TouchArcade Blood Bowl Review...FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Go read Touch Arcade's Blood Bowl review, it's on their front page.

OK, now that you're back...that is not the same review I read this morning. The guy didn't like the game, fine, whatever, but he also CLEARLY had no idea what he was playing. He spent an entire paragraph complaining about "mystery die rolls" that you can't see (even though there is a very detailed log of all rolls with all modifiers/penalties and results) and criticized the game for being a "poor simulation of American football". He mentioned nothing about the board game or the game's history and lambasted it because unlike other sports games you never get to see your big plays come to fruition because of a "random number generator". He said nothing about position specializations, abilities, league play, the tactics of the game, or the various information tools that are available in it.

Now, I don't care if the guy didn't like the game...I'm not exactly bonkers crazy over it myself and I think there are PLENTY of things to criticize about it that Cyanide has never addressed...but here's the rub.

I posted a comment pointing out the die roll log and the fact that BB is not intended to be American football but a cross between that, soccer, rugby and Warhammer. I criticized the review's lack of authority and the writer's misunderstanding of the game, he was clearly not the man for the job.

And surprise! The review was edited. Now it mentions the die roll log and soccer...but it still references "mystery die rolls"...and OTHER people saw the earlier version of the article that was _factually_ wrong about the game and commented on it. I posted another comment, stating that the article had been changed and mocked the writer for learning more about the game from the comments.

So Eli Hodapp, the EIC there, came on and claimed that the article was never changed and offered a screenshot of a revision upload log (not always the same as an inline edit log, depending on the software). He basically characterized me as a crackpot conspiracy theorist or some kid worried about somebody on the internet not liking the same games.

I called him a liar straight up because they did change that article to save face since they posted a front page review that demonstrated that a TA writer played a complex game for about 10 minutes and cashed his check. Not good form for a site that depends on its credibility to attract readership, drive ad revenue and maintain good relationships with game makers.

As far as I'm concerned, TA's integrity is shot to hell. I do not care if they don't like Blood Bowl. But I do care about games writing and it's shameful that the editorial policy there is to change articles rather than offer retractions or corrections when they've screwed up _factually_ about a game.

Touch Arcade is crap. Pocket Tactics is where it's at.

Barnes, why haven't you peaked into my thread about forming a F:AT league? OR anybody else for that matter?

haha Barnes pulled a Black Barney

Black Barney wrote: haha Barnes pulled a Black Barney

that's what she said!

Great review, very informative. I now know to not only avoid the iOS game but the board game as well ! Thanks Touch Arcade !

Dumbass.