Top Twenty Print Products

[Crothian]

Forgive my ignorance but isn't Magical Medieval Society a PDF? And thus not eligable for this?

It exists as a pdf and print product.

 

[Nightfall]

It exists as a pdf and print product.

Right well but it started out as PDF. Thus it seems more likely to me that the votes for it would be HIGHER there than here. I mean take the Malhavoc PDFs versus that of their print versions. I'm sure you have more reviews of them as PDFs than in print.

 

[Treebore]

Personally, I think the problem lies with the review requirements, which in turn cause there to be fewer reviews.

I don't want to write a mini-novel, or read one, for a review. A review is not supposed to be a detailed synopsis or an abridged version of the original product.

What i want to read in a review is what the person liked and disliked about the book and a little bit of why. I want to read only a paragraph or two. I don't want a detailed list of everything that is in the book and what is good, bad, or indifferent about each item. Granted that is a little bit of an exageration on my part, but not by much on some of the reviews.

These reviews are for gamers, presumeably by gamers, not by professionals for professionals. Plus it takes a long time to write a review that meets the requirements. I am not getting paid to do this, so where does whomever sets these "requirements" get the idea they have a right to tell me how to do a review "their" way. I should be able to say as much or as little as I want. It is my opinion after all.

So I don't bother writing reviews. I'll just recommend them whenever I can on whatever message board.

 

[Derulbaskul]

I would really like to see the top 20 list broken down into categories along these lines:

1. Top 10 Campaign Settings (eg Midnight)
2. Top 20 Campaign Expansions (eg BotR, MotP)
3. Top 20 Adventures
4. Top 20 Class Books

etc....

This would be more meaningful than a simple Top 20.

 

[Nightfall]

Or maybe Tree, you just like everyone else. Rather not write a lot. But in any case I do respect your point, but I also think if people want to write reviews, they HAVE to be thorough. Otherwise we just get sound bites. And that doesn't do ANYONE any good.

 

[Nightfall]

I would really like to see the top 20 list broken down into categories along these lines:

1. Top 10 Campaign Settings (eg Midnight)
2. Top 20 Campaign Expansions (eg BotR, MotP)
3. Top 20 Adventures
4. Top 20 Class Books

etc....

This would be more meaningful than a simple Top 20.

Well you'd not have a problem with that by me! I'd certainly like to see SL make the top 5 at least.

 

[Psion]

I don't want to write a mini-novel, or read one, for a review.

The requirements aren't such that you have to. I typically enforce three paragraphs or so. That's not a stringent requirement or a mini-novel by any stretch. But I do think it's fair to ask that if you are going to write a review, you provide the reader with more to go on that "I liked it" (or didn't like it.)

I'll just recommend them whenever I can on whatever message board.

Since that's in essence all you want to do, that is all you should be doing.

 

[diaglo]

The requirements aren't such that you have to. I typically enforce three paragraphs or so. That's not a stringent requirement or a mini-novel by any stretch. But I do think it's fair to ask that if you are going to write a review, you provide the reader with more to go on that "I liked it" (or didn't like it.)

i wrote mini-novels. with page references both in the product and the relevent rules in the core books to compare. i also added a bibliography of further reading material from previous editions and T$R/WotC novels and/or other fantasy literature.

 

[JoeGKushner]

One thing I wouldn't mind seeing is the seperation of OGL stuff from the d20 stuff. Right now it's not too bad, but as time goes on, that list may change to resemble something less than d20 goods.

Heck, I'd actually like to see a d20 standard, base assumption that it's going to be used in fantasy D&D, and other d20 options. I'm sure that Spycraft and M&M are great but when I want to see the top d20 products, I'm certainly not looking for non-standard fantasy goods.

 

[Monte At Home]

I do think that the 5 reviews rule for the list is a good one*. The flaw comes in when you present the resulting list as the "Top 20 d20 products." It's really the "Top 20 d20 products that got a lot of reviews." It also doesn't address some of the realities of the marketplace, because it's really a list of the "Top 20 d20 products that got a lot of reviews and aren't also pdf products."

The comment about Magical Medieval Society was a good one--a product that is both print and pdf effectively splits it's reviews. It needs 10 reviews, split evenly between the two versions to qualify, or it ends up on only one list. Given that this is an internet list, and the pdf version usually comes out first, not surprisingly most of the reviews of a pdf/print product will be for the pdf version.


*The one problem with the rule is that it favors older products. Clearly, people just aren't as eager to do reviews anymore, for whatever reason, and it's harder for a newer product to get 5 reviews, good or bad, particularly for smaller publishers.