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Made in us
Lieutenant General





Florence, KY

From Privateer Press:

Superiority Text Misprint

Before Superiority is pre-released at Gen Con this week, we want to alert everyone planning on picking up the book that there is a misprint that warranted manual correction.
 
We had actually been warehousing the books for a couple weeks before spotting the error? pages 124 & 125 were actually printed with what we call ?placeholder text?. This is text put into the new layout to determine word count. Somehow, defying all reason, experience, and effort, this error made it through every proofing and editing stage in our production process, resulting in a nice excerpt from Apotheosis actually being printed in the section describing Khadoran Battlegroups.
 
Upon recollecting our composure after the discovery of this rookie mistake, we weighed the options on how to address the problem: we could either print errata online, provide an insert, or actually sticker over the text. Unfortunately, due to the fact that we print our books all in one run now, reprinting was not an option that could be considered. We opted for the latter, which while being the most labor intensive, produced a complete product.
 
What you will find upon opening the book to these pages is that three stickers have been applied to the pages, covering up the misprinted paragraphs. The stickers are high quality and printed in color so that the texture blends with the page very well. The thickness of the page is increased by about the equivalent of one sheet of paper, and is slightly stiffer. Overall, the quality of the book has not been compromised, and the product is complete. (See a scan of the actual corrected page below.)
 
In response to this error, we have completely revised our layout and proofing process, and are currently increasing the size of our editing staff to ensure that this can never happen again. I did inquire as to the practicality of installing tiny electrodes in the brains of the responsible parties that would emit a painful shock any time someone opened up their book to those pages, anywhere in the world, but the legal department advised against the idea, saying it?s better just to make sure we get it right next time.
 
As you know, it is Privateer?s solemn quest to produce the highest quality products, and an error like this is something we don?t take lightly. However, with the exception of those pages, which we have managed to correct, I do truly believe that WARMACHINE: Superiority is our best work yet. Once you have a chance to dive into the material in that book, the setting will come alive in ways that we?ve only dreamed of communicating since the inception of the game. We hope you?ll enjoy this work as much as we?ve enjoyed creating it.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
Matt Wilson,
Creative Director
Privateer Press, Inc

And people talk about GW needing editiors

'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents
cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable
defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'

- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty
Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Gun Mage






New Hampshire, USA

I thought they handled that pretty well.

 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

Indeed- it really shows their committment to being more then another GW clone (err... in anything but pricing issues). PP really stands out as a great company by their products AND their customer service- as witnessed here. Nice work PP.

"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Plastictrees



Amongst the Stars, In the Night

Awesome, another gaming company that "gets it". Something GW has obviously lost slight of over the past several years.

OT Zone: A More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany
The Loyal Slave learns to Love the Lash! 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

GW would do something similar- for $50 you get a pack of sticker pages that can be stuck over all the misprints in your codexes to fix any mistakes.

"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Lieutenant General





Florence, KY

Posted by Drake_Marcus on 08/08/2006 12:51 PM
GW would do something similar- for $50 you get a pack of sticker pages that can be stuck over all the misprints in your codexes to fix any mistakes.

It seems that somebody doesn't remember the cut and paste corrections in the Chapter Approved books.

'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents
cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable
defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'

- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty
Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
 
   
Made in us
Automated Rubric Marine of Tzeentch






Posted By Ghaz 08/08/2006 11:56 AM
Posted by Drake_Marcus on 08/08/2006 12:51 PM
GW would do something similar- for $50 you get a pack of sticker pages that can be stuck over all the misprints in your codexes to fix any mistakes.

It seems that somebody doesn't remember the cut and paste corrections in the Chapter Approved books.


His point was for 50 bucks Games Workshop would provide you with stickers. PP did it for 'free'.

   
Made in us
Plastictrees



Amongst the Stars, In the Night

Posted By Ghaz 08/08/2006 11:56 AM
Posted by Drake_Marcus on 08/08/2006 12:51 PM
GW would do something similar- for $50 you get a pack of sticker pages that can be stuck over all the misprints in your codexes to fix any mistakes.

It seems that somebody doesn't remember the cut and paste corrections in the Chapter Approved books.


