Quote:
Originally Posted by DigitalRaven
A negative review is fine. I like negative reviews. Hell, look up some of Darren McLennan's 1/1s.
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Heh, the McLennan / Sartin reviews are pure rant from one end to the other, that doesn't make them any less enjoyable or useful because they quantify and qualify their displeasure in no uncertain terms, but sometimes I do want to scream at them 'Ok, we get the idea you don't like the games, but stop insulting them already and get on with telling us why! I know you will eventually, but the venom is flowing too freely and is slowing me down!' (I still love them, though.) I didn't get that feeling in particular from this review. Sure, it could have been a little more illuminating and useful, but you have to take into account the nature of the product that is being reviewed here. It's a preview book, and is bound by its nature to have large gaps and unquantifiable areas making it very difficult to be useful about. What would be worse for sure is a totally orgasmic response with no real substance behind it. At least there was balance here, though some more substance would have been welcome.
That said, I think it would be nice to get back to discussing the product rather than the review.
I for one have no interest in D20, no idea what the whole 'Great Wheel' discussion is all about or indeed much of the rest. However I would not be in the least surprised if someone in the know told me that many of the changes being made to the setting were done purely in order to drum up just exactly this kind of fervid interplay between pro-4e and con-4e fans as an additional means of advertising, and nor would I be surprised if someone told me that the changes were made purely so that 4e would be different enough in some small way from its predecessors to justify itself as a whole new edition.
I won't be buying the books if I can avoid it, and I certainly won't be buying the previews which I agree with the reviewer are overpriced for what they are - basically self-written promotional preview material that is sold where otherwise it might be included in magazines or even given away free as an incentive. The closest I'll get unless something extremely major changes my mind is borrowing the core rulebook from a friend to see what all the fuss is about.
Ash