Director of Sales
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I've don my review hat again after reviewing after Fantasy Week back in 2008. So far I have reviewed three supps and am working on a fourth this week.
Now I'm curious. Does anyone here read reviews of products? More importantly, does it sway them to buy it? Or go the other direction?
Product reviews help me quite a bit.
I often will get phone calls from customers who are curious about specific products. I usually have no experience with whatever they ask about, since we offer over 23K different products. Whenever this occurs, I am ALWAYS happy to see product reviews. That way, I can give the caller my impressions of the product (if any) and those of our customers, both good and bad. It helps me help them. And, since I'm here to serve customers, that makes me feel like I've done a better job.
My 2cp
I know that I have more than once been influenced to buy or not buy something based on a review. I find them incredibly helpful.
I spend a large amount of time searching and reading reviews. My gaming budget is tight, so it is important to me not to waste it on products that might catch my eye, but fall flat on delivery.
I also wish to state that I really appreciate the large and experienced group of people here on these forums for their insight and input on things.
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Product reviews help me quite a bit.
I often will get phone calls from customers who are curious about specific products. I usually have no experience with whatever they ask about, since we offer over 23K different products. Whenever this occurs, I am ALWAYS happy to see product reviews. That way, I can give the caller my impressions of the product (if any) and those of our customers, both good and bad. It helps me help them. And, since I'm here to serve customers, that makes me feel like I've done a better job.
My 2cp
Your post, Cosmo, was eye-opening. For some reason, I always assumed customer service knew everything about their products through, I don't know, some form of "product osmosis" or something. That, or they spent downtime playing with the products. Glad the reviews help, Cosmo.
If a review is explanatory and expresses its reasons well, it sure does. I have modified orders in the past (adding and subtracting items) due to both positive and negative reviews (and not always in the direction of the review that influenced me most). I really appreciate people who write substantive reviews, because I can't base a decision simply on somebody else's "good" or "bad". But mentioning specifics allows me to make calls based on my needs and preferences. Let's all review more, people!
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It depends on the product.
1. If I'm curious and interested, but not yet sold, I will take the time to see whether purchasing the product is worth it.
2. As for products like Pathfinder RPG and the Pathfinder Bestiary, I'm already sold. Reviews likely won't help in the purchase, but if the reviews blast the product, it may slow down my haste to acquire.
3. As for other products, like 4e, of which I have absolute zero interest, even the grandest of reviews won't help.
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Chief Technical Officer
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We also use product reviews to help decide which products to feature at the top of the page in the store.So if a product was getting a lot of buzz, it goes on top?
There are a pretty stunning number of factors that go into it, but there's a point where we factor in average rating and number of reviews.
That is to say, having a bunch of 5-star reviews won't automatically make it a featured product, but if the system is trying to decide between a couple of products that are otherwise equally good choices, it will choose the better-reviewed one.
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Chief Technical Officer
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I've don my review hat again after reviewing after Fantasy Week back in 2008. So far I have reviewed three supps and am working on a fourth this week.
Now I'm curious. Does anyone here read reviews of products? More importantly, does it sway them to buy it? Or go the other direction?
Oddly enough, I was just pointed to an article on this topic yesterday. The Economist says the answer is yes.
Reviews can have a great impact on my purchase if it is a product I am unsure of. Like, say, when the new Pathfinder Companion was coming out. I wanted to know some specific things I wanted to see in it (there were and I got it). Much the same with the Pathfinder FRPG. Before I buy it I am going to be checking out the reviews (if not perusing it physically at the FLGS).
Other things I have already decided I want. Like Outlaws of Mars or a Item card set. These things I know I'm going to want no matter what the reviewers say.
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I use them, most certainly. Since my FLGS market is a bit slim, I end up getting a fair amount sight unseen. If it's someone who seems very games knowledgeable from the site, it'll carry more weight. If it's poorly written, it carries less (even if that's a bit unfair). If it's Heathy, I just roll my eyes and scroll on(Zing!)
Even if it is something I'm wanting and feel my life will be incomplete without, I'll check out the reviews.
