idea for better quality control

[remix]

Sounds like the quality control of the gamebooks is not satisfying the community.

Why not use the resources at hand?

There exists an avid fan community for these books that are interested in a quality product.

Why not have THEM do the QA for the book manuscripts before they are released? You could send them a free book for their troubles, even. That way you wouldn't have to pay them.

That way you'd have an army of eyes to scan for problems and changes. They already do that, AFTER the books have been published. Why not have the fans scan the works for problems BEFORE the books go to print? That way Mongoose Publishing isn't overwhelmed with work, the time and cost for Mongoose is less and the community is happy.

They could even compare it against Project Aon, so you wouldn't have to. There has to be some way to set this up so it can succeed. Maybe have one or two fans spearhead the project, collate the needed changes from the rest of the fans, and then send it back in to Mongoose after it's been eyeballed.

Regardless of the quality, thanks for agreeing to publish them.
Remix

 

[WritingWolf]

I totally agree remix. On the other hand, I expect it is something to do with company policy and so on. I mean people get paid to do this job (either by Mongoose or the printers) so I guess we can't really do the job for free and force them out of work. This country has suffered enough redundancy already

Overall the quality has been ok. Not good, but ok. I've been reading a Star Wars book lately where the typeset is not at the same point from page to page - this was a Bantam Books publication, so a massive company and a massive brand and they still can't get it right :roll:

Yes the mistakes in the books are very annoying, even more so when they are reprints of books available on the internet at Projectaon and the original Red Fox editions often didn't have the mistakes.

As I say, it's far from perfect and there is no reason they should be there. But it seems all publishers make these mistakes, and people need to have jobs, so I guess all we can do is buy the books and bitch about it on here.

Then again, if they were perfect, what would we have to talk about?! :lol:

 

[SnowShadow]

We have said this on a number of occassions and you both have very valid points. I don't expect error free books. However, unlike standard novels the very nature of a gamebook requires perhaps a greater need of scrutiny: The main importance is that the route is correct (turn to 183 not misprinted as 83) and that somewhere the rules of what you can carry/skill bonuses & penalties (basic game mechanics esp. for newcomers) are clear. Everything else really is dressing and just adds to the experience. I'd quite happily offer my services as would others but in the meantime we'll just have to look at the books as quickly as we get them to spot any errors.
Love the fact that the books are being reprinted and wait with great anticipation for book 29!