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Udderdude

Why I'm not doing /newstuff/ reviews anymore

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EDIT: Bloodshedder has thankfully removed the zero-spam and comments, so I'm glad for that. I am leaving the rest of my original post intact for now. I may get back to reviewing at some point soon.

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I originally posted this in the latest /newstuff/ thread, but decided to make it it's own thread, because apparently drama is in style these days (See: Skulltag).

A few months ago I was doing a lot of /newstuff/ reviews and while I felt I was harsh at times, I was honest in my criticisms and gave my opinions fairly. However it sparked a lot of controversy and ended up with my /idgames entries being spammed with zero-star ratings and disparaging comments.

Now I could really care less if some people are disagreeing with my reviews, and I'm certainly not concerned if they think I'm a prick for not giving everyone free handjobs. But this is just childish and immature, and I'm really sick of it.

http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14741
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14753
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=12423

These are just a few examples. Almost every one of my maps up on there is now 3 stars or less rating due to retarded zero-star spam. And no, they were not always that low, they were in the 4-5 range before.

I even went and flagged almost all my maps for review after seeing this happen a few months ago, but nothing ever came of it except for the removal of such "vomit, avoid" comments. The ratings continued to sink. And now the comments are back again. It's really pretty depressing to see this kind of childish nonsense.

I don't care if it's just one dumb kid with a bunch of proxies and too much spare time doing this, it's pretty much ruined any incentive I had to write for /newstuff/. Not even sure I'd go back to reviewing even if my reviews were cleaned up and egregious 0-star and 1-star ratings removed. 0-1 star ratings are for shit like wow.wad and nuts.wad, not something to use to beat mapper/reviewers over the head with when you disagree with them.

And this did start happening right around the time I started reviewing the /newstuff maps, don't even try and pretend I'm trying to cover up some sort of "legitimate critisism that you can't handle" etc etc. I am not buying that for one second.

As of now, the /newstuff/ queue is practically overflowing and I think Bloodshedder even mentioned in a post that it was getting ridiculous. Well, I guess too bad.

In before LOL UR MAPS REALLY DO DESERVE 0 STAR RATINGS U SUCK UR REVIEWS SUCK AND I FUCKED UR MOM.

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I think we had this argument about another guy who worried so much about the rating system for /idgames. The best possible advice I can offer is this: don't worry about it.

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Hey, Deus Vult II is currently averaging 4 stars when everyone knows damn right it should've gotten 6... the idgames archives is full of anonymous haters what can you do

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Some people just can't stomach the idea of their maps getting a mediocre to harsh review in the /newstuff I guess. Lame they have to resort to such behavior.

You reviewed my first release and basically said "yeah not bad I guess". Drove me to make better maps. :>

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You also have to consider a number of people throw 4 or 5 starts just because a friend or associate made the WAD being judged, or something like that. The only way the rating will make more sense is if the WAD gets so much attention that the bulk of votes are from neutral people that have little to do with the maker's personal actions or reputation.

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On a more humorous note: Can I have your spot?

Anyway, I think you should wait a week or something, then come back and see what you think about it. Don't let some annoying anon dicks ruin you.

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You told me straight up what sucked when I was making my first pair of maps here, and though I'm sure there are other people in this community who would've done the same, you still did it first and beared with it as long as I was working on it. Without criticism like that I might've fallen off mapping, or turned into what Ruba plays at being. Don't let people you'd rather not care about win and break more tough but fair reviewers, for the sake of poor nubs like me.

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ArmouredBlood said:
Without criticism like that I might've fallen off mapping, or turned into what Ruba plays at being.

Trust me, Ruba is a more or less direct product of criticism.

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myk said:

Trust me, Ruba is a more or less direct product of criticism.


...But there's also a difference between "what Ruba plays at being" and what Ruba is. In reality, he also uses criticism to improve his output, but he uses it to make his trolling more calculated, and his mapping more hilarious. Criticism works!

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ALL IS GOING ACCORDING TO PLANS

In all seriousness, get used to it. Always, ALWAYS prepare for the worst when you publicly submit anything- Doom WADs or not.

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Thanks much Bloodshedder. If anyone cares to look at the ratings now, you'll see they're quite a bit higher.

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone. I may get back into reviewing after all, but I don't think I have time to cover almost an entire week's worth like I used to.

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I've seen this sort of thing happen on other forums and other rating sites for different things. Someone will post an unpopular comment and their stuff will be greatly affected. Here's an example, someone went on a rant about ethnicities and then his (or her) well known 4.5 star comedy videos dropped ridiculous amounts. If you say something people don't like, they'll hate anything you do.

As for yourself, post your .wads under a different name and never tell anyone. Like the child of a celebrity that doesn't want people to know who their parents are. That way there will be no backlash so your reviews are your opinion. Maybe there should be 2 opinions if someone wants to go through the work to review them all.

Even have guest reviewers, because I'm sure people can get burnt out from reviewing all those .wads in such a short time.

