Rich's Reasonings #7

Hi Everybody!

So, we arrive at Indices. Indexes. (I get so few opportunities to use my x key that I'm going with the x). First off, let me agree with those of you who think that by and large our indexes suck. I agree. I don't think that about every index that we've ever made, particularly from the arrival of the WoD Core Rulebook onward, but most of the ones we did weren't that good, and many books that needed them didn't get one. Even a crappy one. Which is a half-full/half-empty situation. ; )

Just like with the editing issues, let's take a historical look at why this is the case. In the beginning we had a threefold problem with indexes. First, we were making books that pushed the boundaries into "Art". Works of art first, text-books second. So the index was seen as an ugly reminder of the "old ways". And hey, while I certainly can't point at any one element as the one that "worked" to power our success story, we did after all (somehow) succeed with that mind-set. Second, we printed books with a much smaller page count back then. 72 pages was a popular size, and books of that length simply didn't have the text density to support an index- or at least the intensive work that creating a good index requires...which brings us to: Third, the software we were using for desk-top publishing was crude by today's standards. Indexing required an intensive amount of work on the part of the developer, editor and layout artist at the last stage of the publication procedure- right when the deadline was crunching and in many cases after it was missed- as it had to be created after the book was totally laid out in order to match page numbers to entries. Some books needed indexes but we ran out of time, some weren't made because we ran out of pages and couldn't afford to raise the page count, and some weren't made or made well because the developer was simply exhausted.

So over the years there was an ingrained resistance and it really came down to individual developers and the kind of effort they were willing or able to shoulder. And with the communication resources we had, it was easy to believe that other than a few "index-fetishers", our fan-base wasn't all that into indexes either. As one of the guys most involved with our Sword & Sorcery brand during the d20 explosion, I received an excellent education on how other companies did their indexes- particularly our friends at Malhavoc. Sue Cook (the real reason for Monte's success) is an angel of editing and was able to explain how TSR and then WOTC  developed their procedures and how important they felt indexes were. Even though I wasn't Creative Director at the time, I tried to bring that information to our design team when we were putting together the new WoD- in particular the Core Rulebook- and I think that our track record with indexes in the new WoD is altogether better than previously. It is still spotty though: the same economic necessities I talked about with editing and errata were a factor in these last few years and our developers were even more over-worked than before. So what gains we made weren't as fully realized as we'd have liked. The fact that our current efforts are improving is really something I hope people will realize at some point, although I certainly understand the knee-jerk "WW Indexes Suck" attitude that many people have after the years of yuck.

It's my plan to have a more forgiving schedule so that the developers have time to devote to a proper index without having to "slam it in" and that we can sit down and identify which books need indexing and have that built into their schedule. We have in no way backed off from the idea that game-books can strive to be exciting works of Art- as our 2008 books will illustrate (literally)- and putting in a quality index doesn't automatically ruin the artistic statement.

So next week (which may come out early or late, but not on Friday because I'll be at the EVE Fan Fest in Iceland giving out live-action missions ): I need a topic. Ask me some questions and I'll see which ones I can make a post out of-

Thanks-

--richt