Opinion pieces (reviews) are more about how stoked the person that has the yoyo gets. It’s a chance to practice producing a video, and sharing the love of yoyoing, more than presenting an objective review. That’s my perspective.
Sharing the excitement is good!
That review sounds very much like this review done by @nightshadow.
Yes that is it a great review format
Honestly, I don’t think a lot of people want to hear about the negative aspects of a yoyo, despite what some might say. I have done a lot of written reviews in the past that have covered the negative aspects of yoyos and sometimes just saying I just didn’t like the yoyo (like the Assassin) while giving my reasons why and they never do as well as my wholly positive reviews. A lot of people in this community just want to hear about the nice things, spread positivity and such, so there really isn’t much room for negative reviews. After all, most people yoyo to take a break from the negativity and the stress of life. They want to hear about people liking their new yoyos and how excited they are to play with their new acquisition, instead of people complaining that the yoyo doesn’t suit them and has this flaw or that flaw and is terrible to play with. Even negative reviews have to be framed in a positive way, like saying things like the yoyo is still great and nice to play with, just not suited for the reviewer, or maybe the reviewer like the yoyo in a month’s time when he comes back to it, even when in actual fact the reviewer actually despises the yoyo. You’ll never find reviews that are wholly negative here because the community wouldn’t accept it, there’s always some positive line at the back to make up for all the negativity. So you still don’t really get an accurate picture of how the reviewer views the yoyo, even when the review is negative because the review doesn’t want to be seen as disparaging or too negative. It’s probably the reason why you don’t see too many negative reviews and much more positive ones, the positive ones just do much better. The fact that lots of reviewers are receiving the yoyo for free cheapens their review, it’s difficult to say that you dislike a yoyo that you got for free, especially when you know that the company will be more likely to send you more free yoyos in the future to review if you give a positive review. Sponsored players should need no explanation, their reviews should be taken with a 1000kg bag of salt when they are reviewing their own company’s yoyoes.
I think another thing that really decreases the number of negative reviews is the strive for objectivity in reviews. There really isn’t much that is objective about playing with a yoyo, save for it’s specifications, history, colour and it’s shape maybe (people have different interpretations of yoyo shapes as well). Other than that, it’s all subjective. So when reviewers strive to be objective, they just end up repeating the same things that you can find on the product page over and over again, because that’s really the only thing that is objective, which doesn’t give much value to the review. For me at least, I want to hear people’s thoughts on how a yoyo plays and handles when they do their different tricks, I can’t really be bothered with how the yoyo looks like in reality or having people describing the shape of the yoyo, it can all be gleaned from the product page or the company’s Instagram. All the objective things about a yoyo, at least for me, can be known from the yoyo’s store page. What I want to hear is the reviewer’s subjective opinion of how the yoyo plays instead of them repeating the same spiel on the store page. You also just can’t really say anything negative about something that is objective which is why so many reviews are positive, they’re stating facts. Things like “this yoyo has thick rims, it means it has a lot of rim weight and hence power and stability” sounds positive, but it’s actually an objective statement that is neither positive nor negative. Objective statements are neutral. Only the last part of that statement seems subjective, but it’s not all that subjective either since it can be obtained from deduction of the first part of the statement. If a yoyo has thick rims, it means it has tons of rim weight, so it should have lots of power and stability. Logically, it makes total sense, so it’s just a logical deduction based on an objective statement, which means it is therefore objective and thus provides no value to a yoyo review as you can also deduce this information from looking at the picture of the yoyo on the store page. The reviewer isn’t actually telling you that the yoyo is stable or powerful when you play with it, it’s just a simple logical deduction from the specifications of the yoyo. This is why it’s important for yoyo reviews to state how the yoyo handles their tricks (which you will see me talking about in the next paragraph) and not just say it’s stable and powerful. We can all see that the yoyo should be stable and powerful because of it’s big rims, but can it handle the tough tricks? So yeah, this strive for objectivity in yoyo reviews is really just cheapening the value of the yoyo reviews, so much so that people are just watching it for entertainment instead of watching for information about the yoyo that they want to purchase. It has degraded to become something for entertainment purposes instead of something for informational purposes, which really emphasises how much the value of a yoyo review has deteriorated.