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There are a pretty stunning number of factors that go into it, but there's a point where we factor in average rating and number of reviews.
That is to say, having a bunch of 5-star reviews won't automatically make it a featured product, but if the system is trying to decide between a couple of products that are otherwise equally good choices, it will choose the better-reviewed one.
Makes sense. Reviews can be a tipping factor.
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Oddly enough, I was just pointed to an article on this topic yesterday. The Economist says the answer is yes.
*After reading article*. Interesting. The number of reviews is the main factor, whether it's positive (which people don't necessarily trust) or negative, not the quality.
“Single digits didn’t seem to move the needle at all,” says Mr McAteer. “It wasn’t enough to get people comfortable with making that purchase decision.” But after about 20 reviews of a product are posted, “We start to see more reviews—it starts to accelerate,” says Sam Decker, the chief marketing officer of Bazaarvoice, a firm that powers review systems for online retailers.
His company’s research shows that visitors are more reluctant to buy until a product attracts a reasonable number of reviews and picks up momentum.
I like reviews myself. I especially like the current system of Internet-posted reviews. Just recently my wife and I needed to buy a dishwasher and reading the reviews regular people had posted online about their experiences helped us winnow down the model we wanted. When you are looking for a certain range of features, it helps to know what others have experienced.
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Lynora, Big Thuga, Mairkurion, Ferguson Finn, CharlieRock, and Gavgoyle, here's my latest review: Items Evolved: Oaths from Rite Publishing. Could you, well, review my review?
Items Evolved: Oaths, is a 10 page pdf. Layout is a standard two column with each item section nicely organized.
Each of the ten items has a short, but specific, background, and powers that deal with oaths, a prominent theme in the Land of the Diamond Throne.
The items are interesting and unique. The Olive Branch of the Dove-pledged, for example, adds a bonus to its wielder's non-damaging attacks. It was created in the Citadel of the Dead Gods, providing both an adventure hook and tie to AE rarely seen in most fantasy rpgs today. Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well, since it makes it more difficult to drop an Evolved Item in a non-AE campaign.
Arcana Evolved campaigns will love the items, so linked they are to the unique setting. Non-AE campaigns, though, may not benefit as much unless either the GM is willing to adapt them to their campaign or use Items Evolved: Oaths as a source of ideas. For the price, a buyer can't go wrong.
What did you like about the review? Disliked about the review? Personally, I liked the fact that I included specific examples of the items. I felt the review, on the other hand, was too short though that's more on the website's word limit than the review itself. (My original review is twice as long).
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Chief Technical Officer
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Oddly enough, I was just pointed to an article on this topic yesterday. The Economist says the answer is yes.*After reading article*. Interesting. The number of reviews is the main factor, whether it's positive (which people don't necessarily trust) or negative, not the quality.
“Single digits didn’t seem to move the needle at all,” says Mr McAteer. “It wasn’t enough to get people comfortable with making that purchase decision.” But after about 20 reviews of a product are posted, “We start to see more reviews—it starts to accelerate,” says Sam Decker, the chief marketing officer of Bazaarvoice, a firm that powers review systems for online retailers.
His company’s research shows that visitors are more reluctant to buy until a product attracts a reasonable number of reviews and picks up momentum.
When it comes to actual numbers, I suspect that comparing Amazon to Paizo is, well, a bit like comparing Amazon to Paizo. That is, Amazon.com customers who see 8 reviews on a product would say that "almost nobody has reviewed it yet," while paizo.com customers who see 8 reviews on a product at Paizo would say it's got a lot of reviews.
I also think that Amazon's very broad audience make a small number of reviews less representative of the average customer, while our very targeted audience means that a smaller number of reviews are necessary to represent the average customer.
So I'd guess that "a reasonable number of reviews" on paizo.com probably means more like 4 than 20.
Nonetheless... please, folks, post reviews of the products you like, the products you don't like, and the products you found mediocre!
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It's a good review... too short, I agree, but it has quality info.
