NationStates Jolt Archive

When deciding what to watch/play/buy, how much do any reviews you read influence you? And do you actually read them before making any decision?

I usually listen to the views if interweb goers before I make a decision...which makes me a mindless zombie...

*oh and Zane Low of course

I've found a handful of sources that I consider useful ... though useful does not imply accepting the opinions uncritically.

For example, I find it especially useful to read individual reader reviews of books on Amazon.com -- and compare the "publisher/author statement" to that of the reader.

I go to CNet before buying electronic gear.

When deciding what to watch/play/buy, how much do any reviews you read influence you? And do you actually read them before making any decision?

depends on what we're talking about. with games i used to be way more clued-up as to what was coming out, what i knew i liked and what i wanted in a game. these days i know less, have less time to play, and am more discerning... so i read reviews a fair bit before buying (or still preferably play a demo...)

with electronics, i generally know what i want and just go with what product suits my specifications for the cheapest price. but with photography stuff (cameras, lenses, filters, etc) i read reviews to death... largely cos when you spend almost 2 grand on a camera you want to know its good first ;)
buying my PDA was a case of doing extensive research into what's out there first, largely cos i didn't know anything about the field.

When looking up some good H, I usually go visit a highly reliable site for reviews. And to this date they have only let me down once. They gave something a really great score that I do not agree with. Anyways, other than that one particular review they have been rather accurate in helping me find appropriate material.

Hardly at all. Reviews are often a matter of personal taste and, well, nobody 100% shares my personal taste in things. For example, I've yet to see a good review of the film "The Black Daliah", but I actually very much enjoyed that film.

Then again, I'm one of the last people left in the world who actually enjoys campy film noir.

When looking up some good H, I usually go visit a highly reliable site for reviews. And to this date they have only let me down once. They gave something a really great score that I do not agree with. Anyways, other than that one particular review they have been rather accurate in helping me find appropriate material.

I'm grateful for your sig right now, or I would have kept thinking you were talking about Heroin... o.O :p

To actually answer the OP:

I go by reviews a lot.

For movies, it's kind of automatic, because I always read the NYT movie section and, being in Germany, that's how I hear about upcoming movies first (since it takes a while for them to get here).

For books, I'm a big fan of the Amazon reader reviews. Not so much for works of fiction, because there it's often basically a matter of taste. But for non-fiction it's great, because they will actually tell you if the book lives up to the cover blurbs, what exactly is in there and what it leaves out, and so on.

For other things, like electronics or expensive cosmetics, I also look up reviews online, like on epinions.com or some other site like that.

In all cases, however, there's always the caveat that when I *really* want to see/read/buy something, I'll just pretend the bad reviews don't exist or are simply wrong. :p

I usually ignore reviews. Mostly on music. On movies and such, sometimes if one gets good reviews I take my time to go see it (even though I see the trailer and stuff). But on music its just impossible, people have different tastes and don't like the same thing, that's for granted, and that's enough reason for me to totally ignore musical reviews. Though, the source of the review is the most important when reading one.

I'm grateful for your sig right now, or I would have kept thinking you were talking about Heroin... o.O :p

Yes, my sig often does wonders, I only wish that I could have kept up the original list. So many bits of useful information did it contain. :D

Now I can only encourage others to do their own research.

I ignore reviews for music and movies, but for whatever reason I do find them useful for games (though even then I always read several reviews to try to get a general sense of whether I'll like it or not). I suppose that has to do with the relative amount of money that is spent purchasing a game versus seeing a movie or buying a CD.

I usually look at reviews for video games, but reviews for films are pretty useless for me, since I like action movies and critics always give them bad reviews.

When deciding what to watch/play/buy, how much do any reviews you read influence you? And do you actually read them before making any decision?

No.

I use www.rateyourmusic.com to find new bands. More often than not it is a fairly accurate measure of quality, since it relies on a lot of individual contributions rather than just one opinion. But I don't solely rely upon reviews if i'm going to buy an album - good reviews merely make me more likely to try an album, and if I like it, then i'll buy it. I don't however trust music magazines; I find that they have an overly commercial bias and they aren't always reliable indicators of quality - a case in point Jim DeRogatis, fired from Rolling Stone for writing a negative review of a certain album.

Even more unreliable than music reviews are movie reviews - i've seen movies i've enjoyed a lot (eg. Munich) be rated at 1/5 stars, and movies that I thought were crap (eg. Stay) rated highly. I guess like RYM, IMDB would be a better indicator of quality.

And as for game reviews, meh. I generally find them pretty accurate, but I don't spend a lot of money on games anymore. I generally snap up whatever is on sale at the local stores, buy second hand classics, or go by word-of-mouth.

I'm grateful for your sig right now, or I would have kept thinking you were talking about Heroin... o.O :p


Oh good, I wasn't the only one. :p

Oh good, I wasn't the only one. :p
Good to know, I was all diconcerted that nobody else had mentioned it. :p

I use Amazon for reviews on books, movies and games. It's a good site.

When deciding what to watch/play/buy, how much do any reviews you read influence you? And do you actually read them before making any decision?

They have reviews of this stuff now?!

If it's one review, little. If it's multiple reviews saying the same thing, a lot. However, there are times when I just can't believe even a hundred reviews saying the same thing and have to buy the game or not buy it.

When deciding what to watch/play/buy, how much do any reviews you read influence you? And do you actually read them before making any decision?

not really, I've found some games and movies I loved that the reviewers hated... and vice versa. so I do my own research. reading the story synopisis and if possible, renting before I buy.

I only ever read bad reviews, because they're the ones that actually point out the game-bugs, plot-holes, shitty camera work, obnoxious acting, mangled dialogue, or lack of life in whatever product their discussing. Good reviews just wax uselessly about how buying this new hard drive changed their lives and increased their penis size 3-fold.

I've also discovered the Ebert is a pretty good source of reviews, as he has an 80-90% chance of being completely wrong.

I'm wierd, I read the reviews after I've bought it.

I'm wierd, I read the reviews after I've bought it.

Ahh... but do you agree with those reviews...

The reviews help, but you have to take all of them with a grain of salt. This guy in the paper gave PotC2 one star/five. ONE? C'mon.

Ahh... but do you agree with those reviews...

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't