Future of Dungeon/Dragon magazines

[MetalBard]

Hmm... I'll be looking forward to the Campaign Classics issue of Dragon in January, other than that, I'm happy with just being a Dungeon subscriber.

 

[Mercule]

Favorite typo:

oncology of Lizard Folk

That's... disturbing.

Otherwise, it sounds like they may be heading in a direction that'll cause me to start picking up Dragon again.

 

[Krypter]

Favorite typo:

Oncology of Lizard Folk

That's... disturbing.

Otherwise, it sounds like they may be heading in a direction that'll cause me to start picking up Dragon again.

I *hope* that's a typo of ontology. Still kind of weird though...

"Issue 315 was a campaign classics theme - tried to do article for every campaign settings TSR had done. Frequent letter/message boards request is about canceled campaign settings. Now the answer is every Jan. will do campaign classics (not going to be as exhaustive/pervasive as issue 315 was.) In upcoming Jan. issue have Spelljammer, Planescape, and Ravenloft all in the works."

Woo yay!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Not sure why you say that, seems ok, maybe a few run-on sentences and an overuse of commas, but otherwise fine, what gives?

All of their GenCon coverage reads like it was written by someone who doesn't speak English as a first or second language or play RPGs.

The Green Ronin "interview" in particular is a disaster, which nonsensical statements in place of questions, typos that suggest the interviewer (or transcriber) doesn't know the Green Ronin line even in passing (and didn't bother to pull up their Web page to double check names and information) and, if the transcript accurately portrays the way questions were done, the GR people should be applauded for not getting up and walking away when asked questions like "Q: spreadsheet."

I appreciate the headache of doing news from a con -- I've done it for years from Comic-Con International, which is an absolute zoo -- and that Gaming Report is probably (hopefully) not paying their correspondents, but they need editors like Tom Cruise needs Prozac.

 

[Imruphel]

... editor's ...

Editors.

Yep, we need them on these boards too for when people start misusing apostrophes... like in your post.

 

[jeffh]

My "favorite" (i.e. most hated) bit of bad English in the Gamingreport article was "Feats article.". That's it, that's the whole sentence. Not having followed Dragon regularly since the relaunch (I actually liked it a bit better before, unlike Dungeon which I never miss an issue of now), I have no idea what this was trying to convey. Is it a feature they're dropping? Adding? Changing? Or are they talking about a specific article? If so, what are they saying about it - that it was a mistake, or that it was something they should do more of? I ahve absolutely no idea.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

All of their GenCon coverage reads like it was written by someone who doesn't speak English as a first or second language or play RPGs.

The Green Ronin "interview" in particular is a disaster, which nonsensical statements in place of questions, typos that suggest the interviewer (or transcriber) doesn't know the Green Ronin line even in passing (and didn't bother to pull up their Web page to double check names and information) and, if the transcript accurately portrays the way questions were done, the GR people should be applauded for not getting up and walking away when asked questions like "Q: spreadsheet."

I appreciate the headache of doing news from a con -- I've done it for years from Comic-Con International, which is an absolute zoo -- and that Gaming Report is probably (hopefully) not paying their correspondents, but they need editors like Tom Cruise needs Prozac.

I just took it that what we're seeing are essentially unedited notes posted as soon as possible, to try to keep the public informed. Much of it reads as being the writer's personal shorthand. I think people desire up-to-the-minute news, which precludes thorough editing, given the shoestring budgets of most gaming organizations and companies.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

It may be full of typos and very poor grammar, but it was very interesting to read!

Cheers


Richard

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I just took it that what we're seeing are essentially unedited notes posted as soon as possible, to try to keep the public informed. Much of it reads as being the writer's personal shorthand. I think people desire up-to-the-minute news, which precludes thorough editing, given the shoestring budgets of most gaming organizations and companies.

Given that more than one person has said they didn't understand portions of these notes, I think it's not really succeeding at "up-to-the-minute news."

And note that both a reporter and an editor are credited on the story (the editor is down at the bottom). It took two people to give us something that incomprehensible.

And editing is free. Since a second person was posting the article, plopping it in Word, and trying to fix anything that got a green or red underline is about the simplest and easiest type of editing available. No one's asking for professional quality, just actual sentences and a rough grasp of the subject matter.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Given that more than one person has said they didn't understand portions of these notes, I think it's not really succeeding at "up-to-the-minute news."

And note that both a reporter and an editor are credited on the story (the editor is down at the bottom). It took two people to give us something that incomprehensible.

At first I was going to voice an opinion along the lines of, "Hey, it's just notes taken at a seminar. It's not supposed to be a fully-fleshed article." I was even going to add that I'd put up similar stuff on my own website when I went to GenCon in '00. But then after this comment about there being a credited editor I reversed myself. Even what _I_ had put up on my website was written in complete sentences after having TRANSCRIBED my initial notes. Given that it's a "professional" website and somebody is supposed to have edited it - there's no excuse for something this slapdash.