You have a good technical description and analysis style that shows a strong grasp of the market. I'm guessing that the majority of what you cut was also some of the more technical assessments of the product?
You're analysis of what is pro vs. con is helpful to the general public. For people with little/no exposure to AE (like me) you let me know that it is a solid product, but might not have a place in my game so I should think twice about spending my money on something that might, despite it's strenghts, leave me cold. If you are leaving a generally positive review, one can assume the review hopes for the success of the product. A carefully worded review that lets a potential buyer know that the product might not be for them can help stave off a negative review.
For me, I'm open to the 'emotional' type of review, too. "This product was absolutely the best because..." Not just gush, mind you, giving me actual substance, but in more visceral terms. It may not carry quite as much weight, but I'll still give it consideration.
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Senior Software Developer
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The more reviews the better. We take into account the number of reviews a product has in addition to its overall rating when deciding what products to feature. If you see a product that you really like, and it's already got a good rating, go ahead and put your two cents in.
Somewhere on my to-do list is "email customers a few weeks after order has shipped inviting them to review products received." Somewhere else on my to-do list is "make specific recommendations about products the customer might like based on order and review history"....
(And somewhere else on my to-do list is "improve navigation and display of product reviews when there are lots of them for a product." :-)
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It's a good review... too short, I agree, but it has quality info.
You have a good technical description and analysis style that shows a strong grasp of the market. I'm guessing that the majority of what you cut was also some of the more technical assessments of the product?
You're analysis of what is pro vs. con is helpful to the general public. For people with little/no exposure to AE (like me) you let me know that it is a solid product, but might not have a place in my game so I should think twice about spending my money on something that might, despite it's strenghts, leave me cold. If you are leaving a generally positive review, one can assume the review hopes for the success of the product. A carefully worded review that lets a potential buyer know that the product might not be for them can help stave off a negative review.
For me, I'm open to the 'emotional' type of review, too. "This product was absolutely the best because..." Not just gush, mind you, giving me actual substance, but in more visceral terms. It may not carry quite as much weight, but I'll still give it consideration.
Thanks, Gavgoyle.
Regarding "emotional" type of review. Hmmm. More of my own personal emotions/reaction to the product? I'll consider. Thanks.
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Chief Creative Officer, Publisher
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I read all of the reviews of Paizo products posted to the site, good and bad. Like message board feedback, it informs many of the decisions we make about what products to do in the future, and how to do them.
Customer feedback is essential to our business at Paizo, both on the publishing and the webstore side of the business.
I liked your review. AE is one of the products that I have recently become interested in, so knowing that this is a solid supplement for that is very helpful. On the other hand,its great that you stated its not so solid use in non AE games. Of course, more reviews would be great! :)
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I liked your review. AE is one of the products that I have recently become interested in, so knowing that this is a solid supplement for that is very helpful. On the other hand,its great that you stated its not so solid use in non AE games. Of course, more reviews would be great! :)
Thanks, Big Thuga.
Joela,
I thought your review was informative. What mainly holds it back, from my POV, is the relative lack of opinion more than the length. Not that you have to evaluate every detail you report, but the more the better. I'd say, report the details that stood out to you, as being particularly good or bad, and offer your evaluation of why that detail is a good or bad thing. It engages me as reader, whether I agree, disagree, or am uncertain. "Ah, that detail does sound helpful." "Really? He doesn't like fey? Well I sure do!" "Why'd they do that?" etc.
As far as shorter vs longer goes, I probably share your basic prejudice, although I also don't want the review to out run the reviewer's steam or ability. Even a two or three line review, if it says something helpful, adds to the mix. And if it jars loose others' reviews, so much the better.
joela, it was a good informative review and I liked that. It told me some information that I needed to know. But I concur about needing more personal reaction. It gives the context I need to know whether I would generally agree/disagree with whatever opinion you are giving.
Lynora, Big Thuga, Mairkurion, Ferguson Finn, CharlieRock, and Gavgoyle, here's my latest review: Items Evolved: Oaths from Rite Publishing. Could you, well, review my review?
