Harlock wrote:I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here, and I submit this respectfully as a huge fanboy, but those other products' poor editing does not excuse TLG's. I don't care about those other games. I don't play those other games. Wanting the best product possible for the system I do buy and support has nothing to do with any other publisher. Frankly, "all the while failing to realize that there are printed games out there that were demonstrably in worse shape than Castles & Crusades," sounds like placing the blame on the consumer of your product for their ignorance. This is not where the blame lies and insinuating otherwise is approaching insulting.
No, the point is that every single print product, from novels, to text books, to RPG products will always have errors in them, from small to occasionally big. To expect any book, let alone an RPG book, to be error free is simply unrealistic. Like I said above, if I demanded perfection from RPG's, I wouldn't be able to buy any of them. Not one. I wouldn't even be a gamer today, because if I held 1E AD&D up to this standard of perfection, I would have bought one, maybe two, different printings and walked away. Original Traveller? A mess. Paladium Fantasy? Similar mess. Rolemaster? Another mess. I would have quit RPG's once and for all.
Modern RPG's any better? Nope. Not one. Look at 3E D&D. Biggest company in the industry with the most funds and personnel. So many mistakes they had to do 3.5E to attempt to fix them. Then look how badly they did with 4e. Over 100 pages of errata. Both Paizo and Mongoose have put out product missing ENTIRE chapters.
So if even the big companies cannot deliver perfect RPGs, how is it reasonable, at all, to expect TLG to do it? With authors, editors, and artists who live not only in different parts of the USA, but entirely different continents? Considering their challenges, the Trolls deliver pretty good content.
As for why they should have their fans provide feedback? Because it is feedback, they do hire actual editors, not just rely on us. We are extra sets of eyes. Again, Jim Ward's booklet of elemental magics was complete crap. COMPLETE crap. Who caught it, to the best of my knowledge? Me. Then Steve took a look at it and was like, "OMG!" and had Jason completely re edit it. If this did not happen, we very possibly would have bought a print product that was completely useless crap, and TLG would have had to eat the costs of replacing it with usable product.
Victorious. I know for a fact it is going to print with a lot less errors in it, assuming the proper file went to the printers, thanks to the feedback of several fans, including myself. Did it come out perfect? Probably not, but its closer than it would have been. Plus we already know the Trolls made a mistake on the second booklet, which I never saw, plus we just got 4 more PDF's, for the first time, yesterday, and I have yet to look through them, but is a very safe bet I will find typo's, poorly worded sentences, and maybe even complete rules errors. This will be despite their paid editors efforts.
I don't know about you, but I like helping make sure the Trolls get their products closer to perfection than they would without us.
Since its 20,000 I suggest "Captain Nemo" as his title. Beyond the obvious connection, he is one who sails on his own terms and ignores those he doesn't agree with...confident in his journey and goals.
Sounds obvious to me! -Gm Michael
Grand Knight Commander of the Society.