...where GW didn't even provide "stickers"...   Battlefront, the makers of Flames of War, also "gets it", though they don't go through these extremes, they do provide erratta and updates ASAP, provide free .pdfs of any changes/updates, and even provided free v2 rulebooks to anyone that owns the v1 book! Customer Service isn't just answering the phones and fixing order issues right (which GW does admittedly do a good job at).

OT Zone: A More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany
The Loyal Slave learns to Love the Lash! 
   
Made in us
Plastictrees



Amongst the Stars, In the Night

Snoogums, that's what Ghaz was saying: The Chapter approved books cost $$$ to get the errata that everyone else gives away free as a customer service.

OT Zone: A More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villany
The Loyal Slave learns to Love the Lash! 
   
Made in us
Lieutenant General





Florence, KY

Yes. You had to buy a $20 book and provide your own glue. And on top of that, you messed up the other pages as well.

'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents
cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable
defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'

- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty
Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

That's what bugged me about the cut out fixes. I added them to all my books but it really crinkled the pages (apparently dude to the glue I used) and wasn't very visually pleasing. Stickers designed to blend in with the surrounding pages are much better then photocopy, cut-out and paste deals that only came out for the last edition. Where are the FAQ's or fixes for GW's current books? PP is fixing it before they even pre-release there stuff, let alone 2 years after they do it (which GW's still failed to do with the current edition 40k or recent Fantasy stuff).

"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




Bloomington, Illinois - USA

Did he purposely misspell "editors" you wonder?

Or did that fail self-editting

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Made in lk
Dakka Veteran





Sri Lanka


PR: A+
Proactively acknowledging the problem and being honest with the public.

Ethics: A-
In the perfect world they'd do a reprint. But that's the perfect world.

Organizational Behaviour: E
"I did inquire as to the practicality of installing tiny electrodes in the brains of the responsible parties that would emit a painful shock any time someone opened up their book to those pages, anywhere in the world"

I wonder how the "people responsible" feel, reading a comment like that coming from one of their senior staff. A comment that was approved for release to the public. They make a mistake, and management derides them in front of the world? There are many things a company can and should do when their staff make mistakes. Making fun of them is not one of them. At all. That is downright unprofessional.

This gives me a great idea. Tomorrow, when one of my rookies makes a mistake and mis-identifies a storm bolter, I'm going to yell at him and tell him I should stick electrodes in his brain, and then post on the company blog. That way he'll be completely demoralized and unhappy to come to work.

I'm management, you see. All that counts is the bottom line -- and that means customers. What do staff have do to with that? I don't owe my staff anything.


   
Made in us
Blood-Drenched Death Company Marine




Given that it was a very costly mistake and they could have been fired. I'd say they got off light.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




And people talk about GW needing editiors


Except GW has been doing it for a decade. And not letting you know the mistake, and giving a reprint of a "stealth" fix, or charging you for it....

Hope more old fools come to their senses and start giving you their money instead of those Union Jack Blood suckers...  
   
Made in lk
Dakka Veteran





Sri Lanka


"Given that it was a very costly mistake and they could have been fired. I'd say they got off light."

Granted, but if they were that incompetent, then they should have just fired them.

Firing people for doing consistently unacceptable work, despite corrective action plans, is appropriate. If you can't cut it, you can't cut it. It is a responsibility of management to fire such staff.

But deriding yoru own staff is completely unprofessional.


   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






Fire someone for a single mistake? Particularly when mulitple people were involved in checking for it? I can't see how that makes business sense to me. If I fired my people every time they made a mistake I'd have to people. I don't see how they're "rerided" their staff either. It seems you're saying that rather than coach their staff when they screw up, simply fire them and find new people, and fire them when they screw up. That might work with cheap, unskilled labor, but I can't see it as appropriate here.

There's nothing wrong with admitting to your customer that one or more of your staff made a mistake and you've taken the best corrective action possible. I don't see how PP could have handled this better.

 


"I've still got a job, so the rules must be good enough" - Design team motto.  
   
Made in lk
Dakka Veteran





Sri Lanka

"It seems you're saying that rather than coach their staff when they screw up, simply fire them and find new people, and fire them when they screw up."

