Inversed

I had that thought a long time ago. Every review that I really loved writing, everyone else hated. I realized that because I enjoyed writing the review, I was more blind to the mistakes in it than a review that I didn't have any personal attatchment to. Once I came to the conclusion that everyone wasn't picking on me and that there were errors in my review, I found a lot of them. I looked through some of my old stuff the other day and was really surprised to find some of the complaints that other writers had pointed out to me that I hadn't really considered or noticed. After that, my writing has gotten a lot tighter and there are fewer complaints, and when you get fewer complaints, you feel more confident in your writing, and finally, you enjoy writing reviews more because you don't worry about other people's opinions. But now I'm at a point where I feel there's now an expectation on me to deliver a strong review that everyone's going to like, and that can make for a daunting feeling when sitting down to write a review. So I guess, like this rant, it never really ends.

I would say that both of you are right. I'm not the first person everyone picks for tournaments (obviously), but a lot of people read and enjoy my reviews and I get fewer comments now that a given review sucks or whatever. I just write a review in a reasonably professional style, try to keep a few things in mind that people like Ruder and Zig have told me, and the rest just flows. I enjoy reviewing a lot more than I used to and I can focus on doing what feels right. I'm happy with where I'm at and that's the most important gauge of all.

I know how you feel Draqq. In the first competion I ever took part in here, I wrote a review for Radiant Silvergun. It took me a month to write because I wanted it to be really special, but it turned out to be overwritten. It was 13 KB long, had a million huge words in it, and some crazy HTML. Basically, I just felt that you overwrote this review. You have lots of talent, Draqq. I just felt you misplaced your effort. If there's anyone who can rebound from this, though, it's you.

Well, I did have a bouncy ball fetish when I was young. :)