(or at least, one of many)
A long time ago and in a galaxy far, far away, I was a reviewer. People agreed or disagreed with my opinions, but far and by large everybody thought my reviews were fair and hitting the points that needed to be hit. I liked that, because that’s how I set out to do the reviews – as fair opinion that hits the highs and the lows equally. I did that gig for a little shy of two years, and got to review a few titles, so I’m sure I wasn’t catastrophic at it.
So if Adventurine (or whoever) is looking for a fair review, send me Darkfall. I have no intention of “playing” the game, so you can set me up with a timed account that expires whenever it reaches the number of hours you think it’s appropriate for a fair appreciation of the game. I might form my opinion earlier, or maybe the time expires and I have to make do with what I have (which I doubt). Also, since I have no veiled interest in this game one way or another, that’s probably the best place to be to approach a review. If it’s good, it’s good and if it’s bad it’s bad and no skin off my back in either case. Not planning on “playing it” regardless, since I’m about to start dealing with a house move soon.
All I offer is fair; if I think it’s good, good for you. If you think it’s bad, then eat it, basically. Drop me a line if interested. If not, best of lucks.
They won’t give free accounts to sites like IGN or Gamespy… or even their beloved, still supporting, MMORPG.com!
…why would they hand one to you?
They probably wouldn’t and they don’t have to. The offer stands, though. *shrug*
Why didn’t they offer promotional accounts?
Because part of the “hardcore” nature of the game is the battle to get it in the first place?
It shows you’re not a fly by gamer, that you’re in it for the long haul. You’ll stick around for the endless grinds and whatnot after the battle for accounts via refresh has been won.
…and yes, I’m being completely sarcastic, but it’s true apparently.
I always thought the staggered release was due to the whole “tourist” dealy.
I would say that in order for a full review you would have to join a guild/alliance and participate in some large scale battles. If you don’t do that then it’s like reviewing WoW and saying the raiding sucks because Ragefire Chasm/Deadmines sucked.
However, IMO, the game doesn’t need to be reviewed by someone that has no interest in it. The people looking for and finding the review obviously have some interest in the game. The game is aimed at a target audience, by just looking at the rules (open pvp, full loot, first person, etc) it is obvious there is a large percentage of MMO players who will be completely turned off by it. The best way I can put it, even though it is lame and stupid and I’m sorry that I’m even saying this, but if you send a sheep into the wolves den he probably isn’t going to like it. Just like if you let someone who loves DF review WoW or LotRO or any other big MMO they’re going to write a review that the majority of players will disagree with.
Ideally you want to send someone that is familiar with the genre at large, but not necessarily super familiar with the particular flavor. If you send a fan of the flavor, you run two main risks if the reviewer is not very good:
1- He will assume -a lot- of stuff and leave it out of the review. Unless he’s writing for “Open PvP No Holds Barred Ganksta Land” (or whatever), the readers will come from a broader section and will have no idea what he’s talking about at times.
2- You risk ending up with a review that’s unnecessarily gushing (because the fan might think he found the second coming of the flavor) or unnecessarily harsh (because the fan can’t get over ‘all the little things’ they’ve done to his precious flavor). Both are bad because both leave things out.
We don’t leave in an ideal world, but ideally you really don’t want to send a fan to review anything. You don’t send the guy that had the stormtrooper wedding to review Star Wars, you send Roger Ebert.
This solution doesn’t work for me.
However, isn’t this already solved? There’s already plenty of information and opinions about Darkfall out there.
I see your point.
I want to say, but who actually listens to Roger Ebert? Which makes me realize I shouldn’t care about this anymore. Especially since I can’t even play DF anymore (damn yous will power!).
I do read Ebert’s reviews religiously, even if I’m not much of a moviegoer or movie watcher anymore. Even when I disagree with his reviews, he does know a metric assload about film, he loves what he does and what he writes about and has a writing style I like a lot. Does more than just summarize a movie.
Never, not once, I went to see a flick “because Ebert said it was good, so it must be”, but his reviews have served me many times to pay attention to things I might have otherwise missed.
That’s what reviews (of anything) are for: Not a summing up of facts, not the final authority on anything, but simply the opinion of someone whom, hopefully, knows what he’s talking about and you can use to finish fleshing out your own view.
That’s some fine wanking there, Jules.
Who am I wanking? *looks around*
Yose’f, broseph.
I -knew- something felt nice all of a sudden.