1833 réponses à ce sujet

[NPH11]

clennon8 wrote...

I've gone back and read samples from Dietz's other books. The guy just isn't a very good writer to begin with. That said, who the heck was the editor? Deception should never have been published in its current form.

I read a few pages out of one of his other novels when I was at Chapters yesteday. The writing is still fairly weak, but he seems a little more capable when he's working within his own written universe and not something with an established canon.

And I agree with your second statement. It's the reason I'm not thanking Bioware just yet. It's a mistake that never should've been made. How far Bioware goes in their correction will determine if I intend to thank them.

[Shepard needs a Vacation]

Bioware you dropped the ball and GOOD to see you acknowledged it, only after the 400+ page thread
morons

[Bob 13 13]

Considering how busy Bioware probably is, what with SWTOR now (not to mention any other projects they're working on yet haven't announced) I am very pleased with this response. Thank you Bioware and I am looking forward to this revised edition!

Modifié par Bob 13 13, 04 février 2012 - 09:24 .

[LumpOfCole]

Mass Effect Deception - Rage Comic Edition :: Chapter 03 Part 1:
i.imgur.com/iKqe2.jpg

Older chapters, in case you missed them:
Prologue: i.imgur.com/AELwf.jpg
Chapter 01: i.imgur.com/Ng7oJ.jpg
Chapter 02: i.imgur.com/NPlYL.jpg

[Matt251287]

LumpOfCole wrote...

Mass Effect Deception - Rage Comic Edition :: Chapter 03 Part 1:
i.imgur.com/iKqe2.jpg

I love these, you're the only reason i check this thread.
 
(Not that i've read Deception, but i've somehow picked up all the hilarious bits)

[Yuoaman]

LumpOfCole wrote...

Mass Effect Deception - Rage Comic Edition :: Chapter 03 Part 1:
i.imgur.com/iKqe2.jpg

Older chapters, in case you missed them:
Prologue: i.imgur.com/AELwf.jpg
Chapter 01: i.imgur.com/Ng7oJ.jpg
Chapter 02: i.imgur.com/NPlYL.jpg

These are some of the best things to come out of Deception, goddamn.

[Drew Hawke]

oh I just bought that book i never heard anything about errors

[XXIceColdXX]

Couple more news reports.

http://www.technolog...fect-deception/

http://www.joystiq.c...es-in-future-e/

[Theobuomai]

I think it is great, Bioware, that you responded and are taking action. This is why I like you...

...but, at this point, any revision won't even be released til post-ME3, and with that being the completion of the story arc, I'm not sure Deception will carry much purpose anymore (speaking for myself). Not to mention, the book needs more than a patch -- it needs a reboot.

[StarscreamJesus]

SlurpinTaxt wrote...

All I have to say is, you ****ing nerds...

lmao, my thoughts exactly!

[Aggie Punbot]

AdmiralCheez wrote...

Seriously guys, I am amazed that they're actually going to go back and fix the book. Like, stunned.

This is beyond awesome.

With all due respect to the Cheese Baroness, I will believe this is going to happen when it actually does. Didn't they also say they were going to do a non-US version of the BioWare Bazaar two years ago?

[Xeranx]

NPH11 wrote...

Xeranx wrote...
Before it goes any further I think this post demands a serious, serious (SERIOUS;)) comment. 

Who are you to stipulate who is a bad (awful as you say) or good writer?  Have you published any work of your own.  He's a professional.  He knows what he's doing better than you.

Oh, here we go, the ususal "Well, you haven't done anything better!" Argument.

The amount of books we've published does not correlate to our ability to criticize Dietz's writing ability. Just because we are not published authors, does not mean we don't have any writing ability or have ever taken any courses related to writing and/or studying novels (ie. Most high school level English courses). If the majority agree that the book is poorly written, that's enough causation to say that the book is poorly written. If nobody had any reason to complain, there would be no complaining.

I know that this is a poorly written book because I have read many other books, including those by Karpyshyn, that were much better written. I hate this stupid logic that people can't criticize if they haven't done any better. It's stupid and childish.

All of this is unneccessary of course as, in the Deception topic, there were a few people who were published authors who agreed that the book is poorly written.

I direct you to this post that was made after I already received two responses on my post and is also on the same page as your reply.

Modifié par Xeranx, 04 février 2012 - 11:25 .

[Yuoaman]

StarscreamJesus wrote...

SlurpinTaxt wrote...

All I have to say is, you ****ing nerds...

lmao, my thoughts exactly!

If caring about quality makes me a nerd then hell yeah, I'm a nerd.

[Tasker]

I just want to know...

How in the name of all that is holy, did a pisspoor fanfic get published as a full blown canon novel in the first place?

Did anyone read this crap before it went to the printer?

I was always under the impression that published books had to go through an editor. Didn't that editor think "I know, let's send this off to somebody at Bioware to get it their input on it."

Obviously not.

[Xeranx]

Orkboy wrote...

I just want to know...

How in the name of all that is holy, did a pisspoor fanfic get published as a full blown canon novel in the first place?

Did anyone read this crap before it went to the printer?

I was always under the impression that published books had to go through an editor. Didn't that editor think "I know, let's send this off to somebody at Bioware to get it their input on it."

Obviously not.

