DDI Character Builder Home Brew Equipment

[Ferghis]

Nope.

I realize complaining about this is a tad out of place on the internet, where much worse fare is routine, but I find the above portion of your post a terrible way to engage in dialogue, despite the brevity. It is very fun to contradict others, but there are better ways to do it.

That's not to say that you are necessarily wrong in what you're saying. I could be, as you convey, mistaken.

The coders would still have to review everything anyway in order to make sure that the math was correct, that everything was "hooked up" properly, etc.

I disagree. If it was properly implemented, the "make your own content" part would make the writer/editor review the crunch that the new item was about to implement, highlighting anything that is clearly and dramatically out of place (for example, a level 2 weapon with a +4 enhancement).

Also, how would this help things? You're giving more work to the writers and editors (who already have full work loads, I assume), and not taking much work away from the software team.

It would help two ways.

First, writers and editors already enter content on computers, so they would probably test it in the CB from the get go, to include it in their own games. This would cut down on the work, since it would simply need to be made public, if deemed publishable, as it would be already in the designer/editor's online CB. This means less workload (however small it might be) for what has been stated to be the very busy software team, and not much more work for the possibly-but-not-positively busy writer/editors.

Second, this would not only immediately highlight anything clearly and dramatically out of place (as mentioned above), but it would also often place the new content among other similar ones, which is good for designers, since it makes it easy for them to review the new content in a more complete context. This means that the new content might be more balanced and need fewer updates.