Maybe people so childish as to burry your reviews should test and post their .wads to the public before officially submitting them to the newstuff. I posted mine on newdoom.com and they were very helpful for finding errors and talking about gameplay and ways to improve it. There are people that live to do that stuff!

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udderdude said:

Thanks much Bloodshedder. If anyone cares to look at the ratings now, you'll see they're quite a bit higher.

Thanks for the encouraging comments everyone. I may get back into reviewing after all, but I don't think I have time to cover almost an entire week's worth like I used to.


Who needs a weeks worth? Just keeping at your own pace is good enough.
And after being here for a few years, Reviews like yours are great (harsh but applicable), they provide where some of the faults are. (Unless a jokewad, new story there).

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Bloodshedder said:

over 300 votes removed

While I can understand the vote-spammers motive - they think they're "punishing" the reviewer - the way they've gone about it is almost infantile, not to mention being a terrible waste of time.

@udderduke - don't hate the haters - pity them. If they lack the balls to identify themselves and/or the intellect to rebut your reviews without resorting to insults, then their opinions are inconsequential.

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I never gave your maps crappy ratings, but I thought your reviews were too harsh and short.


Ditto.

I'm not a believer of the "harsh but fair" philosophy ; it's too convenient as an excuse to write off maps in a few sentences, rather than take the time to give constructive criticism in a neutral tone. If you ask me, it's just as bad as approving everything as a masterpiece.

As for you specifically, I've seen you giving good feedback, but just as well you seem to indulge quite often in pointless tongue-lashing. To make a thread whining - yes, whining indeed like a little drama queen looking for comfort from his forum buddies, "oh boo hoo mommy I won't be doing /newstuff reviews because people are so meaaaaaan with me on /idgames, and you guys are losing out so much with me not doing /newstuff reviews bwaaaaahhh!", which makes your internet tough guy act all the more silly - about people doing the same to you in idgames is ridiculous to me. What's the difference ? You've put your real name on it, unlike your anonymous reviewers ? Is that a big difference in a place where people are very unlikely to physically meet each other, a big enough difference to make acting like a jerk alright ? Is it OK to act inappropriately if you have enough people around you to validate the way you act ?

In a nutshell, you complain about people hurting your feelings while mocking people who complain about you hurting their feelings. Don't expect much sympathy from me. Stop being such a pussy already and accept that if you write controversial stuff, you're going to generate controversy. From that you've got two choices, ignore the inevitable backlash you're going to get or act nicer.

This, my good man, is my "harsh but fair" review of your attitude.

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Creaphis said:

If you want to know whether or not your wads and reviews are appreciated, I think you'll just have to speak directly to our (virtual) faces. As per John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, anonymity exerts a savage influence on the human mind, and the opinion of the anonymite is best ignored.

Anonymity doesn't do anything to a given person's mind that it isn't already latently set to do. Humans are just dumb animals in the end.

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Ok, I have a serious question:

Since when did reviews become confused with offering constructive criticism? A review is a summation of how you felt about something, be it a film, a song, a painting, or in this case, your wad.

When Ebert reviews movies, he talks about what the movie did well and what the movie sucked at. He doesn't go off on a tangent and tell you how he would've made the new Star Wars movie and what he would've changed, he tells you what sucks. He tells you whether or not he thinks you should spend your money.

So when did people who have their wads reviewed in /newstuff start feeling this sense of entitlement that, because they graced us with their wad, that the person reviewing their wad has to tell them what they have to do to make it better? If you've got thin skin or are scared that somebody is gonna potentially talk down your wad, maybe you should reconsider releasing maps to begin with.

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Also if you want constructive criticism before submitting to being reviewed, use the wads and mods-forum. Right place for the right thing.

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myk said:

You also have to consider a number of people throw 4 or 5 starts just because a friend or associate made the WAD being judged


ahaha watch those ZDoom releases; those guys have obviously very special feelings for each other.

Anyway this is a serious topic, and no matter how one 'handles' this, some positivity and goodwill is always lost :(. Personally I blame the new internet generation of tards for this: no manners, no selfesteem, ego driven vicious brats..

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. This spring, after a long pause, I started playing online fps again(quake live), and I had thought the original q3 community could NOT be topped regarding selfishness and stupidity. Easily...

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I don't care if it's just one dumb kid with a bunch of proxies and too much spare time doing this, it's pretty much ruined any incentive I had to write for /newstuff/.


Mission accomplished for whoever's doing it then, I guess.

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I LOVE harsh reviews, in fact the maps that get hated to a Bose-Einstein condensate are usually the ones I download. Half to see any unique blunders, and half to see just how nit-picky the reviewer was being. Criticism IS good though. One time when I was watching a youtube montage of Simon hating the unholy fuck out of contestants on american idol, this dumb broad just couldn't believe that she wasn't good at singing because her family always said she was awesome. Maybe if her family had been honest with her she wouldn't have gone and made an ass out of herself on national television.

Back on track, in all fairness, how could they remove all those negative votes? How do you know which ones were spam and which ones were someone who actually didn't like the work?

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