A review site is a website on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services. These sites may use Web 2.0 techniques to gather reviews from site users or may employ professional writers to author reviews on the topic of concern for the site. Early review sites included Epinions.com and Amazon.com.^{[citation needed]}

Business models[link]

Review sites are generally supported by advertising. Some business review sites may also allow businesses to pay for enhanced listings, which do not affect the reviews and ratings. Product review sites may be supported by providing affiliate links to the websites that sell the reviewed items.

With the growing popularity of affiliate programs on the Internet, a new sort of review site has emerged - the affiliate product review site. This type of site is usually professionally designed and written to maximize conversions, and is used by e-commerce marketers. It's often based on a blog platform like Wordpress, has a privacy and contact page to help with SEO, and has commenting and interactivity turned off. It will also have an e-mail gathering device in the form of an opt-in, or drop-down list to help the aspiring e-commerce business person build an e-mail list to market to. These sites generally review e-books.

Because of the specialized marketing thrust of this type of website, the reviews are not objective.

Impact[link]

Studies by independent research groups like Forrester Research, comScore, The Kelsey Group, and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association show that rating and review sites influence consumer shopping behavior.^[1] In 2007 even large companies such as Best Buy and Walmart began to mention online reviews in television advertisements and on the back of receipts.^{[citation needed]}

Anonymity[link]

Originally reviews were generally anonymous, and most review sites have policies that preclude the release of any identifying information without a court order. Review sites act as public forums, and are legally protected from liability for the content by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA).

According to Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), anonymity of reviewers is important. "You couldn't have services like ratings sites or Craigslist or message boards or Amazon.com's user feedback or eBay's reviews of sellers without it."^[2]

Beginning approximately 2005, however, consumers became more open with their identity and personal information on review sites. Some sites like those from Yelp, Inc. encourage consumers to use their real names, real photos and personal tags.^{[citation needed]}

Criticism[link]

Most review sites make little or no attempt to restrict postings, or to verify the information in the reviews. Critics point out that positive reviews are sometimes written by the businesses or individuals being reviewed, while negative reviews may be written by competitors, disgruntled employees, or anyone with a grudge against the business being reviewed. Furthermore, studies of research methodology have shown that in forums where people are able to post opinions publicly, group polarization often occurs, and the result is very positive comments, very negative comments, and little in between, meaning that those who would have been in the middle are either silent or pulled to one extreme or the other. ^[3] Another criticism against sites that rely on income from businesses is that they are reluctant to post negative reviews since that undermines their business model. This leads to a conflict of interest.^{[citation needed]}

Response to criticism[link]

Operators of most review sites acknowledge that reviews may not be objective, and that ratings may not be statistically valid. A FAQ ^[4] on the Ratingz Inc websites states that, although the ratings are not statistically valid, “They are a listing of opinions and should be judged as such. However, we often receive emails stating that the ratings are uncannily accurate, especially for businesses with over 100 ratings".

Bob Nicholson, a co-founder of Ratingz Inc, goes on to state that "If you get useful information from the ratings, great. That's what we hope happens. If you look at a rating and say, 'Boy, these were obviously all written by the staff in this guy's office', then take it for what it's worth." ^[2] PersonRatings.com founder Jeremy Stamper echoes this sentiment, advising site users to "take a person ratings profile with a grain of salt." ^[5]

In effort to resolve the issue of biased reviews written by the party itself being reviewed, the Power Reviews Verified Buyer solution ^[6] verifies whether the person writing the review has actually purchased the product.

Professional review sites[link]

Aside from sites that enable users to post reviews of products and services, there are also those that work on a "professional" or "expert" basis. Some of these sites commission, and pay for, named individuals or bodies with expertise in a particular field to provide their review material, while others hire in-house editorial staff to perform these reviews. By endeavouring to maintain independence and objectivity and allowing their writers' credentials and site ethos to be scrutinised, such sites avoid many of the above-mentioned criticisms aimed at user-review sites. For example, the UK consumer advocacy organisation, the Consumers' Association, offers Which?, a site that carries no advertising but covers all manner of products and services, with reviews and ratings often based on exhaustive independent testing. Another type of review site does not provide free-form text reviews, but instead evaluates a particular class of products, services, or businesses using a set of pre-defined criteria. One such example is the Canadian shopping site Wishabi, which reviews merchants on 42 criteria^[7] and displays the results in a series of icons. This second type of professional review site tends to provide a better platform for comparative analysis, but at the expense of reduced flexibility and richness.

Examples[link]

• Angie's List
• ConsumerSearch
• Qype
• Epinions
• Yelp, Inc.
• Customer Lobby
• ConsumerAffairs.com

See also[link]

• Employer review website
• MyEdu
• Rating sites
• Reputation management
• Reputation system
• Trust metric
• Star (classification)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Review Websites at the Open Directory Project

I Am Alive is a survival horror^[7][3][8][9] video game developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft. The game focuses on facing the permanent insecurity of a now decaying and hazardous world, and humanity's darkest inclinations. Originally under development by Darkworks from 2008 until 2010, Ubisoft Shanghai completed the title. It was released for Xbox Live Arcade on March 7, 2012 and was released on the PlayStation Network on April 3, 2012 in North America and April 4, 2012 in Europe.^[10]

Plot[link]

The game takes place one year after America has gone through a massive disaster known simply as 'The Event', which included earthquakes that destroyed most cities and areas. Due to the damage of the aftermath, many people are forced to go without resources. The government tries to help citizens, but their attempts are small and useless since they are not able to complete much as hazardous dust clouds have paralyzed the city. Supplies become low and this causes citizens to become agitated, violent and bitter and turn them to savage hunters.

