[Threshold]

Valg, please try to avoid projecting your own opinions about players onto other people. If you think players are, to quote you, "too dumb to write reviews," then post it as your own opinion instead of slyly attributing it to someone else. I said nothing of the sort.

Real players are perfectly capable of writing good reviews. This should be obvious, since how could anyone write a review that doesn't PLAY MUDs. A good review can ONLY be written by a player.

Most people who take the time to write reviews, sadly, are not "real players" and they certainly do not write reviews in good faith. Most "real players" are so busy playing the game they like that they won't bother with a site about MUDs or writing reviews. Yes, a few will. Those are the few reviews that are actually good and worthwhile (be they positive or negative).

But the majority of reviews get written by people who are unbalanced for one reason or another. The people who actually end up taking the time to write reviews are more likely to either be blatant suckups or enraged haters. Those are the motivations that are most likely to supply that last, final bit of motivation to actually take the time to go to a site, create an account, and write up a review.

You see this same phenomenon all over the place. It is why comments on ESPN.com stories or responses to movie reviews on movie sites tend to be only the most extreme. The more normal folks with less virulent opinions can't be bothered to post.

That is why MUD reviews that are not written by "staff" are doomed to always be mostly junk. The majority of the time, the thing that motivates someone to take the time to write a review is not something that lends itself to a good, honest, objective review.