I'm responding to this here though it was posted in the game thread. You seem to be saying two contradictory things here. First you claim that you welcome honest reviews, with the implication that this would be true even if you didn't agree with the reviewer's opinion. But then when you encounter an actual review that you don't agree with, you don't seem to welcome or respect it at all. You don't present any evidence for why this doesn't count as an "honest" review, and you ignore the fact that the reviewer does explain what they didn't like about the game when you claim this review didn't support its conclusion. It seems like the real issue isn't that the reviewer didn't explain what he disliked, but rather that you just don't share the reviewer's criticisms.
Out of sync it seems. I explained the problem with the review above (below?) in a comment on another post in this thread.
Ok, I just read your longer post, but it doesn't change what I said. It's basically a longer-winded way of saying that you don't really respect a review that doesn't reach the same conclusion as you. I think you did a good job of explaining why you like this game so much. However your conclusion seems to be that, because your reasoning about why this game is good is so self-evidently and objectively right, that the only possible reason any reviewer could have a different opinion about it is because their review isn't honest, or they just don't understand the game, or something like that. I don't see any room in your analysis for accepting differing opinions. So it might be more accurate for you to just acknowledge that you don't actually respect reviews that don't reach the same conclusions as you. Also, if I look through the list you gave of things which you think should affect review scores: I don't see anything in that list about how enjoyable the reviewer thought the game was. Maybe this points to another explanation for our differing opinions of the review. I'm firmly in the same camp as Boardumb, in thinking that in reviews of artistic products like games or movies, there inherently needs to be a big subjective part of the review. That doesn't mean I think reviews are beyond criticism. If a reviewer gets facts wrong, and they seem to misunderstand the game they're reviewing, then that would be grounds for saying a review is bad. I don't see any factual problem like that with this review though. However I can see how if you come from the point of view that review scores represent some kind of objective reality, then it makes sense that if two reviews score a game differently, you'd say one of those reviews must be wrong By the way, so you know where I'm coming from, I love this game, and am not at all bothered by the things Dotson was bothered by in this game. If I was writing a review I'd give the game a 5/5.
Yep, you've gotten TA wrong. We are an opinion oriented website. What you're suggesting would be like rating a movie with awesome cinematography, incredible acting, a great soundtrack, but the actual story itself is mind numbingly boring, and then saying "It's a 5 star movie! I didn't enjoy it and I'd never watch it again, but it was crafted really well!" Not that I think Carter found this game "mind numbingly boring" or anything, but if you find you're not really having fun with a game, but you can appreciate how well the game itself is made, should it still be rated as high as possible without acknowledging you actually didn't enjoy the experience? If that's what you want from reviews then that's fine, but TA will never review games that way.
Sorry, someone at the door ... And common, I didn't attack anybody. If you read the whole sentense you'll see that I just tried to say something nice and constructive to the devs. Calling the guy who just "ruined" the party a party pooper is absolutely appropriate and, since it's kinda regarding to my harry potter on a bus stop comment, nails it nicely imo. I mean I didn't call him idiot or something. With some of the maturity you claim from me you should have been able to laugh about this sentence. Or at least understand what I was up to. In fact, the way you react thin-skinned to any kind of criticism is one of my biggest issues with toucharcade. I have still in mind how fast the word "hater" came into play, when some people started to hint that it might be at least debatable to make land sliders goty, when there has been so much great games out there. That directly leads us to what a good mobile game is, and I couldn't disagree more. Sometimes you have some time, sometimes you haven't, and thanks god there are different games for different needs. If the fact that a game needs time to get played would disqualify it for beeing a good mobile game, what about all those epic adventures out there, let's just say Infinity Blade. You surely don't want to tell me that wasn't a great mobile game? To cut it short, a good mobile game is a game I have fun playing it on my mobile device. Cheers. As for the difficulty, well, it has already been said that there are lot's of other real hard games out there, (with way less production values!), that got your love nevertheless. It's not the fact that TA writes critical reviews, it's the fact the way you do it feels totally arbitray. In fact, I often wonder whether TA is aware of how much responsibility they have due to their popularity, especially when games like angry birds or the next coc thingy are getting their five stars. You know, those games doesn't need your attention, games like this one do. As for Carters review, it's not actually the missing star I mind, it's the fact that the whole thing reads as if he "had to" play it, as in "it's my job", instead of playing it 'cause he wanted to. Why not let someone write the review who actually has / had fun with the game in question? The problem is, that he is wrong, due to that. For exemple the gold stars - I got absolutely no clue what he actually wanted to say, but the gold stars definitely aren't a problem. But as I already said, I think nothing in this game is a problem, well, except you are too impatient. Try to go through this game within a week and you sure will hate it. Play it when you want to play it, and things will come along nicely. And yes, "only hardcore players should play this" translates directly to "should buy" this, and you can see in the comments under the review as well as in this thread that it totally works. As someone else already mentioned, it would have absolutely been possible to give this game the glorious five stars it definitely more than earned, And to mention in the review that not everybody might be able to finish it, even though you could say that about nearly every game out there ... But I really don't want to argue, just wanted to share my thoughts on this one, 'cause I do love this game and am really sad that the game seems to sell very bad and the devs are getting punished for going the premium way.
Calling anybody names on the forums is not appropriate, or acceptable. That is not up for debate. Uh, what? I consider that one of the best mobile games of all time, specifically for the fact that it was created for the mobile platform. Heroes and Castles 2 feels like a console game, not a mobile game. That can be either good or bad depending on what you're looking for. I'm not sure why you brought this up? I'm sorry that you're confused about what TouchArcade is. We are not here to promote or ensure the success/sales of any game. We are not a marketing website. We talk about the games that we personally enjoy, as two editors and a small handful of freelancers. That's it, full stop. If you are looking for something else, you'll need to look for a different website. It sounds like you're saying that because we're a popular website, we need to parrot the popular opinion of everything, rather than offer our own actual opinions and feelings as people. Again, we will never be that and if that's what you want you'll have to look elsewhere. I'm not sure where you're getting this from. Carter likes the game and chose it himself for review. Nobody made him play it. Yes of course it's possible to have given the game 5 stars, but he didn't feel like the game was a 5 star game. I'm completely at a loss as to how this simple concept is so hard for some people to grasp. Obviously! Punished how? Our rating has almost zero bearing on how well this game will sell. It was destined to be a low selling game, as are all paid games. The question is whether or not the low number of sales and the price of the game can produce enough revenue to make it worth it, which is something only the developer can know. Anyway, since you obviously don't care and don't want to argue, I look forward to your next multi-hundred word response.
As for the name calling: must be a translation thing. The german expression for party pooper is a word that not even the most strict and religious grandma would consider to be name calling, but ok, I'll keep that in mind. As for the rest: what the heck is wrong with you? Why aren't you guys able to just talk, as in people sitting together and everybody says what he thinks? All I did was to share my thoughts on a certain subject in a "discussion thread". There was absolutely nothing offensive in what I said, but your answer comes with an arrogant and agressive attitude that makes me speechless. You have a problem with name calling? Lol, your whole reply is calling me a stupid and obstinate idiot. But hey, discussion over, well done ...
Your original comment was nothing but belittling TouchArcade and its opinions, and then belittling Carter for his review specifically. But right, we're just having a "discussion." I take my job very seriously, I dedicate more hours to it than I do to anything else in my entire life, friends and family included. So when you come in and shit all over that, then yeah, I might get a little defensive. I imagine you'd feel the same if you did anything at all worthwhile with your own life. Good job not responding to any of the points I made in my completely non-aggressive response above. It proves that you literally have no argument and just like talking shit.
