly agree with you, though for somewhat different reasons. I think a person who buys a product just has a bigger stake in it. So they will have interest in it, and generally result in a more useful review for the reader. But this has a double edge to it - maybe not for your products, since you generally have low prices, but someone who spends $50 on a book and is disappointed will really, really, really rip that book in a review.


Of course, generally speaking, the choice isn't between a review from someone who bought a product and someone who got it for free. Because most people aren't willing to write long reviews for products they bought. Short ones, yeah. "Dude, this sucks/rocks." Especially for PDFs.

Because IMHO, the main motivation for writing a review for a product they bought is either to praise it or criticize it. You rarely see lukewarm reviews of products that have been bought. And like I said, because PDFs are generally cheap, there isn't nearly the stake in it, if a PDF is bad or praiseworthy.

 

[jaerdaph]

Part of the problem with any comment system are customers leaving comments for a dozen games by the same company with 1 star ratings and the comment: "This company sucks".Chuck

"I think jaerdaph is an #*()%#)(* so I 'm going to give a negative recommendation about the usefulness of his comments". It's a two-way street.

Seriously though, just delete those comments. Anyone with half a brain is going to ignore them anyway. There's no reason to "rate" legitimate comments from other users. I wouldn't have a problem with that if RPGNow adapted that policy.

As for volume, nobody is going to notice at amazon if I don't comment on Harry Potter VI. But when you only sell 50 or so copies of a product, when one of those customers that even bothers to comment stops commenting, it makes a difference.

As a customer, I feel RPGNow has bigger fish to fry. For example, removing so-called publishers from the digital shelves that consistantly leave negative comments about the products of competing publishers. You all know who I mean so I won't go further.

Edit: And if this is such a big problem, you should just eliminate comments from customers all together then, and just pay or comp for them.

Anyhow, that's my customer feedback. I'm just not going to bother spending the time anymore leaving comments. But it's certainly not going to stop me from buying from companies like RPGObjects that consistantly create quality products.

 

[genshou]

I'm a newcomer to the idea of reviewing products at all. Most of the ones I own already have several reviews posted, and I don't usually buy anything when it's "new", so I'd feel I was simply writing something redundant if I wasn't getting a new product just for the sake of reviewing it.

The thing is, I don't review to get free products. I review because I want to be helpful to others, or something like that. Damn my altruistic tendencies!

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Because IMHO, the main motivation for writing a review for a product they bought is either to praise it or criticize it. You rarely see lukewarm reviews of products that have been bought. And like I said, because PDFs are generally cheap, there isn't nearly the stake in it, if a PDF is bad or praiseworthy.

Exactly. Before I started helping Crothian with his review product, I only reviewed stuff that really excited me. If I bought a substandard product, or even a mediocre product, I never reviewed it. Why bother? The reviewer who gets a free copy (in this case it's necessary since we're talking PDFs) may well put out more reviews on the middle of the pack instead of the high and low end of the bell curve. (Though in my case I've gotten to review some good products so far!)

 

[Ghostwind]

I'm going to add my two cents worth here...

I suppose the distinction I'm trying to draw is between "Does this fit my ideas of a good product?" and "Am I happy I bought this? Is my game better? Did I get value for money?" The reviewer can guess, based on her own experience (or otherwise, if it's a sub-genre unfamiliar to the reviewer), at customers' likely answers to the latter set of questions, but the buyer knows whether she's happy or not.

It really doesn't matter whether the reviewer has bought the material or not. When writing a review, there are certain questions that have to be addressed and they need to be done so in a very fair manner. If this is done, then the quality of the review should be about the same. I addressed some of these concerns on this thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=148769

To expand on this, there are at least two significant differences between a buyer and a (non-customer) reviewer.

• The buyer has chosen to seek out the product because she has a direct use for it in her game. This means she has a specific and positive expectation of what it ought to deliver, rather than what the author might have felt like writing.
• The buyer has every right to make a harsh response if she finds the product's value is inadequate, for whatever reason, where a reviewer has a somewhat more friendly relationship with the vendor. Again I absolutely don't refer to a financial relationship.

A buyer review is not better - in many cases they are biased and unfair - but it's a perspective that I find more useful.

Have you read a lot of reviews? I actually find the reviews that are written by 'professional' reviewers to be more informative on the whole because they try to look at the big picture and how it applies to everyone's game, not just their own.

See, I don't believe you get things for free. Either the reviewer paid money, or he chose to spend time finding and downloading it and perhaps giving his attention to the vendor's product line (in either case he is a consumer) or the vendor provided him a copy in return for the expectation of valuable service (which is a different thing).

Have you ever sat down and tried to write a through review? If a reviewer does get a product at no charge, he is still investing a considerable amount of his own time into not only reading the product, but also writing the review itself (which can take anywhere from 2-3 hours if done properly). Publishers are not sending out copies as a bribe. They send out copies with the understanding that the reviewer will be fair and unbiased in their treatment of that product. If the review is negative, but well-written and fairly addresses the good and the bad, the publisher will appreciate it (he may not like the final grade, but he still appreciates it).

The thing is, I don't review to get free products. I review because I want to be helpful to others, or something like that. Damn my altruistic tendencies!

Honestly, I wish more folks were of this mindset. Just because a product is older shouldn't mean that you shouldn't do a review. There are a lot of gems that have been produced in the last 5 years that some folks may have missed. This is especially true for the 3.0 books that have been forgotten. I'd love to see reviews of these older books that include a section on how easy they are to use with 3.5 or how much conversion is needed.

One wonders why they link RPGnet reviews at the bottom of RPGnow products, but not ENworld reviews.

I've wondered the same thing about my site, especially since James asked me sometime back that all pdf reviews we did link back to the product on RPGNow whenever possible.

 

[Prest0]

[regarding the linking of reviews originating off-site]
I've wondered the same thing about my site, especially since James asked me sometime back that all pdf reviews we did link back to the product on RPGNow whenever possible.

Okay, beyond being a publisher I have no official ties with RPGNow, so this is by no means official. The last time the matter of lack of reviews came up at RPGNow (a year ago?), James began looking for ways add links to outside review sites. The idea was that his system and the review site systems would "talk" and automatically match product titles with reviews. Apparently he got this working with RPG.net, but not other sites. Morrus has already said the technical hurdles of making it work were beyond him. Though now that the reviews have moved over to the new system that could be revisisted?

Needless to say, any discussions between you and RPGNow are your own business so I won't even presume to speculate.

Edit: Okay, I feel INCREDIBLY dumb. I should have paid more attention to whom I'm replying. Maybe then I wouldn't have referred to the wrong site. Still, the first paragraph still applies.

 

[Pinotage]

Have you read a lot of reviews? I actually find the reviews that are written by 'professional' reviewers to be more informative on the whole because they try to look at the big picture and how it applies to everyone's game, not just their own.

I think one of the main reasons why this is a step in the right direction is because, at least for me, I tend to thoroughly read the pdfs I review (on my own or as part of Crothian's Review Project), much more than those that I buy. Sometimes you buy something for a particular class or idea, and you just skim the contents to get an idea of what the rest of the book is about. If you review it, you're much more thorough on reading the content, and as such I believe you get a much better review from a reviewer than from somebody who bought a product and didn't really bother to read the content. And, as has been said before, you'd get reviews done on products you like and dislike.

Pinotage