I'm sorry guys, my hands are tied : http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=245103
Sure thing.
Thanks Morinzil, as a reward I have reviewed yours too.
I've just read it, really nicely done. I appreciate it
Nice reviews, good feedback. My full response is in the thread. In a related item, why not check out my thread sounding out interest on a regular AAR review magazine. I have already got some ideas written down, about how things would operate, and have started work on some reviews. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=246038
Hmm, I'm liking your idea.
nicely written reviews Aster
Lysimachos seems to have an alt.... Well... thanks for the compliments guys.
Hey guys, go read my newest AAR please http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=246317
So, anyone interested in contributing to getting the AAR review magazine idea off the ground? It would be a lot easier to do with some help, rather than just me and one other on our own.
Yes, I would be happy to contribute, actually this sounds like Scriptorium territory to me, have you contacted the Librarians?
I'm a Librarian lol.
I'd like to help fergus, though I haven't any experience in writing reviews yet though. Perhaps you got some other stuff I might be able to help you out with.
I would like to not just limit ourselves, Aster and me at the moment, to just reviewing AARs, but also producing tutorials, from some of the more experienced writers. Characterisation, developing plot, pictures and helping new AARtists get their first works noticed or improving their quality would all be on the agenda. If you want to try your hand and reviewing, or writing any kind of article, please contact me, either via PM or email (fergusmck@gmail.com).
yes I like that idea Aster once pm'ed me to explain him the secret of my AAR
I'll just say a few things in regard to reviews. -Don't constantly be too generous with scores. Otherwise the scores themselves sort've become redundant. -Regarding "low scores". They're perfectly fine, just aslong as you give constructive critisicm, otherwise people would just get discouraged. -Be careful not to review an AAR based on things it doesn't intend to do. For example, if the narrative isn't really the main substance in the AAR, it's pointless critisicing it for having a bad narrative! This applies a lot to many people here who arn't native English speakers.
I would prefer not to give scores at all. It is better to talk about what is good and what could be improved, then let the readers make up their own mind. As you said, it is vital to review an AAR on its own terms, instead of with respect to what the reviewer would have preferred it to be about.
The scores I give depends on my mood and I can change it whenever I want it though.
Juvenal, that is precisely why I am not including scores in my reviews. Reading my reviews, I may seem a bit harsher than most commenters on the boards, but i write what i truly feel about an AAR, and may be quite demanding. These are the basic guidelines I use, and require my reviewers to use: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dggd2wk2_1fbqnz4cr However, I try not to let my personnal views, on an AAR, cloud whatever objectivity i have, and that is why i have chosen not to review some AARs, which I am a fan of.
For the inaugural second issue of 'The Critic's Quill' I want to have an interview with a distinguished AARtist. Is there anyone willing to give me around 15 minutes some day for a brief round of questions and answers? I can either PM you the questions, or we could do it over an IM service. Either way is as good for me as the other. Thanks. EDIT I am going to address a concern of Musthavename. He says that we, The Critic's Quill staffers (we're still accepting new members btw!), should not review an AAR on something which it does not plan to do, like marking an AAR down since it contains no narrative, when it says it will contain no narrative. I have a fundamental disagreement with this. AARs are texts, and some of them, the better ones, hope to be stories. The best, and I mean the very best, of which there are a minutely small number, maybe, just maybe, can reach the heady heights of literature. To announce that an AAR will abandon all constraints of storytelling at the beginning does not make it immune for criticism for doing so. An AAR should be rounded. Myself, I favour text, instead of pictures, but I also recognise that there are good AARs with the alternative bias. A simile, if a movie is marketed so that it is clear that the producers had no intention of including any kind of plot, that does not mean that when reviewing it, the lack of plot should be ignored. Any good movie has a plot, and so there are things which are vital to a good AAR. If one of those elements is not present in an AAR, even intentionally, that does not make it any better an AAR. That is why I will criticise an AAR with a lack of plot, story or narrative, among other things, since I believe those elements are vital for an AAR to be a good one.
