Thank you, Curtis.
Okay, this is what I wrote back to him on Wednesday night:
Curtis Shenton wrote:> I'm getting all kinds of timeout errors trying to use your ezboard forum to> post. Here's what I was trying to post:Ezboard seems to have gone down sometime early tonight. I've been tryingsince around 6 eastern time to get on, with no luck.> I'm pretty pissed that a large> number of us have wasted our time trying to be helpful on the playtest> board since you don't seem interested in reading the feedback. I'm sorry, I *am* interested in the feedback. But I haven't been onfrequently; and to tell the truth, the huge surge of response is somewhat overwhelming. The lead playtester is supposed to be providingme with digests of what he thinks is the most useful information, but I haven't heard from him since before the playtest; I was goingto be writing him tonight to find out what the deal is.> I'm less than enthused in> continuing if the author doesn't intend to read the forum. In fact it seems> pretty rude to dismiss the efforts of a large number of people, including> several other GURPS authors, in a public forum.I'm not dismissing *anyone* or *anything*. I just don't know where to start.Look, the fact that I haven't posted anything doesn't mean I'm ignoringit. In fact, there is so much that I'm having some trouble sortingthrough it all and deciding what to pay attention to and what to standfirm on.> 1)This isn't what was expected. I don't want to be flip, but on this point I have to say, if this isn'twhat was expected, then they didn't read the outline in the proposal.I delivered almost exactly what I said I would. No one had problems with it at that stage.Unfortunately for those wanting fewer weres, one of the major changes I have to make based on discussions with the line editor involves adding *more* weres -- all those found in Compendium I, in the placeof the Yrth weres.> 2)Their is too much focus on werewolves. Seems to be a general consensus on> this topic. Easy to fix if desired.True enough, and one of the things I am thinking on at the moment. > I'm sorry you have had such a bad reaction to the playtest so far but I> think you'll find that in general the playtesters will genuinely try to> give you constructive feedback. I know -- I've been through this process before, except the last timeI wrote a full book, it was pre-sjgames.com, pre-Net. The playtestgroup was smaller, more intimate, more like a gang of friends you calledover to your house one night to check out the new stuff. This... thisis like stepping out on your front porch and being hailed by a monstrouscrowd. Like I said, I don't know where to start. Other than a fewfamiliar names, I don't know whose opinions I should give a lot of weight to, and who's a mouthy jerk I can safely ignore.> Aside from a few posts at the very start I> haven't seen many posts that were negative in tone. And I think I hit all of those the first day of playtest. The problem for me is that this book has done more to ruin my self-confidence as a writer than anything else since I got into college.And seeing nothing but problems and complaints -- right on down to something as nitpicky as which transliteration system I used for a Japanese name -- doesn't help me feel good about this project. I don't remember how many times in the past two years I have all but given up on it, only to have Kromm talk me back into continuing. Just one "gee, this was a cool idea" would help me immensely, but right now, I just find myself thinking that all I have to show for two years of work is a huge pile of shit that it might be better to throw away than to fix.-- Bob
-------------
Anyway, since then, my lead playtester has sent me the first of the digests. And if you think the Japanese name thing was nitpicky, it turns out that there was a long and vehement thread on whether or not I was correct in calling Ancient Egypt part of the Middle East! Jesus Harold Christ on a fucking handtruck.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Okay, this is what I wrote back to him on Wednesday night:
Curtis Shenton wrote:> I'm getting all kinds of timeout errors trying to use your ezboard forum to> post. Here's what I was trying to post:Ezboard seems to have gone down sometime early tonight. I've been tryingsince around 6 eastern time to get on, with no luck.> I'm pretty pissed that a large> number of us have wasted our time trying to be helpful on the playtest> board since you don't seem interested in reading the feedback. I'm sorry, I *am* interested in the feedback. But I haven't been onfrequently; and to tell the truth, the huge surge of response is somewhat overwhelming. The lead playtester is supposed to be providingme with digests of what he thinks is the most useful information, but I haven't heard from him since before the playtest; I was goingto be writing him tonight to find out what the deal is.> I'm less than enthused in> continuing if the author doesn't intend to read the forum. In fact it seems> pretty rude to dismiss the efforts of a large number of people, including> several other GURPS authors, in a public forum.I'm not dismissing *anyone* or *anything*. I just don't know where to start.Look, the fact that I haven't posted anything doesn't mean I'm ignoringit. In fact, there is so much that I'm having some trouble sortingthrough it all and deciding what to pay attention to and what to standfirm on.> 1)This isn't what was expected. I don't want to be flip, but on this point I have to say, if this isn'twhat was expected, then they didn't read the outline in the proposal.I delivered almost exactly what I said I would. No one had problems with it at that stage.Unfortunately for those wanting fewer weres, one of the major changes I have to make based on discussions with the line editor involves adding *more* weres -- all those found in Compendium I, in the placeof the Yrth weres.> 2)Their is too much focus on werewolves. Seems to be a general consensus on> this topic. Easy to fix if desired.True enough, and one of the things I am thinking on at the moment. > I'm sorry you have had such a bad reaction to the playtest so far but I> think you'll find that in general the playtesters will genuinely try to> give you constructive feedback. I know -- I've been through this process before, except the last timeI wrote a full book, it was pre-sjgames.com, pre-Net. The playtestgroup was smaller, more intimate, more like a gang of friends you calledover to your house one night to check out the new stuff. This... thisis like stepping out on your front porch and being hailed by a monstrouscrowd. Like I said, I don't know where to start. Other than a fewfamiliar names, I don't know whose opinions I should give a lot of weight to, and who's a mouthy jerk I can safely ignore.> Aside from a few posts at the very start I> haven't seen many posts that were negative in tone. And I think I hit all of those the first day of playtest. The problem for me is that this book has done more to ruin my self-confidence as a writer than anything else since I got into college.And seeing nothing but problems and complaints -- right on down to something as nitpicky as which transliteration system I used for a Japanese name -- doesn't help me feel good about this project. I don't remember how many times in the past two years I have all but given up on it, only to have Kromm talk me back into continuing. Just one "gee, this was a cool idea" would help me immensely, but right now, I just find myself thinking that all I have to show for two years of work is a huge pile of shit that it might be better to throw away than to fix.-- Bob
-------------
Anyway, since then, my lead playtester has sent me the first of the digests. And if you think the Japanese name thing was nitpicky, it turns out that there was a long and vehement thread on whether or not I was correct in calling Ancient Egypt part of the Middle East! Jesus Harold Christ on a fucking handtruck.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.