I'll certainly give it a shot. =)
Your review told me pretty much exactly what I would be looking at if I got this item. You didnt mention artwork, so I'll just assume it was substandard or even absent. Not really a big deal since it is only 10 pages anyway. (and I see you were fighting space)I didnt think it was too short unless you left out something really important (like it is written in another language or something) otherwise I know exactly what I need to know about this product. Thanks =D
I almost wish I'd used the term "evaluation" only and not opinion, but maybe I'm being a worry-wort. As long as people don't mean "irrational preference only" when they say "opinion" (chocolate vs vanilla). I want some substance to the evaluation...even if there's an opinion or like/dislike at the bottom of it that I may/may not share. I guess your "personal view" covers that, though. Worrying vanquished.
I like reviews myself. I especially like the current system of Internet-posted reviews. Just recently my wife and I needed to buy a dishwasher and reading the reviews regular people had posted online about their experiences helped us winnow down the model we wanted. When you are looking for a certain range of features, it helps to know what others have experienced.
This type of review influences me immensely (e.g. "I bought and used this product and I was happy/unhappy with it and now I'm posting my opinion on a message board.") Reviews from "professional" reviewers are much less useful (e.g. "I flipped through this D&D book and after an hour of browsing it looked pretty good to me.").
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I've always found reviews to be helpful in my decision making process. They also seem to cause a spike in traffic at the Grand OGL Wiki as well. For a while its seems like reviews on site had dropped off prompting us to do Reviewmas this year as well ask working with Game Cryer to bring even more reviews to gamers.
My next GOW reviews will be Hard-Boiled Ideas: Cultures from One Bad Egg and Classifieds form Visionation Studios.
My next Game Cryer reviews will be for Blue Dragon Plus (Nintendo DS), Godlike (Arc Dreaming) then something Paizoish, just need to pick what I want to review.
I've don my review hat again after reviewing after Fantasy Week back in 2008. So far I have reviewed three supps and am working on a fourth this week.
Now I'm curious. Does anyone here read reviews of products? More importantly, does it sway them to buy it? Or go the other direction?
I also read reviews before I buy gaming stuff (or most anything over $20, for that matter), and reviews often determine whether or not I will choose to buy something.
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I'll certainly give it a shot. =)
Your review told me pretty much exactly what I would be looking at if I got this item. You didnt mention artwork, so I'll just assume it was substandard or even absent. Not really a big deal since it is only 10 pages anyway. (and I see you were fighting space)
I didnt think it was too short unless you left out something really important (like it is written in another language or something) otherwise I know exactly what I need to know about this product. Thanks =D
Thanks, CharlieRock. I do discuss the product's artwork but it got culled for space consideration.
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I almost wish I'd used the term "evaluation" only and not opinion, but maybe I'm being a worry-wort. As long as people don't mean "irrational preference only" when they say "opinion" (chocolate vs vanilla). I want some substance to the evaluation...even if there's an opinion or like/dislike at the bottom of it that I may/may not share. I guess your "personal view" covers that, though. Worrying vanquished.
I think I understood what you meant. Yourself and others would like to read opinion/personal view/evaluation, but backed up by the reviewer. Thus, I could have written, "I don't like this product because 1) it's not useful for my 3.x/4e/SW campaign; 2) artwork made it difficult to print out, etc." Oppose this with the review, "this sucks/awesome product" and no other information.
Reviews from "professional" reviewers are much less useful (e.g. "I flipped through this D&D book and after an hour of browsing it looked pretty good to me.").How does one become a professional reviewer anyway?
Well, that's why I put "professional" in quotes. What I mean is some guy who has his own site "Joe's RPG Blog" where he rushes to publish his opinion of something a day or two after it comes out. I'm much less interested in that than someone who buys a module (say) and plays through it and then offers his opinions on it after the fact (even if it's weeks or months later).
The best of all is a message board thread where you can get a mix of positive and negative comments on a given product. Then I can throw out the best and worst opinions and average the rest.
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Items Evolved: Oaths, is a 10 page pdf. Layout is a standard two column with each item section nicely organized.
