Review RPG Codex Review: Pillars of Eternity, by Decado

[Jagged Appliance]

If a negative review was as bad as this review was it would not have been published.

 

[Cadmus]

People here have been wailing on Decado for his review, which I find kinda odd considering that his review is not the real problem, but the obvious show of force behind its creation. That's the elephant in the room, that's your target.

I don't think I'll ever understand why so many people on the internet are so fond of conspiracy theories. I guess, statistically, a ton of people must be fond of them in "real life" too, I've just had the good fortune to not interact with them much.

Infinitron linked the exact genesis of Decado's review about a page ago: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...illars-of-eternity.98676/page-46#post-3878068

This is fresh in my mind since I basically just lurk here and sometimes don't come around for a month or two, so I just got around to reading that thread last week and I distinctly remember seeing that post and wondering if he would actually write a review and if we'd end up with 3 or what would happen with VD's (oh and I'm still only halfway through that thread, by the way, holy fuck you people wrote a lot). If you actually look at the thread, Inifinitron even says right after "yeah you can write a review, but we're already gonna have 2 and your time might be better spent on one of the upcoming games." That hardly seems to me like a grand plot to engineer a snuggly-cuddly-feelgood review.

So like pretty much all conspiracy theories, I roll my eyes at this one, but I'm sure you'll tell me how those posts are just a ruse and jet fuel can't melt steel doritos.

Full disclosure to preempt or enhance your tin foil: I liked PoE and even finished it (I finish maybe 5% of the games I play), and also backed it for a considerable sum of monies. I also don't like this review very much for the reasons that Tigranes has excellently outlined in this thread.

there's nothing in your link

The conspiracy (or maybe it's Infinitron doing it himself so he's not conspiring with anybody) is about the staff member(s) not wanting to publish a perfectly fine review, it got published by DU because he doesn't give a shit and thus the staff member(s) went seeking a new review to support their agenda.

The agenda being they want to keep good relationship with Obsidian as basically stated by Infi in some screencapped chat where he dismisses the objections towards his attitude of trying to play nice with the devs by saying "Look where this attitude got us, we were invited to some company and some game expo and got free keys to review MMX" something like this, you can probably find this around here somewhere. Secondly, this agenda is also supported by not linking the Roxxor review to the stupid curator page on Steam. I don't read it but as far as I understand, that's not the standard way to do things around here. Thirdly, there's a push to label Roxxor's review "unofficial" for some reason.

Now around comes this review which is shit by any definition, it gets published, linked to Steam and everything is fine while Roxxor was getting shit for his review being bad.

If you don't believe in anything labeled a conspiracy theory you must be a total retard or live in a fairy-tale land.

KONY2012 FREE FERGUSON THE JEWS DID IT!

I PROTEST
I PROTEST
CODEXGATE 2015!!

#####tweet this shit!
YES WE CAN!!!!!!

 

[Answermancer]

If you don't believe in anything labeled a conspiracy theory you must be a total retard or live in a fairy-tale land.

Yup! That's me!

The link works fine for me, by the way, it's the exact post where Decado said he wanted to write a review over in the Roxxor review thread.

And I'm aware of most of that stuff you mentioned... when I do lurk, I lurk autistically and read pages upon pages of shit I should really just skip over because I can't help myself. Which is why I read this whole thread today but still have 1000+ posts to go in the Roxxor review thread, which I've had open in a tab for about a week now.

Anyway I was saying that I don't buy a conspiracy theory about this review being the result of an "obvious show of force behind its creation". I think there's a much simpler answer: Decado thought Roxxor's review was unfair and independently decided to write his own, much more positive one (but in my opinion the result was not very good, again, for the reasons Tigranes has explained at length: it just feels shallow and pointless, and I say this as a fan of the game). Since the staff wanted a positive review anyway to contrast Roxxor's negative one, they were happy to accept it.

I wouldn't consider that a conspiracy, nobody conspired with or contracted Decado to write a tepid positive review, even if they were probably happy that he wrote it.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I doubt anyone wanting to get chummy with developers would introduce themselves with "Hi, I'm from RPG Codex and..."

Secondly, this agenda is also supported by not linking the Roxxor review to the stupid curator page on Steam. I don't read it but as far as I understand, that's not the standard way to do things around here.

The curator page is not a general review repository, it's just for games the group recommends. You get a paragraph saying why you like it, blah blah and maybe a link to a full review if you feel like it. Roxor's review says the game SUX so it doesn't go on the page, Decado's review says the game ROOLZ so it goes on the page. As for the inclusion of a game on that list not reflecting the general opinion...we can't even agree on what a RPG is, so reaching an official Kodex Kool Konsensus on a game is impossible. If we had to debate a game's worthiness before putting it there, only Fallout 1 would be featured on that list.

