It leaked? Now that is just rich.
That's a thing CGL should be grateful for actually.
Here's why.
6E is sitting at a crisis-level PR event, as I see it. Cata is poised to hose even more customers than the ~800 who bought this mess of a book already. I would venture to guess that over 775 of those who bought the book are not on this forum, and can't assist in find errata or pointing out where players are going to trip up or feel confused or struggle with understanding a change. However, the more people that can see it before it hits the shelves, the more that can tell you the issues, and give you a chance to fix more issues. You have a wider feedback pool, and can operate with less blinders on. You may think players are going to intuit certain things, but maybe they won't. You have minimal feedback outside this forum to go on. Also, the less people that buy the busted paper version is better for CGL in the long term, as there will be less refunds to go through later. The book is unusable in its current condition, and a black eye to the company. CGL could prevent more harm by pulling back NOW and doing a broader fix.
As Bamce pointed out, there's no public PDF available yet. That also hurts visibility to the reaction and feedback. If the PDF had been on sale already, you'd be getting that feedback from an even wider spread of folks, and could diagnose and repair even more effectively. Upset customers could be reassured that the PDF would be updated, and that errata teams were already on it, and so on. Their investment could at least be made good on. GenCon goers have codes to get PDF books with. While they are now the proud owners of a $50 to $200 paperweight, at least they can eventually run the game from the updated PDF. Harm yes, but not unrecoverable. One self-inflicted black eye only.
It worries me that CGL and some of the folks here who represent them don't seem to understand that this is an actual crisis for CGL. I know you most likely couldn't say so if you did agree, but it seems like the notion expressed by some is that this is fine or at least acceptable. No. This is not normal, it is not okay, and not good for the business in the long run. Thanks to a leak, you now may have a wider window into the general public reaction to this. That's a benefit in this unique case that should be leveraged, not grumped about. These are the canaries in your coal mine. They are singing loud and clear. How many people on this forum alone have expressed that they are walking away from 6E? It may not just be some die hards who don't want to play with this Edge thing. Preference is only one factor in this. What's done is done, and hopefully this leak can help you understand the scope of the issue here, and urge the right kind of action on it.
Cata needs to acknowledge the degree of error in judgement here and respond accordingly. Not just slink a corrected PDF out the door later, or drop new errata docs and keep hiding from the customers. It's not too late, but the clock is ticking. Hopefully someone here can get them to see this, and do something better here. You cannot let 6E be sold in this condition, you just simply cannot. Hopefully this is being said to someone inside CGL management. If not, someone go say it. Right now. Pick up a phone, walk in an office, close a laptop on someone's fingers, whatever. Get their attention somehow. For your own sake, if no one else's.
Mistakes happen. It's what we do about them that matters.
Go matter.
-Typhus the Canary, Coal Mine #6W.
