Review of Obsidian Portal

mcoorlim
edited February 2008 in General Discussion

Comments

  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    Just as a vague FYI, I've posted a review of the Obsidian Portal on my play-by-post gaming blog.

    http://www.lonegm.net/?p=35

    I rate on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is useless, 2 is poor, 3 is exactly what's expected, 4 is great, and 5 is perfect. (I've never given out a 5.)

    I ranked OP a 4 for content, 3 for presentation, and 3 for community. I couldn't find anything serious to complain about, and quite a bit to celebrate. I've recommended it to my readers as idealy suited to pbp purposes.
  • Jennifer
    Jennifer
    Posts: 78
    Why even have a 5 rating if you never give it out to anything, then? All you're doing is saying that you're a cynic and nothing can ever be good enough for you. The ability to find flaws in anything is not something to brag about.

    Even notoriously crabby gamer Yatzhee Crowshaw handed out a metaphorical perfect score to Portal.
  • IceBob
    IceBob
    Posts: 98
    Agreed. By saying you never give out a five, you've essentially shortened your scale to a range of one to four. That having been said, the ratings of 3 and 4 you gave Obsidian portal are very positive (given a 1-4 scale).
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    Benefit of the doubt here, maybe he just hasn't found anything he thinks is Perfect yet. I mean, I love what Obsidian Portal is doing but I'm the first to admit its far from perfect.

    Now, in general, I agree. If you have a small fixed scale like 1-5 and you never give out a five... well you're 5 is worthless anyway and one should consider 4 to be the cream of the crop. I can understand larger scales like 0%-100% or 1.0-10.0 where you can have things like 95% or 9.5 scores that don't give out a top end rating very often. But really... Never? Come on, every review site has something they just think is the bee's knees. For confirmation data, check out GameRankings.com
  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    I would give out a 5 if I found something that could not be improved upon. It's a relative scale, really. If I look at something, and don't see any way it can be made any better, then BAM, 5.

    I ALMOST gave a 5 to the old PC computer game Master of Orion II's gameplay. ALMOST. I still think it's the best 4x space computer game ever made - but it's possible to do much better. Nobody has yet, but it's possible.

    I totally think that OP can get up to what I'd consider a 5. I just don't think it's at that point yet - there are a few bugs, features that haven't been implemented yet... but it is the best hosting for people's campaigns that exists so far.

    So, I'm not saying that OP can't be a 5, or won't be a 5.
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    So do Sharks get a 5 in your book? I mean they haven't improved in over 100 million years so they gotta be doing something right. Hahaha.

    Oh but for serious... I think you set your standards to high. You should look at things from a relative perspective, since just about everything CAN be improved doesn't mean its not the best for its frame of reference. One could argue there wasn't enough social interaction between specific diplomats in Masters of Orion II. I wanted to be able to role-play out treaties with alien empires.... but thats an unreasonable expectation because its not the scope of the game.

    I don't really know what my point is besides a personal unhealthy love of debate.
  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    Actually, what was keeping Moo2 from a 5 were various bugs that caused the game to crash, some elements of clunky interface when playing multiplayer, and AI quirks.

    5, for me, is that point where adding anything more to a game - or taking it away - would lessen it. 5 is "this could not be any better", because there is no 6.

    I have no doubt that OP can easily reach 5 once everything's been implemented.

    I would probably give a 5 to Alex Ross's work on the DC comic book Kingdom Come. And the board game Talisman. The RPG Unknown Armies (and maybe Feng Shui, depending on my mood at the time.) Portillo's beef sandwiches get a 5, as does Uno's pizzaria. Chicago's mass transit system (when it's working). Batman Begins and The Prestige.

    Lots of things are 5 worthy.
  • Jennifer
    Jennifer
    Posts: 78
    Ah, so it's not a "never give out a 5 on principle" thing, just that a lot of things generally have flaws. I've only given out a few 5 ratings to books I've reviewed on my blog: The Virginian, They Made America, I think maybe one other. Of course, I have a somewhat peculiar "rating system":http://literatrix.blogspot.com/2006/03/rating-system.html
  • RobJustice
    RobJustice
    Posts: 178
    Ah. I get ya now. And speaking of Batman Begins.... The Dark Knight.... ohhhhhhhh. I'm excited.
  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    I'm definitely looking forward to it. I've also heard that the director of Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro, has been attached to The Hobbit.
  • IceBob
    IceBob
    Posts: 98
    With that clarification, I retract my prior criticism. Additionally, you have good taste in films.
  • ryan
    ryan
    Posts: 126
    Thanks for the review. I consider a 4/5 right on since I know there's a ton of things that Micah and I still want to do with this site. We've been having to do a lot of server maintenance lately and trying to find another solution for search. Once we get a handle on these items, we're going to be focusing on premium accounts to get rid of the ads on throughout the site and to add some cool functionality thats going to take quite some time to code up.

    We're always up for features suggestions, so if you have specifics on what would make OP a 5/5, feel free to drop them over in the feature request forum: http://forums.obsidianportal.com/forums/3
  • eleusis
    eleusis
    Posts: 8
    loneGM, would you like to be my friend?

    Then you can be noLongerAloneGM.
  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    You're on the right track to a 5/5 - you've just got to get it all done. If you can pull off all you want to pull off, you're there.

    Bear in mind that my blog takes things from a play-by-post angle. My scores do not reflect your utility for other forms of game, but I don't see your score being much different for other mediums. Every game could do with a campaign website, and those websites by and large need the same things.
  • Idless
    Idless
    Posts: 58
    _I would probably give a 5 to Alex Ross’s work on the DC comic book Kingdom Come. And the board game Talisman. The RPG Unknown Armies (and maybe Feng Shui, depending on my mood at the time.) Portillo’s beef sandwiches get a 5, as does Uno’s pizzaria. Chicago’s mass transit system (when it’s working). Batman Begins and The Prestige._

    I actually took it as that; that you had not reviewed anything yet, that qualified for a 5. Wonder why some read as the opposite, or why I read it as that - the original post actually does not point in either direction.

    OH and The Prestige is a really great movie - that Bale guy is good! He gets a 5 for both movies. the movie itself just exactly gets a 5.
    But I must say that I was quite disappointed with Batman Begins. It was a noce action flick, and it looked immensly good. But in lacked some depth and was not as "dark" as some claimed. Only a 3 from me.

    If you really liked The Prestige, think about running this adventure. Its a 7th Sea, but I converted it to Star Wars, and I am sure it would go for DnD as well: http://www.rpgarchive.com/index.php?page=adv1&advid=536


    ...Troels
  • mcoorlim
    Posts: 39
    I thought that the inclusion of David Bowie as Nicolai Tesla (not a spoiler!) was a nice touch.
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