Hmmmmm, I don't mean to be a pessimist, but I think 4e is likely to be the deadest of all dead editions in the history of D&D. Its an outlier and it was never well-accepted. (snip)
It's my favourite edition from the 33+ years I have been playing but I do largely agree with these comments, and the other ones I snipped for the sake of brevity.
I think that makes sense...
I never even got to taste "New Coke" - if I had done so and the new version seemed a better experience to me than the legacy version in every way, then the analogy might be apposite.
... but this makes even more sense, in my experience. There is a lot to like about any of the non-4E editions - even in the Gygaxian shambles of 1E - but almost every time I see a thread on these or similar forums about a particular problem with the other editions, I cannot help but think how 4E resolved that successfully.
So, yes, while I accept that 4E is seen as the New Coke of D&D editions, I have to agree with Balesir
et al that in my experience, it has been a better experience in almost every way.
Other than the crap it stirred up online, of course.
I have, curiously, found Blood Bowl to involve far less tension, headache, and interpersonal strife than D&D and Pathfinder. Weird, since a large part of Blood Bowl is to kill the other guy's players.
Killing players, eh? You guys sure do play for keeps.
By contrast, our D&D games across a range of editions have been largely free of interpersonal strife for 30-odd years: friends first, members of our D&D group second, and avoid public play like the plague.
LOL, yeah, when it was first published it immediately led to a war in our group with my best buddy making up his own game that he called "Maceball" instead. You never know what gamers will fight about. Honestly I've had VERY little strife in RPGs in general as a personal thing. Its the community around D&D that just particularly was disappointing and unwelcome this time around. On the whole I have a poor opinion of it at this point. My own group and most of the players I encounter everyday IRL are fine. I just played in a 5e game with a new guy for 3 hours and he was quite fun.
Commenting on the bit I have highlighted in bold, but wanting to preserve the other parts of the quote for context, I have to agree. Something went seriously wrong and the worst elements really took control of the biggest soapboxes.
It will age gracefully like the fine wine that it is. Naturally.
Or it will turn into The Usual Suspects.
I will go with the fine wine analogy, even though I am the only Australian in Asia who is not only NOT an alcoholic, but also a complete teatotaller.
And on the subject of ageing gracefully like a fine wine, 4E remains the only published edition of D&D where the quality of the products improved during the edition's life. The designers actually improved in their mastery of the rules whereas, with every other edition, the TSR/WotC designers' skills devolved. If only we had had another year....