by suchiaruzu » Sep 27, 2003 @ 8:09pm
Well, shit. All hell broke loose while I slept. Here is what I think:
Beforehand, I would like you to know, that I have been friends with Jay for more than two years now.
I have also talked to Matt quite a few times and found him a person who is pleasant to talk to. Furthermore, I would like to mention that I am affiliated with PDAMill in so far, that I talk to their members a lot on IM. This is why I will use PDAMill as an example later on in this post and try to clear them from the mud that has been slung on them in this thread.
I read the review, I read positive posts on PocketGamer. I read both this thread and the thread on PocketGamer. I do not own the game, I have not tried the demo. Judging by the screenshots and other people's opinions, I always thought of it as a fun little racing game much like Mario Kart.
I believe in the right of every person to express themselves. It's called freedom of press. I am not saying, the way this review was written is right, but they may publish whatever they want.
Now, lets get to the review. I found it to be very cynical and frankly burst out laughing more than once. Years ago, I used to read the PCPlayer, the german equivalent to PCGamer. Trust me, except for the fact that their reviews were not written as chatlogs (and they usually took up only half a page for games with a lower rating), they were much more sarcastic than this review could ever be seen as. As a matter of fact, they were even one of the reasons why I bought the magazine. They were fun to read. Sounds mean, but that is the truth.
From a moral standpoint, I do not support the review. From previous comments, I take it that all the bugs mentioned in the review do in fact exist. That would be quite a number of playability factors right there.
Your conclusion that the way this review was written has been affected by Jay being an affiliate of PDAMill is wrong. Even though he works closely with PDAMill, I can still find him raving about other games. He is an enthusiastic gamer who voices his opinion. He does not want your sales to go down. He does not want to destroy your company. Jay's reviews are usually focussed on the game, and nothing else. If Jay thinks a game sucks, that's what he is gonna put in the review. His one and only interest as a reviewer is to make sure other people know about pros and cons of the game before they buy it.
Still, I feel this review has gone out of hand. It's funny, yes. I used to laugh at PCPlayer reviewers poking fun at bugs. But it gets to a point where it gets kind of insulting. I do not like the chat-style either. It's repetetive and hard to read.
To PDAMill's defense, all Games they release are top notch. They are well polished. They look great. They run fast. And they have VERY few to no bugs. I trace this back to PDAMill's philosophy of releasing public betas, as well as intense beta testing. They have also proven to be extremely responsive to suggestions. EXTRELEMY RESPONSIVE. I have Gamebox Jewels, and (as stated in the CK review), it's dpad just sucks. BIGTIME. Stone Stacker+ was just not playable. I suggested alternative controls using the hardware buttons to PDAMill and recieved an update THE VERY NEXT DAY. They listen to their costumers and do their very best to improve their games to satisfy everyone. Besides, most requests I ever made to them, were feature requests, not bugfixes!
Which gets me to the main point of this post, your reaction to the review. Peter Balogh is the official spokesperson of PDAMill, and he is doing an excellent job. As far as his presence in the community goes, he has always taken the time to reply to users. He is nice, polite and does his best to satisfy costumers. This makes makes the overall image of PDAMill, at least to me, one of the best in the whole PDA gaming scene. They CARE.
However, I was deeply disappointed by your reaction to the review, StephC. I can understand your feelings, I can see that you put a lot of effort into this game. But you can never please everybody. If you had just accepted this review as a personal opinion, no-one would have cared. Shit. I wouldnt remember half of the stuff these two guys wrote. It would be history. But now you have a PocketGamer thread with 8 pages, on each of which you complain about the unfairness of the review. You personally attacked the reviewers (want an example? Smack the Jaybot!). THIS does not contribute to a good image of your company. It hurts your company. Just let it go. Dont quote it on your website and that's all!
I guess what I hear myself saying is, what you should do is stop complaining and release a fix as soon as possible. Not the review, but your reaction to it is bad publicity for your company. And I'll be damned if Jay said "I will not review an updated version of this game and change my review". You will never hear him say that.
Take your reviews with pride. Dont personally attack reviewers. I agree, the review should have been in a different form. But they are free to write whatever they like. And I can tell you here and now that Matt won't take it down. But I can also tell you, that reactions would have been a WHOLE LOT different if you had not taken it that serious, but replied with something like "Funny review, guys, we'll do our best to fix the bugs as soon as possible. If you'd like to, you can help us test the new version."
That's it. And I believe this is also my longest PM post yet. If anyone read it, congrats. This just reflects my feelings. I am not an official spokesperson of PM, PG or PDAMill. Just my two cents.
[Edited for typos]
Eike
Last edited by
suchiaruzu on Sep 27, 2003 @ 9:15pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PDAmill member writing game reviews