Each of the ten items has a short, but specific, background, and powers that deal with oaths, a prominent theme in the Land of the Diamond Throne.
The items are interesting and unique. The Olive Branch of the Dove-pledged, for example, adds a bonus to its wielder's non-damaging attacks. It was created in the Citadel of the Dead Gods, providing both an adventure hook and tie to AE rarely seen in most fantasy rpgs today. Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well, since it makes it more difficult to drop an Evolved Item in a non-AE campaign.
Arcana Evolved campaigns will love the items, so linked they are to the unique setting. Non-AE campaigns, though, may not benefit as much unless either the GM is willing to adapt them to their campaign or use Items Evolved: Oaths as a source of ideas. For the price, a buyer can't go wrong.
Here's the full review if anyone's interested:
Items Evolved: Oaths
What is it?
Items Evolved: Oaths, is a 10 page pdf, with content covered from pages 3 through 9. Layout is a standard two column with each item section nicely organized in a standard format.
Graphics is minimal, limited to the gorgeous cover art, a rune-covered strip down one side of each page, and a couple of magic items on page 4 (7 of 10). Text, fonts, and whitespace go easy on the eyes; no squinting reading this supplement!
The requisite OGL license fills out page 10. There is no backcover.
What's in it?
Items Evolved: Oaths covers magic items. Each item has a short, but specific, background, and powers that deal with oaths, a prominent theme in the Land of the Diamond Throne.
There are ten magic items. Each are broken down by name; price (with item level); what body slot it occupies; caster level to create it; aura, or what it'll radiate under a detect magic spell; how to activate the item's powers; and weight.
Then there's a brief description of the item. Lore tells what skills/abilities are appropriate to find out the item's powers, followed by the discovered information. Tied to this information is Object Loresight. As the author explains at the beginning of the pdf, this list provides details on important NPCs and/or locations, AE races, and Rite Publishing's upcoming Rituals of Choice adventure path.
The Abilities section discuss the item's powers. Finally, Prequisites and Cost to create outline what it takes to create the item.
In my opinion....
The items are interesting and unique. The Olive Branch of the Dove-pledged, for example, adds a bonus to its wielder's non-damaging attacks. The branch was created in the Citadel of the Dead Gods, an actual location in the Land of the Diamond Thrones. This immediately provides both an adventure hook and tie to AE rarely seen in most fantasy rpgs today.
Unfortunately, the reverse is true as well, since it makes it more difficult to drop an Evolved Item in a non-AE campaign. GMs who wish to do so will either have to ignore the Object Loresight information or replace them with their own history. I think the Design Notes could have covered a bit more on how to use the items in either kind of campaign.
I would have loved to seen more illustrations of the magic items.
The layout is beautiful and, more importantly, easy to read both on-screen and printed. The pdf is color printer-friendly as long as one excludes the cover page.
So what's the verdict?
I have mixed feelings about this product. Arcana Evolved campaigns will love the items, so linked they are to the unique setting. Non-AE campaigns, though, may not benefit as much unless either the GM is willing to adapt them to their campaign or use Items Evolved: Oaths as a source of ideas. For the price, a buyer can't go wrong.
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Reviews from "professional" reviewers are much less useful (e.g. "I flipped through this D&D book and after an hour of browsing it looked pretty good to me.").How does one become a professional reviewer anyway?Well, that's why I put "professional" in quotes. What I mean is some guy who has his own site "Joe's Blog of Product Reviews" where he rushes to publish his opinion of something a day or two after it comes out. I'm much less interested in that than someone who buys a module (say) and plays through it and then offers his opinions on it after the fact (even if it's weeks or months later).
The best of all is a message board thread where you can get a mix of positive and negative comments on a given product. Then I can throw out the best and worst opinions and average the rest.
Ah! Thanks. I thought there was some secret fraternity or something ;-)
Yes... just waiting for it to appear in our distributor listing.Like Earthdawn 3rd edition...getting it, don't need a review...
Btw, you guys gonna carry it?
WOOHOO!!!!
*does a happy dance*
