Guage interest: Community Mouse Testers Options

[sgtsmithy]

Hey guys,

We have recently done a community mouse testing with the Theron mouse (Which you can currently enter to win on the front page of Atomic) on Overclockers AU and SC2SEA.com.

I was just posting here to see if Atomicans would be interested in this opportunity for the future. Maybe a quick show of hands for those who would be interested in sharing their thoughts about a mouse/keyboard/headset that is newly released.

Previous 'review' terms:
- 2-3 Paragraphs of text outlining your thoughts, testing procedures and other notes on the mouse
- A list of pro's and con's
- A score out of 10


You can find the results for this at the two links below:
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthre...82#post14014282
http://www.sc2sea.com/showthread.php?p=62904#post62904

Anyone keen? :)

[NukeJockey]

I'm always interested in writing reviews for things.

What do you mean by community testing though? Do we need to buy the mouse or whatever to test it? Or do we get given one to review?

[sgtsmithy]

- We pre-detemine an amount to give away
- Interested people fill in a form that they email in to us (name/address/previous experience/why you should get it etc)
- We give you the mouse for free
- You do the review to our guidelines and post it in a thread we create
- You keep the mouse and do with it what you want

The reason it's 'community' testing is that we are giving it out to 'average joe's' in the community that don't necessarily have any review experience, just basic English skills (ability to write a review that people can understand).
This shows more of a grass roots level review, rather then just giving it out to top level professional gamers and reviewers who have used 40 different mice in the last week.

But of course, we will always give one to Atomic MPC to review first :)

[NukeJockey]

Well in that case, I am most definitely interested.

How do I apply?

[sgtsmithy]

Wait until we post a thread about it :)

[darklife41]

I'd be interested with the limited criteria you've mentioned.

But I have to say, most of the reviews on those links were written by people with WAY too much time on their hands. :-)

[alexdtree]

I would do it for sure!
I love my cyber snipa silencer so if you can top that ill be sure to give it high but if it cant ill be sure to let you know!

[p0is0n]

I'd be keen to try out any new mouse/keyboard and think I can be objective and fair. Let us know how to apply :D

[mudg3]

Chris I will use the Theron mouse in a battlefield inspired sex dungeon.

2g m8

[Dynamics]

Count me in :) always like testing out new stuff

[SoaS]

Me, pick me :)

[justo316]

As someone who is constantly searching for that "perfect" mouse and keyboard, I'd love to do this too :)

[TheSingularity]

I see this great for people wanting some new stuff but are willing to do something simple but still helpful to the community. I see some problems with it though, such as people writing good reviews just for the sake of getting and keeping the equipment. Along with other possible problems that could arise =\.

[psychiatrik]

I see this great for people wanting some new stuff but are willing to do something simple but still helpful to the community. I see some problems with it though, such as people writing good reviews just for the sake of getting and keeping the equipment. Along with other possible problems that could arise =\.

Don't you think that if the reviewer gets to keep the mouse regardless that this will negate potential bias?

[darklife41]

I see this great for people wanting some new stuff but are willing to do something simple but still helpful to the community. I see some problems with it though, such as people writing good reviews just for the sake of getting and keeping the equipment. Along with other possible problems that could arise =\.

Don't you think that if the reviewer gets to keep the mouse regardless that this will negate potential bias?

I think you're missing the point. There was a forum that I followed exclusively for "unbiased" hardware reviews (appropriately named hardwareanalysis.com). The author was honest - which appealed to me a great deal, but didn't always make products by big name manufacturers shine. What happened? They quit sending products to hardwareanalysis.com for review. The forum is still fairly active, but a review hasn't been done since 2007 and the author also posted exactly what politics were in play. He refused to play by "their" rules, and thought honesty was the best policy. I tend to agree with his train of thought, though it basically put him out of business.

I believe that any "honest" review site will encourage more positive feedback than negative feedback (more pros than cons), or they won't be reviewing products for long. It has always been a sticking point for reviewing hardware, remaining honest while still appearing to support the product (even if you really believe it's crap).

I have no idea how this ties into what the OP is suggesting. Just saying that TheSingularity has a valid point. :-)

[sgtsmithy]

I ask people to be completely honest. Makes me mad as a gamer when people write bias reviews.

I wouldn't want people to review a car as awesome, then go driving in it and it be horrible.
So even if one review is bias, the people who purchase the mouse will end up outweighing the one review.

Fortunately with the last mouse, some people bought it and put up their own thoughts on www.sc2sea.com. The people who purchased the mice agreed with the positive reviews :)

This post has been edited by sgtsmithy: Mar 2 2012, 04:34 PM

[saluy]

I'd like to do some reviews.
But as stated, some people may get biased.

[sgtsmithy]

Thanks for the replies :)