I didn't say that, and I certainly didn't mean to imply that. What I did say was:

Firing people for doing consistently unacceptable work, despite corrective action plans, is appropriate.

Which is quite different. So if they are consistenly failing at whatever they do, then yeah, it's time to do what has to be done.

My comment later, "But if they were that incompetent they should have just fired them." was not the best choice of words. I should have written, "if they felt the failings were that severe, then they should have fired them."

I'm of your position actually. So they screwed up - big deal. Screw ups happen, you roll with it, and you do what you can to make sure that it doesn't happen again. If the problem is with the staff, you work with the staff.

I don't have a problem with PP saying that their staff made some errors. I have a problem with this:

"I did inquire as to the practicality of installing tiny electrodes in the brains of the responsible parties that would emit a painful shock any time someone opened up their book to those pages, anywhere in the world"

I find this insulting.

   
Made in jp
[MOD]
Anti-piracy Officer






Somewhere in south-central England.

I think they acted correctly in terms of ethics. A reprint would cause the waste of the resources that went into making the bad copies. The financial loss might have forced the company to increase the price for the product, which would be against customers' interests. They fixed the problem before it got out to the public, and told everyone what they have done. People know what they are buying. Anyone who doesn't want a stickered version can wait for a second printing if they prefer. Most people want a complete and correct set of rules and won't find the stickered version an inferior product.

GW basically seem to have gone backwards in even admitting there is anything wrong with their books.

Funnily enough it's often the biggest mistakes that get missed in editing. A "can't see the wood for the trees" concentration on detail obscures the big picture.

I'm writing a load of fiction. My latest story starts here... This is the index of all the stories...

We're not very big on official rules. Rules lead to people looking for loopholes. What's here is about it. 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Sentient OverBear






Clearwater, FL

Sometimes it's better to keep people around who screw up like this.  I'd bet dollars to donuts that they'll be busting their Equus asinus after this mistake.  I know once I make a mistake, it doesn't happen again.

(Women are excluded from that last comment.)

DQ:70S++G+++M+B++I+Pw40k94+ID+++A++/sWD178R+++T(I)DM+++

Trust me, no matter what damage they have the potential to do, single-shot weapons always flatter to deceive in 40k.                                                                                                       Rule #1
- BBAP

 
   
Made in us
Using Inks and Washes






Posted By pnweerar 08/08/2006 12:42 PM

PR: A+
Proactively acknowledging the problem and being honest with the public.

Ethics: A-
In the perfect world they'd do a reprint. But that's the perfect world.

Organizational Behaviour: E
"I did inquire as to the practicality of installing tiny electrodes in the brains of the responsible parties that would emit a painful shock any time someone opened up their book to those pages, anywhere in the world"

I wonder how the "people responsible" feel, reading a comment like that coming from one of their senior staff. A comment that was approved for release to the public. They make a mistake, and management derides them in front of the world? There are many things a company can and should do when their staff make mistakes. Making fun of them is not one of them. At all. That is downright unprofessional.

This gives me a great idea. Tomorrow, when one of my rookies makes a mistake and mis-identifies a storm bolter, I'm going to yell at him and tell him I should stick electrodes in his brain, and then post on the company blog. That way he'll be completely demoralized and unhappy to come to work.

I'm management, you see. All that counts is the bottom line -- and that means customers. What do staff have do to with that? I don't owe my staff anything.

What a total and complete meltdown of the sense of humour organ

Given the seriousness of the error and the cost involved to repair it the letter is fair, open and honest. Pound to a penny the people responsible for this error are beating themselves up far worse than any perceived slight in this letter. Having met several of the PP people I find this letter fits in totally with the character of the company and also the universe they have created. It is meant to be funny as well as to show contrite, and show imagination.

It also fits in with several other letters released by other companies in this industry when errors have been made - I think GW has even release similar lines.

Lighten up.

P.s love the mis-spell on "editiors". What a stuuupid errior.



 


2014 will be the year of zero GW purchases. Kneadite instead of GS, no paints or models. 2014 will be the year I finally make the move to military models and away from miniature games. 
   
Made in lk
Dakka Veteran





Sri Lanka

Well then I stand corrected (and I'm glad of that).

If you don't know the folks and the culture, it can be misleading.


