/newstuff reviewer - weekly

[Job]

To help you decide when or if you want to make a submission to /newstuff on a given week, this thread will give you advanced notice of who is the reviewer for said week. The posting of constructive criticism of the reviewer is also encouraged, so that future reviews can be as fair, balanced and positive as possible.

This Week's Reviewer: Hyena - February 1, 2004

[Ichor]

This is why you wanted to ask me? I thought you were deciding whether to submit a map of your own and wanted to know who might review it next week.

[Job]

Ichor said:

This is why you wanted to ask me? I thought you were deciding whether to submit a map of your own and wanted to know who might review it next week.

I was asking you so that I could decide whether or not to submit this week, yes. But when I thought about it, I figured that would be good for anybody else to know. So I made this thread.

[Fredrik]

Now that deathz0r is gone, is there really a need to warn mappers in advance?

[Shaviro]

Fredrik said:

Now that deathz0r is gone, is there really a need to warn mappers in advance?

lol

[Russell_P]

this thread should be burnt.

[Job]

Russell_P said:

this thread should be burnt.

I contributed what I think is a worthwhile idea and you want to just go and Post Hell it? I'm clearly not spamming here. I'm just wanting to help by posting something possibly useful and I get criticized for it.

[Russell_P]

sorry. I didn't mean to crticise you. I typed that in a hurry and so didn't explain my reasoning.

This thread is pretty pointless from my point of veiw. If you design a well-crafted map it'll be appreciated and generally get a fair and deserving review. Okay, each reviewer has their own tastes, but a well-crafted map is a well-crafted map, end of story. If the reviewer slates a map wrongly, the community will pick him up on it. (Personally I pay more attention to forum comments in /newstuff, rather than the reviews themselves). Okay, so you may not get the 'OMG this is Fucking amazing' review you wanted, but then maybe your map isn't as good as you want it to be percieved. This is where vanity steps in.

We've all had good and bad reviews, but who cares! Upload your map and don't worry about who's reviewing it. Don't let vanity spoil your mapping. Design what you want, and if other people (a reviewer) doesn't like it then don't worry about. If you're happy with your map then that should be enough. It's nice to get good reviews/feedback, but no-one here is going to get A-listed or rich from doom designing, and it's not the be all and end all of life. So relax.

[exl]

It wouldn't be nice if people would know when a reviewer's week was. I can imagine lots of people sending in their work on the week of a reviewer that goes more easy on them (if just a slight bit). Maybe it could be kept a secret and be done at random or something.

[Frades]

I would do the opposite. Send in my map when it will be reviewed by someone who is more demanding than others may be. I wouldn't mind any bad words towards my map if the reasons were justified and backed up with explanations.

[sargebaldy]

Fredrik said:

Now that deathz0r is gone, is there really a need to warn mappers in advance?

I actually liked submitting stuff on deathz0r weeks, it was more of a challenge to get a good review that way.

[Cyb]

exile said:

It wouldn't be nice if people would know when a reviewer's week was. I can imagine lots of people sending in their work on the week of a reviewer that goes more easy on them (if just a slight bit). Maybe it could be kept a secret and be done at random or something.

that conflicts with the regular reviewer's real life dealings. remember reviewing all these wads is not easy (unless you're deathzor and spend 20 mins reviewing 10 maps, clearly shown in the piss poor quality of his reviews) so the reviewers need a week to do it, plus a week or two of notice to set aside some time to play all those maps (preparation if you will). Granted sometimes there are like 3 maps, but other times there are 40, so yeah.

anyway, newstuff reviewers shouldn't dictate when you decide to upload your map, this is just a weekly review thing, no more, no less, though of course given dw's popularity it's going to have more pull than some random geocities site, but you get the idea.

and when all else fails, if you don't want a bad review, then don't make a bad map :P

[Julian]

Cyb said:

[...] given dw's popularity [...]

At least a thousand angry users foresaw our doom and we're still popular? heh.

[Ichor]

So that's how long our ban list is?

[Julian]

Ichor said:

So that's how long our ban list is?

Understatement.

[myk]

sargebaldy said:
I actually liked submitting stuff on deathz0r weeks, it was more of a challenge to get a good review that way.

deathwarrior wasn't more critical than most other reviewers; his problem was that his reviews lacked substance. The chances you'd get a good review were low because he wasn't overly capable of coming up with a good review... not to mention when he chose to ignore some wads (but that was kind of okay, as generally they were picked up later by more competent reviewers.) Mind you, he wasn't totally crappy, he did have some things to say about DM wads, but I'd say he was the weakest of the lot.

[sargebaldy]

I would agree, he got critical in a very unhelpful way, and really only seemed to care about reviewing dm maps and jokewads.

[Grimm]

Why did we put up with him again?

I have to disagree with you, Russell_P. /newstuff reviews pretty much determine how many people play your map (I certainly don't download WADs with crappy reviews), so I can understand why someone might want to know who the reviewer is.

[sargebaldy]

I agree with Russell P. to some degree, generally people do play stuff based on the comments in the thread rather than the actual review. For example, two /newstuffs ago both my map Neith and Virgil's mapset Claustrophobia were listed in /newstuff. Virgil got a very small review that wasn't entirely favorable, whereas my map Neith got a good review. But the whole thread basically turned into a discussion about Claustrophobia, and judging by how many votes have been cast on each, Claustrophobia was played by over 3x as many people.

[Epyo]

Ah I was waiting for somebody to make a thread like this. Thanks a bunch Job!

[Cyb]

next time I'll give you a bad review :P

[PumpkinSmasher]

Most noobs don't know anything about the reviewers anyway. So this doesn't help them at all. Most experiencd mappers can map well enough to where it doesn't matter who reviews it. So with simple reasoning, this thread is not needed.

[Epyo]

^false! You obviously don't know the evils of deathz0r you silly goose.

[Amaster]

If you base your entire decision on what the reviewer says, you're the one missing out.

[Epyo]

"Assmaster
Registered just to make one post"

What what's that about.

[sargebaldy]

it's about this.

[Grazza]

I don't see any great need to keep the reviewer rotation secret (in fact, it should be pretty clear* - on the occasions when we swap, there is generally some comment). However, sometimes swaps of weeks are only decided upon at the last minute, so this information may not be too relevant anyway. And as others have commented, it shouldn't really be a dominant factor in when a map is released. Release it when you think it's ready.

*Having said that, I'm not completely sure what the long-term plan is for replacing deathz0r - though it is likely to continue as a three-week rotation.

[ellmo]

sargebaldy said:

I actually liked submitting stuff on deathz0r weeks, it was more of a challenge to get a good review that way.

Yeah, deathz0r provided us with so many reviews of hopeless wads. Guess they could get more attention if he wasn't reviewing them. But still, Doom is 10 years old, and the game deserves only good add-ons, so reviewer's criticism is in order.

[insertwackynamehere]

I just submit to /newstuff to get my things in id Games Archives. The reveiws are a bonus!

[Job]

So, how's /newstuff looking this week submission-wise? It wouldn't take too much to top last week's, heh. Anyone slated to be the reviewer yet?