Go forth, and inherit the Earth

[adderslj]

There's a review of Time of Judgement up on Wolf Spoor. I wasn't involved in the book, but it does mark the end of two lines I was heavily involved with: Hunter: the Reckoning and Demon: the Fallen, so it's worthy of note here.

However, I'm beginning to understand better how eyebeams feels about some net commentary. Shannon W. Hennessy chooses to trot out the same old clichés about Hunter we've had to put up with for the last five years: "it wasn't Hunters Hunted Revised" and "hunters aren't people, they're supernaturals". Meh. Frankly, I'm disappointed that somebody who normally shows some thought and consideration in his work falls prey to these knee-jerk reactions.

Ah well, it's over now, and I know that a lot of people got a lot of fun out of Hunter. I've certainly enjoyed working with the likes of oldmotherchaos, lighthorse76, docredfern, ashamel, Greg Stolze, Chuck Wendig andinnocent_man on the line, I think there are some very, very strong books that gave a whole new aspect to the WoD out there and I think the game stayed 100% true to the vision of the core book, whatever Mr Hennessy chooses to opine. To those who enjoyed the line and my writing on it, thank you. To those who never looked at it with open eyes because you were too blinded by your perception of what it should have been: meh. Your loss.

Comments

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

The great thing about WolfSpoor is that if you don't like it, you can rate the review yourself. If there are two different reviews of the same book, people can decide for themselves which one's most useful, using the other user ratings as a guideline.

[adders.livejournal.com]

You plugging on my journal, sir? :-)

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no. (:

I've seen a lot of complaining in general directed at certain WW sites about how they think a certain review isn't worth the digital paper it's written on.

When I made WS, I wanted it to be a community first and foremost. Someone puts up a review you don't like, you can instantly say so, and your opinion will influence others who read the same review (since user ratings are visible to anyone reading a review). If enough people give something a bad rating, others will steer clear of it.

[adders.livejournal.com]

*nods*

To be honest, I wasn't attacking the review, because at least Shannon admitted his bias. I was attacking the attitude that underlined that bias.

The review, as a whole, is good. The guy has a blind spot, he knows he has a blind spot and I don't like his reasons for having it, but it doesn't undermine the review.

[artbroken.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure about that. He admits that he has a blind spot about Demon - ie he knows very little about the game - and so covers that chapter only briefly. He has just as little experience of Hunterm but climbs on the soapbox and pillories the game for not being what he wants it to be before reviewing it. That's hardly unbiased.

And I quote:

Kill it. Shoot it. Beat it with a stick. Burn it. Don’t listen to it. Take its shit. Let’s go and make a new world for everyone.

Fuck that. That's not what I wrote for Time of Judgment, and that's not what Hunter has ever been about. If that's what you come away with, then there's a giant fucking set of blinkers getting in the way of your reading.

(Pardon the belligerence. I'm drunk and ornery.)

[nerd-king.livejournal.com]

If lots of people got that impression, perhaps the initial advertising or hype was what created it.

I know when I saw the initial blurbs I thought - so is this Buffy meets THEY LIVE with shotguns and an angelic twist?

[adders.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, if someone's reviewing something, they should be working on proper reading and knowledge, not a four year old advertising campaign.

Don't play apologia for idiots.

[nerd-king.livejournal.com]

What can I say? I love playing Devil's advocate.

[artbroken.livejournal.com]

You can boil anything down to a high concept if you try hard enough.

And the game's been out for like four years. Anyone making decisions about it now based on old advertising is being a goddamn twit.