Reviews by Mike Hulsebus

But BGG actually does have a boatload of reviews that are neutral or negative. They are hidden in the Personal Comments. I won't buy a game without reading a large number of personal comments, starting with the 10's and 9's, then looking at the 6's and 5's, and then paying special attention to the 4's and below. There is a gold mine of information there.

But BGG actually does have a boatload of reviews that are neutral or negative. They are hidden in the Personal Comments. I won't buy a game without reading a large number of personal comments, starting with the 10's and 9's, then looking at the 6's and 5's, and then paying special attention to the 4's and below. There is a gold mine of information there.

Before I start, I will say I am not a fan of players reviewing a game after only one play. Games are complicated, and players tend to miss things or get rules wrong in a first play, and it’s often not a fair assessment.

On the flip side, I’m also not a fan of reviewers who only give positive reviews. Us amateur reviewers (those who get their games the hard way) tend to only review games we’re really excited about, and have played a lot of times, and thus the reviews all seem blandly positive.

The conundrum is obvious. If I play a game and don’t like it, then I won’t play it enough to give it a “fair review” and thus I will only ever end up writing positive, glowing reviews of games I really like. So, resolving not to be “that guy,” I will instead be that “other guy” and write a negative review of a game I have not played a lot. Note: lest I give the impression I am not familiar with the game, I spent quite a bit of time researching the game and hand-built a copy so that I could play it, so I humbly suggest I have a little more experience than a single play would initially imply.

Along those lines, we can only truly get where a reviewer is coming from if we know what games he or she doesn’t like

Any reviewer worth paying attention to will have made their preferences clear.

I think with the BGG database, if its a user who is writing reviews, it is very useful to follow up with their ratings and comments. Unless that reviewer doesn't use that part of the database, I don't think they are obligated to state their preferences -- though it would certainly be appreciated if it plays a big part in the judgement (ie I love this game because its a climbing game...but you should know I love all climbing games)

2) People are generally more excited to talk about something they really enjoy than something they really don't enjoy.

This is the only point where I disagree with you. I think the middle of the road reviews are hardest to write.

4) If someone didn't like a game, they're not likely to play it again. If they only play it once, it's more likely that they're not going to feel like they have authority to review it, or they're going to review it anyhow and are more likely to have things wrong.

This is the only point where I disagree with you. I think the middle of the road reviews are hardest to write. Back when I was reviewing games, I found these the hardest to write. Take, for example, Red November. In my opinion, there's nothing really wrong with the game, and there are some really cool things that the game does. But it's pretty hard to hammer down exactly what makes it so middle-of-the-road for me without a lot of writing and rewriting.

It seems to me that both can be true! People don't want to spend their free time writing negative review, even if it would be an easier task than writing a middle of the road review.

This hobby seems to attract fanatical people and certain people will like anything if it has a certain theme (which I expect is the case for Elder Sign).

However, if a "professional" reviewer was given the game, or paid to make the review, then you're going to get someone with no stake in the review at all... they are already being paid to do a job, and didn't use their own money to buy it, so there's no unconconscious need to justify their purchase (or not look like a sucker).