What constitutes a good vs bad review?

[Utrecht]

Recognizing that the process of reviewing is definately more art than science - what rating do people consider a bad review?

Is 2/5 a bad review? is 3/5 a bad review? - Has there been some type or ratings inflation that madates in order for a product to be "good" it must have 4/5????

Does it change from media to media?

I.e. is a movie that is rated 2/5 worth seeing, but a book not worth purchasing it is rated this?

Disclaimer - this is not a commentary on any reviewers at all - I am simply curious.

 

[maddman75]

I tend not to place as much value on the number, as they mean different things to different people. A good review depends on the written nature of the article. Does this tell me what to expect? From the basics - pages, how the art looks, layout etc., to the applicability. Maybe it compares it to something I'm familiar with("If you like the Book of Vile Darkness, the Tome of Ineffable Damnation is right up your alley"). Or it describes the kind of person that would enjoy the product, such as "This book has a lot of great options for combat oriented characters" or "The lavish descriptions can really help flesh out a political campaign". Also, if it has any problems I'd like to know about them ahead of time.

I can say that since I started consulting ENWorld reviews before buying a product (And RPGnet for non-d20 games. Yes they exist. No they wouldn't be better as d20 ) I've yet to be disappointed in a game book. The trick is you have to realize that reviews are humans too and naturally have bias, so read several reviews to get a good overview of the product before deciding if it's for you or not. There's been several products such as the Epic Level Handbook that while they got high marks numerically, the descriptions of what was inside turned me right off.

 

[TiQuinn]

Recognizing that the process of reviewing is definately more art than science - what rating do people consider a bad review?

Is 2/5 a bad review? is 3/5 a bad review? - Has there been some type or ratings inflation that madates in order for a product to be "good" it must have 4/5????

Does it change from media to media?

I.e. is a movie that is rated 2/5 worth seeing, but a book not worth purchasing it is rated this?

Disclaimer - this is not a commentary on any reviewers at all - I am simply curious.

In general, a 3/5 is a bad review, IMO.

I know it's always a good idea to actually read the review, and differences of taste aside, I generally pass if the reviewers I typically follow give something only average marks.

There's too much good stuff out there, and I can't buy everything that I'd like to get, so I'm selective. On any given subject, you can usually find 3 or 4 (or more) products from various companies. If one or two of them get consistently high marks, one of those will be my choice.

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

It depends.

I tend to read staff reviews and skim fan reviews. A staff reviewer reads a book because the editor said to do it. A fan buys the book and reads it because he wants to. So there tends to be less bias in the staff review.

But, much more importantly, I can read a dozen staff reviews and reach my own conclusion about the reviewer. There is one staff reviewer for a popular gaming site that praises mechanics and seems to skip over the flavor text. That's fine, but I'm going to remember that if he highly recommends a book that its going to be heavy with PrCs, feats, spells, and magic items.

So really, it depends on who is writing the review and what I know of the reviewer.

 

[EricNoah]

When I'm reading a review, I look for someone who is knowledgeable on the topic and has seen a lot of (movies, books, whathaveyou); someone who reviews without too much emotion (Harry Knowles is "too giddy"; some other reviewers are "too angry" etc.); and someone who goes into detail about what they liked and didn't like.

 

[Luddite]

A "Good Review" is one that gives me some information on to "Do I want/need to buy this?"

Also what I want out of product may not be heavily favored in the review score itself. For "Licensed Genre Games" like Buffy, Bab5, Farscape, etc, I want to know how much of the show's information is in the book as well as how close do the rules provide a feel for the setting. I am realy less worried about mechainics as long as the game is loosely d20, I can put together my own gimicks that would work for me. Assuming that I actauly play one of these games. More often then not, I get these books for the Series Information.

Other books, I want to know how stable the new rules are.

For adentures, I would like to know how tied they are to the setting, as well as how flexible they are in GM-ing. Of course it is sometime interesting that people will give low marks for an adventure becuase it is so tied to one setting. Not because it plays badly.

So in the end, the number given is just one indicator of the quality/use of a product for me.

-The Luddite

 

[DaveMage]

Recognizing that the process of reviewing is definately more art than science - what rating do people consider a bad review?

Is 2/5 a bad review? is 3/5 a bad review? - Has there been some type or ratings inflation that madates in order for a product to be "good" it must have 4/5????

Does it change from media to media?

I.e. is a movie that is rated 2/5 worth seeing, but a book not worth purchasing it is rated this?

For me it heavily depends on the reviewer. I don't care as much about the artwork in a book as some reviewers do. So, if an art-important reviewer gives a book a low score, it still may be a great book for me. I think it was an EN World reviewer who ripped the Bastion Press book "Minions" because of the artwork. I like "Minions" very much for the content, and the artwork didn't bother me at all.

As others have said, the bottom line is that scores are generally not useful by themselves. One needs to read the review and understand the reviewer's biases.

 

[Steverooo]

On a five point rating system, I see it as "A, B, C, D, F", so 3 is a "C"... Not bad, but mediocre.

A GOOD review, for me, tells me enough about the product to allow me to decide for myself if *I* would like the product. It includes the reviewer's reasons for liking or disliking the product (with which I may or may not agree)!

Bad reviews rate the product, might say why, and leave me wondering what in the world the reviewed product was/is, and what the reviewer was talking about!

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

IMO a review is good if it is useful to me even if I disagree with the reviewer's conclusion.

I want two things in a review: A list of what's in the book, which should be written as objectively as possible, and the reviewer's personal opinion on the book. If he likes or dislikes the book, I want to know his reasons, instead of just a statement like "this book rocks/stinks". This way I can draw my own conclusions about the book...

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I try to grade on a curve, so to speak, so I personally consider a 3 out of 5 to be average. I also consider the "average" quality of most RPG books to be pretty good. Worth buying, at least (though maybe not at full price)

Many publishers seem to be offended when they get anything less than an A or a 5. But I try to save those for great products.

(I do agree that a good review will tell enough about the book to let the reader make up their own mind, but that can be tricky, because some books, like say, monster books, are hard to describe accurately without going into an insane amount of detail)