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Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Kind of confused about the staggered releases.
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<blockquote data-quote="Haffrung" data-source="post: 6360779" data-attributes="member: 6776259"><p>You've had a couple people who are editors or technical writers already explain to you the cost-benefit of proofing. I love how people who don't really know anything about an industry think they know better than the people who work in it for a living. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I really doubt there are zero. And I'm certain the time and money put into the editing and proofing those books far exceeds that allotted to the WotC team. I know customers hate to hear this, but there's a strong correlation between cost and quality. Want a book edited like a text book? Be prepared to pay the price of a text book - a lavishly illustrated text book.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Every technical document has time pressures. In my industry, the documentation is often tied to software releases. And management sure as hell aren't going to delay a release if the documentation isn't ready. It all comes down to resources - how many people (and people mean money) can you thrown at the problem. How many technical writers do you think WotC employ, anyway? And I don't mean D&D geeks who have learned to write and edit - I mean dedicated, accredited professionals? And if you want both, then you're going to have to pay through the nose, because that's a very rare skill combo. </p><p></p><p>If we're talking about non-WotC or Paizo books, they're typically not even edited or laid out by professionals. At that scale, RPG books are a largely amateur cottage industry. You're not going to get professional quality when it's someone's sister-in-law who took a couple courses in Microsoft Word in college laying out and editing the book on weekends for some extra cash. As in most other things in this world, you get what you pay for. The RPG industry attracts amateur enthusiasts because there simply isn't enough money or security to attract dedicated professionals.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Can you name some RPG companies that have better editing?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Haffrung, post: 6360779, member: 6776259"] You've had a couple people who are editors or technical writers already explain to you the cost-benefit of proofing. I love how people who don't really know anything about an industry think they know better than the people who work in it for a living. I really doubt there are zero. And I'm certain the time and money put into the editing and proofing those books far exceeds that allotted to the WotC team. I know customers hate to hear this, but there's a strong correlation between cost and quality. Want a book edited like a text book? Be prepared to pay the price of a text book - a lavishly illustrated text book. Every technical document has time pressures. In my industry, the documentation is often tied to software releases. And management sure as hell aren't going to delay a release if the documentation isn't ready. It all comes down to resources - how many people (and people mean money) can you thrown at the problem. How many technical writers do you think WotC employ, anyway? And I don't mean D&D geeks who have learned to write and edit - I mean dedicated, accredited professionals? And if you want both, then you're going to have to pay through the nose, because that's a very rare skill combo. If we're talking about non-WotC or Paizo books, they're typically not even edited or laid out by professionals. At that scale, RPG books are a largely amateur cottage industry. You're not going to get professional quality when it's someone's sister-in-law who took a couple courses in Microsoft Word in college laying out and editing the book on weekends for some extra cash. As in most other things in this world, you get what you pay for. The RPG industry attracts amateur enthusiasts because there simply isn't enough money or security to attract dedicated professionals. Can you name some RPG companies that have better editing? [/QUOTE]
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Kind of confused about the staggered releases.
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