Lately I find I am needing a colossal size grain of salt when I’m looking at claims of success. My most recent surprise has been in watching the perpetual pre-release of the highly anticipated Star Wars Old Republic game due out since last year.
Google the name and you’ll find about two years worth of active chat about this game’s potential release date. They’ve finally announced the limited pre-order phase has officially started. When looking at the website however I noticed that they have won “over 70 industry awards and accolades including 2010 Game Critics Award for Best PC Game.”
Last time I glanced at the calendar it was 2011, and I wonder how a game that has not been released can be Best PC Game of last year?
The internet has allowed us freedom, but do we have too much now? I found out for instance that you can purchase 5 star reviews on Amazon.com through third party outsourcing sites like Microworkers. For under a dollar you can advertise for people to leave you a review; you specify how many stars you want and how many words.
It solves some mysteries for me personally. Recently I read a top rated and well reviewed marketing book. I was surprised to find almost no useful information in the entire book, but it had over 100 reviews, mostly 5 stars. As I really looked at the Amazon listing closer, however, I noticed something curious.
Nearly all the 5 star reviews were very general. Comments like “this is the best marketing book I ever read” were common. There were also quite a lot of one star reviews that did have specifics like “this book has no real ideas and mostly talks about the author’s success but not how they did it.”
Generally a good book is accepted as a good book with few polar opposite opinions. All my End of Mae reviews tend to hang out in the four star range. I have a few five stars from people who are extremely enthusiastic (like my mom ;p). I have two three star reviews. I didn’t buy any reviews, and encourage honest ones. I agree, my book is a four star book. It isn’t perfect.
I guess, like listeners to the old time snake oil salesman in the Wild West, we have to be wise and careful participants in the miracle claim game. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We have to read into things rather than nod and accept. And when someone tells us that a not yet released game is best game of last year… it’s okay to say “wha…?”
To quote “Mad-Eye” Moody from Harry Potter;
As soon as someone makes a buck doing anything, that particular industry gets plowed under by others who are just looking to make money. It happened to publishing a long time ago and has been aggravated by the internet and the ability to self-pub. So yeah…people are going to pay these services to get the five star reviews because in the end, they want to make money. I think the joke though is mostly on the person paying. They see $$$$ and all they get is money taken from them to spotlight their product which is doomed because it doesn’t have any good advice.