A question for WotC Employees [Archive] - Wizards Community

A question for WotC Employees [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Slayer_5
06-14-06, 05:22 PM A question for all the people at WotC who labour long and hard to make our books, to balance our prestige classes, and think up interesting feats.

Do you get offended reading these boards?

I mean, I don't think alot of people realize how hard it is to make a book, to playtest every prestige class, or that most "power creep" is because I don't think you can legally say stuff like "Yeah, we know the spellsword sucks, thats why we made the Arcane Armour proficiency feats"

I mean, some of the people on these boards are just downright mean.

I get the idea that someone executive higher up, who doesn't play D&D, and coulodn't really care about the game, says to the D&D Department "Ok, guys, speed up book production, we need to keep our 1~2 a month book quota up" "But Sir, It will take at least three monthes to see how a new psionic book balances with everything else in the game" "If you like your job, you will do it in three weeks"

And thus Complete Psionic is born. Or the Larger font. Books like Frostburn.

But that's not the point. All I want to know from WotC employees, be you a designer, marketing guy, playtester, whatever, is,
A) Do you ever read these boards and get offended/hurt by the endless tirade of insults?
B) Do you ever look at a crappy book that's about to be released and wonder "how bad" you're going to get it on the forums, or do you guys genuinely think all the books are equally awesome?
C)Do you guys read these boards at all?

And a final question. What is with Errata that doesn't come with the book. I.E. XPH Errata didn't have an errata'ed energy missile, but a 50$ Complete Psionic did.
That's the equivalent of a car company going "Oh crap, the new model is missing it's front left brake!" "Should we issue a recall?" "Naw, we will just fix it in next year's model"

D&D books are the only product I know of that releases flawed products, and suffers no repurcussions. Video Games that are flawed like Complete Divine don't sell. D&D books do.

Lastly, may only Hasbro employees respond to this. Any and everyone answering will weaken the thread, and this is more of a me-to-you to employees. I don't want people arguing this post, unless they are a Hasbro employee. Thanks guys.

And if you want to talk off-the-record, PM me, and I will give you my e-mail addy
Seeker95
06-14-06, 07:46 PM Just offering a little employer-based feedback here. I suspect that if any WotC employee even reads this post, s/he is not allowed to respond. There is no answer that will sit well with management. If you're happy with your job, great. But the message boards aren't the place to share it. If you're unhappy, ditto. If an employye finds the message boards distasteful, they had better keep their mouths shut publicly, since the Boards are a customer service element.

That said, each of your questions is legitimate. It is just that the people who can answer your questions, can't answer your questions.
Slayer_5
06-15-06, 03:33 AM Then they can PM me for my e-mail address, and we can *not* talk about what I asked ;)
Seeker95
06-15-06, 11:01 AM Yeah. That'll work. Cause answering your questions is worth getting fired over. :rolleyes:
Zherog
06-15-06, 11:05 AM Also, keep in mind that most of the folks who write the books aren't WotC employees. They're freelancers who are contracted to write a certain word count by a certain date for a certain pay rate.
Thelandrach
06-15-06, 11:26 AM They don't have a quota of quality books-per-year. They don't even have a quota of books-per-year. They have a bottom line profit they need to satisfy. If they meet that bottom line by publishing a bunch of books that a huge number of people want to buy, good for them. If those books don't meet your standards, don't buy them. If they publish a truly crappy book, nobody will buy it. I seem to recall seeing Complete Divine in the hands of quite a few gamers, so there exists the possibility that it's not actually a crappy book.

For much the same reason, they don't publish many modules any more. They could publish lots of modules, or they could publish a few great modules. They publish great modules (let's not examine the issue of monsters in Red Hand of Doom that are new, but have no writeups in the module, and, 6 months later, there's no errata or download for them yet...).

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Slayer_5 06-14-06, 05:22 PM	A question for all the people at WotC who labour long and hard to make our books, to balance our prestige classes, and think up interesting feats. Do you get offended reading these boards? I mean, I don't think alot of people realize how hard it is to make a book, to playtest every prestige class, or that most "power creep" is because I don't think you can legally say stuff like "Yeah, we know the spellsword sucks, thats why we made the Arcane Armour proficiency feats" I mean, some of the people on these boards are just downright mean. I get the idea that someone executive higher up, who doesn't play D&D, and coulodn't really care about the game, says to the D&D Department "Ok, guys, speed up book production, we need to keep our 1~2 a month book quota up" "But Sir, It will take at least three monthes to see how a new psionic book balances with everything else in the game" "If you like your job, you will do it in three weeks" And thus Complete Psionic is born. Or the Larger font. Books like Frostburn. But that's not the point. All I want to know from WotC employees, be you a designer, marketing guy, playtester, whatever, is, A) Do you ever read these boards and get offended/hurt by the endless tirade of insults? B) Do you ever look at a crappy book that's about to be released and wonder "how bad" you're going to get it on the forums, or do you guys genuinely think all the books are equally awesome? C)Do you guys read these boards at all? And a final question. What is with Errata that doesn't come with the book. I.E. XPH Errata didn't have an errata'ed energy missile, but a 50$ Complete Psionic did. That's the equivalent of a car company going "Oh crap, the new model is missing it's front left brake!" "Should we issue a recall?" "Naw, we will just fix it in next year's model" D&D books are the only product I know of that releases flawed products, and suffers no repurcussions. Video Games that are flawed like Complete Divine don't sell. D&D books do. Lastly, may only Hasbro employees respond to this. Any and everyone answering will weaken the thread, and this is more of a me-to-you to employees. I don't want people arguing this post, unless they are a Hasbro employee. Thanks guys. And if you want to talk off-the-record, PM me, and I will give you my e-mail addy
Seeker95 06-14-06, 07:46 PM	Just offering a little employer-based feedback here. I suspect that if any WotC employee even reads this post, s/he is not allowed to respond. There is no answer that will sit well with management. If you're happy with your job, great. But the message boards aren't the place to share it. If you're unhappy, ditto. If an employye finds the message boards distasteful, they had better keep their mouths shut publicly, since the Boards are a customer service element. That said, each of your questions is legitimate. It is just that the people who can answer your questions, can't answer your questions.
Slayer_5 06-15-06, 03:33 AM	Then they can PM me for my e-mail address, and we can not talk about what I asked ;)
Seeker95 06-15-06, 11:01 AM	Yeah. That'll work. Cause answering your questions is worth getting fired over. :rolleyes:
Zherog 06-15-06, 11:05 AM	Also, keep in mind that most of the folks who write the books aren't WotC employees. They're freelancers who are contracted to write a certain word count by a certain date for a certain pay rate.
Thelandrach 06-15-06, 11:26 AM	They don't have a quota of quality books-per-year. They don't even have a quota of books-per-year. They have a bottom line profit they need to satisfy. If they meet that bottom line by publishing a bunch of books that a huge number of people want to buy, good for them. If those books don't meet your standards, don't buy them. If they publish a truly crappy book, nobody will buy it. I seem to recall seeing Complete Divine in the hands of quite a few gamers, so there exists the possibility that it's not actually a crappy book. For much the same reason, they don't publish many modules any more. They could publish lots of modules, or they could publish a few great modules. They publish great modules (let's not examine the issue of monsters in Red Hand of Doom that are new, but have no writeups in the module, and, 6 months later, there's no errata or download for them yet...).