| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello all. There were a number of posters providing reviews of all of the items entered in the competition last year.
I would like to provide my reviewing services as well.
Any meta-critique advice from the seasoned pros on methodology to use as I prepare for this undertaking?
Archomedes, I was one of the small handful of people who did every item in the Critique thread last year (though I didn't touch on the Top 32).
Honestly, it mostly just took a lot of dedication. There are a LOT of items posted for review, 181 if my count last year is correct. Depending how much time you want to spend on it, it can add up and I saw more than a few people start and then give up (at first especially, almost every post in the thread is an item to review, so it's daunting, but it does get progressively less with each page).
If you really want to prepare, I guess the big thing is decide if you want to have some sort of format -- GM_Solspiral, for example, did a Good, Bad and Ugly review, while I just dove in and gave my thoughts on each one, with no real template.
Do a handful a day, otherwise it becomes overwhelming.
My other big suggestion would be remember people put their heart and soul into these things. Even items I didn't like, I did my best to be positive, and make my criticism constructive -- here's what you can do better next year vs. here's what you did wrong.
I'm in that group with Jacob and yes it is daunting. Don't take a break in the middle of it. Last yearni got a good chunk into it then got crazy busy and stopped for a couple of weeks. When I came back I had tons to go through. So definitely do at least a few each day.
I did a free form write as I read method. As I read the item I wrote down my thoughts on each aspect like name, template, pricing, fluff, powers, writing style, and spells used. I would typically write it in notepad then copy and paste it over. If it gets to be long then you should spoiler it.