errata (borderline rant)

orion winterfire · Mar 13, 2002

why on earth are all the errata documents . . . well, a pain in the ass? instead of listing the new (updated) rules, etc., so you can just read the errata and maybe keep a copy on hand, you have to look up each and every mistake correction/update by page number and paragraph to read the text in context.
i can *almost* see a reason that they dont want to publish complete rules in free documents, but come on, they made the mistakes in the first place. the way it is, i suffer for picking up an early printing of a book. after downloading and skimming all of wotc's official errata, ive decided that from now on im going to wait to buy the damn books for a few months after they come out, if thats what its going to take to get all the right info the first time.

skunian · Mar 13, 2002

I've been so annoyed over the years with eratta I don't even bother to use it.

Crothian · Mar 13, 2002

You'll be waiting much longer hena few months for those second printings. Errors happen, especially in the RPG market. Standards are much lower it seems to me. Also, let's face it, how many other compainies even bother with errata? Be thankful Wizards bothers with it. Few compainies do.

Astlin · Mar 13, 2002

Yep, hard to read and close to useless.

I also found that the errors from the core books are still in the SRD.

Astlin:

orion winterfire · Mar 13, 2002

Crothian said:
You'll be waiting much longer hena few months for those second printings. Errors happen, especially in the RPG market. Standards are much lower it seems to me. Also, let's face it, how many other compainies even bother with errata? Be thankful Wizards bothers with it. Few compainies do.

errors happen . . . but they shouldnt. theres no point. the format of my writing in forums and emails is . . . unconventional . . . but i was an english major in college, didnt even complete my degree, but the written material i put out for my own use dont even have those kinds of mistakes in them. i understand that some of the problem comes from more than one person working on each book, and possibly entirely different teams working on separate books that sometimes deal with the same topics, but . . . it seems to me that most of the errata i have read from wotc has been from mistakes that were caused by someone rushing their work. that is just plain stupid. i lose respect (and consumer loyalty) to *any* company, including novel publishers as well as rpg companies, that cant effectively proofread their material for typos/spelling and grammar/correct information.

orion winterfire · Mar 13, 2002

Astlin said:
Yep, hard to read and close to useless.

I also found that the errors from the core books are still in the SRD.

Astlin:

thats even worse. very, very unprofessional. if the people that print this stuff dont take it seriously enough to even get the SRD right, then why in the hell have i been spending so much money on their books?
i guess i feel that if they dont put out professional-quality material in every aspect, then they are no better source for material than i am for myself, and i might as well just use my own stuff and say to hell with them.
does this make any sense at all???

bret · Mar 13, 2002

Crothian said:
You'll be waiting much longer hena few months for those second printings. Errors happen, especially in the RPG market. Standards are much lower it seems to me. Also, let's face it, how many other compainies even bother with errata? Be thankful Wizards bothers with it. Few compainies do.

Don't know about other companies, but I think that SJ Games does a pretty good job. They have published errata on the web for a long time now, even for stupid typographical errors. They then use these errata documents when it is time to do a new printing.

Wish that WotC were half as good as SJ Games about errata.

Crothian · Mar 13, 2002

orion winterfire said:
errors happen . . . but they shouldnt. theres no point. the format of my writing in forums and emails is . . . unconventional . . . but i was an english major in college, didnt even complete my degree, but the written material i put out for my own use dont even have those kinds of mistakes in them. i understand that some of the problem comes from more than one person working on each book, and possibly entirely different teams working on separate books that sometimes deal with the same topics, but . . . it seems to me that most of the errata i have read from wotc has been from mistakes that were caused by someone rushing their work. that is just plain stupid. i lose respect (and consumer loyalty) to *any* company, including novel publishers as well as rpg companies, that cant effectively proofread their material for typos/spelling and grammar/correct information.

Then stop buying the products. There is no excuse for the amount of errors in RPG books. I agree. But as long as people buy the books anyway, it will not stop. I'm an advid reader and I'm amazed when I find a single error in a 500 page book. Their standards are so much higher. But RPG companies don't put that type of editing or seem to have the quality of editor to do that. Personally, the mistakes are not so bad that it hurts my games. It does not detrack from my fun. But because of the countless errors in RPG books (not limited to WotC, or even d20) I have decided to spend much less money on the products. Before I bought about 8 new books a month, now I buy about 2 a month. I'm not trying to make excuses for these errors. I've got a dyslexic player in my group and these errrors have really caused him some problems. The only way I know to force change is through letter writing campaigns and boycotts. But I still like to play my RPGs so I just cut the amount of my money they get.

Lord Pendragon · Mar 13, 2002

orion winterfire said:
errors happen . . . but they shouldnt. theres no point. the format of my writing in forums and emails is . . . unconventional . . . but i was an english major in college, didnt even complete my degree, but the written material i put out for my own use dont even have those kinds of mistakes in them. i understand that some of the problem comes from more than one person working on each book, and possibly entirely different teams working on separate books that sometimes deal with the same topics, but . . . it seems to me that most of the errata i have read from wotc has been from mistakes that were caused by someone rushing their work. that is just plain stupid. i lose respect (and consumer loyalty) to *any* company, including novel publishers as well as rpg companies, that cant effectively proofread their material for typos/spelling and grammar/correct information.

From what I've seen, most errata is not about typos, but rather clarifications of rules which players are wont to misunderstand/misuse. As a result, comparing an RPG product to a novel is a bit unfair to the RPG product. After all, a novel doesn't change, and if the reader fails to understand it, it's generally considered the failing of the reader, not the novel itself.

RPGs, on the other hand, are a whole different animal. The writers create the product, then put it through as much playtesting as they feasibly can (limited by such factors as budget, publishing time, etc.) then ship it. If afterward, (once it's been released and the pool of "playtesters" has increased by thousands-fold,) they find more errors in the game design, they're left with two choices: leave it be, or try to fix the problem so the consumer gets a better end product (even if it requires some effort on the part of the consumer). WoTC has consistantly chosen option 2, for which I'm grateful.

Originally posted by orion winterfire

why on earth are all the errata documents . . . well, a pain in the ass? instead of listing the new (updated) rules, etc., so you can just read the errata and maybe keep a copy on hand, you have to look up each and every mistake correction/update by page number and paragraph to read the text in context.

This I agree with. I'd love to have a more readable errata document. I don't know the reason why they do it like they do, though the reasons already posted seem reasonable.

Anubis · Mar 14, 2002

Most of the errata is senseless, anyway. (For example, now having to pay the XP Component of spells in item creation for every day of the item creation, making several items completely 100% IMPOSSIBLE to make.)

I like the books as they are. They provide everything that's needed. For the errata that DOES make sense, common sense will usually tell most gamers the same thing, making errata unnecessary. (Typos are not a real concern.)