A male survivor (who is never named in the game) travels to his old home of the fictional city Haventon, to rescue his wife Julie and daughter Mary. When he gets to his old apartment though, he finds they have left to get to safety and meanwhile video tapes his apology for not being there and says that he will do everything to find them. As he is leaving, the protagonist sees a small girl who he mistakes for his daughter and saves her from three hostile men. The girl, Mei, is missing her mother and gives the protagonist a walkie-talkie in which he talks to Henry, a friend of Mei. Henry asks him to bring Mei to him and he agrees. The protagonist and Mei travel out to Henry's apartment, but soon stop in a dilapidated mall to rest during a dust storm. The protagonist notices that Mei is having a fever, so he goes to find a supply drop that the government landed for survivors and is able to recover medicine for Mei. The two leave the next day and arrive at Henry's place and see that Henry is disabled and cannot walk. The protagonist is then tasked of finding a radio for Henry and traverses through the deadly dust clouds and makes it to an old boat. After searching the boat and finding the radio, the protagonist makes it off and travels back to Henry.

The protagonist makes it back and Henry thanks him and finally trusts him as a friend. Henry also suspects that Mei's mother might be in a local hotel and pressures the protagonist into finding her for Mei. He gets to the hotel and fights through a large number of killers who have kidnapped, intimidated and hurt women to pressure them into performing sexual acts on the men. The protagonist finds Mei's mother, Linda, and rescues her from the men. They both get back to Henry's place and Mei reunites with her mother. Linda is able to use the radio to get messages from a boat coming to Haventon to pick up survivors. This seems as their way out but they soon learn that the boat is not coming to shore because of the dust. Henry makes the plan of creating a beacon to bring in the boat by using fireworks. The protagonist takes some of Henry's fireworks and sets them off on a nearby rooftop, successfully making a beacon for the boat. Just after they set it up though, hunters attack and the protagonist is forced to fight them off but Henry is nowhere to be found after. Finally, the beacon attracts the boat and it arrives at the dock just in time.

In the end, Mei and Linda go aboard the boat but the protagonist decides to stay, hoping to find Henry and his family. Mei and Linda bid him farewell and he records his last tape and says that he will find Julie and Mary and try to rescue Henry, before it is shown that Julie has been watching all his videos and currently has all his gear as well. She cries after the video ends and it is left on a cliffhanger whether or not the protagonist or Henry survived.

Gameplay[link]

The player controls the main character from a third person perspective during navigation, the camera switches to first-person when aiming and shooting. During encounters with hostile survivors, the player can use various tactics to stay alive, including sneaking to surprise enemies with a machete quick kill, performing stealth kills with a bow, or using bluff and intimidation e.g. pointing an empty gun at hostile non-playable characters.

The game has an emphasis on climbing and exploration. The player will scale wrecked buildings and navigate hazardous areas. Every effort has a cost and, when engaging in physically demanding activities, such as climbing or jumping, it is critical to manage the main character's stamina for him to survive. By managing stamina skillfully players are rewarded by accessing hidden paths, resources and other survivors.

Gameplay also involves collecting hidden resources and supplies scattered throughout the city: water, food, batteries, gas, medicine, cigarettes, tools, climbing gear, weapons, and ammunition. Anything that the player can salvage from the destroyed city can be used to keep the main characters strong and healthy, or prove helpful in his quest by allowing him to rescue survivors. Retries can be collected throughout the game by helping or rescuing people, with optional side quests to complete.

Development[link]

The game was first rumored to be in development in July 2008, when it was known that Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond was working on a new game, which was announced at E3 2008, along with a trailer. It was later revealed that Raymond was not working on the game.^[11] Development experienced various delays. The original developers, Darkworks, announced that it would not be working on it any longer due to a "mutual decision" and that the studio had other obligations, and that the game would be finished at Ubisoft Shanghai's studio.^[12] On August 2009, various screenshots of an old build of the game were leaked onto the Internet.^[13] An announcement from Ubisoft indicated a release window between Q2 April 2010– Q2 March 2011. These dates passed with no new information, until June 2011 when a notification was published at the Australian classification website which indicated a possible release in the late summer of 2011.^[14]

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said at the start of 2010 that the studio was "totally re-engineering the product."^[15] Elias Toufexis is reported to have a major role in the game, playing a character known as Henry. In May 2011, Ubisoft cancelled a number of games, but it was revealed that I Am Alive and another Ubisoft title Beyond Good & Evil 2 were not among them, with Ubisoft stating that the cancelled games were unannounced games.^[16] On September 29, 2011, a new announcement trailer was released for the game with a release date of "this winter" at the end.^[17] On January 23, 2012, the developers announced on Facebook that the game would be available for Xbox 360 on March 7, 2012.^[18]

Reception[link]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the game received an average score of 72, based on 45 reviews, indicating "mixed to average reviews".^[20] At GameRankings, the game received an aggregated score of 73.81%, based on 26 reviews.^[19]

GameSpot gave it an 8, complaining that "The few unrealistic elements are a stark contrast to the engrossing world and only lessen the experience."^[24] Eurogamer gave it an 8, commenting "What I Am Alive lacks in originality, though, it makes up for in execution.", praising the tone and gameplay.^[22] Several reviews praised the survival aspects of the game, commenting on the scarcity of resources and oppressive atmosphere.^[22][3][32] IGN gave a negative review, giving it a 4.5, citing outdated graphics and poor gameplay elements.^[26]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website