I find this news a little sad. I see the entire problem as being one of people not willing to accept change, of wanting something to remain the same no matter how flawed it is.
We fear change
I'm a 30 year D&D player, I played and even wrote for 3.x, and I really love 4e. It's my edition. I personally think too many people have poisoned their minds to it. Kind of like the
history of the tomato.
I was absolutely ready to quit 3.5 at the end of its run. I found the system unworkable and wasn't really enjoying myself. My first encounter with 4e had two players going down for the count playing against kobolds. I've been hooked ever since and refuse to buy any Pathfinder.
So... What happens if someone plays 4E for over a year and gets one of six of their campaign up to 14th level, and all the players get sick and tired of all of 4E's flaws and weren't impressed with its "innovations?"
What if the players kept dropping off because they got tired of slogging through monsters with at-wills once they've used their daily and encounter powers? What if the healing surge mechanic felt too gamist for this group's taste? What if pidgeonholing classes into certain roles felt stifling, especially when those roles are explicitly designed for their function during combat? What if skill challenges didn't amaze us because they essentially reskinned the mechanics of extended actions from the classic Storyteller system, or rituals didn't amaze us because the idea was reskinned wholesale from
Vampire: the Masqerade's treament of Thaumaturgy? What if we weren't amazed by the use of terrain because we'd been using it for years?
Y'know, I'm getting sick and tired of people that use the accusation of "fear" against someone they don't agree with (although in all fairness, that sort of thing isn't limited to gaming). I didn't base my decision to stop playing 4E because I thought it was going to kill puppies or steal my car stereo. It's a product that doesn't meet my needs or expectations, simple as that.
I'm sure that there are some people who heard about 4E, shrugged, and kept churning right along with their BECMI, 1E, 2E, or 3E games. I wasn't one of them. I played it for over a year.
Then Pathfinder came along in late 2009, we tried it for a single adventure, and remembered why we started playing in the first place. It's a rules system that is robust enough that the DM doesn't have to adjudicate the vast majority of non-combat actions and basic monsters don't take multiple rounds to beat down.
Is that why you "refuse to buy any Pathfinder?" Are you afraid that you might like it?