As if it matters seeing as a certain someone mentioned they used the wiki to fact check.

[Tasker]

Xeranx wrote...

Orkboy wrote...

I just want to know...

How in the name of all that is holy, did a pisspoor fanfic get published as a full blown canon novel in the first place?

Did anyone read this crap before it went to the printer?

I was always under the impression that published books had to go through an editor. Didn't that editor think "I know, let's send this off to somebody at Bioware to get it their input on it."

Obviously not.

As if it matters seeing as a certain someone mentioned they used the wiki to fact check.

Truth is - I stuck a rather large paragraph in my post about how it could have gone to a certain somebody to check over.  But then I thought better of it and took it out.  lol

[JeffZero]

Yuoaman wrote...

StarscreamJesus wrote...

SlurpinTaxt wrote...

All I have to say is, you ****ing nerds...

lmao, my thoughts exactly!

If caring about quality makes me a nerd then hell yeah, I'm a nerd.

Yyyyep.

[CDRSkyShepard]

JeffZero wrote...

Yuoaman wrote...

StarscreamJesus wrote...

SlurpinTaxt wrote...

All I have to say is, you ****ing nerds...

lmao, my thoughts exactly!

If caring about quality makes me a nerd then hell yeah, I'm a nerd.

Yyyyep.

Being a nerd is a good thing, imho...

Just sayin' 

[DJStarstryker]

Is there a complete summary out there? The one on the Mass Effect wiki is uncomplete. It actually stops at about the same point that the rage comics currently have stopped, with the part of Nick joining the Biotic Underground.

[LumpOfCole]

The wiki stopped right before Kai Leng started to eat the cereal in Anderson's place. The guy who was writing it was probably like "ah, screw this"

[N7racer]

Thank you Bioware and Del Ray! I am glad to see that you you guys are willing to admit to your mistakes, listen to your fans, and act accordingly.

[RiflemanUK]

Well if nothing else it shut us all up >_>

[1483749283]

My worries exactly, nexworks. 

nexworks wrote...

So it's not only weak franchise control, it's dishonest too? Hopefully at least the marketing representative that uses Casey's twitter actually read it, and they just happened to have no taste.

Listen, I'm sure you're right about ME3, and that it's going to be consistent to the previous lore. I have no doubt that the game is going to be of much higher quality than the book. Dietz doesn't really have a great career track record, and has always been a B-List writer. (My opinion, but I can't find anything he's written that didn't sound like it was slapped together by a D average high school student in a rush to finish because he has a party to go to). 

However, it doesn't bode well for the future of the Mass Effect franchise as a whole. The fact that they clearly do not have any actual real writers or editors in their corporate franchise department, and apparently thought they could rely on a book publisher with no stake in the franchise to act as their final editor, shows a blatant disrespect for the material, and a complete misunderstanding of the strengths of their property and their community's attachment to it.

I'm hopeful that this debacle causes them to hire some more writers and editors, and put them on a cross-media franchise team to maintain the consistency and integrity of the franchise. Unfortunately, most intellectual properties that reach a certain level of success put less and less effort into maintaining continuity. Integrity is replaced with cash grabs. Continuity is hard, so once most properties reach a certain size, they just stop trying very hard.

This book is just one symptom of the problem, but it is the canary in the coal mine. If they truly mean what they say, that they take this very seriously, then hopefully they'll hire a few lorekeepers to edit and protect their franchise so that, regardless of the new media they want to translate the material to, it still maintains the integrity and consistency of the property.

[Pax of Doom]

Edit: took out stupid derp not RTFT, nevermind...

So, is this book worth picking up used, as the first run with errors may be a collector's item?  

Modifié par Pax of Doom, 05 février 2012 - 04:22 .

[Terror_K]

Xeranx wrote...

Terror_K wrote...

Dave of Canada wrote...

I don't see why you're all placing the blame on Dietz, he wasn't solely responsible.

Yeah. He definitely should have done far more research than he clearly did. But at the same time, BioWare shouldn't have let something so riddled with such glaring issues through. It's a mix of him not doing his homework and the powers that be seeming to just rabber stamp it through without even giving it a good going-over.

Still, he's an awful writer, lore inconsistencies aside. It shocks me that he's a professional given how absolutely terrible he is. I've commonly heard people saying, "it reads like a bad fan fiction" but I'll take that a step further and say I've read more fanfics that are better than this than ones that aren't. Not just Mass Effect, but across the board. Though perhaps I'm bias in that regard, as the writer of an ME fanfic myself (which, everybody, feel free to give a go, btw! ).

Before it goes any further I think this post demands a serious, serious (SERIOUS;)) comment. 

Who are you to stipulate who is a bad (awful as you say) or good writer?  Have you published any work of your own.  He's a professional.  He knows what he's doing better than you.

Well, aside from the fact that (as others have said) you don't need to be a professional writer yourself to know bad writing, while I haven't got a novel published, I have done some professional writing for a magazine in the past that circulated nation with here. Beyond that I've written all kinds of things over the years, including the ME story in my sig that I mentioned above, and during the whole time I was pouring over the ME wiki and Codex, on top of other research material. That's something Dietz clearly didn't do. Now, whether it's a good story and I'm a good author is a point of view, but at least it's been accepted by the Mass Effect community better than Deception has.