   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

Actually I'm with pnweerar on this- he's dead right. Whoever is responsible for the mistake must feel pretty stupid, and even in a community of light hearted ribbing it really hurts when you know you've screwed up and someone twists the knife. I'm known for making fun of my friends- they all expect me to, and they all give me an even harder time, but when I really make a mistake and someone keeps ribbing me for it I do feel worse, no matter how hard I try to remember I shouldn't.

I honestly felt Matt's electrode comment was highly unprofessional to throw in the memo for one key reason- the perceived implication as to how he values/treats his employees.

"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




Posted By Drake_Marcus 08/08/2006 1:50 PM
Actually I'm with pnweerar on this- he's dead right. Whoever is responsible for the mistake must feel pretty stupid, and even in a community of light hearted ribbing it really hurts when you know you've screwed up and someone twists the knife. I'm known for making fun of my friends- they all expect me to, and they all give me an even harder time, but when I really make a mistake and someone keeps ribbing me for it I do feel worse, no matter how hard I try to remember I shouldn't.

I honestly felt Matt's electrode comment was highly unprofessional to throw in the memo for one key reason- the perceived implication as to how he values/treats his employees.



Ahem.

The people that wrote Page 5 don't have the fragile self esteem that you apparently do.

That is all

   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut





I thought the elctrode comment was a joke, not a serious criticism? Come on, people... GW calling employees trolls etc? Lighten up...

In other news, I have several Sense of Humour kits going on ebay...
   
Made in ca
Drew_Riggio




Vancouver, British Columbia.

They've done this before, albeit on a much smaller scale. I can't remember which book it's in, but their placeholder text for some page numbers was never replaced. Pages are referenced as "XXX".

I believe their problem is probably twofold:
1) They're rushing the product out the door. Fair enough- I have never worked for a company that doesn't.
2) They're gamers, not advertisers, technical writers, or software developers. This is more of a problem, because people producing games should use the same sort of formal review process used in those other industries, but they typically don't. It's a fault spanning the gaming industry rather than just PP, however.
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

Posted By The Happy Anarchist 08/08/2006 2:27 PM
Ahem.

The people that wrote Page 5 don't have the fragile self esteem that you apparently do.

That is all


Yeah- obviously you didn't read the name of the person who wrote Page 5.  And here's a shocker- Matt Wilson doesn't have to run his mission statements by every employee at the company (especially ones that likely weren't hired when he wrote the memo).   People didn't write Page 5- a person wrote Page 5, a person who was expressing the feelings of the founding members of the company not the personal mantra of every current and future employee.  Privateer Press isn't a magic entity whose feelings are embodied by Matt Wilson, rather it's a dynamic group of individuals, most of which are there primarily because they need a job and likely because they enjoy the hobby.  It's sadly simplistic to label Matt's employees as being of the identical mind as him, regardless of how selective his hiring practices may be.

I've hardly got a "fragile self esteem".  There's a big difference between feeling bad for something you screwed up and your perceived value of your own self worth. 

So next time, before you attack someone fore something you should probably think it out.


"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Jinking Ravenwing Land Speeder Pilot




In your house, rummaging through your underwear drawer

Drake needs to read more Dilbert.

I have always wondered, does it matter whose 'pair' you play with,  just so long as you play like you have a pair?

"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow"~Oscar Wilde 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka




Canada

Yeah Jester- I guess I do, but I'm an engineer so I don't approve of the stereotype put forth by dilbert :p

"Nothing from the outside world can be imported into Canada without first being doused in ranch dressing. Canadian Techs have found that while this makes the internet delicious it tends to hamper the bandwidth potential. Scientists are working furiously to rectify the problem. "

--Glaive Company CO 
   
Made in us
Using Inks and Washes






Posted By Drake_Marcus 08/08/2006 7:31 PM
Yeah Jester- I guess I do, but I'm an engineer so I don't approve of the stereotype put forth by dilbert :p


I am an accountant and I am afraid the Dilbert thing is far to accurate for my profession - not that it applies to me of-course - nope - definitely not me.

2014 will be the year of zero GW purchases. Kneadite instead of GS, no paints or models. 2014 will be the year I finally make the move to military models and away from miniature games. 
   
 
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