On Feedback and Reviews

["Jorge Arroyo" <trozo@...>]

Hi all

  First let me make this clear: I won't deny that the motivation for this
message has been in part the lack of feedback for my latest piecepack game.
I admit I'm a bit disapointed because I was quite excited about it.

  But that's not the main concern. This post is also motivated by the lack
of comments and reviews in general in the piecepack community. I'm also
guilty of this myself.

  So, here it goes: We need reviews, comments, first impressions, any kind
of feedback for most of the games that have been designed for the piecepack
system. The lack of content in my opinion hurts the system because:

  1. New ideas are not developed to their fullest potential (unless the
designer has a game group willing to invest the time to play test them).
We're supposed to be interested in the posibilities offered by the piecepack
system, but I see very few comments and feedback on new (and old) games in
the wiki, or in the list. Games can't be perfect from the start, and any
kind of feedback, both positve and negative can be helpful to make the games
better. Even if a game can't be played, the rules can be read and commented
on...

  2. Players are lost when trying to choose a game to play. With almost no
reviews (both in BGG and in the wiki) new players are left with two choices:
Either play the Recommended Games and Contest Winners (a low percentage of
the total games), or delve into the pile of rules that have no comments and
try to find a good game (which I'm sure there are loads).

  So, I ask, why? Is it time constrains?, do we all have our favorite games
already? are game groups reluctant to try new games? Are we hesitant to give
negative feedback for a game?

  As I said before, I'm guilty of this myself, so I'm going to make an
effort to change this. My problem is that it's very difficult for me to play
a piecepack game with more than 2 players, and my main gaming partner (my
girlfriend) is not as happy to play piecepack games as I am, so we normally
end up playing other "regular" games. I also acknowledge that it's difficult
for me to give negative feedback (never wrote a negative review) especially
to the designer of a game....

 So,  I'm going to aim for a short review per week, and if I can't get my
girlfriend to play, I'll choose one of the many solo games available. I'll
try to give helpful feedback about the game stating what aspects I
liked/disliked and why, especially if I disliked the game.

  As a sidenote, Is the Icehouse community much bigger than the piecepack
community? I see many more new games and feedback comming out of it...

 What do you all think?

-Jorge