In fact, I think we should take a full 180 and just make yoyo reviews that are entirely subjective, and make it very obvious that it is subjective. This way, since yoyo reviews are based on the person’s ability and preferences, we would start to think about whether the reviewer’s preferences and ability are aligned with ours, instead of just taking their word for it (which a lot of people here seem to expect to do when watching a review as they hope the review is going to be objective). This is where comparisons come in very handy. The comparisons to other yoyos that you own will allow you to adjust what the reviewer is saying to what you can expect to get from the yoyo, as there is now a common benchmark (the yoyo) which you both have. Hearing about how the reviewer describes the benchmark yoyo will be like a calibration tool so that you can compare the reviewer’s description of the benchmark yoyo to your description of the benchmark yoyo, which then allows you to somewhat know how the yoyo being reviewed plays in your hands. Lots of reviewers skimp on the comparisons and really only describe the specifications of the 2 yoyos and their shape and never touch on how each of them feels to them on the string and how each yoyo handles their tricks (which is the important part really, since, as I mentioned, everything else can be known from the product page). This way, the skill level of the reviewer won’t matter as much, since you know the kind of tricks they are doing and how they describe the yoyo and you can use that with their description of the benchmark yoyo to kinda know what to expect from the yoyo when you actually play with it. Of course, I won’t deny that it is still better to have a very skilled player evaluate the yoyo’s ability when the yoyo is really pushed to it’s limits. It is undoubtedly very helpful to those looking to obtain a yoyo that makes competing easier for them as they have to push their yoyos to the limits. But for most other circumstances, especially for casual players like us, we don’t ever push the yoyo to it’s limits so I find it quite redundant to know about a yoyo’s limits when we can’t even get close to those limits. Most yoyos nowadays are perfectly capable of handling any trick you throw at it so all it comes down to (for me) is how it feels on the string and how it handles my tricks. I think reviews would be much more valuable this way.
Just my thoughts on yoyo reviews.
Great post my friend. I agree with this
Thank you! Glad you feel the same way.
Just want to quote this (again):
Where there is no freedom of blaming, there can be no genuine praise
Absolutely! I agree, great quote man!
it’s funny, when I said I’d like to see more negative reviews at the end of my post, it was more of an afterthought. I didn’t expect everyone to focus so much on it lol. I see your points though.
The main thing I want is to see more variety in the yoyos that are reviewed. Although, there are clearly reasons that some will be overlooked such as a saturated market, reviewers receiving free product, and the most hyped ones getting more views. Since I haven’t been at this very long, I’m not as interested in the latest and most hyped throws. I usually seek out what will suit my preferences at the time. Sometimes it’s hard to find reviews on older or less popular ones. For instance, when I was on the hunt for my first bi-metal, I was interested in the Invaders Must Die and none of the major reviewers had a review on it. I found one in Japanese and another that was more of just an unboxing, although they both seemed to feel pretty positively about it. I ended up getting it based on some of the reviews here on the YYE store and the specs, shape, and look of it. Also, being designed by YYR, I assumed it would have a premium feel. It turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.
I think that’s the main takeaway here. If you really know what your preferences are and what you’re looking for, you can make a decision based of the description, specs, and how it looks. Say I’m looking for a performance bi-metal. The IMD is performance V shaped, weighs 64.1 grams, and the steel rings are pushed all the way out to the edge. That tells me that it’s going to be lightweight while feeling very stable and powerful due to the extreme rim placement. All of this is also written in the description from the manufacturer. It’s lightweight, stable, powerful, long-spinning, etc. Of course, any other bi-metal will likely have the same description. It really comes down to what you think you’ll enjoy playing with.
We don’t really need video reviews to ultimately make our purchasing decision. However, reviews are entertaining and I enjoy watching them as much as any other content. It’s nice to have different perspectives from all skill levels and to see the yoyo in action. I think, from a functional standpoint, at least, reviews serve to give us another subjective opinion while ultimately confirming our bias when we already know we were going to buy that yoyo anyway.
