Guild Wars'en

[Fellfrosch]

Reviews aren't supposed to be positive influences, they're supposed to be honest.

[42]

Yes but critics are suppose to waste their time on trivial stuff so that the readers don't have too. When a critic doesn't do that, then the reader is left wondering "well perhaps it gets better after the point where the critic left."

So leaving the movie early is a valid reaction, but a not a very helpful one. It's also rather disrespectful to both the filmmakers and the reader.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I have to agree with Fell and Tage on this one. Walking out or quitting is a fine way to do a review. I don't think it disrespectful to the reader, and it's irrelevant if it's disrespectful to the designer. It says plenty enough about the game.

If you disagree with his assessment because you played more, then you should write another review explaining your point.

Several days of play is plaenty to give the game a fair shake. If it fails to grab you at that point, it's fair to tell people that after several days, you still won't be interested. Who wants to waste their time on that?

[Entsuropi]

Hrm... Next time i'll write a review based on a demo. After all, that takes a while to complete, right?

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

you could write a review of a demo by playing a demo, but since that has deliberately locked features and limited access, it's not the same as reviewing a game.

I think what you'll get if you force people to play a complete game they don't like in order to review it is that you end up with less reviews, not more people finishing the game.

And in the few cases I've heard of with complaints about this, I think 42 is the only one who has complained about it for reasons other than he disagreed with the conclusion of the review.

[Entsuropi]

you could write a review of a demo by playing a demo, but since that has deliberately locked features and limited access, it's not the same as reviewing a game.

Therein lies my point. Tage has not even bothered to look at all the features, so he might as well have reviewed a demo.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

yes, I understood your point. I'm saying they're different situations. If you CAN access those features, but they don't give you any reason to is different than saying "i don't have these features" when it's just because you're playing a demo.

[Fellfrosch]

I'm not saying that I want this type of review to become the standard--we should try to give every game a fair shake as often as possible. But it has happened now and then in the past, on this and other sites, and will happen now and then in the future, because "it was so boring I couldn't go on" is a very natural reaction to some games. It's not a reaction you agree with in this case, but there it is.

[Fellfrosch]

Interestingly, Tycho says essentially the same thing about the game today (insert standard language warning here): http://www.penny-arcade.com/

The difference is that he worked his way past the crap and found the creamy center.

[Tage]

You know, despite all the criticisms from everyone about my review, when the most famous game reviewer on the internet says basically the same thing, except that I didn't want to "eat the sawdust," well...  that's validation enough for me.

Besides, this site is a guide for how to waste time, right? I think my review should give anyone a feel for whether or not they should waste their time on Guild Wars.