Author: Mark Green (---.co.uk)
Date: 07-16-2000 06:27
I half agree and half disagree with what's been written here.
Firstly, I don't think amateur reviews need to be forsaken entirely. After all, everyone who buys and plays a game is going to have an opinion on it. Stating that opinion to someone who hasn't bought the game yet will be useful; stating it to someone with a good amount of backup in a well-written way will be incredibly so. I will freely admit that the one review I have published here probably isn't too good (way too wordy for starters), and I do appreciate the amount of work it takes to become a professional, (although it is entirely possible to do that amount of work and NOT become a professional - maybe you don't even want to).
Also, I tend to find a good amateur review especially valuable because I know that the reviewer did actually pay money for the product! And I have seen some godawful reviews published (hey, ever read the small press "reviews" (aka, adverts) in KODT!?)
However, I do agree that there are plenty of bad amateur reviews, from people who didn't play the game enough to get a good opinion or similar. That, I think, would be a problem if only one review of a product was presented, but here a multitude are available for contrast, and it's not difficult to make ones own judgement about the value of a review.
One argument I do dislike is the one that amateur reviewers aren't qualified because they don't appreciate the amount of effort and work that went into the product. I do appreciate, for example, that it took a lot of creativity, originality, work and effort to produce the 2nd Ed AD&D. All of that, however, does not make it a game that I want to play, or that I'd recommend to others for anything but the most narrow purposes. (And please DON'T reply to this with your comments that AD&D rocks - if you feel obliged to do that, cross out AD&D above and replace with another game system you don't mind not everyone liking.)
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