Why don't you post reviews?

[StalkingBlue]

Other. I'd have to look at published material in a completely different light to write reviews. As it is, my stance is purely idiosyncratic - I'll skim through material trying to determine whether there's anything in it I'll want to use for my game. All too often, the answer is No, or Very Little; but I wouldn't presume to base a review on that. Reviews should inform the reader on the use an assumed 'average' GM / player could get out of them, and in which circumstances.

 

[Kesh]

Other: I just started writing reviews, and I'm going to be doing more as time & money allow.

 

[MonsterMash]

I couldn't vote as I do post reviews. I try to be unbiased or at least put my preferences in the open so the viewpoint that the review is written from is there.

 

[Orius]

A couple of reasons really. I haven't posted review of anything other than the 3.0 PHB and DMG partially because of the time factor, and partially because I really don't have much gaming material anyway. And everything I do have is older 3.0 stuff.

 

[Psionicist]

Not enough time to write reviews. I already review computer hardware and movies, reviewing books is just too much.

 

[DragonLancer]

I know what I like and I know what I don't. Its hard for me to be subjective with that, plus I have never managed to do a review anywhere that was worth the read. As I say, I know what I like and its not always easy to put that to paper.

 

[Gizzard]

I review stuff every now and then. I don't do it more often because it takes a a lot of time to do. (It takes even more time to *playtest* and review a product!)

If we want to encourage people to write reviews for a while, I wonder if there is some sort of reward system that can be implemented. Like a little gold star by your name or a day of access to the ENWorld Premium features.

As it is right now there's very little feedback that the effort one takes to do a review is worth anything; the review forum isn't like a message board thread where you can at least look at the Hit Count to see if people are getting any use out of what you have written. (Maybe a Hit Counter for reviews then would be an interesting idea?)

Humans crave acceptance and acknowledgement; so if we want more people to write I think we have to close that positive feedback loop somehow.

 

[Zappo]

Even the most populiar books have only a dozen reviews, and they are very few. Besides it doesn't matter if a book has zero reviews of thirty, that should no prevent you from writing a review.

A dozen reviews are very few? Interesting. I've never seen it this way, probably because I generally don't read many reviews. With the time it takes for a book to get to Italy, I generally know everything about it just from the messageboard discussions before it even shows up in stores (let alone cases where I'm waiting for a translation). Dunno, maybe I'll write a couple sooner or later. Do you get RPG money from reviews?

 

[Eosin the Red]

I do occasionally post reviews but checked other for a few reasons.

1. It has been inordianatly hard in the past to log on. I think I had 2-03 log ins.
2. I don't like ripping apart a product that might be legitimately good but just not to my tastes.
3. I tend to buy products late - I like to buy off the used shelf [A wife and 3 kids will do that too you] so by the time I am ready to review the product is OLD!

 

[KB9JMQ]

Other

I have done reviews for other products and would like to do some for EN World.
But I don't feel I know the rules well enough to notice if something is balanced or not. etc.
I feel my review would mostly just be my opinion rather than a knowledgeable gamer's opinion.
Time is not really an issue for me.