Following the launch of XGTE last Friday I have some feedback regarding DNDBeyond, and it is not a congratulations on a great launch.
At the time of this writing (approximately 3:00 PM EST 11/13/17) there are about 170 posts in a pinned forum on Bugs & Support dedicated to typos and errors specific to XGTE. Now, the mods and devs have been very active there, and responding when fixes are made and of course there are duplicate entries, but there are also entries posted outside of that forum regarding more bugs specific to XGTE, so let's be generous and cut that number in half and say that there have been 75-80ish errors reported by the community regarding the launch of this book, which is what, 300 pages long? (I didn't buy a physical copy to compare, was hoping this medium would suffice as a replacement). The fact that there is literally a pinned post to fix your errors with that many responses is just….disappointing.
Some of these are small typos and missing links, which ideally wouldn't be missed but is surely bound to happen. I also know this isn't just data entry to a PDF file, as things will be entered in multiple places for all of the different sections. However there are much more than just those typos -- literally there is a post (#51) that lists about 40 items that are just MISSING. A list of 40 items, just not there, how does that happen? Another issue included anything that was reprinted/updated (things from EE or SCAG) not working properly/able to be searched/filtered with XGTE info also being released, resulting in mixed results. This was fixed but it makes you wonder how much this stuff was tested.
Relying on your customers to catch your flaws is very, very poor practice. The errors found make me want to buy a physical copy (or even go back to my physical copies of the other books) to make sure that the data is actually correct compared to the book prints. It makes me think that maybe using this medium as a replacement to physical books maybe isn't such a great idea if there are going to be so many flaws in it. It definitely didn't instill confidence for the next book release.
Also, a bit related, though not directly to the XGTE release, but more your responses in general: responding to users who complain about the way things work (or don't work, for that matter) and make comparisons to other company's/products that do things they like currently with "It's harder than you think to implement this" or "they have been around longer" just sounds like making excuses and is extremely off-putting. If you enter the market late and want to really compete, then you have to catch up to where others are at and offer more when you release your product, or be subject to that kind of feedback.
You are correct on several fronts here and I'll gladly give more context for everyone's benefit.
Doing so is a double-edged sword, because giving an explanation for why things are the way they are can be construed as an "excuse" (as you have labeled them). The reason I don't consider them an excuse is because we work hard to identify root cause (i.e. the explanation) and use that to improve going forward. Being transparent about that with the community is applauded by some and called "off-putting" by others. For us, it is the reality we are operating in and our landscape to improve.
You are right that we did not spend enough time on QA for this release - I can agree and take responsibility for that.
We received the raw data for Xanathar's Guide to Everything in the middle of September. We had a little less than 2 months to incorporate the new systems needed to support the 20+ new subclasses from the book, as well as parse the raw data through our automation and get the compendium content in place.
For something like an adventure, this would have been more than enough time - and more time than we have had to digitize any of the adventures up to this point (we got ToA only about 3 weeks before it released). At the end of the day, it was not enough time to have the amount of testing I wanted for XGtE.
That being the case, I had to make a decision - release Xanathar's Guide to Everything without some of the minor issues addressed on the early release date, or delay and spend more time getting it more airtight.
Obviously, I made the call to put it out on the early release date. I feel in hindsight it was the right call because we have received an overwhelmingly positive response to the content and its early availability. However, it does not mean that I am happy about how it all went down and that I won't find ways to make this better going forward. Quite the contrary.
To start, WotC has commited to get us raw data earlier - one month earlier in fact. One month would have made a good bit of difference in this situation, and I believe this will alleviate most of the problems.
Also, seeing how this release went, I am hiring additional staff in a testing role. We have already hired some of our moderators to work on addressing some of the issues reported across the forums, and we will continue to staff up in that area.
I appreciate the feedback - we made some mistakes with this release for sure. I can commit to learning from those and improving as we move forward.
Also, seeing how this release went, I am hiring additional staff in a testing role. We have already hired some of our moderators to work on addressing some of the issues reported across the forums, and we will continue to staff up in that area.
I did a lot of the work in finding errors. I want a pony!
I love the book, but, it seems pretty light on graphics. I don’t have the physical copy, but, I assume there is more graphics in the physical book. Will these be added?
I love the book, but, it seems pretty light on graphics. I don’t have the physical copy, but, I assume there is more graphics in the physical book. Will these be added?
All images have been included. The book itself is a bit lighter on art.
Relying on your customers to catch your flaws is very, very poor practice. The errors found make me want to buy a physical copy (or even go back to my physical copies of the other books) to make sure that the data is actually correct compared to the book prints. It makes me think that maybe using this medium as a replacement to physical books maybe isn't such a great idea if there are going to be so many flaws in it. It definitely didn't instill confidence for the next book release.
Frankly, these are some ridiculous expectations. WotC does the exact same thing with errata for the physical books (they've already issued corrections on Twitter regarding errors in the first printing), but rather than the months it normally takes for WotC to publish errata, the issues here on Beyond will probably be fixed in a matter of weeks.
Following the launch of XGTE last Friday I have some feedback regarding DNDBeyond, and it is not a congratulations on a great launch.
At the time of this writing (approximately 3:00 PM EST 11/13/17) there are about 170 posts in a pinned forum on Bugs & Support dedicated to typos and errors specific to XGTE. Now, the mods and devs have been very active there, and responding when fixes are made and of course there are duplicate entries, but there are also entries posted outside of that forum regarding more bugs specific to XGTE, so let's be generous and cut that number in half and say that there have been 75-80ish errors reported by the community regarding the launch of this book, which is what, 300 pages long? (I didn't buy a physical copy to compare, was hoping this medium would suffice as a replacement). The fact that there is literally a pinned post to fix your errors with that many responses is just….disappointing.
Some of these are small typos and missing links, which ideally wouldn't be missed but is surely bound to happen. I also know this isn't just data entry to a PDF file, as things will be entered in multiple places for all of the different sections. However there are much more than just those typos -- literally there is a post (#51) that lists about 40 items that are just MISSING. A list of 40 items, just not there, how does that happen? Another issue included anything that was reprinted/updated (things from EE or SCAG) not working properly/able to be searched/filtered with XGTE info also being released, resulting in mixed results. This was fixed but it makes you wonder how much this stuff was tested.
Relying on your customers to catch your flaws is very, very poor practice. The errors found make me want to buy a physical copy (or even go back to my physical copies of the other books) to make sure that the data is actually correct compared to the book prints. It makes me think that maybe using this medium as a replacement to physical books maybe isn't such a great idea if there are going to be so many flaws in it. It definitely didn't instill confidence for the next book release.
Also, a bit related, though not directly to the XGTE release, but more your responses in general: responding to users who complain about the way things work (or don't work, for that matter) and make comparisons to other company's/products that do things they like currently with "It's harder than you think to implement this" or "they have been around longer" just sounds like making excuses and is extremely off-putting. If you enter the market late and want to really compete, then you have to catch up to where others are at and offer more when you release your product, or be subject to that kind of feedback.
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
I love the book, but, it seems pretty light on graphics. I don’t have the physical copy, but, I assume there is more graphics in the physical book. Will these be added?