I certainly agree that the review speaks for itself. It wouldn't have been posted otherwise. But it doesn't stand alone. It has actual people attached to it. So I completely disagree that there's no value in dialogue about it if those people are willing. I also disagree that such dialogue in any way weakens the original article. It's not like anything said in the review has been contradicted or retracted here. That would be weakening it.
Would I be comfortable if our reviews were the last word on a matter, with no recourse for debate and dissection? Sure, as I believe they do what we set out to do. But we have a forum, and we have an avenue for discussion, so trying to then stifle it serves no one. If our answers consist of nothing more than "we stand by our review, end of story", there's no point in even pretending we care about feedback.
Sure, at some point even in a thread, you're doing nothing more than repeating yourself, and then it's time to stop. I'd say we've probably neared or reached that ceiling here. But I still consider it a healthy and interesting discussion that ranged from the game itself to editorial policies to the nature of adventure games.
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