Do you care about quality editing in RPG supplements and press releases?

[Tom Cashel]

I just noticed the press release for the new FFE setting Castlemorn, by Ed Greenwood, on the front page:

The world of Castlemorn is a world of ancient ruins and long, undiscovered races and locals. Darkness pervades the cities and castles, and an evil walks the land. Arriving in January is the main campaign sourcebook detailing the land and its inhabitants; its culture and magics. Following in April will be the Castlemorn Player's Guide, giving the player character all the information they need for an ongoing campaign in the Castlemorn universe. The month of July sees the release of Dark Metropolis, a detailed location sourcebook of one of the most important locations in Ed's new world. Finally for the 2004 release year, October will feature the Castlemorn Ruins Sourcebook, a veritable encyclopedia of information on the ruins that dot the land.

After spending a few moments wondering why races (not to mention the locals) would be not only long but also undiscovered, I figured out that they meant "long undiscovered races and locales."

Then I started wondering whether anybody cares about the quality of editing in RPGs, and in their press releases. I know I do, but I'm an editor. Personally, I'd have to say that although Castlemorn's content intrigues me, I'm unlikely to buy a book when even the press release contains typos (benefit of the doubt) or just plain bad grammar (no benefit of the doubt).

Thoughts? Votes?

 

[Barendd Nobeard]

While poor editing in a press release sounds off warning bells in my head, it's editing in the actually product I worry about. I doubt the editor who worked on the book (if one did) worked on the press release as well.

 

[bret]

Shouldn't that second item in the poll have been:


No. the content most important, not presentation or spellnig.

 

[diaglo]

quality not quantity for me.

 

[Praeco]

This is turning out to be quite a one-sided affair... perhaps the question would be better asked, "does poor editing ruin a supplement or game enough to make it unusable for you?"

For example, I really like the Decipher Lord of the Rings RPG, but there are so many mistakes in the core book one needs to take the publisher's name as a warning as to what task awaits the reader.

 

[Pyrex]

I can't count the number of rules arguments that have occured in my gaming group due to poor editing of the (3.0 AND 3.5) Core Rulebooks.

 

[AFGNCAAP]

I have to agree with Mr. Cashel, but then again, I'm an editor, too.

I think that there are at least 2 reasons for poor-quality editing in a big-cost production, like a nice core book (or core books)

* A lack of a genuinely fresh pair of eyes reviewing the work. I know that after reading & rereading someting for lord knows how long, some errors are going to slip through the cracks. This is especially true if the editorial dept. of the company is severely understaffed &/or overworked.

* There's a good amount of pressure from the higher-ups in the company to meet a particular publication date, especially if there's a lot of fanfare about the product's release. This could be fine & dandy if things go well, but more likely than not, there'll be delays occuring somewhere in the system--either the authors/editors/artists/people working on the project aren't delivering their workload on time, or there's an issue that causes a setback for the product, bringing about a good amount of rework. Then again, the product could simply require more time to work on than initially envisioned, but the higher-ups aren't very willing to push back the schedule (& thus, pub date) to accomodate this.

I'm very sure there's a lot more reasons why, but these are the first 2 that come to mind. It can be very frustrating for an editor, whose job is to ensure the best quality product possible, to be told to meet quick-approaching deadlines with limited resources and time split amongst several projects. It's even worse when the editorial dept. is understaffed, because that's less people able to contribute time & effort on the product, as well as provide a fresh new perspective that may catch things that the primary editor may have missed in the midst of rewrites, revisions, various versions of different chapters, etc.

As much as I'm interested in the Lord of the Rings RPG, I was a bit hesitant about getting the game (my group really isn't that keen on LotR, esp. after any experience with MERP). After hearing about poor organization and quality issues regarding the book, I'm glad I didn't purchase it at all. Along the same lines, I bought the Marvel Universe RPG only to be disappointed by the inconsistencies within the text. Quality counts, especially when it's for a bound, published, on-the-shelves product that people are paying good money for (don't get me wrong--electronic, online resources should hav ehte same level of quality, but at least an online resource can be easily pulled at the last minute for edits, compared to the very costly action stopping a print run of a book).

So there's my vote--quality counts. I think it's very important--so important that I urge people to "vote" with their buying power, purchasing only products that they want that are of high quality. If the quality's low, then let the sales dwindle away. I'm sure the people who actually physically worked on the product know this, but it's equally important to show the people primarily involved in sales & revenue the impact that poor worksmanship, especially due to poor business planning, has on the bottom line.

Sorry about that--didn't mean to get too preachy, but it's something that's near & dear to my heart (heck, it's my livelihood!). You should see me when it comes to issues of censorship, consistency in writing, & the issues of canon works!

Mind you, I'm sure there are a few errors in this little post right here, but then again, it's a low-budget work with a rushed publication date.

 

[Harlock]

I checked the first option with a certain reservation: I really am not too picky when it comes to Press Releases because I read very few of them.

 

[tetsujin28]

Having been an editor on several gaming product lines over the years, few things get up my butt more than glaring typos and poor grammar. Even worse is when you do a great job editing something, but the company just ignores all your work and publishes a title with all the errors intact

 

[Maggan]

It's important, but not a major concern

It's important to me that a product looks good (illustrations and layout), reads well (writing and editing) has solid rules implementation and a smashing idea.

The idea is more important than the rules who are more important than the looks who are more important than if it reads well.

So, editing is important, but not all-important to me. I would not refrain from buying a product just because the PR is badly written. Unless it is spectacularily badly written. Like that guy promoting the Wreathuhu game over at RPGnet. Scary stuff there...

Come to think of it, I am more turned off by PR that claims a game will offer unique experiences for the first time,claiming to utilise ideas never heard off before. Even though it is blatantly obvious the game is just a mix of old ideas.

A press release written in such a tone and manner will not hook me on a game.

Which includes, come to think of it, most press releases written, actually.

Cheers!

Maggan