Thread: MUD Reviews
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Old 10-02-2007, 06:17 PM   #18
Milawe
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Re: MUD Reviews

Yes, and that's the other problem with these review systems. Admins can lie just as well as anyone. In fact, we encountered an incident a LONG time ago where two admins were basically posting false reviews about each other's MUDs on MMPOD (I think) because of some on-going feud. They were going as far as to ask their players to post a negative review for the other MUD, and unfortunately, they both had knowledge about each other's MUDs because this was another one of those cases where one side claimed that the other side stole their codebase. (Does anyone else remember this?) Anyway, from what I recall, players on both side, sick of the arguments and just wanting to play, blew the whistle on the admins. Of course, both of them denied posting and asking for negative reviews to be posted about the other MUD.

So, with a review system that is not written by staff, you have the dual problem of quality control and misinformation. Even if you have staff review, you have problems in that a PvP player would have issues with an RP mud, or an RP staffer could simply enjoy a very specific kind of RP and declare another MUD to be "fluffy and light". I personally detest some of the MUDs that I have tried, but I know that there are others who LOVE their mud. I could write a very convincing review about why I hated it and have it be accurate as well as thorough. Normally, I don't bother to write a review. I will email the admins with my opinion if I feel that there are game-breaking issues, and then I move on.

Anyway, with most systems, I think the GOOD reviewers can get shafted as much as the MUDs. The difference is the reviewer can just choose not to review and not waste their time on lying admins. In several sites, the MUDs don't get that option.
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