I don't think Gygax was "glad to rubbish" D&D; as indicated (if memory serves) in that very column, he intended that it should remain in print.
His vision of AD&D as a standardized rules set seems to me more fully realized in WotC's games. I see 4E not as a return to rules-lightness and DM rulings but as a solidification of a rules-governed approach. Consider that the first three volumes have about twice the page count of the 1st ed. AD&D trilogy of MM, PHB and DMG.
I can see how the looser old-style approach might be something to which some more "advanced" players gravitate after having found it at first unsuitable. On the other hand, I can also see how it might actually be less intimidating for many novices.
The OD&D books indeed assumed a knowledge base uncommon among the unexpectedly wide audience to which the game's subject appealed. I had the benefit of being introduced via actual play with an experienced DM. However, I was not acquainted with the hobby of medieval war-gaming in miniature (and even WW2 board games from S&T magazine were something else). I found the Holmes Basic Set quite helpful, and suspect that I would have had a hard time with the LBBs ("little brown books") had I picked them up "cold".
For all that I prefer 1st ed., I can appreciate the greater accessibility of the 2nd ed. AD&D books.
WotC's games seem to me rather directed once again more at fairly hard-core hobbyists than at the general public. I see that not only in the rules-heaviness but in the increasing reliance on self-referential and other-game/media premises and assumptions (as opposed to history, mythology and classic genre fiction). D&D has become that much more "geeky."
That may be just what's wanted by a certain demographic ready to spend hundreds of dollars and many hours on the game, a market WotC naturally is eager to tap. Nothing in the past decade suggests to me an evolution of its product line toward OD&D's "Why have us do any more of your imagining for you?" attitude.
Old hands who never saw fit to "upgrade" to AD&D, 2E, 3E, 3.5E and 4E may have something in common with a wide segment of the public beyond our devoted game fandom. It's rare enough to find people whose eyes don't glaze over upon contemplating a 72-page rule book, much less a set more than ten times as long.
His vision of AD&D as a standardized rules set seems to me more fully realized in WotC's games. I see 4E not as a return to rules-lightness and DM rulings but as a solidification of a rules-governed approach. Consider that the first three volumes have about twice the page count of the 1st ed. AD&D trilogy of MM, PHB and DMG.
I can see how the looser old-style approach might be something to which some more "advanced" players gravitate after having found it at first unsuitable. On the other hand, I can also see how it might actually be less intimidating for many novices.
The OD&D books indeed assumed a knowledge base uncommon among the unexpectedly wide audience to which the game's subject appealed. I had the benefit of being introduced via actual play with an experienced DM. However, I was not acquainted with the hobby of medieval war-gaming in miniature (and even WW2 board games from S&T magazine were something else). I found the Holmes Basic Set quite helpful, and suspect that I would have had a hard time with the LBBs ("little brown books") had I picked them up "cold".
For all that I prefer 1st ed., I can appreciate the greater accessibility of the 2nd ed. AD&D books.
WotC's games seem to me rather directed once again more at fairly hard-core hobbyists than at the general public. I see that not only in the rules-heaviness but in the increasing reliance on self-referential and other-game/media premises and assumptions (as opposed to history, mythology and classic genre fiction). D&D has become that much more "geeky."
That may be just what's wanted by a certain demographic ready to spend hundreds of dollars and many hours on the game, a market WotC naturally is eager to tap. Nothing in the past decade suggests to me an evolution of its product line toward OD&D's "Why have us do any more of your imagining for you?" attitude.
Old hands who never saw fit to "upgrade" to AD&D, 2E, 3E, 3.5E and 4E may have something in common with a wide segment of the public beyond our devoted game fandom. It's rare enough to find people whose eyes don't glaze over upon contemplating a 72-page rule book, much less a set more than ten times as long.