Great post!
The premise of the original post is that only the most skilled players should be doing reviews.
If the same logic were applied to automobiles; then only professional drivers would review new cars. Since I do not know of any that do; I have to conclude that the original argument is logically flawed.
Read the post again my friend… Im pretty sure you missed something lol. I’m not saying you can’t make a review… But only talk about things you have the skills to talk about. How can you say if a yoyo is good at horizontal but you Can’t do horizontal? Makes no sense. Most ppl seem to agree with what I was saying
Also your reaching…a kid can drive a car… Not many ppl can do horizontal lol… Well they can… Just takes a lot more practice… In a car just push the pedal and turn the wheel
But does that qualify him to talk about how the car handles or how the car accelerates or shifts gears? Maybe not but they may be able to tell you about the luxury features such as seat warmers, accessibility for connecting your phone and etc.
I think also just because 14 people liked your original post and there are a few voices that agree with you doesn’t necessarily mean that is the consensus . Some of the channels, I suspect that you are talking about do have several thousand followers .
I am not really looking to start an argument but I think it is worth being open minded to others who may not be sounding off like I always do because I hate a fat mouth lol.
I’m not trying to argue bro but listen to what you just said and read what I said… No he couldn’t talk about how it shifts or handles… Yes he could talk about its luxurious features…which is my point…only talk about the things you have the ability to talk about… I don’t see how that’s so hard to understand… Im not one to argue so I’m done with this thread. Everyone have a blessed day
This is not about me. I do not do reviews anymore 
But to Chris’s point; I agree. It is important confine your comments to your skill-set.
I used to write reviews for the simple reason that I have way more cash than I have patience, or yo-yo skills. The only thing I could ever do was compare how one yo-yo played vs. another. The ridiculous amount of yo-yo’s I have owned helps me to evaluate yo-yo performance in relation to another.
When I received my first YYR Draupnir; it was so different from any other yo-yo I had played that I was unsure that my limited skills was capable of fully evaluating it. Fortunately I knew a young kid who was very skilled. I can still remember the grin, then smile that spread across his face as he started to play it. “this is the best yo-yo I have ever played; what is it?” he said.
That was an expert opinion.
Personally, I disagree.
Cars and yoyos have a lot in common. But the parallels can only be taken so far. One comparison between the two that is repeated frequently on the forums that irks me every time is when people say it’s perfectly reasonable to own six Draupnirs if you barely know how to bind, for the same reason it’s reasonable to own a Pagani if you never take it above 200 mph.
But anyway, back to this post in particular. Much as some people hate to say it, yoyoing itself is a skill based hobby. And how a yo-yo plays (whether it’s a competition throw or not) is the primary factor in how good of a yo-yo it is. And I’m sorry, you need a certain amount of skill to know how a yoyo will play. If all you know is how to bind and a couple intermediate tricks, a Draupnir will feel about as good as Shutter for pretty much everything.
I have listened to many, many car reviews. When people review cars, most of the factors they talk of have nothing to do with skill. Trunk space, reliability, interior quality, etc. Yes, steering and acceleration are factors that are usually mentioned that take some skill to report on, but pretty much anyone who drives can tell if a car steers sharply and accelerates fast or not.
So the fact that most people who review cars aren’t F1 drivers I don’t think invalidates the argument that you need to have a certain level of skill to review a yoyo.
You seem like a very intelligent guy. Great post 
. Some ppl just have a hard time understanding simple concepts. I ain’t here to knock anyone though
I wish the few people that have something negative to say, would read the post where I said you know what? Just keep making the videos you want to make because it helps the community and I apologized if this post came off as negative cause it most certainly wasn’t the intention
This whole thread is pretty humorous since it’s just basically the same two opinions over and over again. Let’s take a collective chill pill. If the review is in video form, which most are, the skill level of the reviewer is obvious so I take the review of the yoyo in that context. I think most reviews are created because the person was excited about the yoyo and wanted to share that experience. Yoyo reviews are just folks talking about yoyos. I say, the more the merrier!
