Cronyism
January 8th, 2006Bruno Faidutti has posted a refreshingly candid editorial on his front page about cronyism. He defends his right to spotlight his friends’ and aquaintances’ games and I cannot disagree with him.
The lesson is that you always have to bear a reviewer’s motivations and tastes in mind. Whenever Bruno reviews a light, chaotic game by a French designer, who is one of his friends, and likes it, I take the review with a pinch of salt. Whenever he reviews a complex, long, computational wargame by Reiner Knizia (!) and likes it, I pay extra attention.
I am not picking on Bruno at all, but he is honest enough with himself and with his audience for me to use him as an example.
January 10th, 2006 at 14:28
Well you clearly have the right idea, Iain; a review is after all just another opinion.
I find most reviews useful, at least for the potential of finding something out about the game.
January 10th, 2006 at 15:35
Oh I totally agree. They are all useful to some extent. It’s just a question of knowing the reviewer’s bias.