Writing a good review takes a lot of talent, timing, and whimsy to catch the audience's attention. However, I was distraught by the attitude of the Newgrounds community by a recent review I wrote for a political animation.
I recently reviewed an animation concerning a political statement, and was barraged by one of the most immature responses I could have ever conceived. I quote the author response:
It's not very reasonable for you to complain to me about how I chose to express myself. You should do the reasonable thing and shut the hell up because this is an ANIMATION WEBSITE.
First off, this sentence makes absolutely no sense. How is it not reasonable to complain about his animation in a review? Isn't that the very nature of reviewing, is to state one's opinion on a public piece of work? I am also baffled by the idea that this is an animation website, thus the loss of right to make any sort of negative comment.
Second, I am concerned about the idea of people using the "Is this review helpful?" button as a measure of "I agree or disagree with this review". Really, isn't the point of that to say whether to state whether you think the review was well versed or not? Reviews are only helpful if written well, and I have to say, for all the work I put into that review, I was confused by the current 5 / 11 people who thought it was useful.
Sure, the animation is getting a 4.something and is doing well, but just because you take a different stance doesn't mean the review was not helpful.
Here is my review in full length, you can decide if it was helpful or not. God knows, it might get flagged as inappropriate in the days to come. I kindly ask the Newgrounds community to re-review their own review skills and reading, if for anything the sake of my sanity on this site.
"Summary: "Weak Argument, Terrible Message"
Wait, let me see if I have this right. You have issues with the government, so your response is to make a music-video length animation about the problems facing it without giving a clear platform or objective? This animation is the most misguided, unrealistic view of government and ways to fix it.
If you have a problem with something, do something reasonable about it.
Basically you could have done something awesome with your time. You have the talent, just a lack of direction. If you have a political stance, than god speed to you. But really, your textbook definitions and quotes from the Declaration of Independence are not going to save our media monopolies or whatever else you seemed to pace through way too quickly in the beginning... with everyone suddenly getting angry and taking over their government in a giant war for democracy.
The animation suffers far beyond your lack of focus. You subject looks like the devil, and I hate to break it to you, but portraying your protagonist as the devil doesn't really work when you want your audience to identify with the main subject. If memory serves me right, the devil is typically a negative, non-associated character. And several times the pacing was just irregular and awkward. It makes it hard to understand what you are trying to say (but overall, I had no clue what you were trying to say... besides burn and kill Capitol Hill because you hate our government policies)?
Next time, take your catchy song and do something more meaningful with yourself. I'm waiting for your nonchalant "I'LL DO WHATEVER I WANT" response from other reviews, because really, it fits your "rebellion will triumph!" attitude about things... skewed, illogical, and definitely among those who will sit in the backseat complaining with no solution or guidance.
-J
edit-undo
You're right, people should take more care when responding to reviews - I think there should be separate buttons for "Was this response to the review helpful/abusive?". It would be nice if there was some kind of tutorial maybe that everyone HAS to watch the first time they try to review or respond, and the tutorial would say things that you should or shouldn't say in a review, along with how to use the abuse buttons properly.
There's definately over-use of the "abusive review" buttons as well - just look at the last page of Waterlollies reviews when you sort them by score. All of them have 10+ abuse points, even though none of them are actually abusive. Maybe the "Yes/No/Abusive" buttons should be restricted to people above a certain level, or something like that.
Nice rant-type-thing, I can never write my thoughts together coherantly.