Thirdly, there's a push to label Roxxor's review "unofficial" for some reason.

No such thing as official or unofficial reviews, that would be retarded on a hobbyist site like the codex. Two guys wrote reviews, one negative and one positive, so naturally people on one side of the fence will decry the opposing review as proof the Codex is going down the toilet.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Game is shit. Review is shit. Codex is shit.

 

[Irenaeus II]

If a negative review was as bad as this review was it would not have been published.

The negative "review" that was published was so bad it's horrible. This one is decent.

 

[MilesBeyond]

The curator page is not a general review repository, it's just for games the group recommends. You get a paragraph saying why you like it, blah blah and maybe a link to a full review if you feel like it. Roxor's review says the game SUX so it doesn't go on the page, Decado's review says the game ROOLZ so it goes on the page. As for the inclusion of a game on that list not reflecting the general opinion...we can't even agree on what a RPG is, so reaching an official Kodex Kool Konsensus on a game is impossible. If we had to debate a game's worthiness before putting it there, only Fallout 1 would be featured on that list.

No such thing as official or unofficial reviews, that would be retarded on a hobbyist site like the codex. Two guys wrote reviews, one negative and one positive, so naturally people on one side of the fence will decry the opposing review as proof the Codex is going down the toilet.

This is exactly it. I don't know why people aren't getting this. The Curator page is the Recommendation page, not the "General List of Reviews" page.

 

[Sceptic]

It best the question though: how do we you decide what's worth recommending.

 

[Cadmus]

It best the question though: how do we you decide what's worth recommending.

No, that's easy - Infomitron decides what's worth what.

 

[tuluse]

It best the question though: how do we you decide what's worth recommending.

Right now, one of the 9 admins or mods of the steam group adds the game to list based on their own criteria. Then I think infinitron is the only one who keeps enough of an eye on it to remove things he feels doesn't fit.

Which is why my recommendation for King Arthur the Role-Playing Wargame isn't on there

 

[felipepepe]

Which is also why my recommendation of Final Fantasy XIII-2 isn't on there.

 

[MilesBeyond]

I registered here as step 15 in a convoluted scheme to get the Codex Curator's Page to recognize the brilliance of Ultima IX

 

[Jaesun]

Joined: May 14, 2015

 

[agentorange]

It best the question though: how do we you decide what's worth recommending.

Right now, one of the 9 admins or mods of the steam group adds the game to list based on their own criteria. Then I think infinitron is the only one who keeps enough of an eye on it to remove things he feels doesn't fit.

Which is why my recommendation for King Arthur the Role-Playing Wargame isn't on there

Seriously. ROLE-PLAYING is there in the title, there is an LP of it in the playground, and it is a relatively unknown title that deserves recognition. Meanwhile Grimrock 2 ends up on the list on day 1 and PoE remains on there.

Infinitron

 

[Bubbles]

With Darth Roxor withdrawing permission to host his review on the Codex, this is now the only official Codex review. Good job, Decado!

 

[Ulrox]

With Darth Roxor withdrawing permission to host his review on the Codex, this is now the only official Codex review. Good job, Decado!

Wait whaaat? Link to this discussion? O_o

 

[Bubbles]

With Darth Roxor withdrawing permission to host his review on the Codex, this is now the only official Codex review. Good job, Decado!

Wait whaaat? Link to this discussion? O_o

You may have missed a lot:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...propaganda-review.100012/page-21#post-3984434

 

[Ulrox]

With Darth Roxor withdrawing permission to host his review on the Codex, this is now the only official Codex review. Good job, Decado!

Wait whaaat? Link to this discussion? O_o

You may have missed a lot:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...propaganda-review.100012/page-21#post-3984434

Hahaha, ok, time to read 21 pages of thread it seems! Thanks!

 

[Sceptic]

With Darth Roxor withdrawing permission to host his review on the Codex, this is now the only official Codex review. Good job, Decado!

He was just quoting the typical "you have some nerve thinking you can use my graphics" (and I think that last line was quoted verbatim from someone's leaving forever post).

Good job stirring the pot though, you're really a pro at this.

 

[MilesBeyond]

You may have missed a lot:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...propaganda-review.100012/page-21#post-3984434

You know, that thread's a lot more readable if you pretend everything posted is sarcasm. Really it's the only way to get through it. I refuse to believe people could actually get that upset over something so utterly stupid.

 

[Sceptic]

A lot of it is sarcasm. The smart man genderfluid will be the one who can figure out what's what.

 

[Irenaeus II]

Everything I wrote there is 100% super serious.

 

[Copper]

Yeah, seems plausible.