rec.autos.simulators

er... they have a responsibility to do what exactly?

A review is very much a personal thing, it invariably gives one person's point
of view. Likewise, some people may find one game to be greatly above what the
masses consider it to be. It's the nature of the best.

AGN have no responsibility other to print reviews based on their own
experience of the product.

If you disgaree with them, that's your problem, not there's.

Z.

Incidentally, how do you feel about Magzines who give good reviews based on
advertising spend?

Nope, can't say i did. I coudl have spent considerably more pages on why GPL
is good but not great.

But then again, that's purely my opinion.

Z.

You sure? :o)

--
Regards,
Bruce.
----------

Bullshit!

The publisher of ANY article in ANY publication has total responsibility
to check the credentials of the author of ANY submission.

If he/she does not care to take that responsibility then he/she should
not be "publishing" anything in the first place and he/she could, one
day, face a hefty libel suit!

--
Regards,
Bruce.
----------
The GP Legends Historic Motor Racing Club  is located at:-
http://www.netspeed.com.au/brucek/legends/

Er...

If something factually incorrect was printed, then yes, there is a case,
however, a software package, where features are not properly or well
documented, and as a result a person reports their experience truthly- and
they may not find or use all features as a result of that documentation, then
that's part of a review as such, and there is no way someone could be held
liable for what is there, likewise a bad review.

And i think you'd find that few publishers would risk going in and pissing off
other magazines by suing....

Z.

Worthy of contempt. Of course they're free to do what they like with
their magazine, but I would hope that they see their job as reporting
upon and improving the standard of software by maximising sales of
good products rather than accepting bribes to lie to their customers
and prop up sub-standard products. Eventually I'd like to think that
their customers would vote with their feet and go elsewhere.

Cheers!
John

No, that's their problem.

The point of AGN being there is to generate advertising revenue and
line their pockets - if people stop coming to their site because of
poor or inconsistent reviewing then the advertising money will follow
the hit counter.

For that reason the management of AGN have a responsibility to
themselves to ensure that their site remains viable long term -
nothing to do with owing us anything, but we ultimately get what we
put up with.

Cheers!
John

I am aware of such publications and do not buy them.

Mike.

For a start, a review featured on an official games site should be of a
minimum high standard.  This involves somebody sitting down, spending
quality time with the software they're about to tell everyone about, and
putting together an intelligently written document about the product that
has been supplied to them.  I've been a reviewer in the past and have been
tasked with many of the more complex entertainment software such as
Microsoft's Flight Simulator Flight Shop product which is a massive FS98
plug-in creation tool.  In order to perform a quality review, I had to learn
how to design the 3d models in the aircraft builder, to learn about the
physics that FS98 employs, to comprehensively learn the programming language
that is provided and discover the great features and also the bugs within
it.  Fortunately I had a reasonable amount of time for this particular
assignment (3 weeks), but I doubt very much that the AGN "reviewer" in this
particular case has ANY time constraints.  I know what is required, and
common sense covers most of that...  if something is good about a product,
say WHY it is good - if it has deficiencies, explain clearly AND ACCURATELY
what they are.  Professional reviewers take pride in their work and I'm
certain that an organisation such as AGN realises that reviews _are_
influential when it comes to games sales and of course for this reason and
for that of their own reputation, the article in question was removed
_particularly_ quickly.

Mike.

In that case, you cannot have spent long enough on GPL, and how could you -
it hasn't been released yet.

Mike.

hehehhe,
any chance you'd let me in on which ones you do buy, so i can but laugh at
your naivety?

Z.

Did you ever wonder how Magazines have reviews before a product ships?

Z.

You would honestly be unable to find a more profitable use of your
time?

Cheers!
John

I do not buy any computer *** magazines.  Laugh at that.

Mike.