Nov 14
Not a Review
Hey Hammer … this piece on Kunark, that you call a review? The ‘review’ that has a score on it and has review as part of the title? It’s not a review. Not only is it impossible to review a MMOG expansion that just went live yesterday, the reviewer makes it sound like her exposure to the expansion content was just via the guided tour. That’s not a review. That’s a ‘preview’ or ‘first impressions’. Not a review.
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While I agree with you that it *IS* more a “preview” than a “review”, and you are correct there?
You are incorrect in saying that a review can’t be done. RoK was in playable Beta for months, and other than bug fixes and the whole normal-shabang, the game is pretty much the same as it was. So playable beta can not only give you a fair impression - but enough material to write a real review.
She didn’t, and I agree - it is a preview, and a good one at that - but not a “review”.
That being said, seriously.
Unclench your buttcheeks dude. Yer leaving marks on the chair.
The ‘community’ that exists in a MMOG during Beta is not a reflection of the final game. When you review a Massive game (well) it’s important to keep the all-important player component in perspective. Many of the big sites, like IGN, Gamespot, etc, have recognized this and only post ’state of the game’ -style posts when MMOGs initially launch.
It’s a small point, but one worth noting, I think.
I did do a preview on RoK and I gotta say, a review would look about the same.
We were in beta for quite a while, and we spent a good amount of time enjoying the content. I logged in yesterday after patching and, wouldn’t you just know it, it looked exactly the same as it did the previous day on the beta server.
Shocking, I know.
Feel free to debate the merits of the actual article, but come on…picking on the tag on the title? It’s weak.
Actually, in this case you are slightly incorrect. The “Beta” was open to everyone who went to the SOE Fan Fair this year. So in this (Admittedly unique) case, the “community” on Beta ABSOLUTELY reflects, probably even more honestly, the community who plays.
Her titling was wrong - but honestly? From the view of those who read these things, it seemed a bit hostile.
I dunno, mebbe I’m wrong, but it seemed like an annoyed slight.
But yes, it is NOT a review - however it is a fair “review”, if that makes any sense.
I agree with you while slightly disagreeing.
Fair, you can’t review a MMOG the day of release. In fact, you can’t really review a MMOG ever. It’s not a single player game and I’m sure Zonk knew that, he was just looking for a chain to yank and he found one.
All a writer can do is find a comfort zone from which they feel they are giving the game a fair shake while providing the reader with the information that they deserve. After a long time spent in a solid beta this was easier to do with RoK than with, oh… say, Vanguard.
At some point you have to give a MMOG a score, because as much as we hate to believe it, many gamers are lazy readers.
I have nothing to add. I just wanted to be the first person to respond here who doesn’t actually receive a real world paycheck from Ten Ton Hammer.
[...] Posted by Kendricke in Gaming Sites, Insiders, Rise of Kunark. trackback Over at MMOG Nation, Michael Zenke took some shots at a review of Rise of Kunark posted by Karen “Shayalyn” Hertzberg over at Ten Ton [...]
I’m going to have to agree with Michael. I would have liked to have seen an overview of the dungeons, the raid mobs, maybe a look into which instances would be best for groups, which levels might have problems grouping where, if the stats of the new spells are good upgrades from the previous tier, if the whole grouping dynamic has changed… There’s a LOT of information I would have liked to have heard about the expansion before I could decide if it was a good expansion or not.
There are problems in RoK, but I didn’t hear anything about them in the review. In fact, I didn’t even hear about them in *beta*, though they were certainly there — people just weren’t doing the same things they would do in groups. KC was always empty in beta, but was absolutely crowded when RoK went live. Soon it will be empty again. Certainly a comprehensive review would have pointed out the problems that kept people from that zone in beta?
And in beta, they did a lot of raid testing. I would have liked to have a comparison of the raids vs those in previous expansions.
The real review of RoK is yet to be written. Of course it is possible to review the game from beta; I want to read THAT review.
Was this post a review of a review?
It very well could have been just a tour or a preview of the review. Then again, if this was a review of the review, at least this review of the review had hands-on, actual experiences which were communicated to the readers.
By the way, I give this review of the review 5.3 out of 7 clockworks. ;)
@Cyan - “Was this post a review of a review?”
No, it was a review of a PREVIEW. ;)
[...] some did not like the review or thought it wasn’t a review at all. Me, I’m handing everyone a cookie because this piece was not written for [...]
I don’t mean to stir the pot or anything, but even calling it a ‘preview’ is a stretch in my book. If someone handed this article to me and said, this needs a title and categorization:
Category: Blog post
Title: “The millionth reason to take another look at EQ2″
Why is it a blog post, and not a review or preview?
- It includes the phrase “My brother and I…”
- It starts half of the sentences with conjunctions.
- No actual game play occurred. I saw a trailer for the Agency back in March of this year. Should I write a review/preview of the Agency? I don’t think so.
- As a rule no MMO content should be ‘reviewed’ with less than 40 hours of time at the wheel (100 would be better). What about the beta? My answer is: it depends on the beta. Some are faithful representations of the launch product and the community. Others are not.
Those points aside, it’s a nice blog post. I’m reading along thinking “nothing extraordinary here but it’s a nice summary of what is releasing” and then I saw the score… a score? WTF?
I should note that TTH is not without peer in the misclassification area. Have you read any of Dana Massey’s (huge air quotes) INTERVIEWS on Warcry? Oh my don’t even get me started.
Yes it is a slip up. We should bear in mind that TTH puts out more MMO content than any other site I can think of. Occasionally things will be mislabeled or miscategorized. There’s no need to argue the validity. Call it what it is. Change the name or don’t change it. Next week we’ll be on to other things anyway.