Yeah its not the biggest milestone, but when you look at it from my point of view, its still an accomplishment.
So, lets see where things have come from, and where they are going.. Expect a long read, possibly a lot of rambling. I'm not used to writing like this.
Where it all began
I started back in September 2011, with plans to do a review every day till I had covered every restraint I owned. Hah, that went down the drain fast. Turned out writing was a lot harder than I thought. All I wanted to do though, was inform people of the gear in SL, and how it worked.
If you look back though, the changes are quite apparent. My writing improved, and became more subjective as well. I adopted a new format to make things clearer by separating the Appearance and Functionality of the devices, started using more fancy photo techniques (seriously, go look at the pics on my first review, then the ones on a more recent shoot), and of course dropped the pricing score a few months back due to it being too differing for each person that would buy it. I can rate looks and functionality, but ultimately its down to the individual to decide if the price is good after all.
Quite a lot has changed on the outside as well. I quite often chat with other reviewers, the people who create the gear i write about, and unfortunately the spammers as well. God, they never shut up. But I suppose the bad comes with the good. Views are way up, the blog is more widely advertised, and if it wasn't for a gear shortage, I'd probably be able to get reviews out on a daily basis now. Well, maybe nearly.
The old and the new
Naturally I am going back over older reviews now and trying to decide just how far I should go with updating them. So many have being updated that the old ones are severely out of date, and inaccurate, and that bothers me. As I said in the latest review, I want to drop scores altogether, as they just don't give the right impression.
The point of this blog was always to inform others of what gear is out there and what it can do. Many just skip to the bottom and read what numbers I associated with them without actually reading what it does, how it works, or even what it actually looks like outside of the pics. This is a problem. I'm currently considering putting a TL;DR (too long; didn't read) section in where the scores are now, covering the good and bad in a much shorter format, naturally keeping the rest of the review the same as it is now.
Oh, and the new banner up top that appeared a little while back? That's courtesy of
Shay Finchy. She did a great job on it.
Honesty
The one thing I will pride myself on though, is that I will still be brutally honest. If something is wrong with an item, I *will* state it. the 20 second delay on sensations gag, the ridiculous DLC system of the T&T belt, the issues with the stretching on AItechs mermaid, the giant bust on the Gimp doll by Amelie Barbour (though the last two are fixed now), this stuff needs to be pointed out, and never glossed over. I've seen some gear out there lately that are just atrocious, yet has had issues ignored or pushed aside by a fair few I've spoken to about them. I want to fix this.
As you might expect, this can be difficult. Some gear that I don't want, but has the aforementioned issues, is probably being bought out of sheer ignorance. I want to try and help fix that, but well, funds are short. We'll see. Naturally most creators don't send me gear still, probably in case I bash it to the ground and give it a bad advertisement.
Other things people have noted and asked me about repeatedly, is my stance on OC scripted gear and gear using Dari Haus gear as a base. I will not review these things. Why? Because 50% of the work is already done. I will not give people credit for using others work. Long story short? If you use OC scripts, or Dari sculpts (or dari scripts), I will not review it, even if sent to me.
As things progress, hopefully we'll see less of the above, and more originality. I know there's a limit to what can be done, only so many differences a ball gag can have for example, but you can always tell when effort has being put in.
Oh and that ad on the side for the Little Shop of Kink? Yeah, I put that there cause I wanted to, not because I'm a sellout thank you. I get a lot of questions asking where i buy gear, and this was the easiest way to show it.
Going forwards
Expect more reviews, with me being more blunt. I may end up blacklisted by some creators, but so be it, the people reading this deserve to know if something they want to buy is crap, good, has a few bugs, etc.
I'll try and get rid of the long delays between reviews, but that's easier said than done based on A) whats actually available, B) my RL situation, C) what I actually can get ahold of. Expect two more reviews by next Sunday though, I should have the items needed for that at least.
In Closing
Well that's a long rambling mess, but i hope those that bother to read it enjoy it, and look forwards to the reviews to come. Thanks for reading, expect more of my usual again soon.
The photos you see in this are showcasing some of my most used/favourite releases since I started the blog. Enjoy!
Function
Once captured, the menus fairly simple. volume controls, release the victim, and timer adjustment. That's all.
I've said with KDC stuff, you do get people who can't be bothered with that. That's of course not the creators fault, but still, and this thing has nothing too difficult to figure out. Though I say that, no doubt many will struggle with the shock wand, but that's just the way people in SL are I suppose.
