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Author Topic: Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction  (Read 11232 times)

Alnag

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« on: June 27, 2008, 01:24:14 PM »
So some brave guy has guts and knowledge to write a review of Sorcerer and Sword by Ron Edwards on rpg.net. And it is critical one. See for yourself.

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13811.phtml

Now the Forge has discuss the issue in sooo... typical manner.

1. Denial (I won't read it! I don't care)

2. It's not worth reading.

3. He is unfair. It's not review, but a statement. War on swines etc.

4. At least he was so stupid to buy it.

5. Blashemy, some one stand up for the reviewer. Lock the thread!!!
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Blackleaf

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2008, 01:34:13 PM »
I started reading it because I was genuinely curious about what the game was about.

I stopped reading part way through and think #2 and #3 might be right...

:shrug:

Kyle Aaron

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2008, 01:35:03 PM »
They gave the review the standard fanboy response, but the one the Forgers are most prone to,
Quote from: greyorm
I had the distinct feeling the reviewer was suffering from "Clearly Does Not Get It" syndrome in regards to Sorcerer's game play
"It's not that it's no good, you just don't understand it."

Edit: Sergio is a terrible writer, though. His review was barely readable. A while back he did a series of columns for rpg.net on game design, they were pretty dreadful.
« Last Edit: June 27, 2008, 01:37:31 PM by Kyle Aaron »
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Alnag

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2008, 01:49:44 PM »
Quote from: Kyle Aaron;220182
Edit: Sergio is a terrible writer, though. His review was barely readable.


Funny thing is, I have no problem to read him... :-)
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joewolz

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2008, 01:50:34 PM »
I love the ending of that thread!

Quote from:  Ron Edwards
All discussion of that review can stay at RPG.net, where there's software dedicated exactly to that purpose.

This thread didn't have much purpose in the first place, and now that it's attracting some kind of spillover from the discussion at RPG.net, it has no purpose. So, no more posting to it, from anyone.

The preceding post is striving to be flamebait and deserves no attention here.

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Kyle Aaron

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2008, 01:56:06 PM »
It's lovely, isn't it?

Not only won't he read the review - you can't judge an rpg without playing it, but can judge a review without reading it, apparently - but he won't even have any discussion of it in his forum.

It's plain Uncle Ronny enjoys a free exchange of ideas.
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Pierce Inverarity

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2008, 02:37:37 PM »
The problem with Sergio is that, while partly spot on, he is also nuts.
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gleichman

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #7 on: June 27, 2008, 02:43:56 PM »
Quote from: Alnag;220187
Funny thing is, I have no problem to read him... :-)


Kyle may shoot himself in the head for this, but I agree with him. Sergio isn't a good writer. Dense and rather difficult to dig through although it can be done with effort. A good writer would make even complex matters nearly effortless.

I'm rather surpised that Sergio came down so hard on Ron. They're not that different in some ways (both like to over complicate things). I'm also surpised that he reviewed the game at all. It's like so yesterday.

RPGNet at least used to have better reviewers. I wish one of them had done this.
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Skyrock

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #8 on: June 27, 2008, 04:55:31 PM »
That's a horrible review. I own the book, and I GMed the game a couple of times (yes, throw your rotten fruits already), but what this bozo has done and ad-hoc houseruled had in the only shallow resemblance to the Sorcerer rules.
Sergio's spot on in many points (like the tacked-on advice that has fuck all to do with S&S, or Destiny that dangles around without any connection to the system, or the derivative nature of exemplaric settings and PCs), but there are so many factual errors that it insults my craftperson's pride as a reviewer.

From the review alone, he doesn't sound to me like someone on the war on swine. The focus on the fluff-y parts, the extensive search for thematic points (civilization vs barbarism), the use of references to LeGuin essays, the lamentation about the shallow character creation and the extremely free-wheeling system use looks to me more like the handwriting of a typical WW storyteller, than that of a typical user here on theRPGsite.
Maybe it looks a bit elsewise if I read the RPG.net discussion thread, but as of now, I'd stand to my evaluation.


BTW, I had no trouble with the language, it was more the content that made me read in a slow pace. (What might have to do with the fact that I'm not a native speaker and therefore not that perceptive towards bad wording, grammar mistakes etc.)
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KenHR

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #9 on: June 27, 2008, 05:10:43 PM »
Yeah, to be fair, Sergio doesn't write very well and much of the latter half of his review seemed baseless.  I have a severe dislike of the Forge folks, but even I could see that Sergio seemed to be willfully ignoring the meaning of a "Sorceror" in the Sorceror game during his Conan rant (Ron's penchant for poorly thought-out terminology again perhaps) and that his "actual play" didn't even use the system correctly.

The first half of the review, where he analyzed the text of the book, was pretty much spot-on, however.  I bought Sorceror & Sword when the rpg.net buzz about the book was huge.  The essays about the S&S genre were disappointing to me to say the least, for many of the same reasons given in the review.  The whole "indie manifesto" thing was a larf, too.

The Forge thread is just plain funny.
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walkerp
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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2008, 05:47:03 PM »
Interesting that he closed it right after the first post defending the review.

His reaction in the initial post is very off-putting.  He's clearly convinced that he is absolutely right and that any criticisms of his work are absolutely wrong.  Always a bad sign in a creative person, especially one who has tended to be quite savvy economically in terms of producing and publishing small press games.  

The correct response would be, à la Fred Hicks, "Thanks for taking the time and effort to so thoroughly review my book.  I'm sorry that some of it didn't appeal to you but your criticisms were instructive and will help me in my future productions."
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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #11 on: June 27, 2008, 08:20:27 PM »
Yeah, well, I won't be buying that.  If I bought it it would be a pure pleasure read for the S&S genre essays, and it sounds like they're not worth reading.
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Pierce Inverarity

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #12 on: June 27, 2008, 09:51:36 PM »
The S&S essays are alright. That said, now that I type this, I realize I have completely forgotten what they're actually saying. So, they're alright but apparently not memorable.

Re. Sergio, he's a BRP FOREVAR dude. Above all, though, he's a crackpot.
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Seanchai
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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #13 on: June 28, 2008, 02:41:33 PM »
Quote from: walkerp;220280

The correct response would be, à la Fred Hicks, "Thanks for taking the time and effort to so thoroughly review my book.  I'm sorry that some of it didn't appeal to you but your criticisms were instructive and will help me in my future productions."


Indeed.

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Claudius

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Critical review of Sorcerer and Sword and RE reaction
« Reply #14 on: June 28, 2008, 07:44:06 PM »
Quote from: KenHR;220268
The first half of the review, where he analyzed the text of the book, was pretty much spot-on, however.  I bought Sorceror & Sword when the rpg.net buzz about the book was huge.  The essays about the S&S genre were disappointing to me to say the least, for many of the same reasons given in the review.  The whole "indie manifesto" thing was a larf, too.

I was planning to buy Sorceror & Sword too, but luckily I didn't. If it's written as Ron's articles are, I wouldn't have understood a thing.

This, and other things, taught me to take the hype from rpg.net with a grain of salt.
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