The product reviews
There's a lot of nice software reviewed at the review part of gd.net (http://www.gamedev.net/features/reviews/). However a lot of it doesn't seem to be anything for hobbyist game programmers due to high prices :-O.
In either case it would be nice if gamedev.net recognized that many of these products aren't for everyone. Some ways to improve the software reviews:
1. Link software to categories. E.g compilers, graphics, sound, ...
2. Display price range. As a hobbyist I can drool all I want at the reviews but $9000 is way outside the affordable price range.
3. Review some cheaper/free alternatives, compare them to the professional packages as well. It is possible this would not only be interesting to hobbyists. There's alot of very good freeware software out there. Sometimes these gems can be hard to find though which is also why reviewing them would be good.
4. Allow user rating as an additional rating method, similar to how books can be rated by users (http://www.gamedev.net/columns/books/). I am not saying that the reviews currently are bad but it is always nice to see what others think as well.
There are actually quite a lot of people visiting this site that work in the industry and the reviews would apply to. I don't think they should be limited at all.
Quote:Original post by Saruman
There are actually quite a lot of people visiting this site that work in the industry and the reviews would apply to. I don't think they should be limited at all.
I don't think reviews should be limited. Quite the opposit. I want more reviews targetted at hobbyists as well as professionals because as it is now those reviews *only* seem to target professionals. Displaying the price of the products would make it easier, as hobbyist, to avoid unnecessarily drooling over too costly products.
Quote:Original post by RanorQuote:Original post by Saruman
There are actually quite a lot of people visiting this site that work in the industry and the reviews would apply to. I don't think they should be limited at all.
I don't think reviews should be limited. Quite the opposit. I want more reviews targetted at hobbyists as well as professionals because as it is now those reviews *only* seem to target professionals. Displaying the price of the products would make it easier, as hobbyist, to avoid unnecessarily drooling over too costly products.
If a product is free, you can try out by yourself - there is no need for us to actually spend a lot of time doing the review. Kelly (our beloved artist reviewer) wouldn't have the time to do it anyway.
For cheap softwares, they often come with an evaluation version - so you can test them as well. If they don't, then do not hesitate to point them to us, and ask for a review. If we think the product should be reviewed, we'll contact the publisher and ask him if he is OK (I can assure you that the process is a bit more complex than it seems).
Best regards,
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