Existing users, 
This software has to have the most "one-post-supporters" -- a special breed of posters who create an account on their day of posting and never post again. Universally, all these are 5-star posters who extol the virtues of the software, no matter how lame it is. I think any one would be hard pressed not to at least suspect it's the developers themselves trying to promote their software.
Take the latest (and only) offering from "Ekinney1" below. Any one who has played WoW will be mystified by this long and eloquent post extolling the virtues of Clan Lord over WoW. How any one can postulate:
1) That 3 users sharing a dial up is essential
2) that elements of WoW were taken out of Clan Lord (!!)
3) that the minuscule player base of Clan Lord is actually a good thing
4) that the small number of classes is a good thing
5) that the "lo tech" graphics of CL are better than the "jagged polygons" of WoW
is simply beyond belief. And 5-stars for every aspect of the software?
All this from Ekinney1, who created his/her account the day before posting and has contributed nothing since.
Is this the developer pushing up the 5-Star rating? You decide.
Clan Lord
Massively multiplayer online fantasy RPG.
Version: 624
You decide...
Feedback Type: Commentary
Contributed by: stam Saturday, March 08 2008 @ 04:05 AM PST
Product Platform: MacOSX
Used Product For: Less than a month
Recommend Product: NO
Comments
You decide... - stam
Now that is a nice balanced view, and i would have absolutely no problems reviews like that. But ekinney1 is somewhat different in his views.My only comment to your post would be that Delta Tao may not contribute anything to the game, but they sure post upgrade notices regular as clock work, so it's not inconceivable that they create this type of fanfare (1-post posters) when they do.
Thursday, July 31 2008 @ 11:28 AM PDT
You decide... - peregrinmac
Interesting point about one-time reviewers. If I didn't know this game (been playing since July 1999, character name is Torin), I might agree about it being a sign of company propaganda. There may be propaganda, but as someone else said, it's player-generated.I wish Delta Tao did take an active role in marketing the game. The content is still fun for me after all these years, but the player base has diminished dramatically.
As for illegitimate reviews, my pet peeve is people who pan the game without ever trying it. If you tried it for a few weeks and didn't like it, fair enough. But on many review sites, I see negative ratings with comments about how one couldn't pay the rater to try the game, usually with a reference to the graphics. *shrug* The graphics are old style hand-drawn sprites -- not great eye candy, but I prefer them to Runescape (10 million users).
Tuesday, January 06 2009 @ 03:46 PM PST
You decide... - evangw
No, the actual people who earn money from this game (Delta Tao) have had little involvement in the game for years, advertising or otherwise (almost all content is volunteer generated now). I'd be surprised if ekinney1 is an employee of Delta Tao, and I've been playing this game for ten years now. People who play the game enjoy it, hence the 5 star rating.I'd probably give it a 2 for initial play, 4 if you stay in long enough to meet people.
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Thursday, March 27 2008 @ 11:57 PM PDT