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<blockquote data-quote="Mouseferatu" data-source="post: 1519395" data-attributes="member: 1288"><p>Steve,</p><p></p><p>All very good points. And I'm indeed a <em>huge</em> proponent of explaining why I feel the way I do about something.</p><p></p><p>But the thing is, when it comes to reviews, I just don't know that I could maintain my professionalism.</p><p></p><p>Let me explain. That company I mentioned before, but refused to name? I <em>can't</em> judge their products fairly. See, in truth, they do have some good stuff, and they have some solid writers. They also have some bad stuff, and some poor writers. But I have such a huge problem with them for other, related-but-not-<em>directly</em>-relevant reasons, that I cannot assess my own objectivity. I want them to fail--I'm honest enough to admit that to myself--but that means I don't dare review their products.</p><p></p><p>Problem two, there are certain very specific types of products I like. These are the sorts I like to write, but they're also the type I like to read. Therefore, any product about which I feel strongly enough to write a review is likely to be something that either competes with something I've done, competes with something I'm doing, or competes with something I want to do. Again, cannot promise my own objectivity.</p><p></p><p>Third, my standards of actual writing quality are higher than most people's. I've heard lots of folks claim that it doesn't matter how good the writing of an RPG book is, so long as it gets the information across. I can't get behind that. To me, bad writing is bad writing. Problem is, I can't always point to <em>why</em> something is bad writing. Sure, sometimes a person clearly can't string sentences together, or doesn't seem to have gotten past 3rd-grade grammar, but at other times the word choice or structure or metaphor just sounds ugly. Because I'm very sensitive to that sort of thing, but can't always explain, I feel it would be unfair of me to come down on such products in public.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm probably being <em>way</em> over-sensitive about all of this. I could probably write a fair and impartial review--even under one of the above circumstances--if I really tried. But "probably" isn't good enough for me, and anyway it would take far more energy than I have to spare.</p><p></p><p>So I leave the reviews to people--like, say, you <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />--who <em>are</em> comfortable doing both, and I save my opinions on products for private conversations where I can rant and rave without being unprofessional about it in public. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mouseferatu, post: 1519395, member: 1288"] Steve, All very good points. And I'm indeed a [i]huge[/i] proponent of explaining why I feel the way I do about something. But the thing is, when it comes to reviews, I just don't know that I could maintain my professionalism. Let me explain. That company I mentioned before, but refused to name? I [i]can't[/i] judge their products fairly. See, in truth, they do have some good stuff, and they have some solid writers. They also have some bad stuff, and some poor writers. But I have such a huge problem with them for other, related-but-not-[i]directly[/i]-relevant reasons, that I cannot assess my own objectivity. I want them to fail--I'm honest enough to admit that to myself--but that means I don't dare review their products. Problem two, there are certain very specific types of products I like. These are the sorts I like to write, but they're also the type I like to read. Therefore, any product about which I feel strongly enough to write a review is likely to be something that either competes with something I've done, competes with something I'm doing, or competes with something I want to do. Again, cannot promise my own objectivity. Third, my standards of actual writing quality are higher than most people's. I've heard lots of folks claim that it doesn't matter how good the writing of an RPG book is, so long as it gets the information across. I can't get behind that. To me, bad writing is bad writing. Problem is, I can't always point to [i]why[/i] something is bad writing. Sure, sometimes a person clearly can't string sentences together, or doesn't seem to have gotten past 3rd-grade grammar, but at other times the word choice or structure or metaphor just sounds ugly. Because I'm very sensitive to that sort of thing, but can't always explain, I feel it would be unfair of me to come down on such products in public. Now, I'm probably being [i]way[/i] over-sensitive about all of this. I could probably write a fair and impartial review--even under one of the above circumstances--if I really tried. But "probably" isn't good enough for me, and anyway it would take far more energy than I have to spare. So I leave the reviews to people--like, say, you :)--who [i]are[/i] comfortable doing both, and I save my opinions on products for private conversations where I can rant and rave without being unprofessional about it in public. :D [/QUOTE]
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