Forums > Contributor Zone > Another Tuesday ROTW from Zipp

Home again, home again, jiggity jigg.

For some reason, that was running through my head just now. I decided to humour myself and post it. Now back to relevancy. The "R" in ROTW stands for Relevancy. Or maybe Radioactive. I've never really known. I am sure that it doesn't stand for Reliability, but beyond that it's anyone's guess.



Venter's Submission

Right away Venter pegs the major difficulty of this game: it's difficult to talk about with someone who hasn't played it. Like me. It was tough for me to get into the review at first, without having that background. Yet you quickly develop a dialogue with the reader that speaks to the experiences of both veterans and newbies. In the process you got me really excited to try out this game, in the same way Zig got me excited to try Death Spire. Well done.



EmP's submission

Great opening, EmP. Sometimes when you can't figure out how to start a piece, you just say that out loud and get on with it. Introductions are quickly becoming my least favorite part of anything. I have trouble with them in scripts, in novels, and in reviews. I really want to say, "Look, here's the characters/game, it's cool, let's get down to business."

Anyway, for all that, you do get down to business fast, immediately telling us what we'll need in order to enjoy this game. I like that. I appreciate that as a gamer. I like knowing where the reviewer stands on a game before reading their review. It helps inform the reading and it serves you well here.

The rest of the review is your usual good descriptions, clever wordplay, sharp observations, critique that borders on cynicism, excitement that borders on sarcasm, and errors that no one bothers to notice because we all figure WolfQueen will fix them sometime soon.



Wolf Queen's submission

Speaking of which, we get a stellar review from WQ this week. I've said it before, but these kooky games are some of the hardest to write for. You might think it offers more material when the writing is witty and charming and the game interesting, but in actuality it's harder to accurately portray how GOOD a game is than it is to give examples of how BAD a game is. At least while staying interesting.

Wolf Queen gets right on it, though. Her review is full of passion and I think it's particularly effective that she is very open about the game's flaws. Those are some pretty big flaws in my book, but she uses them to showcase the writing as being good enough to white wash them. For a game like this, I am usually only interested in the gaming mechanics but you got me interested in the script as well. Good times.



And the winner is...

You get the win, Venter.

I actually passed Venter's review over the first time I read the reviews for this week but something about it drew me back to try again and I'm glad I did. It was a very tough call between the submissions, especially the three posted here, but ultimately that drawback and subsequent excitement for a genre I usually dislike pushed me towards this decision. If I had the money to spare, this is the game I would pick up.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

DARK spire!

//Zig

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

That was for you. And maybe because I forgot it again.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Hey. Thanks for getting this up with being so busy and all (I saw your message). But, well, you may have to redo this a little depending on what you want/decide to do.

Your week wasn't supposed to cover the 19th of September; just the 18th. I didn't make that error in the schedule, so next time, please pay attention to that. In any case, I don't know how fair it is to redraw the RotW, but I know it would be doubly unfair if Jason's review got counted twice. It's up to you whether to redraw this week's RotW (you'll only be replacing one review anyway) or to leave it. If you leave it, I'll have to update the schedule so that Venter's review isn't counted again.

Whatever happens, congrats to the winners / participants.

P.S. I'd also request that all RotW topic makers put the dates of their week in the topic title. I'll have to make a note of this in the official topic thing, which I'll do when I or someone else feels like bumping it again.

EDIT: errors that no one bothers to notice because we all figure WolfQueen will fix them sometime soon

Haha. I fixed all his errors already! ....did I miss some?

EDIT 2: Zipp, did you read all the reviews submitted on the 19th or just Jason's? If you decide to keep the RotW the way it is, that information will be critical.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

If Zipp included all the 19th as it appears, just shorten my week by a day as a one-off (IE I'll do 20-25). Jason's review has now already been dealt with.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

I'm a little concerned about doing that if there aren't a whole lot of reviews for this week. Depending on the amount of content, I might be inclined to give it a full 7 days so that more people have a chance to submit for this week.

Depending on how things go here, though, we'll see.

In any case, I guess even if Zipp has read Nightmare's review, I can just leave the week as is and tell you to just ignore Jason's review. I don't know how fair that would be, either, though.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

Here's how I see it - that day has been done. I don't think it's fair to anyone to reassess it. It's harder to move all the weeks by 1 day than to just adjust mine down by 1 day for one week. I'm all for simple fixes.

In terms of number of reviews, I don't see it as being about chance to submit. Whenever you submit, it falls into someone's ROTW topic. If there are few reviews this week, having one less day won't change that much. In conclusion, I remain a big fan of my solution here.

Not sure how to make a sig? While logged into your account, you can edit it and your other public and private information from the Settings page.

Lord, I messed up worse than that. I looked at the October dates, 17-23rd, so read those reviews. This is why I'm pulling out of the ROTW... I'm just too bogged with other commitments to keep doing it at the level I'd like to. I'll do October, but I think that should be my last month rather than December, if someone else would like to step in. Things are only going to get more busy once school starts.

That said, nothing changes in my line up or in the winners, if we count Jason's review as being for this week. I've gone back and read the other two reviews I missed and I still make these three my top choice.

In this case, I think Bloomer's solution makes the most sense. Otherwise, I can easily add another comment for another review and give the award to my runner-up. Your decision.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I... hahahaha. Wow. That really sucks. But, well, a break will probably be good for you.

Anyway, don't worry about it then. We'll go with bloomer's idea since, fortunately for everyone, the mistake didn't lead to a worse outcome. Though, at the rate things are going now, there might not even be an RotW this week. lol

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

We're on the eve of a tourney, so I would wager Bloomer will soon have enough to do.

No doubt I would have won this gig if it were done fairly, but I will sacrifice this for the ease of my fellow man.

For us. For them. For you.

No doubt, EmP. No doubt. Though I think I've already given you, like, three wins.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Once we're sure my victory stands, go ahead and upgrade my review to "Featured" status. It'll be only my third win, and that means it's still exciting for me. I have milestones to reach!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

It stands, Jason. And bloomer is now in charge of a shorter week.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

You do know this was all engineered by Bloomer, right? I said I'd help him out for a few quid, but he never came through so I'm exposing him.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Ahahahaha. Don't be silly. If it were orchestrated, I'd have to fire you. =P

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I like to imagine that you saying this from behind a huge, mahogany desk whilst stroking the fur of a cat with long white hair (a Persian?) using one hand and adjusting a huge Cuban cigar in an ash tray on the desk's edge with the other. That's not how it actually happened...obviously?

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

XD Of course not. It happened more like Dr. Doom's nefarious style of delivery.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I'm saying it from the bathroom, actually.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."